Megatron (Transmetal 2, Dragon)

 Megatron {Transmetal 2}   Function: Predacon Commander   Group: Predacon
 "What does not destroy me makes me strong... what attempts to destroy me
  shall be obliterated."
    | Stren. | Intel. | Speed | Endur. | Rank | Cour. | Firep. | Skill |
        10+     9.9      10+     10+     10.0    10+     10+      10+

    Megatron -- supreme tyrant, evil genius, and commander of the
    Predacons -- combines brute strength, military cunning, ruthlessness
    and terror to achieve cruel methods of oppression. Fused with
    original Megatron's spark essence and thrown into a volcano, he rises
    into his most powerful and befitting incarnation yet the dragon.
    Breathes pyro-beam torpedoes that give birth to flames burning 1000
    times hotter than oil. Deploys wings in beast, ground speeder, and
    robot modes. Can fly up to 400 mph. Tail fires electro-static energy
    and captures enemies for later torture. Travels up to 250 mph as
    ground-speeder while retaining full combat capabilities. Now
    experiences difficuly controlling rage, leaves excessive wake of fire
    and devastation. Recognizes this weakness but believes new Transmetal
    2 form will empower him to defeat Optimal Optimus.

Color Scheme:

No real problems here. He's a fairly balanced combination of reds and yellow/golds. If there's a fault, it's with the use of a dark blue/purple for the accents, but they actually look pretty ok.

Robot Mode:

Kicks slag! His body is well proportioned and his wings are worn nicely by the robot. The dragon tail even folds nicely down against the beck of the robot. His one and only flaw would be his "dragon arm." In robot mode, the dragon's neck and head become one of his arms, and it is quite large. Had they made it smaller, the dragon would have looked silly, so it's a tradeoff. Like I said, all in all, the bot mode is awesome!

Beast Mode:

Again, top-notch! virtually no flaws here other than the two as noted in the "Pros/Cons" below.

Alternate Mode:

It's supposed to be some kind of ground-cruiser, but it's basically a dragon on his knees with wheels. ;-)

Transformation:

Rated as "advanced", this one is tricky, but not as much as some others. Pretty much every part of his form shifts and/or rotates in some way. I won't bother to explain it fully. Suffice it to say that's it's fairly complex. If you have a loose Dragon-Megatron, and need instructions, let me know and I'll scan them in (if I haven't already).

Gimmicks:

He's got a bunch. The dragon head has a missile launcher inside the mouth and the dragon neck is flexible and moves with the motion of the switch at the base of the neck. There's another missile launcher above the robot head, and his wings flap and can lock in the "up" position. To top it off, he has a little cockpit in his chest that has a seat that remains level, his robot head also has a "helmet" type thing that can lift up from his head. The bigger they get, the more gimmicks they get! :)

Pros/Cons:

Mainly people complain about two things: The robot head sits visibly on the dragon's butt. Solve this by lifting and rotating the tail around and lowering it back down. Although the tail is upside-down, it still looks OK, and the robot head is hidden; The dragon neck does not (apparently) have a locking mechanism. It has been discovered that the toy was (probably) assembled incorrectly. The fin-like blue/purple swtich at the base of the dragon neck can be removed and re-attached in the opposite direction. This allows the small piece of the switch that has a hinge to fold down and brace against the base of the neck, holding the neck in a "straight" position. (Thanks to Chris Eddy for letting me in on that fix)