Okay, so as promised, whether you want them or not, here are my thoughts on MP-36 Megatron, enjoy! Also, I will be comparing 36 very heavily to Maketoys Despotron, my current Masterpiece style Megatron. A word of transparency before we go further. Up until getting 36 in hand, I have not been a huge fan, and have in fact been a fairly vocal critic. That said, I still feel I can be pretty objective in this. While I might like other figures better, I can step back, and still see what is good in the figure at hand. Remember as well, liking one thing more, doesn’t make the other thing bad.
Also, I can admit when I’m wrong.
Mistake me not, 36 has his flaws, and we will talk about them, but I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t really starting to like this figure. He was a gift, so I’m stuck with him either way, but he is slowly winning me over. I still love Despotron, but 36 is no slouch. So, lets get to it, shall we?
Lets go over the two glaring issues that keep cropping up first: paint chips and breakage. As I said in an above post, the paint chipping is bad. Like, really bad. I am hereby listing it as the number one flaw on this toy. Out of the box, he had a nick on his leg, and a couple around the left shoulder inner workings. Just posing him in a couple of different poses, he acquired a couple more. Once I got around to transforming him, well, yeah. I’m no newb to transformers. I understand that some paint chipping will occur. Over time. After many transformations. This is happening, literally, out of the box. There is no way around it, if you buy this figure, and take him out of package, you will get paint chips. Anyone who says different is either straight up lying, or simply refusing to see it.
As for breakage, I’m going to drop all cases of that on user error. I’ve gone through the transformation several times now, and not one case of breakage. No, its not as sturdy as a mainline figure, but its no piece of glass either. Yes, many parts are small, but as long as you take it easy, you can avoid breaking parts. Speaking of the transformation itself, it is NOT as bad as has been made out. Sure, its involved, but I’ve already got it down. Use the instructions the first time, or at least watch one of the many youtube videos, and you will be fine. I didn’t even need to do that hip adjustment thing.
Now, on that note, I did have one issue that needed some “modification”. The part that his gun barrel folds down on had some raised ridges molded on. I assume it is too provide friction to help hold the barrel in place. These ridges stuck out too far and completely prevented the movement of the barrel. I had to take an knife and shave them down a bit.
Other than that, I have had zero issues with breakage, and I caught that before breakage occurred. His joints are all nice and tight, but not too tight. The ratchets feel just right. He can really hold some dynamic poses.
So, on to some fun stuff. Any review has to have some box pictures. Being a starndard Takara Masterpiece, the box is nothing that we haven’t seen before.
He looks good with other bots.
36 does one thing very well, one thing I don’t think any other version of Megatron has captured quite so well: his lower chest.
Sadly, this picture also shows one of his flaws, the infamous “robovagina”. The waist piece is functional, but just not pretty. That chest though, it is amazing, and one of my favorite parts of this figure.
As far as accessories go, 36 comes with many. This is one of the areas Despotron fails in, he came with only a couple of faces and the energy mace. The accessories have already been touched on many times by others, so I’ll just talk about my favorites: the optional faces. First pic are what comes with 36, second pic are what comes with Despotron.
Personally, Despotron offers the best facial expression with his laughing face, but the ones offered by Takara are great as well. I really love this gimmick. It’s a great and simple way to bring a little fun and variety to your collection display. I’m also a huge fan of the laser sword that 36 comes with. I must also mention that the energy mace on 36 not only comes with a standard chain, but a posable one as well. You can really create some dynamic battle scenes with that. I kinda wish I had taken some pics like that. Maybe next time.
Another thing that must be mentioned is the “mass shifting” this figure does. Obviously, I don’t mean it can shrink, but it does do an incredible job of taking a rather large robot and shrinking it to a not to far off from real life pistol. Seriously, Takara did an amazing job at compacting parts, and then expanding them out again. I made a lot of noise about how many panel lines 36 had, and how messy his back is, but once you’ve transformed him, you get it. It takes a lot of moving parts to do what they did. It still might be a little too much, but respect where respect is due.
The next few pictures will be side by side comparison of 36 and Despotron. I’ve chosen Despotron for the comparison, because obviously, I have him. I also had X-Transbots Apollyon, but sold him for Despotron. Apollyon was a great figure, but I feel 36 is a better toy. We will talk more after.
As you can see, while 36 is of a very similar size to Despotron, he transforms into a smaller gun. I find that impressive, but not necessary. 36 could do with a bit of a similar transformation. Despotron is challenging, but doesn’t take to terribly long. 36 is gonna take you a few minutes. Then again, it isn’t the way too simple transformation that severely hurt MP Shockwave and MP Inferno, so you take what you can. 36 does leave you feeling satisfied when you are done, so we will go on and count it as a win.
Despotron takes a more comic (specifically Dreamwave era) inspired look, while 36 really nails the cartoon look. This is a negative for me, but that is a matter of personal taste. Also, it could be worse. Inferno just looks silly in its cartoon accuracy, while 36 still looks badass. He looks like a Masterpiece.
In closing, while 36 is growing on me greatly, and may end up replacing Despotron (I’m not ready to let go yet, but its hard to justify having two MP style Megatrons), he has one nagging issue that simply cannot be let go of: the paint chipping. Some people maybe able to look past this, but folks, on a $200 toy, this is simply not acceptable. There is no excuse, and is a huge fail on the part of Takara. I won’t say don’t get this figure because of it, but buyer beware. Like I said earlier, if you take 36 out of the clamshell, you WILL have paint chips.
Something else on 36 that I really enjoy is his fusion cannon. The barrel is adjustable for cannon and scope modes. Its a small thing that really stands out as that extra little bit that we should expect from a Masterpiece toy. Very nifty.
This went on for a bit, sorry for that, but I hope some of you enjoy it. Let us end in true Ironhidensh tradition, with a dash pic.
