Megatron returns as the leader of the Predacons in Robots in Disguise, but he is now more dangerous than ever before thanks to his 6-mode transformation ability. The Megatron figure is a conundrum because for his Robots in Disguise release the figure is reputedly the Devil Gigatron mould with the Gigatron colour scheme. The difference is negligible - a matter of a hole or a plug or a clip or something which allows Devil Gigatron/Galvatron to bend in weird and wonderful ways and thus transform into another 4 things, but more on that in the upcoming Galvatron figure review.

ROBOT MODE:
Megatron's robot mode is far and away the best proportioned, most articulated and most humanoid of all the figures in Robots In Disguise, and for that matter, possibly any transformers series ever. This is not a presumptuous statement though, since the figure appears to have had the robot mode designed first and then had bits added on to make it transform. Nevertheless the colour scheme is matched only by Cryotek in terms of eye candy. His chest is either vac metal silver or silver paint with an aqua colour air brushed on the lower part and blended upwards, there are two vac metal green 'jewels' around his collarbone area, gold painted hinges around the sides of his waist and, of course, a Predacon spark crystal smack dab in the middle of his chest. Four gold talons - a carry-over from Beast Wars Megatron - surround his white face and vac metal red eyes. the rest of his head is black save for a translucent red spire on his forehead with a patch of gold paint at the front and purple vac metal "wings" at either side of his head. The majority of his body is purple with his forearms, shins, pelvis and shoulder protectors black. The pelvis has red and silver accents, and his shoulders have some gold accenting, as do his shins - though they also have some sliver and a great big translucent red ball in the middle of them, and his forearms have his beast mode claws - which are red accented with gold - and his vehicle mode wheels, which are black with gold and red accents. His purple and translucent red swords-cum-missile launchers can be held in either black hand or joined into a staff for one hand, they can also be attached to either forearm as the obligatory big-arm-gun that every Megatron MUST have to qualify as a Megatron. The wings are translucent purple-cum-blue with black surrounds and details, gold vac metal 'claws' and some translucent red.

In this mode the mighty Megatron has 23 points of articulation, including two for each foot (ball joints and hinge joints), one at each knee, a swivel joint on the upper leg, his pelvis (2 each side). wrists, elbows, swivel joints on his upper arms, shoulders (2 each), and neck. Each wing can also be extended and has two hinge joints folding in opposing directions; but they don't really count.

TRANSFORMATION (BEAST MODE):
Begin by removing his weapons from wherever they happen to be and set them aside. open his chest and try and dig your finger in under his head to flick out his bat maw and cover his face with it then close his chest. Pull down his forearms gently and twist them toward his body to hide his fists then fold down his beast mode claws. Fold his legs up behind him, push the shoulder pads down, extend his wings, open his claws, attach his sword/missile things to the pegs behind each claw as seen in the picture above and stand. you now have a Megabat.

BEAST MODE:
I've heard this mode described as everything from 'Megabat' (which was apparently in the show at some stage), to Gargoyle, to bat, to Megatron standing on his hands with his legs behind him and a Halloween mask on (technically all one word). Call it what you like but I think I'll stick to "beast mode" just to be safe. This mode has no real dramatic changes from his robot mode since, as you may have guessed, it's really nothing more than Megatron folded up with a Halloween mask on, so the colour scheme is pretty much the same though the gold and red of his forearms and hands are more prominent; accenting the gold detailing of the rest of his body well.

Megatron looses some of his articulation in this mode, notably his legs since they're now his back, and his neck which cannot turn with that bloody great maw on. His wrists are also hidden by his claws, so all counted he has 12 points of articulation - mostly thanks to his arms and shoulders. The only point he gains is the feet/hands, which can fold up to make him sit forward.

TRANSFORMATION (BEAST MODE TO DRAGON MODE):
Begin by removing the sword/missile launchers from his wings. Open his chest and fold he bat mode face back down, then fold his head wings to the side and push his head down. Fold the tail from his back up and clip it into the hole where his head was then close his chest. The very top of the tail needs to be detached and spun around. Spin his torso upright so the tail is between his arms - now his legs - and spin his legs around at the upper arm joints. Fold the dragon mode arms our from his pelvis, but be careful; they detach easily. Extend his legs and turn them around so that his shins are facing backward, then bend his knees. close his feet and fold the foot guards back to form his dragon mode ears. Swing his wings up and fit them on the plug at his butt. Attach his swords/missile launchers to his back. Megatron is now in Dragon Mode.

DRAGON MODE:
Of all of Megatron's Alternate modes, this is probably my favourite. His two heads look menacing and the fact that they can be bent at the knee or at a joint just below the knee allows for an amazing variety of evil snarls. I'm incredibly happy that Takara resisted the urge to give these faces 'personality', since I can quite easily imagine them doing one evil face and one dopey face. As it stands, however, the heads look pretty much as a dragon should. they can look ominous; standing tall and proud, or they can be menacing and evil, looking down on you ready to strike. This mode doesn't introduce any new colours save for the small amounts of white for the dragon teeth and the red paint of their eyes and inside their mouths. The wings look good splayed; like a dragon ready for flight, showing their colour and translucency, or closed, like a perched bird of pray.

Megatron gains back most of the articulation of his robot mode that he lost in beast mode. He looses his neck again, but the beast mode arms add another two points each and his ears are another two points, and while he looses his wrists he gains the dragon mode feet. All in all he has 35 points of articulation; though most are minor such as his wings being able to spread and bend backward at two places, his ankles, his ears and his mouths. He has two hinge points along each of his necks, one swivel point each and two points on each neck at his 'shoulders'. His legs have 5 points each, his dragon arms have two, and his tail has one.

TRANSFORMATION (DRAGON MODE TO JET MODE):
Again, detach the swords/missile launchers from his back and set them aside. Clip the small part at the end of his tail back on. Bend his dragon mode arms back across his waist and fold his robot mode arms back down by his side. Open his chest and fold the shoulders down, while you're there you may as well fold out the landing strut from the chest panel. Turn the legs around so that the knee joint bends the right way and fold his legs behind him again so that the fins under his Dragon mode chin become the tailfins of his Jet mode. Fold his shoulders down, rotate them so that the shoulder pads face up toward the wings, bend them about 30º down and the the same upwards at the elbow. Keel the forearms extended so that the wheels face the ground and the Beast mode claws look like fire from the jet engines. Attach the missile launchers to the pegs where the shoulders used to be, fold his wings out and Megatron is now in jet mode.

JET MODE:
This is another of my favourite modes. The style of the Jet obviously isn't terran, and it isn't anything I recognise as being cybertonian save for incidental similarities between it and Cyclonus such as the reverse pointed wings and the purple colour scheme. Though where Cyclonus was a fighter jet the cockpit at the front of Megatron's nose implies that he is meant to be a warship capable of housing a crew, it also makes the mode look more menacing, carrying a tone of a Bird of prey hunting for its next meal. The colours are predominantly the same save for the fact that the chest is hidden as the underbelly of the craft, so that Black is much more dominant a colour, making up the nose and most of the rear of the craft's body.

The cockpit section of the nosecone can be detached and swivelled around - a neat carry over from the dragon mode - though it's by no means as articulated as Beast Machines Ultra Jetstorm it provides the same effect. His wings can also be 'flapped' if you're desperate for articulation.

TRANSFORMATION (JET MODE TO CAR MODE):
firstly, as always, detach the missile launchers. Extend his legs and leave them there for now. Unclip his wings and fold them around. fold the outmost hinges up 90° to reveal his wheels. Rotate the arms 180º so that the wheels on is arms are in line with the wheels on his wings. Turn his legs to outwards and bend them up so that the lower legs cover the upper legs. Attach the missile launchers onto the pegs on his inner thigh. Now you've got something that loosely resembles a car.

CAR MODE:
This isn't the worst of Megatron's 6 modes. Though when you consider his beast mode and his claw mode, he might not take that as a compliment. The wheels turn on linoleum but not much else; carpet is too thick and provides too much friction for it to roll and wood or tile is too slippery for what can only be called the treads of the wheels to grip so it just slides like a bobsled. There is nothing technically wrong with this mode save for the fact that it looks like something the designers came up with after a lot of caffeine; I don't mind this mode, though I should have preferred the limbs to have something to clip in to or at least stay in place more convincingly.

TRANSFORMATION (CAR MODE TO CLAW MODE):
Start off by folding his wings down - Aha! Gotcha! - and then detach his launchers. Set them aside and extend all of his limbs. rotate his legs so that the knee joints face the right way and rotate the arms so that the shoulders bend the same way as the pelvis rotate the cockpit at the centre so that it points at a roughly 100º angle, unclip the top, spin it around then shift the whole thing over to one side to form the thumb. Attach the launchers to the side, unclip the black pelvis panel (it becomes a trigger that you can use to clench the fist). Now you've got a great big claw.

CLAW MODE:
To start with, easily the best thing about this mode is the fact that it's roughly the same size as a human hand. Unfortunately it pretty much goes down hill from there. The fingers - while all having three points of articulation - are out of proportion unless you try really hard to remedy it (though that's more of a gripe then a fault with the toy). The trigger on the back of the hand is a nice idea and a cool gimmick but it's hard to grip the claw and make use of the trigger at the same time, it tends to slip out of your grasp, although that may be because it was designed with smaller hands than mine in mind. It's not a terrible mode, but it reminds me of astrology; it kinda resembled something they'd seen before if they squinted and turned their head a little this way, so they named it, slapped an extra picture on the box and made it official.

This mode has 15 points of articulation. including three for each finger, two for the thumb and the palm hinge. It isn't all that terrible, but it has no real play value aside from being able to pick up Optimus Prime and use him as a club, "'Flying Fist' this ya pussy! >wham!< Yeah!" But that gets old in shorter time than it takes to get him in this mode to start with.

OVERALL:
Megatron is an excellent figure for what he is, he has an amazing colour scheme and at least three great modes. He's got a lot of play value though he's a little fiddly to transform into some of his modes. his joints for the most part stay good and stiff, though the ball joints at his ankles get loose very quickly which can make him appear a little drunk. That is, though, about my only complaint. I could say he has two modes that are utter crap, but if those modes didn't exist I would still buy Megatron for the remaining four and the gorgeous paint job. And as one of the very few Predacons in this series he is a must have.