Megatron is once again a tank, of a similar form to his 1993 talking version but this time with the gun barrel replaced by an air powered missile launcher with the pump stored behind the gun barrel. On the right of the turret is mounted an additional gun with turns - unlike the turret which is sadly fixed and will only elevate when the air pump is removed to fire the missile. The missiles can be stored on the sides of the turret in two fold down panels. As per Prime a missile can be placed over the cannon's gun barrel and can be fired by removing the air pump and pushing down on it sharply.
The tank is painted purple - not a 100% appropriate tank colour, but very Decepticon. The treads (molded with little embedded wheels) and the base of the tank barrel are blue. The base of the pump, gun barrel and missiles are black and the tip of the missile is blue rubber. The air pump here is bright orange - more of an effort could have been made to blend it in. The front of the tank has a sticker on it proclaiming "Megatron Rules !" together with several hash gates no doubt counting Autobots eliminated.
To TF: Virtually the same as the larger G2 version. fold the back of the tank down, and then on the folded down piece fold down from what was the middle of the tank to form the legs. Tank folds out to the sides and then is bent down to form the arms with the bottom half rotated to reveal the hands. The tank gun barrel slides onto his right shoulder. Flip the chest flap up to expose Megatron's head. Remove the gun from the shoulder and place into a hand or keep mounted on the shoulder as a shoulder cannon.
The robot keeps the purple but adds in a lot of grey on the robot forearms, upper legs, waist and head. The face plate is painted purple - no lightpipe here sadly. Hands are the standard 5mm peg hole so he can hold the gun and the clips for the missiles are now on the arms which allows the toy to mount them in a position similar to where Megatron had his Fusion cannon - not that the shoulder mounted air missile launcher is that far away !
Articulation: We've got knees that bend, a universal joint at the hip that doesn't use a ball and socket, a waist, shoulders that can shrug due to the tf, as well as move up and down, an odd joint that folds out to the side of the arm just below the shoulder, a bicep swivel just above the elbow and a bending elbow. Both heads turn at the neck & the gun barrel raises as long as the air pump isn't attached. Although only a year later than the main G2 Megatron this version has increased articulation bellow the shoulders and at a smaller size.
Overall: Toy mold wise this is for me the definitive non gun, non beast Megatron. Great tank, decent gimmick, fabulous robot.
Like Prime I would say buy one if it wasn't for ....
In TMUK fan fiction Archforce is a separate character to Megatron. See www.theunderbase.co.uk for details.
Possibly a lost gem of the TF line this imposes a version of the G1 colours on the tank Megatron mold.
Decent attempt at recolour Megatron and it not being Megatron or Galvatron.
Reverse Convoy or Rebirth Megatron is a new version of the G2 Combat Hero toy. Originally released in 1994 in the US as Combat Hero Megatron in Purple Plastic and the following year in the UK as Archforce with the stupid Megatron rules sticker removed, he's been re-released in 2003 as Destructicon Bludgeon Surprisingly this exclusive made it to TRU in the UK.
Included here is what I assume is a special insert booklet showing lots of previous Convoys, the RM range and some recent books.
What we have here is a blue tank. Hmm, blue's not terribly camouflaged is it ? Unlike previous versions of the toy he's missing the air bellows missile launcher replaced instead with an Armada Megatron style pull back missile launcher. The rear of this launcher flips up to form a missile array. The tank turret does not turn.
To TF fold the back of the tank down, and then on the folded down piece fold down from what was the middle of the tank to form the legs. Tank turret folds out to the sides to form the arms. Tank barrel slides onto his right shoulder, and the rear detaches to form a hand gun/missile array. You then have a choice. Flip the chest flap up to expose an Optimus Prime style head and an Autobot symbol. Or flip the back of the gun round to form a Megs head. Both the Prime and Megs heads are slightly different from the usual versions - both seem to have something under their chins, and a double gun barrel effect on either side - Op's is reminiscent of PM Prime. The blue of Prime's head is too light - the same colour as the tank - and his crest is a very odd inverted trapezium shape. Meg's head from certain angles looks like it's just hanging their. Odd.
We've got knees that bend, a universal joint at the hip that doesn't use a ball and socket, a waist, shoulders that can shrug due to the tf, as well as move up and down, an odd joint that folds out to the side of the arm just below the shoulder, a bicep swivel just above the elbow and a bending elbow. At the time this toy and his Op counterpart were the most articulated TFs ever, toy makers were starting to realise the importance of posability in toys. Both heads turn at the neck. The gun barrel raises slightly in Megs mode. Hands are a standard size so you can arm this guy up with Minicon/Energon weapons and there's an additional socket of this size on the shoulder where the original gun would have gone.
Pros: Good toy to start with - my favourite non animal Megatron. Nice update to the main weapon and a new hand gun.
Cons: Lack of a decent original weapon. Removing the perfectly decent original Megatron head - same parts tree as the gun and the cannon perhaps ? Slightly iffy use of the new heads. And biggest of all - not only using a bad colour scheme for a tank but passing up the opportunity to use the green Megatron colour scheme on this mold which needs to be done at some point.
So overall: Good, but could have been better still.
I await the inevitable Combat Hero Prime as RM Ultra Magnus. I reckon an all white version of that toy would look good.