 Megatron
As Good As It's Gonna Get
Transformers Studio Series Leader Class Toy
Item No.: Asst. G0374 No. G0374
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Includes: Sword, fusion cannon, tank barrel, pistol mode Megatron accessory
Action Feature: Transforms from Robot to Tank
Retail: $54.99
Availability: August 2025
Other: The best Megatron we're likely to get in the US market
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Part of the promise of The Black Series and Studio Series was that these were going to be the most accurate toys ever. Hasbro delivered a lot of really good stuff, but when they're working from concept art (and the occasional frankensteined figure) there are limits and when it comes to Megatron you've got legal breathing down your neck. If you were a kid in the 1980s, companies like Larami made super-realistic squirt guns, Kenner made fairly realistic Star Wars blasters, and yes, Hasbro sold Megatron as an honest-to-goodness pistol. While Japan and some other regions of the world don't have any particular legal restrictions on 1:1 scale gun-shaped toys for kids, America and a lot of places in Europe sure do. For that reason, Hasbro delivered a superb Megatron action figure and it turns into a tank. The robot mode is so good, I am not perturbed.
I've been buying "Classic" Megatron toys for years, and as robots go? This is what I've been waiting for. He's big, he looks like the cartoon, and the articulation (and accessories) are very good. Since he includes a little Megatron pistol with a 5mm grip to hand other toys, I'd say Hasbro understood the assignment - you can't mass-shift a big ol' gun mode down. On the show, the pistol tends to be small - and Hasbro delivered a small pistol. They could have delivered a non-transforming robot and as long as it included this accessory, I would say it's good enough for my shelves. I have no doubt that Hasbro and Takara-Tomy may someday deliver a better toy robot, but this seems almost as good as a Masterpiece toy given its much lower retail price. It's not metal. It doesn't have any silver paint or swappable faces. But it looks like Megatron and feels like a fancy figure, plus it has that weird lightsaber.
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As a kid I never really wanted a 1984 Megatron toy - it looked kind of silly. Even though the toy was first and the cartoon came second, the cartoon and comic versions just looked better. The 1990s Generation 2 toys would've been good for me in gray, but they weren't. I've picked up many of the other 21st century take son the character but this 7 1/2-inch robot is probably best. He's got jointed fingers, rocker ankles, and some actual color on his chest. The joints have a good range of motion and he feels pretty solid for a toy that folds out as a bunch of panels to make a tank. He can even sit - the leg joints are very, very good. If I were Hasbro I'd keep this guy in semi-regular circulation for the next two years, just because it's so good people are going to want it.
The coloring seems to match the show quite nicely, but the show was a little irregular. Hasbro had to capture a feeling rather than an exact replica, and did so quite nicely. The hands have no real problems interacting with his accessories and I believe this is the first Hasbro-driven recreation of his energy sword. It's got a swell purple crossguard and a lighter pinker blade, with a perfectly good ribbed hilt. adly he doesn't include the pink Energy Mace (sold separately) but short of the MP-36 toy, this is as good as you're likely to ever get. There are enough fine details like elbows that can bend more than 90 degrees and a little red paint on the barrel of his cannon that I have a hard time finding anything to fault here. I'm particularly pleased that they included a few extra weapons in the box for the price, but what would have really been over-the-top would be an inclusion of something like Laserbeak or Ravage or some sort of sidekick. That's outside the budget, most likely, and I've certainly got little guys. Sadly it does not seem he's designed with any sort of connection points for his bird buddies. Such is life.
It's a huge improvement over previous "cartoon colors" toys and I would go as far as to say you'll probably want this Megatron to replace pretty much anything else that's not a vintage toy or Super Megatron from Japan.
It took a while to make him into a tank - I didn't transform mine for a couple of months, because it involved a lot of folding and tucking and exploding of panels. It wasn't too difficult, minus the back of the tank/legs. That took a bit to get it right, and the end result is fine but not amazing.
It doesn't have any real gimmicks, but the rolling wheels do a nicer job than most tanks. The turret rotates, but not amazingly well. I don't love where it connects, as it doesn't feel like it rotates in a tank-like way. But it's also a toy that was never meant to be a tank, so it's pretty impressive that it does what it does. There are some points to mount his weaponry, and of course some light sculpted detail that recalls the original toy with generally flat colors that mimic the cartoon. The engineers rose to the challenge, and I think they know - as you know - this is a toy you'll be leaving in robot mode. It's great that it can turn into a tank, but what you're buying is a very good action figure.
I didn't find anything about it to be incredibly frustrating, and the instructions were generally clear. If you like what you see in the pictures, you're going to enjoy owning this toy. Hopefully it stands up to time without any cruel surprises, because this is one you're going to want to keep forever. I'm sorry to report you're probably going to consider selling a lot of your older Megatron toys.
--Adam Pawlus
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