Yolopark’s AMK Pro-series G1 Megatron is a model kit in the vaguest sense of the term, it requires no cutting, no gluing, no painting, you just attach the various body parts together with a simple post system. Let’s take a look at how that turns out.
This is my first experience with Yolopark, I gather they started with a dream and a Kickstarter. The idea is a simple-to-assemble “model kit” that’s is pre-painted, pre-cut, just plug the parts together and you’ve got a detailed, highly-articulated action figure. The joints are simple hinges and peg-in-socket affairs, yet are designed for a lot of expression and range of motion. G1 Megatron comes with a number of additional accessories that can be held or swapped on; and a pair of LED light features. They also include a few pieces of die cast metal on the body, token elements but still quite welcome. I picked this up off of Amazon for $60.
Assembly is quite easy, just plug parts into corresponding sockets, no glue needed. I did adjust the ankles out to get them seated because I didn’t want to insert that thinner part from a second joint, but doing that made it no problem.
Sculpting is very nice, quite G1 but Yolopark’s own interpretation. With a character made up of such simple planes, Yolopark avoided the trap of adding more sculpted detail, which often turns into noise. Paint/deco looks fantastic, I really love the fine wear and rust, it gives this both life and scale. There’s a sense of restraint to the sculpt and deco, “less is more” to keep the character true.
Megatron is leggy and this figure leans into that. The overall proportions feel right, but those big boots make him seem even leggier than the figure really is. The hands are the one area where the proportions could be better, the fingers seem oversized and out of proportion to the thumb and hand perhaps to accommodate the accessories; making a fist is more flat than ball.
Articulation has a lot of great movement, and is designed with extra range in the knees and elbows, as well as added hidden joints to lean, shrug forward, and tilt the head down. The ball joints in the neck and mid-torso allow some leaning back, but it’s not as extreme as forward.
None of the articulation is remotely loose, but some is tighter than others which requires thought when posing, moving part first to clear another. Some of the joints slowly walk back off while being posed. There’s also some pushback on a few joints, some are creaky, the mid-torso is a little lighter than the rest so it gets pushed around while posing and needs to be moved last. The myriad of joints and large feet allow him a good balance.
Die-cast includes the toes, a thin plate on top of the foot, all 3 front crotch plates, the key to Vector Sigma, and the main chest plate. It’s not a lot but it’s nice to have, and that chest plate is perfection.
Fit and finish is decent. It costs around the same as a leader-class Hasbro figure and obviously doesn’t transform so it’s simpler parts, but it’s not wasting that budget. The larger parts feel hollow but the material isn’t weak like a traditional model kit, it can stand up to being handled and posed like a collectible figure should. There are some tiny areas of flashing here and there but no burrs or scuffs or other manufacturing issues. It feels good in hand. The only issue I had is the hinge on the mace came cracked, I didn’t even notice this while taking pictures until I went to put it away and it fell apart.
The fusion cannon can tab to either forearm and the barrel can extend about an inch, an obvious button on top activates the bright red LED inside, which obviously isn’t the purple of the show but looks good. The light-up head uses a magnet in the bottom of the gun barrel to activate the LED eyes by waving it over the forehead. The eyes can be activated to just “on”, to a strobing effect, and finally to a breathe effect; the LEDs don’t seem to turn off by themselves, a fourth wave of the magnet will shut it off. The tiny battery in each is already installed and has no safety tab so if you want to avoid leaks for long periods of non-use, you’ll need to get a fine screwdriver to remove them.
The 3 swappable faceplates are great, easy to pop on and off. The main face is stern, classic Megs, while the laughing face has that cruelty he’s known for; the third While the eyes on each face plate are cast in red, they read as black when attached to the head and the LEDs turned off. From some angles there is a little light leak around the sides of the faceplate.
The second chest plate is his battle damaged look, it’s plastic instead of metal but looks decent. The metal key to Vector Sigma has a a heavy wash and feels great. The energon mace is a cool design with four hinges in between a sculpted chain. The energon saber blade is removable. The pistol that Megatron used in TFTM to draw down on Optimus isn’t painted but has a nice sculpt, though the grip is very straight.
There’s also an included stand which can be docked to other Yolopark stands, it does nothing for me, the figure stands fine without it, the stand seems too high for the figure unless using a flight pose, it’s not my scene though it has a really nice two-color Decepticon sigil part that the figure can just hold separately.
Size comparison is in its own world, too small for Masterpiece, too big for mainline Generations. It’s great for a desk figure, and like the Combiner Wars Megatron, it certainly doesn’t look bad around modern figures if you don’t mind the size.
Overall, Yolopark AMK Pro Series G1 Megatron seems like a great item for a decent price, it’s well-considered, has fantastic articulation, nice paint and sculpting, cool accessories, and even a little of that lost art known as die-cast construction.
