Hello, Seibertronians! I've made a review of the brand-new Titans Return Galvatron and Titan Master Nucleon, and figured I'd share! Check It out below - and compare it to a wider look in the Seibertron.com regular gallery right
here, or
here for Nucleon.
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After seeing him featured in multiple photos from previous conventions, Galvatron was definitely one of my Most Wanted figures out of the first wave of Titans Return. So after seeing him at Target, he was definitely a buy-on-sight toy. After having him for a couple days now, I thought I would compile my thoughts. Let's jump in by looking at articulation.
Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Stayin' Alive, Stayin' AliveHe features the standard shoulders/elbows/ hips/knees articulation we're all used to, but he also sports double jointed elbows and knees as well as very nice forward, backward, left, and right ankle tilts. His head articulation is lacking because of that mask/crown, but Hasbro did put it on a small rotating disc that allows it to move one small click to the left or right. Without that crown, the Titan Master alone can swivel the normal 360°, however it still can't move up and down.
Overall the articulation is very good, definitely above average. You can tell Hasbro put some extra effort into some areas because of the lack in others. You can easily get him into some dynamic poses.
In transforming Galvatron, you'll notice he has the now common step of rotating his hands into his forearms. Normally, this limits a figure, because eventually the wrist joints will become loose. However, this time, Hasbro has seemed to have learned from their previous mistakes by adding a small ratchet joint inside the wrist. This will make it less likely to become loose over time. It's a very nice feature and I appreciate Hasbro including it, as it exponentially greatens the toy's lifespan.
Now let's talk altmodes. Most figures in The Titan's return line are triple changers, this includes Galvatron, meaning he has three modes. Let's look at the first, Cannon mode.
Canon mode is very nice and well executed. It looks the part, appearing almost exactly like it did in the original animated movie and the later animated television show. Its translucent orange barrel just adds to the effect.
Galvatron, for some reason, has little pegs on the inside of his legs that can support Titan Masters. This compatibility feature is an added bonus, though I'm not exactly sure why they added it.
On the opposite side of the spectrum his second form, his Jet mode, is very weak. It's not very well-designed and doesn't seem to hold together well. You can tell it was an afterthought and needed to be tacked on just because Galvatron had to be a triple changer. I will admit it is growing on me, but I still think it drags the figure down.
The nice thing about jet mode is it also has some Titan Master compatibility. The cockpit of the jet is openable and Titan Masters can fit inside. I'm a bigger fan of the Titan Masters than I expected I would be, because the added playability does give a lot to the figure.
Speaking of Titan Masters, let's dive in and take a look at Galvatron's Titan master, Nucleon, an obvious homage to Megatron. (why they didn't just name him Megatron is beyond me) He was my first Titan Master and he is very small. Much much smaller than I expected. I've included some comparisons between him and Kreo Megatron as well as Legends Roller, RID deployer Slipstream and legend class Skywarp, just to give a sense of scale. (And Yes, Kreo Megs' Ion Cannon
can clip on to the smaller part of Nucleon's arm.)
And, just for fun, here's nucleon next to his leader class counterpart.
Nucleon is slightly bigger than some of the other new Titan Masters, in both robot and head mode. However cross-compatibility is still definitely possible. I've been having a lot of fun with the headmaster gimmick. The playability factor really does go through the roof with these figures.
Galvatron himself is pretty big for Voyager Class, standing just a couple hairs taller than Generations Springer. Here's some compairisons
And with more of his fellow '86 movie cast members
I'd also like to point out that he would have had a serious case of hollow-leg syndrome had Hasbro not gone out of their way and put panels that clip into the back of his legs
specifically to fix that. Seriously, the panels serve no other purpose other than to hide the hallowness of his legs. A+ on that one, Has.
There's also been a lot of talk about QC on these new figures, so I thought I'd address it- The only problems I've had so far: There is some slight discoloration between the hard and soft plastic parts, but that is to be expected, and isn't that noticable.
The only other thing seems to be that the left arm of Nucleon fell off once and now doesn't want to stay. If the other arm pops off it'll then pop back on again with no problem, but the left one falls off and doesn't want to snap back on. It'll hold on fine if you're gentle, but fall right off of you're not.
So, over all, I think this figure is great, even with the occasional fault, and is pretty much the quintessential Galvatron. He's earned a place in my collection, and it gives me serious hope in the rest of the Titans Return line. After the wave upon wave of remolds that was Combiner Wars, this is a breath of fresh air.
[ Click to attempt signal recovery... ]
