Dave's Ultra Transmetal II Rant: Megatron (Dragon) Tigerhawk (review at end) While I'm told this is now available in Columbus, I actually got mine in San Antonio while away at a conference. It was in the third Wal-Mart Doug Dlin and I checked at 1 AM the last night I'd have time to shop, and it was still in the packing box...so we spent quite some time finding an employee willing to open the box for us (yes, we could have just opened it ourselves, but that would not have been nice). CAPSULE Megatron: Terrific dragon mode, okay ground-speeder mode, interesting transformation but not too frustrating, good robot mode. Great color scheme, good gimmicks. Very good value for an Ultra. Strongly recommended. $19.96 at Wal-Mart. RANT PREDACON: Megatron Beast Mode: Dragon Function: Predacon Commander Transformation Difficulty: Advanced (apparently, only OpOp gets to be Expert) Motto: "What does not destroy me makes me strong...what attempts to destroy me shall be obliterated!" Megatron - supreme tyrant, evil genius, and commander of the Predacons - combines brute strength, military cunning, ruthlessness and terror (presumably not his own terror, but you never know) to achieve (no, achieve isn't the word they want...implement, perhaps) cruel methods of oppression (and excessive use of the thesaurus). Fused with [the] original Megatron's spark essence and thrown into a volcano, he rises into his most powerful and befitting incarnation yet: the dragon. Breathes pyre-beam torpedoes that give birth (ew...) to flames burning 1,000 times hotter than [burning] oil. Deploys wings in beast, ground-speeder and robot modes (Er, if they're out in all his modes, he doesn't need to deploy them). Can fly up to 400 mph. Tail fires electrostatic energy and captures energy for later torture (TOR-CHAR!). Travels up to 250 mph as a ground-speeder while retaining full combat capabilities. Now experiences difficulty controlling rage, leaves excessive wake of fire and devastation. Recognizes this weakness but believes new Transmetal 2 form will empower him to defeat Optimal Optimus. STR 10+ INT 9.9 SPD 10+ END 10+ RNK 10 COUR 10+ FRP 10+ SKL 10+ Avg 10+ Actual corrections in [] brackets, snarky editorial comments in parentheses above. Packaging: Because I was able to spend some time playing around with Doug's Megadrac, I had the patience to leave mine in the box until it was time to do the review, so I'll start with the packaging. In addition to the slight modifications to the TMII packaging style mentioned in the Prowl and Scourge review, the designers took a little artistic license with the posing of the toy in the box. It's in dragon mode, and posed via a bazillion twist ties (exact count to follow soon) so that the head lines up with a burst of flame on the box itself (part of the cardboard border around the plastic window in the box). Box is 11"x9.5"x5" (27cm x 24cm x 13cm) in size, and there's four to a case. Once you open the box and pull out the inside cardboard backing, it's a five-sided corrugated cardboard box with a blister bubble propping up the figure from behind, another bubble twist-tied over the tail tip, and a rather large number of twist-ties overall. The instructions packet and missiles are taped to the side of this box. This packet also includes Hasbro's 1998 catalog, oh joy. Time to count the twist-ties...8 holding it to the box, 1 holding it to the supporting bubble (basically holding the mouth open), and 1 holding the tail together, for 10 total. In addition, there's 3 rubber bands holding various bits together. Can you say "overpackaged," boys and girls? }-> Well, at least one of the ties has found a home as a temporary keychain to help me fish my keys out of the tiny key-pocket on my new pants.... Beast Mode: About 16" (40cm) from snout to tail tip, with a wingspan up to 14" (35cm) wide. This is one big dragon, especially for an Ultra ($20) Beast. The color scheme is best described as "lava," with the red, orange and yellow set off by purple (when you look at incandescent lava, the relatively dark areas often look purple because the eye is just overloaded with light and the result is a "bleed" of purple). Lots of vac-metalized bits, with straight red, red grading into gold and red with purple accents (an effect that almost makes those parts look translucent). The wings are transparent yellow plastic with purple airbrushing. The body is mainly red plastic (flat red, not sparkly) with yellow and black accents. The neck and tail are made of yellow rubberized plastic with orange and red highlights. The general Transmetal II asymmetry continues here, with one side having organic details while the other has mechanical ones. The hind legs, while ratchet-jointed at the hips, aren't quite strong enough to hold him up in too many poses, he tends to belly-flop as a result of his large size. His forelegs have ball shoulders and hinge elbows, with dual opposable thumbs (translation: making the forearms symmetric helped save on molds). A button on the back, when slid down, causes the wings to flare out, although not to what I'd consider a full wingspan. The button can be easily locked into place by pushing it sideways. The wing mechanism still works when the wings are posed by "flapping" them, as the gearing is more or less cylindrical (turn the wing-mounted gear and it stays engaged to the fixed gear). Finally, a lever on the back of the neck can be used to thrash Megadrac's head back and forth, or make it look up. There's a little tab to fold down and lock it in place, but the way this is installed it only locks the head in "looking down" position, not flight position. To fix this, take a screwdriver and remove the purple lever assembly and put it on facing the other way. If you look carefully at the box, you'll see the correct position for the lever. One cosmetic flaw of the beast mode is that the robot head is not concealed properly. Megatron is looking at his own butt, basically. You can rotate his tail around so that the head is more concealed, but this prevents him from standing up in dragon mode, as the tail is now in the way. Some have complained about the rubbery neck and tail, mainly the tail (since at least the neck has a motion gimmick that requires the rubbery plastic). Personally, I don't mind them, since that's two less parts to worry about snapping off in transit. Similarly, the wings are made from a slightly softer but hopefully harder to break plastic. Unfortunately, due to the posing in the box, the wings are a bit warped, resulting in one drooping. Drag(on)ster Mode: Okay, this one requires a few tricks not obvious in the instructions. First, go ahead and reverse that lever on the back of the dragon's neck. Now, pull the lever all the way back, and a tiny bit clockwise. The little flap tab on the lever should fit nicely into some tech detail and hold it in place. Don't worry that you're turning the head a little to the right to do this...it has a natural tendency to turn a little to the left anyway. Another tips is to take the heel spurs of the dragon feet and insert them into slots on the forelegs, which you pull forward as far as they go. This will keep things a little better in place and let all four wheels touch the ground at once. Size of the Dragster is 16" long by 14" wingspan. The robot head looks like a driver's head sunk into a covered seat, although there's also a cockpit piece with a swinging control chair that tries to rotate so as to always be rightside up (the chair is on a swivel that passes above its center of mass, so it swings down). I'll talk about the missiles here, since they can both be fired in this mode. He comes with three identical missiles which can launch from two different places (there seems to be no storage space for the third). One launches from the tail, pointing forward (it's what becomes the top of Megatron's helmet in robot mode), with a simple trigger. The range is pretty pathetic, at least on mine. The other launcher is in the dragon's mouth. Tilt back one set of horns (he's got lots of horns in a Chinese dragon motif) and the mouth opens (both jaws, very nice) and launches the missile a respectable distance. Transformation to Robot Mode: Not that difficult, actually. There's a few places where you have to do things in the right order or you risk breaking stuff, but the unfolding operation is pretty intuitive. The reverse operation is not nearly as easy, of course, but not as bad as some of the BW Neo "shell games." While the dragon's hind legs do indeed become the robot's legs, the rest is not as obvious, and a lot of folding and swiveling is involved. Some clever bits include rotating the abdomen scales on the right forearm to become a shield, and the way the entire wing/arm assembly swings around 180 degrees. Robot Mode: 7" (18cm) tall at the head, 9" (23cm) if you include the wings on his back. The dragon head becomes the left arm, and due to its bulk and mechanism is a little limited in poseability. The right hand has one finger cocked in a sort of "come here so I can pound on you" gesture. The cockpit forms the chest of the robot, and can be spun around so that the control chair faces the right way (the spark, which is on the dragon's chest, ends up on the robot's behind). The excessively big wheel covers can swing up and seem to function as hover jets for flying in robot mode. Oddly, he has two knees on each leg, as a result of the transformation jointings. One set is too high, the other too low...where his knees would ideally be are the wheels, which I suppose look like knees when his legs are straight. The wing gimmick works in this mode, but the tab is much smaller on the robot side of the wing unit, and it's a LOT harder to lock in place. The mouth missile fires as normal, and the tail missile launcher is now atop Megatron's head. He's got a clear yellow helmet over the top of his head, which I'd almost guess was orginally opaque red, since that color would help hide his head in dragon mode. There's a pair of purple spines on either side of his head that move down when the wings move up. In this mode, you can slide two of the missiles into the grooves on these spines as a sort of storage, but they're not very firmly locked in, and this obviously only works in robot mode. I tried slotting the missiles into the wheel covers, but that didn't work well. Comparison to Galvatron: Okay, everyone else has been doing it, so I will too. Both TMII Megatron and Beast Wars II Galvatron are about the same size in robot mode. Megadrac wins hands down in terms of color scheme, with the lava-tone colors being more coherent and nifty than the purple, lavender, red and gold of Galvatron. Galvatron's robot mode is more stable and generally better-looking when you leave aside colors. The glass ball in Galvatron's chest is better than the plastic dome on Megadrac's. I'd say both have equally neat motion gimmicks and missiles. Galvatron's tank mode is a real third mode, and beats the half-hearted Dragster. However, Megadrac's dragon mode just blows Galvatron's away. It's a "real" dragon, not a sort of modified chicken with shoulderpads. The wings, while they don't flap any more impressively than Galvatron's, just look better. Which is better overall? That really depends on where your emphasis is. Galvatron's the better robot, Megatron's the better dragon with better colors. Overall: Surprisingly big and nifty for an Ultra, blows Depth Charge and Rampage out of the water (no pun intended...well, okay, it was intended) in robot modes, and gives their beast modes a good run for your money (Rampage still has the best third mode of the Ultras, though). Definitely worth your $20 and the shelf space it'll take up. Dave Van Domelen, tempted to put it in dragon mode and then suspend it from the ceiling somehow.... Dave's Transmetal II Rant: Tigerhawk Well, I got lucky in several respects. One, that traffic was light enough early on Game Day afternoon here (home opener for Ohio State, gah) that I was able to zip across town to the Wal-Mart where I'd been told last night a Tigerhawk remained. Two, that it was still there, hidden on the top shelf behind three Megadracs. Three, I was able to get it down without killing myself or destroying the shelf unit. }-> CAPSULE Tigerhawk: A lot of thought went into this design, and it takes a while to find all the flaps and tabs and hatches and levers and so forth. Good beast mode, if a little "open" in design (i.e. you can see into it). Reasonably complicated transformation, but doable without instructions. Okay tank mode (yes, tank mode, see below). Strongly recommended. $19.96 at Wal-Mart. RANT MAXIMAL: Tigerhawk Function: Vok Emissary Beast Mode: Tiger/Hawk Quote: "Violence will not be tolerated - surrender or be destroyed." [This, folks, is called irony.] A puzzling new cybernetic entity, Tigerhawk is the result of an advanced alien species'[s] apprehension of the former Tigatron and Airazor. Mysteriously combined and reconfigured, Tigerhawk was sent back as a prophet of peace to end the long war between Maximal and Predacon. Possesses elemental powers [enabling him] to summon earthquakes, electrical storms and tsunamis. Has Vok alien-enhanced intelligence and an incredible arsenal of weaponry including an ion diminisher that paralyzes enemies. Totally fearless, noble and ferocious in battle, he is an inspiration to his fellow Maximals. STR 8.2 INT 10 SPD 8.1 END 7.3 RNK 7 COUR 8.4 FRP 9.7 SKL 8.8 Avg 8.44 Another case of thesaurus abuse, "apprehension" really should just be "capture" in this case. Anyway, it looks like they've decided on a slightly gentler role for the toy-continuity Tigerhawk, bringing peace in a way that doesn't involve killing everyone. Although the quote might go against that idea. Stuck into the box with LOTS of twist ties. Like Megadrac's box, there's an explosion near the margin of the front panel, with Tigerhawk positioned as if shooting and causing that explosion. The toy is mistransformed in the photos on the box, mainly having to do with his rear beast legs. This mistransformation is also reflected in the techspec artwork. Beast Mode: Hard to exactly say his dimensions, since there's several ways you can have him in Beast Mode. Going by the box and putting the wings folded down, he's 8" (20cm) long, 7" (17cm) wide and 5" (13cm) tall at the shoulder. Mainly very light grey and blue with yellow-green and transparent yellow-green accents and black detailing. The purple chrome of the prototype has been replaced by blue chrome, probably because someone pointed out that purple is a Pred color. I think I like the blue and green better than the purple and gold anyway. His forelegs are big tiger legs, while his rear legs are hawklike, with spring-triggered snapping talons. Unfortunately, the force required to trigger this action is more than enough to make the leg bend out of the way, so you have to push the lower leg against whatever you want Tigerhawk to grab. He's a mass of springs and panels and stuff. One lever will let you automatically drop his wings down from a raised position to the level position. A number of other tabs and stuff in the wings will make the wing guns auto-deploy and auto-fire in the same action, while a couple of "flaps" of feather pop up. The only way to keep the missile launchers undeployed while the wings are down is to fold the wingtips down as well, there's a little tab on them that holds the missile launchers in place. Additionally, there's other buttons to cause the wingtips to zip forward, but thankfully this does not auto-fire the "spoon missiles" on the wingtips, you fire those manually. There's a chrome mask which can either stow behind the tiger head (forcing it to remain pointed down) or rest on the head, giving it a more hawklike appearance. There's wheels on the tops of his wings, which don't seem to go with any of the modes (the official "attack" mode is kinda lame). However.... Tank Mode: Assuming the wheels were intended for something, and also looking at the positions of things like the blister cockpit (like Megadrac's, but easier to see into) and the hand cannons, I decided there must have been a tank mode which was later suppressed for some reason. Here's how you get it. Start in beast mode, with the wing horizontal and the wingtips folded down to keep the missiles from firing. Now remove all four missiles, since you stand a good chance of launching them anyway while transforming. Turn Tigerhawk on his back. Fold the rear legs down so that they touch the tailfeathers. Now bring the chrome parts of the forelegs down against the paws and fold the legs towards the rear so that the claws basically point down towards the tailfeathers (this part is necessary for balance). The tailfeathers are the front of the vehicle. You now have a "tank" with four forward-facing launchers, plus the twin wrist cannons of the robot mode facing front. The tail and the "flaps" form antipersonnel shredders, and the clear green bit that's below the cockpit in robot mode is now the front of the cockpit. The tank is a blocky 7" (17cm) long, 6" (15cm) wide and 5" (13cm) high. If you want a little more firepower, you can remove the missile launchers and put the pegs into the holes on the chromed hips of the rear beast legs, letting the tribarrels that remain behind flip forward. Anyone trying to sneak up from behind gets a blast from the wing cannons as they rapid-deploy to the rear. }-> Transformation: It takes a bit of effort to get all the bits moving at the right times, and there's LOTS of origami-ish panels and flaps moving around. The chest moves up in a way reminiscent of Prowl's. It helps to position the rear claws on the chest properly (as in the instructions, NOT as on the box) before sliding the chest up, because the shoulders of the robot mode can get in the way. Also, during transformation is the only time to see the spark crystal, which is molded into a column of clear green plastic that forms the "spine" of the robot mode. The hips fold together in about the same way as Bantor's, but there's a front flap like Windrazor's to help keep things together...and it actually does the job, unlike on Windrazor. The huge beast forepaws fold back and are covered by chrome bits, giving a more robotic "boot" effect to the feet. The wings can be positioned various ways, but I suggest flat against the back with the tips folded forward. This helps with balance, since the heel spurs on Tigerhawk's feet aren't very bit. Robot Mode: 7.5" (19cm) tall and nearly as wide thanks to broad shoulders and the wings. For what it's worth, maximum stable wingspan is 11" (27cm), although you can get them a bit wider if you hold the wingtips halfway between stored and forward positions. And the fact there is no halfway point is a bit annoying, since it means he can't fire the missiles forward in robot mode. Still, this is a minor point. The flaps on his wings look like jetpack vents in robot mode. He has a gold chrome Maximal symbol on his chest to make up for the fact his spark is totally hidden. His left fist has a hexagonal hole in it, which is just the right shape for him to hold his feather missiles stably as weapons. The right hand is more clawlike and doesn't hold anything, although it has twin blasters molded over it. The rear beast talons can be set open in robot mode, giving him an advantage in close grappling as they snap shut on his opponent's head. Also, his main missile launchers can be removed and both held in his left hand, giving both hands a double weapon of some sort. His shin has the piston positioning gimmick used on the original ape Optimus Primal as well as kinda on Magnaboss. The hips have a midway swivel like the ones found on Mystic Knights toys, giving very nice leg poseability. The calf-cover chrome parts are nice, the right one has fur detailing, but the left one has a very Gundam feel to it. His shoulders are both pretty bulky...one has his beast head, the other has his cockpit unit. The forearms are ball-jointed in the same way as Megadrac's right forearm, so he can't bend his elbow "normally." The arms are overall a little small compared to the rest of the body, but not the puny things some reviews have made them out to be. He's actually pretty close to reasonable human proportions. Finally, he has a clear green plastic visor over his eyes, which seem to glow eerily due to the neon orange paint used. He has the typical BW snarl with exposed teeth, but since his face and teeth are the same color, you really have to look to see this. One side of his helmet has fur pattern, the other a sort of mechanical feather pattern, well-reflecting his dual heritage. Overall: Not perfect, but pretty slaggin' good. I'd have liked a little better arm poseability and a midway position on the wingtips, but it's already pretty crammed with gimmicks and gewgaws. The designer or design team for this toy deserves a pat on the back, plus a graduate degree of some sort. }-> Dave Van Domelen, listening to former students of his shine on the gridiron....