MP-36 Megatron

Oh boy, the big one, Masterpiece Megatron.  I knew that at some point Takara would work to update the horrible thing that was MP-05, a figure so bad that I put him in my closet a couple of months ago.  I'm still not sure what to do with him, but that's not what I set out to talk about.  What I want to talk about is how incredible MP-36 is.  I sincerely think that this is what the entire Masterpiece line has been leading up to.

I can't believe that I let this guy sit at my mailbox at the UPS Store for almost a week before I picked him up and then waited almost two weeks after that before I even opened him.  I was hesitant on what to do with him since I wasn't super excited about him when he arrived.  Reading so many rumblings about scratching pain, parts breaking off and just poor QC gave me pause.  Couple that with the fact that I knew that I'd be getting a Megatron with orange plugs that I wasn't sure would come off, and I was just unsure of what I wanted to do with him.

Upon opening him up, I don't know what all of the complaints were about.  Megatron 2.0 is a delight.  I don't think I've ever handled a better Transformer.  Ever.  There are no wasted parts or details on this guy.  In more capable hands, there would be an infinite amount of awesome poses, but I'm not that guy; I'm still working on it.

Transforming into gun mode had me pretty nervous.  I've seen pics of what people have done to their Megatrons through forcefully putting pieces into place.  My MP-05 Megatron broke on his first transformation, so I've been extra careful with figures since that fateful day, but I sweat still poured from my brow while I slowly folded, slid, and moved parts to and fro.  At one point, I even looked up different YouTube videos just to make sure I was doing things correctly.  All in all, I think it took me about an hour to transform him for the first time.  It took me about two minutes to get him back to robot mode after that.  Perhaps I was being a tad bid overly cautious, but I didn't want to break something that I had spent so much money on.  Oh, as far as the scuffing on the barrel in concerned?  Never happened.

I'll admit that the Megatron 2.0's price point had me a little concerned at first.  It seems like the prices on Masterpiece figures seem to be going up all of the time.  Once I had Megatron in hand, that price was damn worth it.  This guy has a plethora of accessories and swappable faces.  I didn't photo them all, but they're all incredible, like the mace.  Takara has been forcing the energy mace on every Megatron release since the book-style series it seems, and this is the first time I really enjoyed it.  It's proportioned much better than all former versions.

The chain from the mace can be removed and replaced with a jointed piece and I really dig it.  Takara really nailed this accessory.

There's the obligatory pistol from The Transformers: The Movie, but I'll spare everyone the ubiquitous setup shots form the movie.  I'm also not going to showcase all of the battle damaged parts that come with Megatron.

The accessory that I like the least would be the sword. Yeah, I get the significance of it all, and I know it's place, but I still think it's cheesy.  This one is much improved over the one that came with MP-05 and it even breaks down into two pieces so Megs can hold just the sword hilt.

 Megatron loves walking among his troops.

Megatron is a stone cold killer, and I think that this pic conveys that feeling. I may redo this picture with a better setup and more bodies.

Finally, someone to lead my Decepticon army.  Hopefully we'll get more Decepticons in the near future.  Aside from the Megaplex repaint, that is.

Masterpiece Megatron 2.0 is the ultimate Masterpiece figure, in my opinion.  It's been six years since MP-10 was released. ushering a new age of unified scale, and those six years have been leading up to this bad boy.  Don't have him?  Go get him.  Now.