Blog #1207: Toy Review: Transformers: Generations: Titans Return Voyager Megatron & Doomshot

Transformers: Generations: Titans Return Voyager Megatron & Doomshot

There are a few things I need to say about the Titans Return line.

First off, the trading cards.  Hasbro made a big deal that they were doing real trading cards and not just a picture with no meaningful back.  I guess they tried, but in the then end, they failed miserably.  The cards suck.  There are only four ratings instead of the eight that nearly all other tech specs have had for 30 years (when we’ve actually had tech specs).  There is no quote or function, and the only bio is a couple lines on the back of the package, they didn’t even bother to put it on the card.  Hasbro fails again.  What else is new?

Secondly, what the fuck is it with Hasbro that they need to focus on only one theme at a time?  Why are we getting Targetmasters and Powermasters as Headmasters?  It makes no sense.  Worse yet, the two Targetmaster converts, Blurr and Scourge, both have awful paint jobs (or I should say, barely any paint jobs at all).  They put all the work into the real Headmasters and just mailed it in on the Targetmasters that they shouldn’t have been doing in the first place.  As usual, they half ass everything, just like with Combiner Wars, where they ended the line without doing Terrorcons, Predacons, Seacons, Monster Pretenders, G2 Protectobots, and G2 Constructicons (in both colors).  I mean, they still could do those as box sets next year, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

Thirdly, the Titan Masters.  Why can’t they be consistent?  Apeface, Brawn, Nightbeat, and Terri-Bull are named for the actual characters they are the heads for instead of the actual heads they represent.  Clobber and Skytread could theoretically be the Headmasters for Grimlock and Flywheels.  This makes no sense.  Pick one way of doing it.  It would make far more sense to name them for the Headmaster and not the character they partner with, as we are only getting the Headmaster.  Related to that, it really sucks that we aren’t going to get any real versions of the Headmaster Juniors or Headmaster Horrorcons.

Finally, the Headmasters are freaking tiny.  G1 Headmasters were way better than these, and had the ratings meter on the chest gimmick that they didn’t even try to reproduce.  Another thing that sucks is that the heads of the Headmasters are articulated.  This makes it so that the larger robot heads are articulated, but also makes it hard when plugging them in to Titan Masters vehicles.  G1 Headmasters were so much better, but that’s true of most G1 toys.

Anyway, on to the review.

Doomshot

Titan Master: I love Megatron’s head sculpt.  Doomshot could have used a couple of paint apps.

Megatron

Vehicle Modes: Now that I have Megatron in hand, I am super excited for Blitzwing.  You can clearly see this toy was designed to be Blitzwing and was then altered to be Megatron.  He has two major flaws.  One is that there is no cockpit for the Titan Master in either mode.  He basically sits on top of the vehicle.  All the other Headmasters (unless I’m forgetting one) have a cockpit that fully encloses the Titan Master in vehicle mode.  This really bugs really me.  Of course, he would be so much better if he wasn’t a Headmaster, and then this wouldn’t be an issue.  His tank mode is otherwise pretty perfect, though I would have preferred he had a regular long turret than the small one with his fusion cannon on top.  It looks great with the cannon, but it doesn’t really look like a tank.  His jet mode has the other major flaw.  His tank treads fold in half under his wings in jet mode.  When you fold them over there is an oddly shaped peg on the back end of the tread that the front that you’re folding over pegs onto.  The peg is too small, and they don’t peg in well.  They mostly stay in place, but it really bugs me when things don’t peg in place.  Otherwise his jet mode is perfect.

I did encounter one issue with transforming him from robot to tank mode.  You open panels on the back of Megatron’s legs to fold in his feet and then fold his lower legs up to cover his thighs.  It appeared that his legs were properly transformed, but I couldn’t peg the treads to the side of his legs.  The ports didn’t line up with the tabs.  I realized that there is a tab inside his knees that pegs into his thighs.  However, it’s easy to miss that they aren’t pegged in and you can still close the cover over his legs.  Took a bit of force to get that lined up and tabbed in.  That’s a minor thing though.

Robot Mode: They did a remarkable job hiding Megatron’s jet parts in robot mode.  The only thing you can see are his rear stabilizers folded up on the sides of his legs.  I don’t so much mind the tank turret behind his head, but I suppose you could flip the turret around and you wouldn’t se it.  The only thing that I wish they had put a little more work into is hiding the tank treads behind his forearms.  I feel like there must have been some way to design them to at least slide inward a little so they don’t stick out so far.  It’s not terrible, but as is often the case with Hasbro, it could be better.  Interestingly, his fusion cannon is gray plastic painted black, so it’s shiny.  This looks great.  I’m not sure if this was intentional so it did have that shiny look or not.  He does have other black plastic, so I suppose they could have avoided painting it.  Hasbro gets credit on that one.  As with most of the Voyager Titan Masters, Megatron has pieces that flip up beside his head to make his head not look so small.  I’m not sure it doesn’t look better with them left down.

Overall: Megatron, the flaws aside, is awesome.  This is an absolute must, and a much better toy than the Combiner Wars Leader Class Megatron.  We are getting a G2 Laser Optimus Prime toy in an upcoming box set, so I’m betting that one of the other sets will include this toy in a G2 deco.  I’ll be looking forward to that.

Thanks for reading!