Dave's Transformers the Last Knight Rant: TRU Deluxe Wave 1 Skullitron (Dragon) Megatron (new head redeco of T30 Megatron) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFLK/DeluxeTRU1 https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/DeluxeT1 - Megatron mold Skullitron is a retool of Steelbane with a new head, but since Skullitron came out first, I'll review Steelbane as a retool. CAPSULES $20 (I got both during a "$5 off $25 or more" sale) Skullitron: Ugh. Okay, the robot mode is pretty good, especially once you wash off the mold release oil. But the dragon mode is one of those ideas that should have been scrapped at the proposal stage. It's really bad. Unless you MUST have the decayed face from the one scene in the movie, hold off and get Steelbane...but never transform Steelbane. Still and all, if it weren't being priced at $20, I might very mildly recommend it, because the robot mode is good. Neutral. Megatron: Original mold was mildly recommended. They didn't really fix the problems with the mold, but this at least looks nice. Mildly recommended if you have no other copies of the mold, otherwise don't bother unless you can get it on sale or something...it's really not worth $20. RANTS Packaging: Same basic box style as other "Premium" (aka "more complicated than a Legion") Deluxes, but with extra trade dress for the Mission to Cybertron exclusives line. There's a triangular logo in dark purple and light purple with an iconified Cybertron surmounted by an Autobot symbol, with Cybertronian squiggle-glyphs reading "AUTOBOTS" on both of the non-base sides of the triangle. Yes, even on Megatron's package. The left side of the window box frame is filled with hexagon/cube shapes based on Cybertron's mangled appearance in the movie. The right side of the box has a battle scene of Optimus vs. Megatron (proper movie version) on Cybertron in high Earth orbit, the left side has "CYBERTRON" in squiggle glyphs. (TRU gave out translator cards a few months before the actual Mission toys started arriving, but there's also a link provided on the box to a website with the glyphs, transformers.com/missiontocybertron .) The box backs are the same as other Deluxe, except for the addition of the MtC logo in the lower left. BTW, the letter on the banner under the cosell in each case is a V, implying "versus" I guess. There are no faction-specific differences on the package, nothing to say whether Skullitron is Autobot, Decepticon, or neither. (He's described merely as a Knight of Cybertron.) Inside, in addition to the loose instructions, is a trading card. On one side is the Mission to Cybertron logo and the word "CYBERTRONIANS" in squiggle glyphs. On the other is part of a puzzle using the Prime/Megs duel art from the box side and a logo. Skullitron has "TRAN" and Megatron has "SFOR" sith most of Megatron on it, I guess other cards come in things like the $40 Optimus Prime redeco pack that I won't be getting unless it drops to under $20. KNIGHT: SKULLITRON Assortment: C3414 Altmode: Dragon Transformation Difficulty: 17 steps Previous Name Use: None (unless you count hundreds of OCs scribbled in the margins of junior high notebooks) Previous Mold Use: None (Steelbane) Epithet: Knight of Cybertron Packaging: Nine ties on the robot, one on the sword. Feels VERY floppy on removal from the box, but on closer examination that's mostly the fault of a few ball joints and weak snapping together of the torso. I pulled off the arms, legs, and wings, and dunked the whole thing in soapy water to see if the problem is mostly mold release oil. And it does seem to be the case. The wing roots are still looser than I'd like, but the figure has no problem standing on its own without the arms drooping or the figure slowly bending over at the hips. Robot Mode: A pretty good armored knight design, but with a head molded to look like the decayed Knight of Cybertron that lurched back to life in that one scene in the movie. The molded details of the armor are nicely picked out with verdigris paint, the dragon hindclaws fit snugly against the forearms. The main beast kibble comes from the wings, which are supposed to fold back as sort of a cloak in this mode, but look pretty good extended. The dragon head is stuck on the back of one calf, but it's not too obtrusive. 5" (12.5cm) tall at the head, the wing claws rise significantly above that, and the fully extended wings span about 11" (28cm) depending on how you pose them. Variours grays plus copper and verdigris (rusted copper), and a little dark gray-green. The mostly hidden torso core is dakr green-gray plastic, as are the hip sockets and knee joints. The sword, the armor skirt in front, and the leading edge piece of each wing are made of rubbery taupe (grayish brown) plastic. Much of the backpack supporting the wing is made of non-rubbery taupe plastic, as are the wing "upper arms," the robot upper arms and hands. A more gunmetal plastic is used for the feet and the back of the head. Everything else is light silvery gray plastic, although I'm not sure about the front of the head. Lots of copper paint, on the face, shoulderpads, chest, skirt, thighs, and shins. It's noticeably missing from the forearms. Every part that has copper paint also has verdigris patina painted on, fairly nearly on the torso and randomly on the rest. The one remaining eye is painted bright red. The rubbery parts of the wings have the finger bone parts painted silver, while the trailing parts of the wing have taupe paint on the membranes, so-so matching up. There's silver squiggle glyphs printed on the right wing, almost unreadable due to the texture of the membrane, but they say SKULLITRON (of course). There's no faction logos on the figure. The head is on a ball joint, but the nature of the transformation prevents there from being waist articulation. The shoulders are ball joints, and the big armored shoulderpads are on hinges so that they don't interfere too much with motion. Upper arm swivels, elbow hinges, wrist swivels that are somewhat limited by the claws strapped to the hands. Ball joint hips, and the nature of beast mode means there's a swivel right below each hip AND one right above each knee. These are very stiff joints, and the hips are kinda loose even after washing. Hinge knees, and the ankles are ball joints on the end of hinged struts. The wings are attached with loose ball joints and have decent elbow hinges and very very stiff swivels for deploying the wing membranes. Despite the top-heaviness, the ankles are strong enough and have enough range of motion to let the figure stand without tipping over or sagging. The hands can hold 5mm pegs, there's a 3mm peg hole in the back of the pelvis. There's another 3mm peg hole on the right flank, which appears to be intended for beast mode. The sword is a single piece of rubbery taupe plastic 3.75" (9.5cm) long. It's molded to suggest it's supposed to be a lightning sword, but without paint it ends up just looking corroded. There's a tab on the side of the hilt perpendicular to the crosspiece that lets it store in dragon mode. It'll also fit into a stress slot on the thigh, but it sticks straight back rather than looking sheathed. Transformation: Okay, I'll give them that it's clever to make one leg the neck and the other leg the tail, but the stuff you need to do with the torso and the various positionings is not very intuitive and almost nothing actually tabs together. It doesn't help that the result mostly looks like a robot chopped up and stuck together in a vaguely dragon-like shape with random struts in between. The instructions are almost useless, rarely showing the actually difficult to figure out stuff or showing the figure from an angle that would let you figure it out. I ended up mostly puzzling it out based on the "here's how to attach the sword" picture, because at least it showed the dragon from a helpful angle. Beast Mode: This might have worked as a Voyager. Heck, a few more pegs to stabilize things and at least it would have held together even if it still looked like someone dismembered a robot and arranged the parts in a loose quadrupedal form. The wings are attached in a very bad way...they try to show a flying pose in the instructions, but it really looks more like a Questing Beast or maybe a wyvern trying to use its wings as ad hoc forelimbs. There's loads of gaps and places where there's just a strut connecting bits, the robot feet are just sitting on top of the neck and tail, the robot fists stick out the back of the ankles...it's one of the least convincing beast modes I can recall ever seeing, and that includes Geckobot. I do not expect to leave this toy in beast mode any longer than is needed to review it. A spindly 11" (28cm) long, no meaningful wingspan when standing, but can achieve the same wingspan the robot mode can. Even with washing, though, the wings can't stay horizontal in this mode on the friction of the ball joints, one of the usual tightening tricks would be needed. The neck and tail tend to sag as well, a few tabs to hold the thigh pieces in place would have been nice. Color balance is about the same as robot mode, but more of the dark green stuff is visible, such as the sad strut that passes for a tail root, or the antlers of the dragon head. The head is made of mostly light gray plastic, with dark green plastic antlers. The tail tip is rubbery taupe plastic. The top of the head is painted copper, the small blaster barrel inside the mouth is unpainted. No other new colors in this mode. Lots of insufficiently strong articulation. The mouth opens, the neck has all the articulation of a leg, plus a ratcheting hinge where the dark green neck piece meets the shin, and a ball joint where the head sits on the neck. The horns swivel for transformation, so you can alter the specific look if you like. The tail has leg articulation plus a hinge for the tail tip. The hind legs more or less have the same articulation as the robot arms, the forelimbs have ball joint shoulders and hinge elbows but can really only stand in a single pose. The rear legs look wrong no matter what you do, since the feet are shovels and can't help but look like they're on backwards. There's a 3mm peg in the tail root for mounting on a flight stand, but it's way back of the center of mass and there's no way the toy wouldn't just sag around the stand like a snake sunning itself on a branch. At this point, I have run out of patience for messing with what could have been at least passable, but ended up one of the worst altmodes in a long time. I suggest never transforming this toy (or Steelbane) if you do buy it. Overall: Nice Knight of Cybertron robot mode, total fail of an altmode. I doubt I'll be tempted to buy Steelbane unless I find it on clearance. DECEPTICON: MEGATRON Assortment: C3415 Altmode: Stealth Bomber Transformation Difficulty: 19 steps Previous Name Use: Yes Previous Mold Use: Gen (T30) Epithet: Ruthless Oppressor Packaging: Seven ties on the robot, one each on the wingtip pieces. Each wingtip piece is tied down separately, in fully extended form. Color Swaps: Bright purple becomes Decepticon Purple, pale metallic lavender becomes dull gold, nearly-black gray becomes slightly less dark gray (same gray as other TF5 Megatrons), clear plastic is now orange. Paint Apps: The face is medium gray with slightly metalflake red eyes. The gun outside facings are painted dark gray, but it's REALLY noticeably lighter than the plastic, making the wingtips stand out pretty strongly in robot mode. There's gold printed glyphs on both gun halves. Unsurprisingly, the glyphs on both halves of the gun read MEGATRON. There's a lot of dull gold plastic in robot mode: on the shoulder vents, forearm "M" shapes, much of each thigh (making it look more like gold plastic with dark gray armor panels), kneecap vents, lower shins, forearm heat sinks, a bit of the abdomen, the bits behind the backs of the hands, and the heel spurs are totally dipped in it. There's a bit of purple paint in the various window details on the chest, and a purple Decepticon symbol on the flat center of the chest. There are no colors exclusive to vehicle mode, and the different grays on the wings don't look too bad. It's worth noting that while he mostly keeps the same colors as other TF5 Megatrons (adding in the purple), he's a LOT more visually interesting thanks to cranking up the gold level in robot mode. Instead of a big dark gray silhouette with a few gold accents, there's plenty of dull gold mixed in with it. Vast improvement, in terms of visual interest level, despite having an altmode that is intended to be "stealth". Mold Changes and Other Notes: He has a new head, the third head this mold has had, based on the closed-helmet look from TF5. It's not entirely closed, as the nose and mouth are visible, but it isn't the "side horns" deal most of the toys go with. The head is made from the dark gray plastic. The toy retains the iffy connection at the abdomen in robot mode and the somewhat weird shoulder struts. The arms didn't pop off as easily at the shoulders as on my original Megatron, at least. Transformation is still a panel-fiddling mess, though...I'd managed to forget how much of a hassle it was. Ugh. At least the effort yields a decent vehicle mode, unlike Skullitron. Overall: Well, if you never got this mold before, it's not terribad or anything, and it has more visual appeal than the other TF5 Megatrons. But it's still a hassle to transform and doesn't hold together as well as I'd like in robot mode. I suppose pairing it with Skullitron makes sense, though, since not a lot of molds would make this look like the better one. Dave Van Domelen, won TR Ramhorn's wave in an online drawing and still haven't seen the previous Titan Master wave anywhere in person, so ordered that online and will wait to review them in order.