Megatron Christmas Ornament

[Zobovor]

Bought this at Kohl's tonight:

http://www.hookedonhallmark.com/2015-Transformers-Megatron-_p_36973.html

Apparently there was an Optimus Prime ornament last year that I somehow managed to miss. Now I just need to find a technorganic tree to hang it on.


Zob (used to hang Retrax from the Christmas tree many years ago)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

"From a lowly peasant from the planet Cybertron to an unlikely hero, MEGATRON protects his people from villains in a legendary tale that captured the imaginations of TRANSFORMERS fans of all ages"

[Zobovor]

On Monday, October 5, 2015 at 4:11:47 PM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> "From a lowly peasant from the planet Cybertron to an unlikely hero, MEGATRON
> protects his people from villains in a legendary tale that captured the
> imaginations of TRANSFORMERS fans of all ages"

Seems legit.


Zob (Decepticon Apologist at heart)

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

I'm not sure why, but I've never liked the IDW Origin for Megatron. Sunbow had him created by the Contructicons as some sort of ultimate leader, and that always struck me as better than the miner uprising origin.

Who was the leader before Megatron? Who knows? It doesn't matter. Whoever it was, all of his contributions and all of his accomplishments are nothing compared to Megatron. Megatron is the creation that got away from his creators (and then built them on Earth 9 million years later or so...).

The IDW origin, where he had beliefs and ideals and was corrupted by power is so pedestrian. It might give him more depth and complexity, but it doesn't fit his previous characterizations at all. Megatron respects power and strength, he doesn't care about his Decepticon people.

[Steve L.K. Macrocranios]

The sculpts on these seem inspired by greatness but the execution falls short. They're very toy accurate but at least in Optimus' case they tried to do poses the toy couldn't. They got a bit of a dynamic pose out of Optimus but then Megatron is standing there as boring as can be. At least with Optimus they got a little bit more simulated articulation than you would from the original toy but Megatron is nothing the toy can't already do. In fact they picked the most boring Megatron pose possible with his hands just at his sides like that.

The Optimus one looked like a toy accurate statuette of the character in his original US boxart pose, but it's missing the rifle. It's like they wanted to go with a boxart representation of the character but were limited by the size of the Hallmark box it had to fit in so they omitted the rifle. He's left looking like he's in mid-stride, running to who knows where. I am looking through my collection for an appropriately sized rifle but these things are somewhere between current deluxes and legends sizewise. I have an old Optimus model kit that might be the right scale so I may get an appropriately scaled rifle for his ornament yet.

Megatron is very toy accurate down to the stickers the original toy had. Even the proportions of the fusion cannon are toy accurate. I don't know if they were using the boxart pose as the inspiration for the Megatron ornament but his bowlegged stance kind of makes me think that's what they were going for initially. Then they realized they couldn't make it fit in the box if he was holding his arm up so they abandoned the idea. He ends up looking like a rigidly posed toy soldier or nutcracker. It's frustrating it has no articulation. It ALMOST makes me favor the Dreamwave inspired Megatron ornament from a couple years ago because at least that one was posed dynamically.

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, October 6, 2015 at 7:36:13 AM UTC-6, Steve L.K. Macrocranios wrote:

> They got a bit of a dynamic pose out of Optimus but then Megatron is standing
> there as boring as can be. At least with Optimus they got a little bit more
> simulated articulation than you would from the original toy but Megatron is
> nothing the toy can't already do. In fact they picked the most boring
> Megatron pose possible with his hands just at his sides like that.

You've got to figure that they're targeting casual fans with this one. Folks who may have owned Megatron as a kid, and seeing the ornament makes them go, "Oh, wow, I totally remember that guy!" Given that the Megatron reissue was never sold domestically, I imagine most people haven't even seen a Megatron toy (or representation thereof) since 1985ish. If you wanted the reissue, you had to actively go out of your way and seek one out. So, maybe that's the reason they went so utterly toyetic with him. Stray too far from the look of the G1 toy, and it wouldn't trigger the proper nostalgic buttons in people.

I'm okay with it being so toyish because we already got at least two really good representations of the cartoon model (the Heroes of Cybertron and MegaSCF figures).

> I am looking through my collection for an appropriately sized rifle but these
> things are somewhere between current deluxes and legends sizewise. I have an
> old Optimus model kit that might be the right scale so I may get an
> appropriately scaled rifle for his ornament yet.

I have an extra Prime gun from the World's Smallest Transformers series but I suspect it would be far, far too small. Heroes of Cybertron, maybe?

> It's frustrating it has no articulation.

The one on display at Kohl's was missing his right arm and leg. Obviously, somebody had tried to pose it and discovered that it was a little less poseable than they expected.


Zob (actually a lot less)

[Zobovor]

On Monday, October 5, 2015 at 4:11:47 PM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> "From a lowly peasant from the planet Cybertron to an unlikely hero, MEGATRON
> protects his people from villains in a legendary tale that captured the
> imaginations of TRANSFORMERS fans of all ages"

There is actually a completely different text description on the back of the box:

Among the Transformer villains, Megatron is public enemy number one. He's the founder of the original uprising on his home planet of Cybertron and the leader of the Decepticons. His long-standing battles with Optimus Prime and the Autobots eventually moved to Earth, where humans became entangled in their epic tale.


Zob (slight improvement)

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, October 6, 2015 at 3:38:35 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

> You've got to figure that they're targeting casual fans with this one. Folks
> who may have owned Megatron as a kid, and seeing the ornament makes them
> go, "Oh, wow, I totally remember that guy!"

Apparently nobody wanted it. You can seriously find the G1 Megatron ornament on eBay for, like, six or seven dollars shipped. (Everybody should go get one on eBay right now so poor Megatron doesn't feel so unloved.)

Optimus Prime, meanwhile, goes for something like $50. Kicking myself that I missed that one.


Zob (apparently this year it's Grimlock in dino mode, and for 2017 it will be Soundwave)

[David Connell]

That's odd. I grabbed up Megatron as soon as I saw him. Was quite happy to have a Decepticon presence on my tree.

And then used him in my Legends scale display until I got Mightron.