The Energon Pub

How come the leader class megatron in robot mode looks just like the movie, but the tank mode is not movie accurate? and how come the tank mode on the voyager is movie accurate, but the robot mode isnt?(sort of)

because hasblow demands it! so they can make more money.

It's the concept one you win some you lose some. Actually, it prob has something to do with the transformation process and the amount of plastics and electronics difference in the Voyager and Leader version. You forgot the mention that the Voyager Megatron have a third jet/tank mode as well.

Two factors.

One: Dreamworks has the fun job of designing TF's however they want, and then leaving the actual task of fabrication to Takara. Some of these designs can be nigh impossible to make real (Frenzy, movie one Megs), so Takara does the best it can. It sends Takara a design of a TF once the basic designs have been finalized, and the Takara team works on building a toy.

The problem is, Dreamworks tends to go through numerous minor alterations during the filming process, but the changes can't be implemented by Takara halfway during the manufacturing process. So, the CG robots we see on screen could be pretty at least somewhat different from the actual toy.

Two: Leader class toys have a lot of hardware in them to make the lights and sounds. This requires space, which sometimes screws up the proportions and transformation of the figure. It took them a full four years (two years for the movie one design, and another two during the filming of ROTF) to perfect Leader class Prime's bot mode. ROTF Megs was a complete redesign, so the designers didn't have the same luxury of time to work on his figure, which is not to say it's badly done--just could've been better.

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:Two factors.

One: Dreamworks has the fun job of designing TF's however they want, and then leaving the actual task of fabrication to Takara. Some of these designs can be nigh impossible to make real (Frenzy, movie one Megs), so Takara does the best it can. It sends Takara a design of a TF once the basic designs have been finalized, and the Takara team works on building a toy.

The problem is, Dreamworks tends to go through numerous minor alterations during the filming process, but the changes can't be implemented by Takara halfway during the manufacturing process. So, the CG robots we see on screen could be pretty at least somewhat different from the actual toy.

Two: Leader class toys have a lot of hardware in them to make the lights and sounds. This requires space, which sometimes screws up the proportions and transformation of the figure. It took them a full four years (two years for the movie one design, and another two during the filming of ROTF) to perfect Leader class Prime's bot mode. ROTF Megs was a complete redesign, so the designers didn't have the same luxury of time to work on his figure, which is not to say it's badly done--just could've been better.

maybe the next movie megs will have the same luxury as prime did? he might not have a different alt mode. we can all hope.

i just wish they would give megs an earth alt mode.... rather than just cybertronian jet or cybertronian tank....

tom brokaw wrote:i just wish they would give megs an earth alt mode.... rather than just cybertronian jet or cybertronian tank....

I think its suppose to show the arrogance of Megatron that he is too good to have a non-cybertronian mode and he likes to instill fear to those that see him coming.

shonenfan4 wrote:

tom brokaw wrote:i just wish they would give megs an earth alt mode.... rather than just cybertronian jet or cybertronian tank....

I think its suppose to show the arrogance of Megatron that he is too good to have a non-cybertronian mode and he likes to instill fear to those that see him coming.

Exactly, disguise is beneath him. And what would he scan anyway? He's got jets and tanks and cars and satelites and toasters... nothing is good enough to be Megatron! For that matter, the Fallen never took an earthmode either. The Fallen could be an old 19th century cast iron locomotive with a raging furnace! That would look awesome in both modes!

zodconvoy wrote:

shonenfan4 wrote:

tom brokaw wrote:i just wish they would give megs an earth alt mode.... rather than just cybertronian jet or cybertronian tank....

I think its suppose to show the arrogance of Megatron that he is too good to have a non-cybertronian mode and he likes to instill fear to those that see him coming.

Exactly, disguise is beneath him. And what would he scan anyway? He's got jets and tanks and cars and satelites and toasters... nothing is good enough to be Megatron! For that matter, the Fallen never took an earthmode either. The Fallen could be an old 19th century cast iron locomotive with a raging furnace! That would look awesome in both modes!

i guess....

zodconvoy wrote:

shonenfan4 wrote:

tom brokaw wrote:i just wish they would give megs an earth alt mode.... rather than just cybertronian jet or cybertronian tank....

I think its suppose to show the arrogance of Megatron that he is too good to have a non-cybertronian mode and he likes to instill fear to those that see him coming.

Exactly, disguise is beneath him. And what would he scan anyway? He's got jets and tanks and cars and satelites and toasters... nothing is good enough to be Megatron! For that matter, the Fallen never took an earthmode either. The Fallen could be an old 19th century cast iron locomotive with a raging furnace! That would look awesome in both modes!

I like your The Fallen alt mode idea.

shonenfan4 wrote:

zodconvoy wrote:

shonenfan4 wrote:

tom brokaw wrote:i just wish they would give megs an earth alt mode.... rather than just cybertronian jet or cybertronian tank....

I think its suppose to show the arrogance of Megatron that he is too good to have a non-cybertronian mode and he likes to instill fear to those that see him coming.

Exactly, disguise is beneath him. And what would he scan anyway? He's got jets and tanks and cars and satelites and toasters... nothing is good enough to be Megatron! For that matter, the Fallen never took an earthmode either. The Fallen could be an old 19th century cast iron locomotive with a raging furnace! That would look awesome in both modes!

I like your The Fallen alt mode idea.

How about a Big Boy Class 4000? Though not so old.


I already have 3 models of those from Märklin though.

So it ends up something like this?

There it is!

To be on topic... I bought leader Megatron at the end of last week. 97 US$. And that´s after my 10% discount.
I haven´t opened him up yet. But I actually think he looks cool. Much better than my MISB 2007 Megatron.

Because all leaders are sold out from the main store house I was afraid to wait. Hopefully we´ll get new shipments of leaders soon. And hopefully Jetfire!

Valandar wrote:So it ends up something like this?

What is that from?

klarinettmeister wrote:To be on topic... I bought leader Megatron at the end of last week. 97 US$. And that´s after my 10% discount.
I haven´t opened him up yet. But I actually think he looks cool. Much better than my MISB 2007 Megatron.

Because all leaders are sold out from the main store house I was afraid to wait. Hopefully we´ll get new shipments of leaders soon. And hopefully Jetfire!

You spent $97 for Leader Megatron? Where is this?

zodconvoy wrote:

shonenfan4 wrote:

tom brokaw wrote:i just wish they would give megs an earth alt mode.... rather than just cybertronian jet or cybertronian tank....

I think its suppose to show the arrogance of Megatron that he is too good to have a non-cybertronian mode and he likes to instill fear to those that see him coming.

Exactly, disguise is beneath him. And what would he scan anyway? He's got jets and tanks and cars and satelites and toasters... nothing is good enough to be Megatron! For that matter, the Fallen never took an earthmode either. The Fallen could be an old 19th century cast iron locomotive with a raging furnace! That would look awesome in both modes!

Very true. If you hate a certain group of people/species enough, you'd want nothing to do with them. Post WWII, the Jews were loathe to use German-made weapons. In fact, it was this disdain for the HK MP series of submachineguns that led to the creation of the infamous UZI.

Conversely, Megs has such a superiority complex over the humans that the very notion of "disguising" himself in Earth mode would seem an act of cowardice and fear. Besides, his Cybertronian technology are far more powerful than Earth-style projectile based weapons.

In addition to arrogance, movie Megatron simply doesn't have a need for disguising himself. Starscream, Barricade, Frenzy, and the other Decepticons were looking for Megatron so they needed some stealth. Once Megatron is found, the plan is to simply take the Allspark by force. In RotF, once he's resurrected, he doesn't stick around on Earth, he goes to the Nemesis to regroup. When he returns, it's for an assault so again, no need for disguise.

Convotron wrote:In addition to arrogance, movie Megatron simply doesn't have a need for disguising himself. Starscream, Barricade, Frenzy, and the other Decepticons were looking for Megatron so they needed some stealth. Once Megatron is found, the plan is to simply take the Allspark by force. In RotF, once he's resurrected, he doesn't stick around on Earth, he goes to the Nemesis to regroup. When he returns, it's for an assault so again, no need for disguise.

I wonder if they travel at a higher speed in space, bc getting from Earth to Mars is a long distance w/o space bridge and whatnot.

shonenfan4 wrote:

Convotron wrote:In addition to arrogance, movie Megatron simply doesn't have a need for disguising himself. Starscream, Barricade, Frenzy, and the other Decepticons were looking for Megatron so they needed some stealth. Once Megatron is found, the plan is to simply take the Allspark by force. In RotF, once he's resurrected, he doesn't stick around on Earth, he goes to the Nemesis to regroup. When he returns, it's for an assault so again, no need for disguise.

I wonder if they travel at a higher speed in space, bc getting from Earth to Mars is a long distance w/o space bridge and whatnot.

Movie Megatron travels in space via a series of massive explosions. It's going to be in the Deleted Scenes for RotF's DVD release. Bay will do a BTS featurette about the saga of the cut scenes involving well choreographed explosions.

shonenfan4 wrote:I wonder if they travel at a higher speed in space, bc getting from Earth to Mars is a long distance w/o space bridge and whatnot.

Ravage's bio states that he can "(bullet) down through the atmosphere at better than 15 times the speed of sound...."

As for the others, surely their Cybertronian technology allows them to travel at at least ultrasonic speeds. They're machines, so g-forces don't matter to them.

Convotron wrote:Movie Megatron travels in space via a series of massive explosions. It's going to be in the Deleted Scenes for RotF's DVD release. Bay will do a BTS featurette about the saga of the cut scenes involving well choreographed explosions.

Thanks for the info. I was still deciding whether I should buy the generic DVD or the 2-disc set when it comes out. Guess I'll be getting the latter.

tom brokaw wrote:i just wish they would give megs an earth alt mode.... rather than just cybertronian jet or cybertronian tank....

I agree with this, regardless of the reasoning against. Maybe the figures would turn out more fun and interesting to transform like the Prime figs then, too.

Convotron wrote:

shonenfan4 wrote:

Convotron wrote:In addition to arrogance, movie Megatron simply doesn't have a need for disguising himself. Starscream, Barricade, Frenzy, and the other Decepticons were looking for Megatron so they needed some stealth. Once Megatron is found, the plan is to simply take the Allspark by force. In RotF, once he's resurrected, he doesn't stick around on Earth, he goes to the Nemesis to regroup. When he returns, it's for an assault so again, no need for disguise.

I wonder if they travel at a higher speed in space, bc getting from Earth to Mars is a long distance w/o space bridge and whatnot.

Movie Megatron travels in space via a series of massive explosions. It's going to be in the Deleted Scenes for RotF's DVD release. Bay will do a BTS featurette about the saga of the cut scenes involving well choreographed explosions.

I can't tell if that is true or sarcasm but I'll most def be getting the ROTF DVD regardless.

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:

shonenfan4 wrote:I wonder if they travel at a higher speed in space, bc getting from Earth to Mars is a long distance w/o space bridge and whatnot.

Ravage's bio states that he can "(bullet) down through the atmosphere at better than 15 times the speed of sound...."

As for the others, surely their Cybertronian technology allows them to travel at at least ultrasonic speeds. They're machines, so g-forces don't matter to them.

Convotron wrote:Movie Megatron travels in space via a series of massive explosions. It's going to be in the Deleted Scenes for RotF's DVD release. Bay will do a BTS featurette about the saga of the cut scenes involving well choreographed explosions.

Thanks for the info. I was still deciding whether I should buy the generic DVD or the 2-disc set when it comes out. Guess I'll be getting the latter.

Would've been sweet to see they use their ultrasonic speeds on Earth though, since Starscream and Megatron doesn't seem to be able to move faster than human vehicles.

shonenfan4 wrote:

Convotron wrote:

shonenfan4 wrote:

Convotron wrote:In addition to arrogance, movie Megatron simply doesn't have a need for disguising himself. Starscream, Barricade, Frenzy, and the other Decepticons were looking for Megatron so they needed some stealth. Once Megatron is found, the plan is to simply take the Allspark by force. In RotF, once he's resurrected, he doesn't stick around on Earth, he goes to the Nemesis to regroup. When he returns, it's for an assault so again, no need for disguise.

I wonder if they travel at a higher speed in space, bc getting from Earth to Mars is a long distance w/o space bridge and whatnot.

Movie Megatron travels in space via a series of massive explosions. It's going to be in the Deleted Scenes for RotF's DVD release. Bay will do a BTS featurette about the saga of the cut scenes involving well choreographed explosions.

I can't tell if that is true or sarcasm but I'll most def be getting the ROTF DVD regardless.

Hehe, it's truly sarcasm.

shonenfan4 wrote:Would've been sweet to see they use their ultrasonic speeds on Earth though, since Starscream and Megatron doesn't seem to be able to move faster than human vehicles.

Well, in the case of Starscream, it would pretty much defeat his disguise in Earth mode. Other pilots would start noticing this particularly fast Raptor and report it to the research department. Before you know it, ol' Screamer would be dissected into a gazillion parts for retro-engineering.

Convotron wrote:Hehe, it's truly sarcasm.

Sheesh, I knew something was wrong when you mentioned the name Micheal Bay and "well-choreographed" in the same sentence

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:

Convotron wrote:Hehe, it's truly sarcasm.

Sheesh, I knew something was wrong when you mentioned the name Micheal Bay and "well-choreographed" in the same sentence

Hehe, well, the sad thing is that I wouldn't put it past Bay to make a featurette about such a topic.

On the other hand, from my limited exposure to him(I don't read/watch interviews much) through his Transformers commentary, I have the impression that he has a solid grasp on the technical aspects of his action heavy style of directing. I also really appreciate his knowledge about the technicalities of portraying reflections on reflective surfaces. So as much as I enjoy ribbing him, I do admit that his strong points of his work comes from a seemingly knowledgeable background in some of the technical aspects of filming.