All Hail Lord Starscream; Ruler of the Decepticons and Emperor of Cybertron.

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Since the inception of Transformers, Megatron has led the Decepticons against their Autobot rivals. On occasion he's been called "Galvatron" and he's changed forms more times that Optimus has come back from the dead but the name's always been associated as the Big Boss of the villains. For Classics, Megatron returns to a form with which older fans will be familiar with, but will undoubtedly have newer fans scratching their heads.

The original Megatron was a modified Walther P-38 pistol; for Classics, he takes on the form of a revolver of indeterminate classification. His alternate form bears a stronger resemblance to a product from the Nerf or Super Soaker toy series than a real-world weapon. This is undoubtedly by design as American toy standards have become considerably stricter since the original series was released in 1984. This probably won't matter the to intended market, as kids will undoubtedly see him as a futuristic or alien blaster.

Megatron's primary color is gray-white with large swaths of purple and black on the grips. He has bits of gold on small circles on the grips, vents under his scope, and under his orange-tipped barrel tip. There's clear, neon-green plastic in his revolver chamber and on the front and back of his scope. The scope itself is primarily black with, oddly, an orange tip at the front. This color combination may seem odd to some, and did cause quite a stir when it was revealed to the fans, but considering that requirements on what a gun-like toy should possesses can vary by jurisdiction, it makes some sense.

Megatron has a couple of features in this form that kids might find interesting. The most obvious involves the trigger; stick a finger in front of it and pull back and one hears a clicking sound. Kids might enjoy this, but peace-craving parents might not; for me, the clicking sounds like Megatron's out of ammo. A sound effect might have been nice, however, considering his transformation, I personally can't see where the electronics would go on him. Interestingly, my twenty-six year old hand can hold the grip just fine, though the trigger guard has definitely been made for smaller fingers. Another interesting feature involves his scope. By peering through the back, one will be able to literally take aim at a target; there are even crosshairs at the other end. It's a neat little feature that harks back to some of the larger Machine Wars figures, which had a similar gimmick.

Interestingly, Megatron seems to be the only Classics figure released thus far that doesn't come with a heat rub stamp. The knob at the top of his scope has a place for it, but it apparently has been left off. This is the only figure thus far that has any insignia molded or painted on him; there's one on either side of his targeting scope and a third can be seen through the left window on his chamber. This may be why no rub stamp was included. And for those who may be concerned about stability displaying Megatron in this form, he stands fairly well on his own thanks in part to small notches at the end of the grips, where the feet will flip out.

Keep the instructions, as you'll need them for the initial transformations, possibly even longer. Some have described Classics Megatron as a "shell-former" because the first step is to part the gun body, but unlike Cybertron Thunderblast, his transformation is more complex and he doesn't come "pre-transformed." For a Voyager-sized figure, this is a good thing; no one wants a figure this big that's finished with its transformation in a single step. One thing to note is that his instructions don't mention that the tabs that hold his gun halves in place can be folded down, which improves his aesthetics slightly.

Megatron stands just over 7" tall in robot mode, over 8 if the tops of his wings are included. There's more purple, white, and gold exposed on him but the biggest color addition is the neon green on the inside of his gun halves. His face is silver, the optics and back of his head have been molded from a single piece of clear green plastic, and a black monobrow has been painted over his optics. A large violet Decepticon insignia outlined in white is displayed prominently on his chest.

Megatron has thirteen points of articulation, ten on his limbs, one on his neck, and one each for his wings. He's a fairly impressive looking figure, one befitting someone who is supposedly the most powerful of the Decepticons. He comes with no accessories of his own, but when you're armed with one of the most powerful weapons in the Transformers' vast arsenal, who needs an extra gun? Interestingly, his packaging calls his arm cannon a "proton pulse cannon" instead of his more familiar fusion cannon, but it still looks like it could do some damage. Oddly, instead of being mounted to the side of his arm, it's attached to the back, which, when displayed "normally", places it in an "underarm" position. This can be fixed by simply turning the arm over 180 degrees, though it now positions his thumb on the outside. This might seem rather uncomfortable for us, but considering Megatron is supposed to be a machine, this could be considered normal for him. It's still rather odd. Also, hold his head up to a light source and his optics glow. It's an interesting figure that's only seen on three figures thus far, two of them Voyagers.

Perhaps the biggest complaints people have had with this figure concerns the large pair of wings on his back. From the neon-green color to their size, fans have largely targeted these in their attempts to make the figure more like his original incarnation. I have seen the solutions offered, and tried a few of my own, however, some of these affect his overall stability unless he's positioned a certain way. It might just be better to just leave well enough alone in this case.

Admittedly, I was one of those people who, on first seeing this new Megatron, was rather cool to the idea. Much of it comes from my opinion that, though a gun Transformer is a interesting idea, it's not a form I'd give to a character who's supposed to be the commander of the villains, even if this is an homage series. Nevertheless, this figure has turned out better than what I had expected. Recommended.

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