Dave's Japanese Transformers Rant

     Revoltech 025 Megatron

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/Rev25

     Got this for someone else, but he's fine with me opening it to review
before I mail it off.  These are showing up at the Hastings media chain (it's
like Mediaplay, slowly spreading out from "flyover country").  019 Convoy was
enough for me, so I hadn't tried to get any other Revoltechs from Japan.

CAPSULE

     Revoltech 025 Megatron: Vaguely unsettling mold choices, too shiny.
Good but not great poseability.  Not as good as Convoy.  Mildly recommended.
$24.99 at Hastings.  (By comparison, the Japanese shelf price comes out to
about $17 at current market prices, but good luck getting shipping for $8.)


RANT

     Packaging: Essentially the same as used on Revoltech Convoy, see
http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/RM21-Rev19 for details.  A little
catalog that comes with it shows all 25 figures to date, plus a promo for the
new non-robotic Revoltech line.  The baggie taped to the inner tray contains
three spare hands (two open, and a right hand with a crooked "come here, you"
index finger).  A spare head is in the tray itself, visible through the
closed box.  It has Megatron with an open mouth, shouting, although the small
size and silver paint make it hard to tell the difference.  There's a little
tray-let piece between the regular head and the over the shoulder barrel, to
keep things from warping.

     Figure: 4.75" (12cm) tall, mostly made of shiny metallic silver plastic,
with metallic very dark gray plastic on the fists, lower legs, upper arms
(but not shoulders) and fusion cannon.  The Revolver Joints are light gray
but nonmetallic.  
     Metallic red paint covers most of the upper arms, the insides of the
boots, the eyes and a couple of details on the abdomen.  It's a very shiny
metallic red, almost chrome.  The pelvis is painted black, a poor match with
the dark metallic gray.  There's some silver paint details on the insides of
the boots, black rings around the eyes, and a bit of yellow on the abdomen.
A purple Decepticon symbol is printed on the center of the chest.
     The molding choices are...weird.  Like they didn't give the sculptor
very good reference material or something.  The abdomen is oddly irregular,
there's a strange oval chunk at the back of the barrel piece on the back, and
hte fusion cannon is too long in front and slightly tapered.  Some elements
suggest use of Pat Lee designs (notably the boots), but the hammer bits Lee
put on the shoulders of his Megatron are absent here.  Also, as with
Revoltech Convoy, he's pin-headed.
     The head and neck are the same sort of jointing as seen on Convoy.
Shoulders, mid-torso, hips, knees and ankles are all Revolver Joints,
although some of the placements are odd and greatly restrict motion (i.e. the
ankles don't really move much due to blocking bits, mainly rotating to
support spread-leg stances).  The elbows are hinges on pegs that allow upper
arm swivels, and the wrists are peg swivels as well.  The "waist" is actually
halfway up the torso, and allows some rocking as well as turning.  The fusion
cannon is not, as far as I can tell, designed to be removable.

     Overall: To be honest, the molding weirdness on this one is a
significant factor weighing against it.  Lots of little things adding up to a
general "that's not right" feel, even moreso than on Revoltech Convoy.  The
choice of very shiny metallic silver plastic doesn't work too well for me
either...if you're going to go with a more animation style model, the flatter
colors look better.

     Dave Van Domelen, thinks Robot Replicas are a bit more appropriate scale
for the Revolver Joints.