Dave's Transformers Cybertron Rant - Leader Class Wave 1

     Megatron
     Optimus Prime

     Thus ends my first batch of "found in the store" Cybertron toys.  These
are the ones that really made my wallet scream...sure, Starscream will cost
more, but there's only one of him, and two of these.  :)

CAPSULES

     Megatron: Ugly colors and stupid head, but otherwise a pretty good toy
with some interesting design features.  And I love the spinny key gimmick.
Recommended.  $39.99 at Toys R Us.
     Optimus Prime: Main vehicle mode is kinda iffy, but the flying truck is
decent.  Good robot mode, heavily armed Super Robot Mode.  Recommended.
$39.99 at Toys R Us.


RANTS

     Packaging: Big boxes.  13" (33cm) tall, 10" (25cm) wide, 5.5" (14cm)
deep.  However, it's all truncated and angular.  The basic shape is of a
trapezoidal prism, with the front being wider than the back.  Then the right
front, left front and top front edges were faceted, and large windows put in
the front and top.  The overall effect looks nice, but REALLY weakens the
structure.  You can't even pick these boxes up without denting them (although
they usually pop back without permanent marks).  And it's very difficult to
pick them up with one hand, period...they kinda crumple.
     The anti-symmetric theme of the rest of the classes continues here.
Prime has his art on the right front and key on the lower left front, his
plot info on the right and co-sells on the left panel (Prime has Landmine,
Crumplezone and Megatron; Megatron has Starscream, Vector Prime and Optimus
Prime).  Both have Earth affiliation, although both have their own unique
faction leader keys rather than the standard Earth Key.  The backs of the
boxes show pictures of all modes and key gimmicks (and show different paint
apps, likely the Galaxy Force versions).
     Both have the same copy on their "Earth Planet" plot text, but oddly
have slightly different layout, so the text takes up more space on Prime's
package than on Megatron's.

-----
EARTH PLANET

     Earth - now under the protection of Jetfire, Scattorshot and the other
Autobots - is a front line in the struggle for domination of the universe.
     With their home world under threat by the super giant black hole left by
the destruction of Unicron, the Autobots and the Decepticons have secretly
moved their bases of operation to Earth.
     With the help of Vector Prime and a few humans that have discovered
their presence on Earth, the Autobots must race against time and battle and
unbelieveably powerful Megatron and his new army of Decepticons to recover
the Planet Keys, ancient artifacts missing for eons.  What few realize is
that this little planet called Earth has played a vital role in the history
of Cybertron for millions of years.
-----

     Both are packaged in robot mode (Prime's in Super Robot Mode) with an
inordinate number of twist-ties and a few rubber bands, plus plastic shields
over the chests.  Prime has his wingtips attached to the box separately, as
he couldn't fit into the box with them attached.  The map/catalog and
instructions are in a bag taped to the bottom of the inner cardboard tray for
Megatron, and in a bag loose behind the tray for Prime.  Both toys have their
missiles in a bag taped to the inside of the tray next to the robot's feet.


DECEPTICON: MEGATRON
Planet: Earth
Altmodes: Car, Jet
Planet Key Code: 1h7d (not Lh7d)

     For millions of years, MEGATRON has led fanatical legions of evil
DECEPTICONS on their war fo conquest of the Universe.  A living weapon with
dozens of self-inflicted modifications made in the name of increased power
and destructive capability, his only weakness is his single-minded desire for
the enslavement of the Universe.  His intellect, ego and talent for deception
are second to none, and he rules his DECEPTICONS with an iron-fisted
combination of fear and force of personality.
     Driven by a nearly insane lust for power, MEGATRON managed not only to
survive the catastrophic implosion of UNICRON, but also to absorb much of his
power.  Now, wearing salvaged pieces of the ancient destroyer's armor,
MEGATRON is awesomely powerful, and is determined to beat OPTIMUS PRIME and
the AUTOBOTS to the lost planet keys.

Stats are all 10 except for END 9.5.  Avg 9.94.

Key code info:

     There is nothing Megatron loves more than power. First, he was after the
Mini-Cons, then he was after all of the Energon in the world and now he's
after the Cyber Planet Keys so he can rule the universe! In between all of
those conquests, he found time to lead the Decepticons, battle the Autobots,
get trapped inside Unicron, get a few new bodies AND eventually wear PARTS of
Unicron as his armor!!! Talk about needing a vacation!!!
     (Also lets you see a scan of the back of the Master Megatron box from
Galaxy Force.  If you misread the key and type L instead of 1 at the
beginning, you get the text but not the pic.)

     Robot Mode: 10" (26cm) tall and 1.5 lbs (664g).  The front end of the
car mode is supposed to hang down as a sort of cape, but I like it better
folded out into skeletal wings with a span of about 16" (40cm).  The color
scheme is VERY busy, mainly being medium gray, yellow-orange, teal, very
light gray, black and purple (most of the purple plastic is soft, on spines
and pointy bits).  Plus accents of red, metallic bluish silver, a sort of
clear light blue plastic.  And several parts are made of a plastic color I
can't really describe, sort of a brownish beige?  He looks like he was
standing too close when the G1 Seacons exploded.  The arms are clearly meant
to be Unicron's arms, and his head horns may be intended to evoke Unicron as
well, plus some chest details.  The claw piece identified in the instructions
as being from Unicron really doesn't look like any part of the big guy, tho.
Thanks to his big boots (they contain his large rear wheels), he also gives a
good impression of size.  His eyes are lightpiped very light blue.  He has a
backpack with rocket engines and dual missile launchers, which I will
describe more in the car mode section.
     The neck and waist are both able to turn, but are very restricted by
their surroundings.  Shoulders are universal ratchet joints, there's upper
arm swivels, elbows are double hinged, and the fists turn.  The hips are
universal, with ratcheting forward and back but smoothly out to the sides.
There's swivels above and below the ratcheting knees.  The ankles have smooth
side to side and ratcheting forward and back joints, and are strong enough to
support some fairly dynamic poses.
     The Key's main job in this mode is to unlock the hand weapons from the
front fenders.  One fender contains a weapon reminiscent of Rhinox's
chaingun, but not as impressive.  But it turns nicely when cranked.  The
other holds the "Unicron power claws" which snap out and then stay deployed
if you remove them from the fender.  With the weapons removed, the fenders
are uneven, and don't look as good as wings.  The Key has one other gimmick,
but it's only really meaningful in vehicle mode.

     Planet Key: As mentioned earlier, Megatron has a unique key.  It's
shaped kinda like a winged Decepticon symbol made of clear light blue plastic
with gunmetal gray all around the border and on the wings.  There's an actual
Decepticon symbol molded into it as well, which is painted purple.  It can
store in its main keyslot without triggering the gimmick, as there are two
"stages" of clicking it in.

     Transformation: Nicely involved, but I was able to figure it out just
from the "if it moves, move it" theory and a couple glances at the box
picture (and having so boasted, I now find that I missed the "slide the
cockpit forward" step).  The purple shinguards are a hassle, though, and it
doesn't seem possible to get them into the position shown in the
instructions, but the box picture position (which differs) isn't too
pleasing.  

     Car Mode: At least 12" (31cm) long, more if you tilt the shinguards
back.  The car is 6" (15cm) wide at the rear wheels, 9.5" (24cm) wide at the
dragster wings.  If his cockpit is assumed to hold a human in the driver's
seat shown, that makes the car somewhere in the vicinity of 24m (80ft) long
to scale.  The wheels roll well and all stay on the table at the same time.
At the rear center are some tailfins flanked by orange and clear rocket
thrusters.  The fin assembly itself holds a dual missile launcher.  The Key
slot is in front of this, and inserting the key makes the thrusters pop up
and out, spinning internally as it happens.  Very nifty gimmick.  If you
install two AAA batteries, there's a sort of warbling sound I presume is
supposed to be a jet sound.  The Key won't stay all the way in, so that it
won't wear out anything internally (holding it in does not make the sound
last longer), but it holds well popped out partially.  The fender keyslots
are not accessible in this mode.  The missile launchers are independently
triggered, with very stiff springs but not an exceptional range.
     There are no Mini-Con hardpoints.  However, there's a 5mm peg on either
fender just ahead of the front wheels (for jet mode) that can hold some
weapons, and there are five 5mm holes on each rear hubcap (one in the middle
for robot and jet mode connections, four around it).

     Jet Mode: Pull the front wheel struts back, fold around a bit, and peg
into the centers of the rear wheels (be careful to make it the centers, not
the four holes around the center, or the wheels will be locked).  It's a
better jet mode than Energon Scorponok's, but that's damning with faint
praise. 
     There's little wheels under the center front to take over for the main
front wheels, but the main front wheels rub against the rear wheels, so they
don't spin freely in this mode.  Overall length is now about 11" (28cm), with
a wingspan of 11" (28cm).  Although only an inch or so on either end is
really winglet, the rest is wheels and fenders and stuff.
     As third modes go, it's not horrible, but it's clearly in the "it's a
jet because we say so" class.  BMac Scavenger's fan-made jet modes are about
as convincing.  

     Overall: The color scheme is nasty, and the head is one of the less
impressive Megatron heads to date.  But it's better than I expected, and I
don't have the loose joint issues others have been reporting (but be warned,
the problem is out there).


AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME
Planet: Earth
Altmode: Truck, sorta jet
Planet Key Code: 18p3 (not L8p3)

     OPTIMUS PRIME is a leader in the best sense of the word, taking point on
every mission and never sending his team into any situation he wouldn't go
himself.  Dedicated to the protection of all life and the preservation
of freedom for all sentient beings, he serves as a role model for his fellow
AUTOBOTS.  It is through his keen intelligence, even hand, steady nerves and
endless compassion that the AUTOBOTS continue to frustrate the DECEPTICONS
evil plans again and again.
     In a desperate race against time, OPTIMUS PRIME has been forced to send
teams of his best soldiers into unknown parts of the Universe in search of
the lost planet keys, ancient artifacts with the power to save CYBERTRON and
the rest of the Universe frmo the giant black hole formed from the implosion
of UNICRON.

Stats are all 10 except SPD 9.5.  Avg 9.94.

     (All typos and grammar errors are in the original.  Weird how they keep
capitalizing "Universe" but not Planet Keys.)

Key Code info:

     In the history of the Transformers brand in the United States, there
have been over 25 different versions of Optimus Prime! If you add in the
various versions of Optimus Primal - there have been close to 40 different
versions of the classic red, blue and silver hero!!!
     (Also lets you see a screencap of Optimus using his super attack mode,
with guns under the arms rather than over the shoulders.  If you enter an l
instead of the number 1, you get the text but not the picture.)

     Super Robot Mode: It comes packaged in this mode, so I'll start here.
Well, SORTA packaged in this mode.  As mentioned earlier, the wingtips aren't
attached.  And to fit into the box, the main wings are upside down from where
they're supposed to be according to the instructions (the launchers should be
able to fold over the shoulders, but as packaged they rise up under the
arms...either works for me, though, and I'm told both are in the Japanese
instructions).  It's necessary to remove the backpack to change this around.
I've decided to stick with the non-instructions version, I like the overall
look better.  And the guns can still be pointed up along the back for
storage.  This way also looks more Victory Sabre-ish.
     Anyway, he's 9.5" (24cm) tall at the head, with a 16" (41cm) wingspan.
The maximum height of the figure with backpack depends on how you point the
weapons, but it can be pretty tall.  You generally have to lean the figure
forward a bit, because despite the enhanced boots in this mode, he's REALLY
back-heavy.  Total weight is 1 lb 15 oz (876g).
     He's Optimus Prime colored, basically.  :) Red torso and shoulders, plus
mostly red backpack/wings.  Upper arms, pelvis and thighs are light gray.
Head, forearms and lower legs are dark blue.  His chest windows are dark
clear blue, as are the windows on his shoulders and the light bars there as
well.  His faceplate is silver, as is part of his forehead.  His eyes, crest
and cheekpieces are painted yellow.  The wheels on his forearms, backpack and
feet are black with dark bronze hubcaps on all but the foot wheels (which
have no paint).  Ther's War Within-ish pipes on his forearms, in gray.  His
rifle (similar to the nerf-like rifle sold as part of Energon) and main guns
on the backpack are light gray plastic.  There's cog/wheel details on his
wings, painted silver, and the wingtip thrusters are also painted silver.
There's also a few bits of white paint on his shoulders and abdomen, plus
Autobot symbols tampo'ed on each shoulder.
     Poseability is the same as in Basic Robot Mode, if a bit restricted by
the backpack and his own bulk.  I'll cover it down there, with one exception,
which isn't really pose-based.  The wheels in his feet are on spring shocks,
and normally stick out like rollerskates or something, but the nearly two
pounds of weight the toy brings to bear press down on the shocks and keep the
wheels from being a problem.
     He has a lot of weapons.  First is his rifle, which pegs into his hand
like an Alternators gun and fires one of the three clear blue missiles that
come with the toy.  The rifle can also plug into the left side missile
launcher weapon.  The missile weapon has molding on both sides to make it
look kinda like a firetruck ladder.  Inserting the Planet Key makes two other
missile launchers pop out from its sides.  Pushing it in only a little will
pop the launchers out, but pushing it in harder will lock it VERY solidly in
place for storage.  To the point it requires excessive force to remove.  Each
launcher fires independently, and their missiles are interchangeable.  The
left side backpack weapon only has ladder molding on one side, and requires 2
AAA batteries (not included) in order to work.  Pressing a blue button on the
side makes it emit a firing sound (followed by a sort of echo), and lights up
a red LED at the tip.  There's blue spheres along the sides, but they don't
light up.  Inserting the Key at the back of this one makes the armor pieces
on either side of the barrel open up with a short double flash of the light
and an electronic sound.  Once open, the firing sound becomes a single blast
that sounds a lot like the sound Armada Prime's trailer makes when auto-
transforming.  Holding down the firing button while open generates a
different repeating sound (holding it down while closed has no extra effect).
Closing the panels forces the Key back, and sometimes pops it out.  Finally,
attached to each boot is an energy cannon with no gimmick, but a rifled
barrel (hey, it shoots energy in the cartoon).  All in all, Prime can sling a
lot of energy downfield.
     The other main gimmick in this mode is that the chest opens up (windows
fold to the sides, chamber door folds down) to reveal the Matrix.  The Matrix
itself is really hard to get out unless you have small fingers or use a tool.
It's light gray with an orange crystal.  They saved on molding costs by
making both front and back the same: rotate it 180 degrees and you get the
same thing back, but with no paint on the crystal.  This lets you leave the
painted side alone if you want, and just paint the other side a more
appropriate color.  Prime can sort of hold the Matrix, but his hands are
bigger than the handles by quite a bit.  You have to hook it over his thumb
and then close his hand over it.

     Basic Robot Mode: Remove the backpack, pull the chunks off the back of
the boots, rearrange the feet (this involves what feels like some elastic
material, so it may snap in time) and change the details on the head (fold
the wings of his helmet back, and operate a little lever that drops his
faceplate and reveals a mouth), and you have it.  This isn't in the
instructions, but I find it's good to push down his shoulderpads as well, to
"deflate" him a bit more.  Not much shorter than Super Robot Mode at 8.25"
(21cm), and he still has a stocky shoulder width of 7" (18cm).  Colors are as
Super Mode, but without the big red backpack.
     The head turns, but the waist does not.  The shoulders swivel freely
around, but have ratchet joints for rising to the sides.  What little they
can do, the shoulderpads get in the way and only allow two clicks out (about
30 degrees).  There is a smooth upper arm swivel, and ratcheting elbows.  The
finger clump (which is black plastic, making it look like Prime's wearing
weird fingerless gloves) is on a hinge, and there's a small peg-hole in each
palm so that the rifle can be held snugly.  The hips are ratcheting universal
joints, and the tires over the sides of the hips are on pseudo-joints so they
dn't prevent motion as much.  But these are not actual joints, more like leaf
springs.  There are upper-leg swivels and ratchet knees.  The toes can point,
but this isn't too useful.  On the topic of range of motion, the knees can
bend the wrong way by three clicks, about 45 degrees, and the elbows can bend
backwards by over 90 degrees for transformation.
     There are no Key gimmicks in this mode, all the Key slots are in the
backpack weapons.  However, Prime can hold the Key loosely.

     Planet Key: The plastic color is that of the Earth Keys, but there's a
red-painted Autobot symbol in the center in the place of the Earth symbol.
The overall shape is meant to look kinda like the Matrix holder, and the
Japanese version (shown on the box) has gold paint to make the comparison
even closer.  However, in a cost-reduction move, they didn't put the gold
paint on this version.  Unfortunately, it often takes serious force to pry
the Key out of one of the slots, so any paint I could add would likely rub
off after a little play.

     Transformation: The backpack and boot extras from Super Robot Mode
assemble into a sort of so-so trailer, with the weapons kinda resembling
firetruck ladders.  The Basic Robot has the arms fold together to become the
front of the cab (so the chest of the robot is not the front of the cab, an
unusual but not unprecedented thing for a Prime), while the legs flip back to
make the rear of the semitractor.  Oh, and the head turtles down (once you
remove the cardboard shim that's in it for shipping).  Then snap the two bits
together.  I should note that the Basic Robot Mode toes don't fold away or
anything, they just stick up awkwardly like on the All-Star version.
However, the trailer covers this up, so I guess they didn't really worry
about it too much.
     [Later correction: turns out it's MOST common to have the chest of the
robot mode be the underside of the cab.  But this one stands out for having
the back of the cab be the front of the robot.]

     Truck Mode: More or less a firetruck.  It's more like it *evokes* the
concept of firetruck, rather than *being* one.  And like RiD Prime, while the
cab and trailer can sorta function separately in a minimal way, they're not
really meant to be complete unto themselves.  This is a single vehicle, not
one that's supposed to have a detachable trailer.  The rear wheels of the
"cab" piece actually hide behind the trailer wheels, and are a tiny bit
lower, although the shocks depress enough that all wheels are generally on
the table.  
     The middle of the truck looks kinda hollow.  The leg guns can be moved
around to change from which direction it looks hollow...putting them to the
sides (as in flight mode) helps make it look better from the side, and
provides a big open passenger area for a couple Scouts.  The robot head has
no cover for it, so there's just this hole in the cab with a head down inside
it.  And there's generally a log of gaps and holes and stuff.
     The truck is 12.25" (31cm) long, with 8 visible wheels and 2 hidden
ones.  All of the visible wheels have painted hubcaps.  The front bumper is
black in the middle (fingers) and gray on the sides (forearm pipes).  I think
it would have looked better if they made the fingers gray too.  All in all,
though, it's a more coherent vehicle mode than Megatron's.

     Flying Truck Mode: Twist the sides of the trailer around to make wings,
swing the weapons forward and flip out the leg cannons.  Oh, and you may want
to fold the wingtips up too, although it looks good either way.  With the
tips folded up one notch, the wingspan is 14" (36cm).  The main weapons point
forward along the sides, and their Key slots are blocked.  The gap in the
middle now REALLY looks like a control chair for a Deluxe to ride in.
All-Star Prime can sit in the top part of it, too.  Kinda disturbing.
     I suppose it makes as good a jet as Megatron's jet mode, maybe a little
better.  

     Overall: Well, it's big and it does a lot of stuff, but the vehicle mode
kinda suffers from it, although it's not quite the "it's a truck because it
has wheels and we say it's a truck" thing.  Robot mode is worth it, though.

     Dave Van Domelen, now to start looking for more Cybertron toys.  Oh, and
the older reviews have been modified to have the online content from the Key
codes.