Dave's Transformers Classic Rant:

     The Ultimate Battle: Optimus Prime vs. Megatron

     Got this online from KBToys.com, it seems to mainly be hitting Toys R Us
first, but is not an exclusive.
     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Classic/VoyagerUB - check
here before emailing a correction, I may already have fixed it.

CAPSULE

     Prime feels like a knockoff, and the gimmick broke the first time I
tried it.  The transformation of the upper body is good, but the legs are a
joke.  Laughable vehicle mode.  Megatron is a bit better, despite an assembly
error.  The transformation is G2-ish but lets the tank turret turn.  The
vehicle mode is quite good.  The video is...okay.  If the toys were packaged
separately, Megatron would get Mildly Recommended or maybe even Recommended,
and Prime a Neutral or even a Mild Recommendation to Avoid.  As a set...if it
went for $15 it might be worth getting, but not at the $20 price point.
Avoid unless you're a real completist or tank-Megatron fan.  $21.99 plus
shipping from KBToys.com.

RANT

     Packaging: Like other Classics at the $20 price point, this comes in a
keystone-shaped window box.  However, the box is bigger than with the regular
Voyagers, and even bigger than it needs to be simply to hold what amounts to
two Deluxes and a DVD.  It's 14" (36cm) across at the top, 11.5" (29cm)
across at the bottom, 8" (20cm) tall and 4.75" (12cm) deep.
     Unlike most TFs, these are packaged in robot mode, twist-tied to
blisters in a more or less action pose like Titanium 6" figures.  Prime is on
the left side, Megatron on the right, and a DVD in proper case is between
them, slightly leaned back.  The front window has "Includes EXCLUSIVE DVD!"
and choking hazard stickers.  The cardstock below the window shows Prime and
Megatron in vehicle modes...no "flip for Robot Mode" gimmicks.  Both the top
and front proclaim this to be "The Ultimate Battle".
     On the left side is a picture of the DVD case art, and the following
blurb: "OPTIMUS PRIME and MEGATRON are the ultimate enemies in a war millions
of years old!  Learn everything you ned to know about the TRANSFORMERS in
this action-packed DVD.  Follow the AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS fron their home
planet of CYBERTRON to their ongoing war on Earth, where they take the forms
of everyday objects to remain hidden from the humans around them.  Whether
you're a new fan, or you've been there since the beginning, this DVD is a
'must-have' history of the battle between the AUTOBOTS and the DECEPTICONS.
Note to Parents: DVD is not a toy.  Adult supervision is required."  Damn
skippy I'm not a toy.
     The cosells on the right side panel are Mirage, Grimlock, Jetfire and
Bumblebee.  The back shows photos of both toys in each mode, with one callout
each for their gimmicks: "Power punch action!" for Prime and "Spinning battle
blade!" for Megatron.  Each has its own techspecs, but they share a single
bio note, and neither gets a quote.
     The box opens on the side, not the top.  The DVD is just inserted into a
slot in the cardboard tray, no tape.  The case itself is wrapped, but no
security tape.  There's no paperwork inside the case, just the disc.  The art
on the case shows Prime and Megatron coming to blows.  The back of the case
has the same blurb quoted above, including the not-a-toy warning.
     The disc's menu uses the Cybertron theme, and has two options: play
episode, and photo gallery.  The gallery is just a slideshow with photos of
the wave 1-2 Classics, starting with the Ultimate Battle set and then with
the rest in alphabetical order.  The episode is 22 minutes long, starting
with the Cybertron theme over a montage of various Cybertron scenes (but not
the actual opening credits).  The main body is a sort of primer on
Transformers...who they are, what they can do, what Mini-Cons and Planet Keys
are, etc, narrated by Optimus Prime.  There's two extended clips from
Cybertron (Megatron trying to steal the Planet Cup, Megatron's final fate),
one from Energon (the Energon Tower fight in which Wing Dagger is critically
injuried) and one from Armada (Hot Shot's first fight using the Star Saber
against Megatron), plus short clips from all three shows, weighted towards
Cybertron.  It kinda pretends all three shows are part of a single coherent
story, even though they aren't.  :) Putting the clips all together also tends
to highlight the flaws in each show's animation: Armada's sloppy line work,
Energon's garish pseudo-cel look and clumsy movement, Cybertron's stiffness
and odd lipsynch.  The closing credits use a sped-up combo of the Energon and
Cybertron end credit animation.
     Each figure is twist-tied to a blister that is itself tabbed and taped
to the box, but there's no twist-ties through the cardboard.  Only four tabs
on Prime, but six on Megatron.  The instructions are in a bag taped to the
back of the cardboard.  While heavily twist-tied, not everything was
secure...Prime's right shoulder smokestack came off in-package and was
rattling around.
     Four twist-ties hold Prime to the blister, and rubber bands on each hand
keep his rifle in position, with a third keeping the rifle from folding.  Six
ties hold Megatron, plus a rubber band around his right forearm.  There's
also a rubber band just around his pistol, not actually holding it to
anything, keeping the folding stock folded.  There's actually a secondary
plastic tray piece for Megatron's right arm.

     Bio Note: Long before the dawn of man on Earth, the war between AUTOBOTS
and DECEPTICONS raged.  Two titans - huge metal warriors, each committed to
total victory - emerged as leaders.  OPTIMUS PRIME, wise, just and gentle
despite having strength enough to move mountains took command of the AUTOBOT
forces, hoping the lead his people to peace and freedom.  MEGATRON, an evil,
destructive tyrant bent on total domination of the universe and all its
resources led his DECEPTICONS on an endless war of conquest.  For millions of
years their battle has raged like a fire across the galaxy, and now they are
here on Earth in a fight to the finish that will determine the fate of the
planet and all its people.


AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME
Altmode: Semitractor
Gimmick: Power Punch

STR 10  INT 10  SPD 6  END 10  RNK 10  COUR 10  FRB 8  SKL 10  Avg 9.25

     Robot Mode: 5.5" (13.5cm) tall, and pretty much in animated G1 Optimus
Prime colors: red, light gray and darkish blue, with some yellow accents and
a silver faceplate.  The arms and most of the torso are a somewhat dull red
(no web equivalent).  There's actually two red plastics: the shoulders and
top of the torso are slightly darker, but glow orange under UV.  The rest do
not glow (nor do any of the other opaques).  The head, hands and boots are a
dutch blue (more or less 336699) plastic.  The chest stripe, grille, pelvis,
thighs and smokestacks are light gray (lighter than CCCCCC) plastic.  The
feet, wheels, spinning gimmick trigger and most of the gun are black (there's
light gray handles on the gun).  The chest windows and eye lightpiping are
clear colorless plastic that glows blue under UV.  There's yellow paint
strips on the forearms, yellow headlamps on the collarbone area, and yellow
accents on the pelvis, forehead and knees.  There's three white circles on
each boot-top/kneecap.  The faceplate is silver, as are the hubcaps and
various details on the boots.  The backs of the hands are silver and have
headlight patterns molded on them.  There's also gunmetal gray on the boots.
The feet are painted blue to match the lower legs.  A red and white Autobot
symbol is printed on the side of each forearm (ending up on the sides of the
cab).
     The head turns and tilts back, but the waist does not turn (see below
for the spinning torso, though).  The shoulders and hips are ball joints.
There's swivels on upper arms and thighs that remind me of K'Nex joints (or
Classic Mirage's waist).  Elbows and knees are hinges.  The fists can turn
inward on transformation joints, and the ankles are hinged.
     And now the "power punch" gimmick.  These always seem to suck.  Armada
Supercon Prime looked like he was having a seizure, and this toy, when it
works, just has the entire chest-and-up spin around when you push the button
in.  Mind you, it did this once for me before the gear stripped and it
wouldn't work again.  If you pull the stem out really hard, it'll click into
place and keep the upper body from spinning, instead making it a ratchet
joint.  Fortunately, that's a different thing than the motivating gear, and
didn't also strip.
     Other than the spinny gimmick, it's reasonably stable...except for what
happens if you push the torso back even a little.  Then it all starts to fall
apart into truck mode, which can be frustrating the first few times it
happens, given that there's springs involved that tend to carry it the rest
of the way.

     Transformation: The upper body is actually pretty clever, using sliding
panels and stuff to spin and shift things in a variant of the standard G1
Optimus transform.  There's pegs that sort of guide the forearms into place,
but don't actually hold them.  The fists have headlights on the backs of
them, so they just fold in 90 degrees to store.  However, it's like the
designers called it an early lunch when they got to the legs.  The legs peg
together, the toes point, and the whole thing folds back.  That's it.
Knockoff-level transform.  Nothing is done to make the rear section of the
vehicle any more stable...no pegs or other locking mechanism to keep the legs
bent back, no telescoping of the thighs into the boots, nothing.  It's just
sad.
     The gun's transformation is pretty nifty, though.  It folds in two placs
to become an articulated-mount weapon for some insane human to operate while
standing behind Prime's cab.

     Vehicle Mode: Really weak.  I mean, this is sad.  Even the fairly clever
front-end transform doesn't keep that part from looking bad, and the rear
half clearly shows they weren't trying.  And even the cab just sort of flops
around on the transformation joint that lets it turn around to face forward.  
     It's a cabover style tractor, more or less, the G1 Prime style.  But
horribly proportioned and with robot parts peeking out all over.  5.5" (14cm)
long, 2" (5cm) wide and 2.25" (5.5cm) tall at the tops of the stacks.  It
rolls along okay, but pick it up and it goes limp like a noodle.  So many
springs in this toy, and nothing to keep the front and back together.  Sigh.

     Overall: It feels like a cheap knockoff in many respects.  It doesn't
hold together well, and the gimmick broke almost instantly.  Only some clever
transformation bits save it from being a complete piece of crap.  Keep it in
robot mode, because the vehicle mode makes baby Rodimus cry.  A pity, too,
since the gun's transformation is cooler than the entire truck mode it sits
on. 


DECEPTICON: MEGATRON
Altmode: Tank
Gimmick: Spinning Battle Blade

STR 10  INT 10  SPD 6  END 10  RNK 10  COUR 10  FRB 10  SKL 7  Avg 9.125

     Note: the feet are on the wrong legs.  This seems to be a problem with
every toy, not just a QC issue.  Comparing to the instructions shows the
correct feet locations, and it's simple enough to unscrew the lower legs and
swap feet.  This makes the vehicle mode look better.

     Robot Mode: 5" (13cm) tall.  And I'll lead off with the two main flaws,
to get them out of the way.  One, the "collar" that becomes the base of the
turret in tank mode is fugly, especially given the color they picked for it.
A darker color would probably have helped.  Two, the right arm.  It has no
hand, and the weapon tends to fall off easily while also looking kinda dumb
in general. 
     The head, upper arms, lower torso, pelvis, thighs, feet, wheels and the
tank treads on chest and boots, as well as the main gun and the rifle, are
made from dark gray (somewhere between 333333 and 666666) plastic.  The
collar, lower legs and the right arm weapon other than the barrel are a cream
colored (no web equivalent) plastic.  The lightpiping for the eyes and the
trigger for the spinning gimmick are clear red plastic.  The rest of the toy
is made of a darkish green (006633 more or less) plastic.  The clear red
glows under UV, no particular reaction from the other colors.  There's cream
paint on the feet and the middle of the chest, plus some on the pelvis.
There's green paint on the top side of the gun-claw thing, and on the knees.
The face is painted silver.  There's red accents on the shoulders and pelvis,
and copper metallic paint on the shoulders, arms and chest.  There's a purple
and white Decepticon symbol printed in the middle of the chest.
     The head and waist turn, and a transformation joint between chest and
abdomen allows some bending forward and back.  The shoulders are universal
joints (swivel and hinge), and the pegs holding them in place are very
strong.  The left arm has an upper arm swivel and a hinge elbow.  The right
arm has an upper arm swivel and a "wrist" for turning the cannon arm into a
spinning weapon, more on that later.  The hips are ball joints, there's
swivels right below them.  Standard hinge knees, and hinge ankles with a
secondary hinge on the toes.  The feet are nice and long, and the ankle
hinges stiff, so he stands well.
     The rifle he carries in his left hand has a folding stock, and uses a
standard 5mm peg.  With the stock opened, he can't bend his arm more than
about 45 degrees while holding the gun.  His right arm ends in a gun barrel
2.25" (6cm) long, and the whole assembly pegs together pretty loosely.  If
you swing it out on the wrist joint and fold the claw out 180 degrees, it
becomes the spinning blade weapon advertised on the box.  Pressing the red
trigger button makes it spin in a way similar to BW Dinobot's shield.  The
peg that the weapon attaches to is kinda loose, unfortunately.  If you pop it
off, you can flip the upper arm over and use one of the turret-securing tabs
to connect into the bottom of the gun for a slightly more solid mount, but it
does emphasize his lack of hand.

     Transformation: Very similar to the G2 Megatron tank and the G2 Hero
Megatron tank.  Front end becomes chest, turret splits into arms, rear half
folds down as torso and legs.  However, unlike those, the arms rest on a
rotating platform so that the turret can actually turn.  Make sure you snap
the tabs in the arms into the slots in the "collar" or the turret won't hold
together well.  The whole thing is very firmly connected when properly
transformed.  Only the "claw" bit is a little loose, and that's not a big
deal.  

     Vehicle Mode: Ignoring the barrel poking out the front, it's 4.5"
(11.5cm) long, counting the barrel it's 5.5" (14cm) long.  Either way, it's
2" (5cm) wide.  In rough outlines it's a pretty standard Main Battle Tank,
but there's lots of techy details and greebling, and the cannon is clearly
not a shell-hurler of any kind.  More of an energy weapon.  Dark green,
whether plastic or well-matching paint, dominates this mode, with light gray
down the center of the chassis and dark gray on the weapons and treads.  The
copper accents are a little odd-looking in this mode.  The red trigger pokes
up like an antenna on the turret.  Unfixed, the feet stick out like sore
thumbs in the back, but once you swap 'em they're not quite as obtrusive.
     The tank rolls along reasonably well on four little wheels.  The turret
spins freely, and the main gun barrel can elevate about 45 degrees and
depress about 10 degrees when pointed forward or 30 degrees when the turret
points to the side.  The rifle pegs onto the turret as a secondary gun, as
usual for this style of Megatron, and can be pointed independently.
     The tank mode is definitely better-engineered than the robot mode.

     Overall: Once I figured out how to keep things together, it wasn't so
bad in robot mode, and the tank mode is solid (my initial impressions were
much less positive).  It's still kinda ugly in robot mode, and the right arm
has stability issues.  However, after several iterations of the G2 tank
Megatron transformation we finally get one with a rotating turret.  Too bad
it's not sold on its own, because it's not too bad.

     Set Overall: A bad toy and an okay toy add up to a set that's really
just for completists, especially at the $20 price point.  Definitely don't
get this for a kid, things fall apart way too easily.

     Dave Van Domelen, not sure Prime will even get to go on the Classics
shelf.