He maintains his T-Rex beast mode from the earlier Ultra version of the toy but has come down a size class to a Mega toy. Not 100% sure I agree with that, I've thought of Beast Megatron always being big. I suspect it was to do with not having a Megatron and Prime occupying the Ultra slots more than once and having 2 new toy ideas they wanted to do as Ultras that year. Yes there was once only 2 large sized toys a year ! The T-Rex is mainly a mix of 3 colours - Metallic purple or blue (there's a significant variation here) on the head, feet and fans on the hips, a silvery grey on the tail, arms and back of the legs, and an orangey brown colour for the rest. Not sure what possessed them to use the last colour as it is a bit of a contrast between the earlier 2 !
The beast can open his mouth, move his arms, bend his knee and ankles, and has 6 limited ball joints on the tail which allow for quite a bit of movement. The tail ends in a scissor like serrated pincer which can open or close.
Like all Transmetal toy he has a third vehicle mode - push the feet up so they are along the front of the lower legs. Pull out and up the panels on each hip with the fans on. I think it's meant to be some sort of helicopter but it's not terribly good.
TF: Unclip the tail at the top and pull away at the bottom. Pull the entire hip panels - not just the covers and fans out and up to the sides. Fold the legs down out the back of the beast. Pull up the now unfortunately place connector for the tail, swing it round the waist 90 degrees and fold down to one side. Stand robot up. Pull up on the bottom of the 2 panels the beast arms are connected to. Fold the robot arms out to the sides, unfolding the arms themselves, and then fold the beast head into the gap between them. Turn the robot's upper body round 180 degrees at the waist. Unfold the connecting arm the hip and fan panels are connecting to and clip into the back of the beast head. Unfold a handle from the base of the tail and hold it as an energy weapon. The beast arms can be turned forward either side of the head to act as energy cannons.
The resulting robot is very scaly and reptilian on it's body, upper arms and upper legs. Most of this detail is done in a very dark brown not visible in beast mode. The robot has bending ankles and knees, a swivel above the knee, ball jointed hips, a waist, ball jointed neck and shoulders, bicep swivel and bending elbows. Importantly he has 2 hands ! An improvement over the Ultra version. The wheel gimmick for the vehicle mode can be used here too so you have the odd image of a roller skating Megatron - it's a shame the wheels are molded in place !
Overall: Not as big or as action feature laden as the Ultra. Slightly poor by comparison, but decent enough by itself.
I had a change of heart by the time I looked at him when I got one "A recolour of BW TM Megatron with a red Sideburn (Backtrack from the Street Speed Team) and a metallic brown Skid-Z (Spiral, from SST - the 3rd Member Oval appears with the Airazor repaint) The cars seem the same quality as the originals. Predacon looks a little odd with olive green, dark green, grey, silver and a deep burgundy but somehow it all works. The only questions I'd level would be maybe only using one green would have been better (for me the darker one) and the orange Energon spark marks round the Powerlinx points. The cars don't really suit him as minicons - looks good with most of the weapon minicons, but for me the weapon he's meant to have is the Dimension X (Radioactive) Requiem Blaster. A note that he appears in the Unicron Battles packaging !"
Sideburn - (a red versionBacktrack from the Street Speed Team) is a small minicon car that rolls ok on it's 4 wheels. Port is at the back under the boot.
TF: Pull forward the legs from the front of the car, seperate them, pull the feet forward from the front and bend up. Slide the sides of the car out to form the arms and then pull back to lock them in place. You're probably best turning the car over and manipulating the pins through the slot with the end of a small screwdriver or similar. Fold the arms down and fold the boot down to reveal the robot's head. Turn legs round at waist.
Resulting robot is very articulated for a minicon - bending elbows, knee and ankles plus ball jointed hips and shoulders. Because the toy is so small there's low tollerance on all the joints and it can come to bits very easily - especially the elbow joints
Skid-Z (a metallic brown Spiral, from SST too) is also a car. Once again the storage port is under the boot.
TF: Fold the sides of the car down under the front, pull down on the front extending the legs, pull the very front out to form the feet and fold them up. Fold the boot down to become the robot's chest. Spin the waist round 180 degrees. Split the roof of the car in two and fold to the sides to become the arms.
Resulting robot has the same articulation as Sideburn and the same tolerance issues on the joints.
You can't really argue with small bonus repaints - although in Predacon's case they're in to bung him up a size class. A complete team may have been better value, or, as I said when reviewing Terrorsaur, it might have been nice to have the combining weapons split across the beasts with myabe one of each team in with Predacon.
Predacon himself: The olive green is a swap for the metallic purple, dark green for the silver, the grey & silver for the bronzey brown and the deep burgundy for the robot mode brown. Yes the colour combination is still slightly odd but it all works.
Still think he'd be better off with different minicons though !