TF Views

Dominic wrote: Megatron is one of those character. You know the sort. Despite having been around since 1984 and being pretty important to the franchise, Megatron rarely gets any truly good figures. I will say it, Most Megatron figures suck. ....

I think both megatron & optimus get so many toys,that most of them are mediocre & just not worth buying. on a year average both megatron & optimus get at least 3 to 4 new molds in different toy sizes,only one out of Four is worthy of buying.

I'd rate the 1984 Megatron & Optimus toys as beyond decent & great toys for their time.

the PMOP toy I'd rate worse than the 1984 optimus toy.

the action masters toys were just terrible.

G-2 had a decent laser optimus & decent huge green tank megatron sculpt. the G-2 hero toys were pure garbage.

Beastwars megatron got decent toys worth buying. BW optimus toys were pure garbage & not worth buying. The japanese BW2ND Lio convoy & big convoy are superb toys. BW 2ND Galvatron is a awesome creative toy.

Beastmachines gave both optimus & megatron garbage toys.

CR/RID gave optimus & megatron extremly decent bigger toys.

Masterpiece Gave optimus two great molds the mp-01 & MP 10. mp-05 Megatron is a 50/50 toy with more miss than hit.

Armada gave optimus a really horrible super/leader sized toy. the deluxe optimus was decent but kinda too small to matter. Armada Megatron got a decent sculpt but the toy was limited in poseable joints.

Energon gave megatron/galvatron a superb must buy toy. Optimus got such a joke of a awful bigger toy. the deluxe optimus should have been voyager size & should have combined with a voyager rodimus. the deluxe optimus looks worse than the amada deluxe.

Cybertron saw both megatron & optimus get decent must get toys. some don't like the megatron design but others do.

Animated optimus got really terrible toys. animated megatron got all great toys in every size class. that deluxe 2 pack of megatron & optimus toys were pure garbage.

Movie verse optimus got all decent bigger toys. movie verse megatron got awful toys that were more miss than hit.
2007 leader megatron gets points for being so super poseable but is so ugly in both modes. ROTF Megatron is a bit more beautiful in sculpty in both modes but that un-poseable tank turrent arm with no hand/fingers makes the toy not worth buying. The DOTM Megatron toy is too small to matter,had it been leader sized it might have been the best movie verse megatron toy of all the line.

Movie verse Megatron & optimus smaller toys just seemed like KO's compared to the leader sized versions. the deluxes & voyagers created for movie verse megatron & optimus seemed less detailed,less complex compared to the leader toys. they seemed like the poor mans option or toddlers option who could afford or handle the complexity of the leader sized toys.

Classics/Generations/RTS,Had a really great nerf gun megatron voyager toy that looked great in the takara henkei colors. I wasn't a fan of any of the optimus molds & thought they either looked too generic or nothing new added to the table to make me want to buy them.

Transformers Prime,I feel gave optimus a superb must buy $32.99 USA Weaponizers toy. all the other optimus toys in others sizes I think are mediocre,generic & not worth buying. Megatron I think got a horrible design sculpt for this toy line in all the megatron sized toys.

FOC Optimus looks terrible & it looks like the mold was created more for repainting it in ultra magnus colors.

Titanium 6 inch Optimus got all horrible toys. Titanium megatron got one decent WW Megatron toy. that Titanium 6 inch wave 1 G.I Joe megatron toy was pure garbage in design & engineering.

Without going too far off topic....

Most of the 1984 toys, including Optimus and Megatron, were fucking terrible. They were fragile, which diminished their fiddle value, they had small pieces that were easy to lose and they failed to look like the characters on screen/page. When I see people praising those toys, I wonder if they ever saw a TF from 1984.

And, many of those toys, again including Optimus and Megatron, were piss poor efforts for the time.


Generally, it is fair to say that Optimus and Megatron are important characters that have not gotten many worth while toys. That I would agree with.



Dom

Wait, what's wrong with Classics Megatron? That's a solid figure. And it comes in multiple flavors, even! (I wouldn't mind getting the more geewunny Henkei or United versions at some point)

There was also the WfC/Generations version that came out a couple years ago, that one wasn't bad.

GDO Megatron is definitely a joke though.

Dominic wrote:Most of the 1984 toys, including Optimus and Megatron, were fucking terrible. They were fragile, which diminished their fiddle value, they had small pieces that were easy to lose and they failed to look like the characters on screen/page. When I see people praising those toys, I wonder if they ever saw a TF from 1984.

I wonder if people who criticize them were ever actually young enough to play with them AS toys? Me and my two brothers loved them, and I can promise you they were great toys. Yeah, even as kids we wanted better (or more) articulation, but we loved those things. And they didn't take 15 minutes to transform either, which was a plus.

But I loved the Jumpstarters, so what do I know?

Of course the G1 toys don't hold up as well today, but they *do* have a charm of their own. I wasn't around to own a G1 Optimus Prime, but I love seeing the design and even paid $40 for a complete G1 specimen once. (The cab could be in better shape, but I have another.) G1 Prime is a cool toy, and he looks cool even right now. I have him standing under our Christmas tree.

I had plenty of G1 toys as a kid. Even then, I knew that many of them could be better. (But, they were Transformers, and that was enough for me at the time.) I cannot see spending ~$40 for a busted up G1 figure when there are better toys available.

We wished they were better, of course. I remember wanting Hot Rod to be able to do something other than just bend his elbows. Seriously, that's all the articulation that figure had. But imagination went a long way towards making up for the deficiencies. I'm sure we'd have killed for modern TF articulation and sculpting though, if something like that had been available back then.

As for G1 Megatron, all he had to do was stand there and look menacing, and be able to point his cannon. And he could do both, so no problem there.

Dominic wrote:I had plenty of G1 toys as a kid. Even then, I knew that many of them could be better. (But, they were Transformers, and that was enough for me at the time.) I cannot see spending ~$40 for a busted up G1 figure when there are better toys available.

Partially, this was a sense of going to a toy show, and pretty much saying, "I have this much money that I'm going to spend before I leave here," and then not really finding anything to spend it all on. I did need a G1 Prime trailer and all his accessories, so the cab was a bonus.

At the time they were good toys. Sure, the robot modes had limited articulation, but the design standard was different. It started with vehicle first, robot second and a lot of the bot modes were limited because of that. The Decepticon Jets were the prime examples of this. In spite of that, they still made good toys. Even if the Jets were not articulated as robots they were at the very least good jet toys. And they turned into robots. Something that most regular jet toys didn't do. Same with the Autobots or all of the G1 toys really. Yeah, maybe they haven't aged well (the fact that I'm more focused on reacquiring the CHUG line rather than G1 is really a testament to this) but they were good for their time. At this point the only real reason to get them is for the nostalgia. And if you weren't around for that, then they really have no meaning or draw. By today's standards, no they're not good toys, but they were then and then is their appeal.