Transmetal II Megatron (Legacy: Evolution/ Leader Class)

I can't think of a better way to welcome the Year of the Dragon than taking a look at an update to my favorite version of Beast Wars Megatron. In the show, BW Megatron was attempting to merge his spark withthat of G1 Megatron. This combined with an act of treachery knocking him into lava resulted into the creation of Transmetal II Megatron, whom transformed into a giant red dragon! Even though later G1 Megatron's spark was removed, BW Megatron was a dragon through the bulk of Beast Machines. When I was younger, the original toy was one of the most badass things in Transformers. Right next to Unicron in my mind... and it's still there now. Dragon Megatron is just a cool concept that you wonder why it took as long as it did to happen. This new toy is an update of the classic one (of course) and a really solid one. Vastly improving on the original idea and looking far more like his cartoon model. The original toy's third mode isn't available now... though you could probably do it yourself with some added on wheels.

As both a robot and a dragon, Megatron is large and imposing (as it should be). Transformation isn't hard, but is a little tricky the first time. There's a few parts that don't work exactly how you imagine when moving everything around. However, once you've done it... you've got it. Megatron comes with a fire breathe effect that can be placed in the dragons mouth or held as a club by Megatron. The original toy had two missiles to fire from the dragons mouth and I'd often have Megatron in robot mode hold the extra one as a weapon. I'm not sure of the designers had the same idea with the orignal toy, but it's a neat bit of symmetry. One big improvement of this new toy is that the dragons neck is jointed instead of a rubber piece as was the original. This allows for more posing while the originals just hung there and could also possibly rot. As you can see I'm very happy with this new toy of a favorite. It was another gift from the Mrs. who absolutely spoils me every Christmas. I hope a Cryotech version follows and would love for TM2 Megatron to get more exposure overall. Sure, his dinosaur mode is cool... but the dragon is badass! 2024 is the 40th anniversary of Transformers and the Year of the Dragon. I can't help to think it's going to be special. Gong hei fat choy