Genius time! Genius time!
I have an idea for how we could get a G1 Megatron with a weapon altmode without needing to be a Walther P-38.
While he had that particular altmode in the G1 cartoon, there was another cartoon where we had a G1 Megatron that turned into a gun, but which was not a Walther P-38.
Here me out.
As bad as the Machinima Prime Wars Trilogy was (and it was, objectively, BAD), it is generally agreed that Megatron was the main (if not the only) bright spot of the whole trilogy. And in this cartoon, he was a triple-changer with a robot mode, and tank mode, and a futuristic sci-fi "blaster mode". Perhaps they could twist and contort the logic of SS86 being based on
this Megatron design since the Machinima cartoon also used a sort of twisted and contorted logic to pretend that it was sorta-kinda a pseudo-sequel to the G1 cartoon and its movie, with the characters referring to events similar to those of TFTM (like, Megatron and Optimus recall how Megatron killed Optimus at some point in the past).
I know, I know, it's not
really the same continuity as the G1 cartoon and its movie, but it sure wanted to pretend that it was.
Anyway, a Leader class budget would enable the triple-changer gimmick to give him both his tank and blaster modes, or at least just his blaster mode since a fair budget would be needed just for that alone.
But, I hear you say, Siege Shockwave required extra bits to hide his "futuristic sci-fi blaster mode" by making it resemble a space battleship
Yamato, but the new Marvel-colored version is nixing those parts and leaving his altmode as it is.
So while a Walther P-38 isn't in the cards, perhaps
this could be.
...
Aw, who am I kiddin'? This ain't likely to happen.
