File under, lines I forgot existed. For a brief bit, Transformers had a line called Transformers Red, they were basically, action figure versions of characters. Without an alt mode, this allowed them to be more accurate to the cartoons. They looked alright, especially for some of the designs like Prime Knockout that don’t translate super well to actually transforming toys.
But I like Transformers because they… transform. I’m honestly not SUPER into any of the specific shows, more the engineering to transformation. So I forgot about these even existing, I think a lot of people did. I was in Ross recently and they had these figures, I wasn’t even sure what they were and was really confused because when I turned the box around, there was no alt mode pictured. Then I remembered, “Transformers Red was that Action figure line.”
I decided to check one of them out, and Megatron seemed like the logical choice. My other options were Prime and Soundwave. I have decent versions of both. I have decent Megatrons, but no “super accurate” Megatrons, because well, Megatron is one of those “Weird does not quite work” designs. He mass shifts into a small gun, and the robot doesn’t really resemble a gun a whole lot. Plus, as a 6″ figure, this Megatron might work alright next to other, normal Transformers.
The figure is nice looking, sculpt wise, he really looks a lot more like the G1 Megatron from the cartoon than most toys I have seen that transform. There is no hidden tank kibble, or funny proportions. Everything is nicely crisp and well sculpted. The legs in particular are nice next to any transforming Megs.
But my overall experience with this figure has been a bit lackluster.
Right out of the box, I noticed, he has two left fists. No big deal, he has extra hands, I can just give him one of the other hands. Except it turns out ALL of his hands are made for the left arm. This isn’t even an error, they are all different hands, open, pointing, holding an energon cube, a fist with a hold to stick, something in it, he has no holdable guns.
All left hands. He does have his energon Flail, so I swapped it in. Its still annoying because Megatron’s right arm is his fusion canon arm, and I have no real way to pose him aiming his fusion canon without having a weird hand. I probably have something I can give him from a Marvel or Star Wars figure, but its still annoying.
The other problem, an more generally, he just… isn’t a very good action figure. The plastic is very rubbery. The joints are pretty ugly, and some don’t work well. I need to try the boiling water thing to loosen some of them up. But just like, part of the point of Transformers Red, is you get a more detailed figure, that is free to be poseable outside of the restrictions of Transformation. But I have actual Transformable Megatron figures that have better articulation than this figure, and its cleaner.
If I had paid the regular retail, which was I think $20 or $25, I would be kind of upset. That said, Ross had these at $10, which is pretty good given the QC issues all around. He still looks very nice, and I can probably get the articulation to work better. Unfortunately, he is still just a little too short to work with regular figures, especially Decepticons, who tend to be Voyager sized.
