Dave's Transformers Animated Rant: Leader Wave 1

     Bulkhead (SWAT Truck)
     Megatron (Twin-rotor Helicopter)

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFA/Leader1

     While this isn't the largest size class available for TF:A, it's
probably the largest I'll get, unless the Supreme Roll Out Command Optimus
Prime goes on clearance.


CAPSULES

     Bulkhead: Short robot mode, as we've come to expect from this guy.
Decent transformation and vehicle mode, nice speaking gimmick that changes
when Headmaster is attached.  Recommended.  $39.67 at Wal-Mart.
     Megatron: Very good robot mode, somewhat cheaty transformation, very
good helicopter altmode.  Headmaster will fit on the toy, but does nothing to
the electronics.  Best Animated Megatron so far.  Recommended.  $39.67 at
Wal-Mart.

     Note, Target has bumped the prices to $42.99 on this class.


RANTS

     Packaging: The same basic shape idea as Voyager, with the upper right
corner truncated and a slender wedge taken out of the left side.  12.25"
(31cm) tall, 10" (25.5cm) wide, 5.5" (14cm) deep.  The upper right facet is
2.5" (6cm) on the edge, and the left side wedge is 11" (28cm) tall and goes
in an inch (2.5cm) deep.
     The front is mostly clear, with a "try me" hole in the middle.
Character art on the lower right, name banner in upper right, conversion
difficulty (level 3) in upper left, an extra call-out/inset along the left
side (plugging Headmaster for Bulkhead, the expression-changing for
Megatron), and the line logo along the bottom.
     The bottom panel has co-sells of Wave 3 Deluxe.  The right side has
larger character art with name and a call-out.  The left side upper facet has
">Leader Class", a big faction symbol, and co-sell for Roll Out Command
Optimus Prime.  The middle facet has the other Leader, plus Voyager Prime.
The bottom left facet has Transformers.com.  The top panel is partly clear,
with character art and name banner.
     The back has photos of both modes, various insets and bio note stuff.
As usual, the photos are rather heavily enhanced.
     As is the practice lately with this size class, they're packaged in
robot mode.  A pale blue monochrome Detroit cityscape forms the backdrop
inside the box.  There's a raised platform for the figure, leaving a big open
space at the bottom of the box.  A crumplezone, I suppose.  :)  It's mostly
spacer cardboard, but the instructions go there too.  No catalog, though.
The instructions are double-sided, with onem side containing the usual
battery warnings and FCC statements.
     As with the Voyagers, it's best to open the right side.


AUTOBOT: BULKEHAD
Altmode: Armored Truck
Function: Super tough strong-bot
Previous Name Use: Energon
Previous Mold Use: None
Callouts: (front) "Spinning buzzsaw!"  (upper right) "BULKHEAD cuts through
     DECEPTICON armor with his buzzsaw!"  (back)  "Head moves and 
     expression changes when he talks!" (with inset of face), "Changes to
     HEADMASTER voice!" (with inset of Headmaster), "Lights change color!"
     (also points to Headmaster inset), "Spinning buzzsaw!"  "Claw opens and
     closes!"  "Removable air torpedoes!"  "Electronic lights and speech!"
     "Lights and siren sounds!"  "Conversion sounds!"
Motto: "Oops.  My bad."
Galactic Powers & Abilities:
     > The strongest of the AUTOBOTS on Earth.
     > Rarely uses air torpedoes because of accuracy issues.
     > Buzzsaw originally built to slice iron meteors.

     It's hard not to like BULKHEAD.  Despite being huge and strong, he's the
kindest, most gentle of the AUTOBOTS, and he always has other people's best
interests at heart.  That's why it's so terrifying when HEADMASTER takes over
his body.  BULKHEAD regularly engages in wholesale property damage purely by
accident.  With the HEADMASTER in charge of his body, will anyone be able to
stop the tide of destruction?

     Packaging: The "try me" hole lets you cycle through his regular phrases
and lights.  Two twist-ties hold Headmaster to the floor of the inner tray,
although you only need to undo one.  Five twist-ties all the way through the
back hold the robot mode into the tray, and rubber bands keep the missiles on
his arms with the help of a plastic shield over the right forearm.

     Robot Mode: 7.25" (18.5cm) tall at the head, 8" (20cm) at the
shoulderpads, 20 ounces (560g).  A Leader's mass but a Voyager's height.
Mostly olive green with gray and black pieces, plus various accent colors.
His left hand grips a buzzsaw blade that's integral to it (so no removing it
and getting hand articulation), the right hand is articulated.  No ball and
chain weapon.  Both forearms have big armor panels on them with air torpedo
racks...the arms aren't as elegantly done as the Voyager version.
     Most of the toy is olive green plastic.  The upper arms, hands, buzzsaw,
thighs, abdomen grille and some connecting bits are light gray plastic.  The
chest has some clear panels in it: light blue for the vision slit, red for
the Autobot symbol, clear colorless for some cutouts that are there purely to
let the LEDs shine through.  The eyes are clear colorless plastic painted
over with some blue, the face is light gray, and most of the head is thin
enough plastic that the orange LED inside shines through.  The majority of
the abdomen is black plastic, as are the feet, knee joints, buzzsaw trigger
and the air torpedoes.  The vehicle wheels are fairly well hidden in this
mode, but they're black plastic too.
     An antique gold paint is used on the torpedo tips and side detailing, as
well as on the headlights that are part of the abdomen.  There's a metallic
purple-brown on the abdomen and the wrists.  Black paint is used on the
helmet stripes, forearm stripes, buzzsaw center and upper boots.  A good
green paint match is used on the tops of the feet.  There's white stars on
the shoulders and on the forearm torpedo racks.  The Autobot symbol has a
thin layer of red paint on it, so that when yellow LEDs flash behind it the
symbol still looks red.
     The head turns as part of an action gimmick, but is not freely poseable
otherwise.  Unsurprisingly, no waist articulation.  The shoulders are
ratcheting universal joints, there's smooth upper arm swivels, ratcheting
hinge elbows.  There's a slider on each forearm, the left one makes the claw
hand open up, and it's a stiff enough joint to hold onto things.  Ratcheting
universal joint hips, smooth swivel just above each knee, ratcheting hinge
knees.  The ankles have transformation hinges, but not much useful posing
there.  I find that the figure is more stable if one knee is bent by a single
click.  
     And then there's the gimmicks.  The weakest are the air torpedoes, which
just sit there on his forearms.  No launcher, can barely even hold one in his
claw.  The claw itself is pretty good, and has a "palm" that you can press in
on to make the claw shut around your finger.  The right arm has a built-in
buzzsaw, and you have to press the button forward fairly energetically to get
the blade to spin, it doesn't always engage.
     Of course, the main gimmick is the speaking.  Pressing the Autobot
symbol on his chest makes the head turn to his left, the mouth opens up, and
he says one of three phrases (in order, not random): "Time for the BIG GUNS!"
"You can DO IT, buddy!" and "Sorry, my bad."  All voiced by Fagerbakke, the
regular voice actor for Bulkhead.  Accompanying the voice clips, yellow LEDs
in the shoulders and chest, plus an orange LED in the head, flash nine times,
the flashing lasting longer than the talking.  The voice clips are
interrupted if you push the button again, so you can do things like have him
say, "Sorry, Time for you can DO IT, buddy!"
     It is possible to rotate the shoulderpad pieces down into "easy chair"
mode.  More or less, anyway.  But he can sit on the result if you bend his
legs right.  

     Headmaster: Basically just a head-cover, it doesn't transform or
anything.  Mostly made of magenta (reddish purple) plastic, with colorless
clear horns and very pale blue clear plastic for the forehead and face.  No
intentional articulation, but the horns can be rotated.  The whole thing is
1.5" (4cm) tall without the horns or the connection tabs, 2.25" (6cm) tall
overall.  The face is painted medium gray with yellow eyes, and the face is
molded in a wide smirk.
     Three tabs on the bottom latch into holes around the head of both
Bulkhead and Megatron, and future Leaders may also have a place for him to
sit.  
     When you put this over Bulkhead's head, red LED's light up in the torso
and the figure says, "OWNAGE!  TOTAL OWNAGE!" in Headmaster's voice.  If you
put it on just right (tilting forward all the way), you'll get the
transformation sound first, then Ownage as the head goes the rest of the way
on.  While the head is attached, pushing the sound button just gets the
Ownage phrase, there's only the one.  The orange LED still flashes nine
times, but is largely obscured.  The yellow LEDs are replaced by adjacent red
LEDs, which flash nine times, same rate as the yellow ones did without
Headmaster.  

     Transformation: Fairly intuitive, and similar to the other two versions
so far.  There's a bit more panel-fiddling, and you need to pull the
shoulders out to unlock the chest.  Removing the air torpedoes is probably a
good idea, otherwise you need to rotate those pieces a few times during
transformation to get them out of the way.  When you clip down the turret
thing over the robot head (the pieces of which are more or less hidden under
the shoulderpads) it activates a G1 transformation sound.  Unclipping it also
triggers the transformation sound.  In both directions, the yellow LEDs flash
rapidly 17 (or maybe 18) times.

     Vehicle Mode: 7.5" (19cm) long, 5" (12.5cm) wide, 4.5" (11.5cm) tall.
It's a pretty good representation of his animated model, at a slightly more
detailed level (i.e. more rivets and panel lines and stuff), but with two
additions.  There's a turret/cupola thing that covers the robot head and
includes a pair of guns not seen in the show, and there's chunks on the sides
to hold those air torpedoes.  It's possible to remove the air torpedo racks
(which remind me of the stopgap WWII missile trucks that were basically troop
transport vehicles with crates of rockets strapped to the sides), but you
have to disassemble the entire forearm to get at the relevant screw, and you
still end up with ugly holes in the side panels and a lack of stars on the
sides (yes, I tried it).  So it's a non-trivial kitbash to get rid of the air
torpedo racks and make the toy look more show-accurate.
     Most of the vehicle is olive green plastic.  The grille area, wheels,
wheel hubs and air torpedoes are black plastic.  The cupola guns are light
gray plastic, the lightbar is clear red plastic, as is the Autobot symbol.
 The wheel hubs have dark silver "smile" arcs painted on them, otherwise all
the paint apps are things clearly visible in robot mode.  There's a distinct
lack of paint on the rear doors, which is something even the most
inexperienced kitbasher is likely to think of addressing.
     All six wheels rest on the table and roll freely, although the fact that
the hubs don't spin is a bit odd.  The cupola guns can elevate independently,
as can the air torpedo racks.  And no, there's still no way to launch the air
torpedoes other then flicking them off with your fingers, which sends them
end over end.  No other articulation.  The rear panels don't really lock
down, but they don't open as proper doors either.
     Pressing the Autobot symbol triggers a quick "woo woo" of the siren
accompanied by flashing red LEDs under the lightbar, but no other LEDs.  The
lights continue flashing for a total of 17 flashes, oddly (maybe 18, hard to
follow).  To get an extended siren sound, you need to hold down the Autobot
symbol.  This might be a programming bug, or it might be intentional to avoid
really long sound cycles that annoy parents.
     There's no place to store Headmaster in this mode, there's not enough
empty space in the back.

     Overall: I'd rather have not had the air torpedoes given how weak they
are, but otherwise it's pretty good.  And he's more or less to scale with the
Deluxe Autobots.


DECEPTICON: MEGATRON
Altmode: Attack Helicopter
Function: Ultimate Intergalactic Tyrant (ooh, an upgrade)
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: None
Callouts: (front) "Launching fusion missile!"  (upper right) "MEGATRON
     annihilates his enemies with his fusion cannon!"  (back) "Expression
     changes when he talks!" (inset of face), "Press to launch fusion
     missile!"  "Where is the AllSpark?" (meant to be his speaking action),
     "Helicopter blades become swords!"  "Electronic lights and speech!"
     "Conversion sounds!"  "Spin-linked blades!"  "Helicopter sounds!"
Motto: "Crush the Autobots!" (hey, he doesn't have to capslock it!)
Galactic Powers & Abilities:
     > Expert two-sword fighter.
     > Genius-level engineer and programmer.
     > Armor can deflect even focused anti-proton lasers.

     Now that he has finally been able to build a body for himself, MEGATRON
is more powerful than ever, and no force on Earth can stand against him.  He
is a fighter without equal anywhere in the universe.  Backed up by his
DECEPTICON soldiers, he is also an expert battle leader, without peer.  He is
as ruthless as he is ambitious.  MEGATRON will stop at nothing to gain the
AllSpark, and destroy OPTIMUS PRIME and his AUTOBOTS.

     Packaging: Six twist-ties through the inner tray hold the robot mode
in.  A rubber band holds one sword in his right hand, the other sword and his
missile are in a baggie down with the instructions (which are loose).

     Robot Mode: 8.5" (21.5cm) tall at the head, 9" (23cm) at the backpack
top, and 17 ounces (480g).  This makes him a little shorter than the movie
Leaders and significantly shorter than the Cybertron Leaders, but still
bigger than Bulkhead.  Making some assumptions about the pilot seat, I'd call
him somewhere in the neighborhood of 1:100 scale.  20-25 meters tall feels
about right for how he was depicted in the show, too.  He has a nicely
massive feel overall, and is a good match for his animated model [Later note:
plus a strong resemblance to the Super Megatron from Return of Star Convoy,
which never got a toy, but appears in The Ark II compendium].  Gray, black
and red, with a big cannon mountable on either arm and a bit of a backpack
issue.
     Most of the toy is a very slightly metallic medium warm gray plastic.
The "black" plastic is really a very dark charcoal gray, and is used on the
cannon, face, fists, forearm flaps (for storing the fists), elbow joints,
upper arms, pelvis, hip armor, boots, feet, thrusters and some connector
bits.  The swords have black handles and are otherwise made of a softer
medium cool gray that's a little darker than the main gray plastic.  Clear
red plastic is used for the Decepticon symbol on the chest, several chest
details, his eyes, the missile, the cockpit canopy, the pilot's seat and a
couple of bits (radomes?) on the front of the cockpit.
     A deep red paint is used extensively for detailing, on the shoulders,
upper arms, abdomen flanks, kneecaps, toes, cannon barrel, "radome" tips,
sword hilts and heels.  His face is mostly painted silver, and his forearm
flaps and sword blades are painted gunmetal.  There's black paint on the
hilts and tip of the cockpit front, plus some details on the helmet.  The
chest symbol is painted purple, but you can barely tell.
     The head turns freely: unlike Bulkhead, the neck is not dragooned into
the speech gimmick.  The waist turns on a ratchet, but can only go one click
either way before the backpack gets in the way.  The shoulders are ratcheting
swivels, but a transformation joint scissoring with the wings gives some side
to side motion.  There's a smooth swivel in the upper arm.  The elbows are
double hinges, the upper one is smooth and the lower ratchets.  The wrists
turn smoothly.  The hips are ratcheting universal joints, strong enough to
deal with the topheavy nature of the toy.  The armor flaps on the hips are
hinged to get out of the way.  There's a smooth swivel above each knee, the
knees ratchet, and the ankles move side to side to let the feet stay flat.
No real front to back motion on the ankles, but the toes and heels can
ratchet down for transformation.  
     Megatron's two swords are each 6" (15cm) long including hilts, and can
store on his backpack.  They're a little wobbly because of the need to turn
into rotors, and the large crosspieces can make it hard to pose as they get
in the way of the forearms.  Also, because of the gearing on the rotors, you
can't really get the swords to both point straight down while hanging off his
back.
     The cannon can clip onto either arm, along with a big chunk of
fuselage...yeah, it's sorta cheaty.  The cannon cocks by pulling the rear
section back until it clicks, which can be done with or without the missile
in place.  Once cocked, the front part of the barrel gets a bit loose (it's
otherwise held forward).  Cocked it's 4.75" (12cm) long, after firing it's
only 4.5" (11cm) long.  The connection between cannon and fuselage chunk is a
ratcheting swivel that has stable positions every 90 degrees, but can't point
all the way backwards.  The trigger's a little hard to pull in some
positions.  
     The main gimmick is the speech button, of course.  When you push the
chest symbol, the mouth opens and the brow quirks to one side.  There's some
variation in how much brow-quirk you get.  Mine has a little, but I've seen
some where his forehead practically pops out.  Red LEDs flash nine times,
fairly slowly, and one of three phrases is said by Corey Burton (the regular
voice actor for Megs): "Where is the AllSpark?"  "CRUSH the Autobots!" and a
rather good maniacal laugh.  The LEDs are inside the chest, inside the head
(which makes the entire forehead light up, since it's kinda thin plastic...I
may need to do a paint touch-up to make it more opaque), and inside the
cockpit.  

     Headmaster: He will fit over Megatron's head, but none of the
electronics change.  It's just the connector holes, no triggers inside.

     Transformation: There's a rather clever bit with the outsides of the
boots coming off, spinning around and clamping around the thighs to make the
tail end of the helicopter.  By contrast the arms just sort of fold up and
sit there.  The cockpit has to slide forward on its connector to cover up the
head, and this takes excessive force and can hurt if you pinch yourself
between panels...I speak from experience.  When the cockpit piece snaps into
place (or comes out of it) you get a G1 transformation sound and 16 quick
flashes of all the LEDs.  Then just clip the cannon chunk onto the underside
of the front end.
     If, for some reason, you lose the cannon, there is a nosewheel that can
fold out of the backpack section.
     Both blades of the swords can swivel around, but only one of them will
lock into position properly for rotor blade mode.
     [Later note: if you just transform the legs and put the swords in rotor
mode, you have Animated Obsidian.]

     Vehicle Mode: Now, THIS is a satisfyingly large vehicle mode.  It feels
imposing, where the movie Leader Megatron was just a big pile.  Not counting
the cannon, it's 12.5" (32cm) long, the cannon boosts that to 13.5" (34cm).
The "solid" wingspan (strut-span) is 7" (18cm), but if you consider the span
of the rotor circles, the total clearance needed for it is 15.5" (39cm).
It's a fantasy future helicopter with a cockpit like a gunship (i.e. Apache)
and twin rotors unlike any actual helicopter.  The rotors aren't transverse
like an Osprey, since the rotor circles cross.  But all the intermeshing
rotor designs I could find have the centers of the rotors pretty close
together, while these are significantly separated. 
     There's really no details visible here that weren't visible in some way
in robot mode, other than a bit of the tail end.  The main body is gray, the
tail is mainly "black".  There's a wheel at the back of the cannon and
fold-down wheels from the root of the tail.  If you turn the cannon, the toy
spins in place nicely.  The winglets and folded robot arms have a sort of
X-Wing action for transformation, but this seems to be just for
transformation and not intended as a vehicle feature.  It doesn't lock,
though, and the two aren't linked, so you can get one winglet up and the
other down.  
     If you spin one rotor, the other one automatically counter-rotates.
Unlike many recent helicopter toys, there's no trigger-pull gimmick to make
the rotors spin, and the gearing is tight enough to keep the rotors from
spinning freely.  The canopy is not designed to open, but is pretty easy to
pop off, revealing the pilot's seat and the LED (which has retreated into the
back of the canopy in this mode, you can see it more clearly if you remove
the canopy in robot mode).
     Pressing the Decepticon symbol button (which is now on the underside of
the fuselage) generates a powering-up sound followed by a few seconds of
helicopter whup-whup-whup sound effects and then a powering-down or landing
sound.  All the LEDs flash 18 times during this sequence, fairly rapidly.
However, if you hold the button down, the whup-whup-whup will continue until
a few seconds after you let go.

     Overall: A bit cheaty in transformation and doesn't really know what to
do with the arms, but these are minor problems.  Feels properly Megatronny in
both modes, definitely better than either Cybertronian Mode Megatron.

     Dave Van Domelen, now for Classics.