Warlord

Ok, I know - crappy pic. So, yes, I caved on one of the leader Megatrons from Combiner Wars. The G1 version never quite looked right to me, thanks to its oversized head, but Armada Megatron was kind of always gnawing at the back of my mind. Y'all gotta know that I was always going to be tempted by such a high-profile UT update, even if the equally high price and somewhat lacking articulation didn't exactly sweeten the deal.

Even so, with my birthday coming up, I decided to spring for this guy. I'm glad I did because he's actually pretty good. Nothing revelatory in terms of transformation technique or anything (though he does have the first working treads in forever), but he's a much better Armada Megatron than I thought he'd be., especially considering that the mold was designed mostly with G1 Megatron in mind. The smaller head sculpt is rockin' and really helps sell him as this huge, towering warlord. I, for one, love that he has an arm cannon rather than shooting from the hip - how many of us kept Leader-1 attached to the original Armada Megatron's right arm in Targetmaster mode in a pale imitation of G1 Megatron's arm cannon? No need for something like that now. The back treads look cool and do a good job of emulating how they used to look on the original toy while also mimicking IDW Megatron's cybertronian mode (amusingly, the G1 version of this mold is intended NOT to transform this way...). The tank mode is pretty good, mostly resembling DOTM Guzzle though obviously channelling the old Armada toy very well (one interesting bit - this toy's tank mode is clearly intended to be an Earth mode, while the 2002 toy's tank mode could easily be seen as Cybertronian. Yet, the cartoon made it clear that the 2002 toy was how Megatron looked after ditching his cybertronian design and presumably scanning an earth mode. Weird stuff).

Again, I don't really feel like this was worth the $45. I'm eager to compare it to Cybertron Galvatron, as unfair of s comparison that may be. It really feels like an old Ultra class toy. Still, it's very good for what it is.