Three years later, Hasbro’s self-morphing, dancing, driving, talking, attacking Optimus Prime finally has a villain to fight. Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, is about to arrive. For $1,200 — $899 through May 25 — his robot partner Robosen has created what may be the best auto-converting Transformer ever.
Just to make sure you get it: this bot transforms automatically into a badass remote-controlled tank with a gigantic automatically deployable cannon that can actually fire projectiles – Then stands up and speaks over 270 sentences from the original Megatron voice actor Frank Welker and all sorts of tricks.
Here you can enjoy the magnificent childhood fantasy becoming reality:
Did I mention that it also responds to many voice commands?
I’ve been playing with Megatron for half a day now, mostly Impressively. Thanks to its 36 servo motors and 118 microchips, the 21-inch bot can not only perform all sorts of routines, but also has more engaging gameplay features than Optimus or the Dinobot Grimlock, thanks to a better set of weapons, 112 bright LEDs, and fascinating new joints for operating its Servos.
When you fire the fusion cannon, which is firmly attached to Megatron’s arm, it doesn’t just swing a black plastic support around: three joints cause the cannon to shake as it “charges.” recoilwhile the LEDs illuminate its interior wonderfully.
The light-up sword and new flail (yes, this bot can actually swing a spiked rubber ball on a chain!) have twist-off knobs so you can easily slide them into Megatron’s hands while securing them at the same time.
And when Megatron falls – and it will I’m afraid it’s fall – it’s finally smart enough to get up all by itself.
Robosen even addressed one of my biggest complaints about Optimus: Megatron’s leg servos have become so stiff that you can optionally leave the bot standing on a shelf when it’s powered off. And I love how Megatron talks about Energon production and a five-LED charging indicator lights up when you plug in the USB-C cable.
The bot’s servos are also now almost all hidden behind clever spring-loaded plastic flaps – and one of them even automatically rotates the Decepticon logo when Megatron exits tank mode.
As cool as it is, the toy could really use more work before it ships in the third quarter, and based on previous launches, I’m not entirely sure it’ll get all the work done.
This is the third Robosen bot I’ve tried with a confusing and slightly buggy app that makes it really difficult to do custom programming and causes all sorts of lags even when just trying to control the tank remotely. You still don’t have access to every joint when creating custom moves and poses. And its voice command recognition system is still mediocre – more than half of the time the bot didn’t respond properly.
My test bot also had some more basic problems, such as a tendency to just fall over after turning it back on and forget some of its settings, or repeating the same line of voice over and over again in voice command mode without me asking. The flail actually fell apart after the first 10 or so hits because one of its chain link pins was too loose. Some of these hopefully won’t make it into mass production, but I think it’s worth telling you.
And you should also know that, like previous bots, these are intended exclusively for use on smooth, hard floors: as he walks, turns, transforms, and stands up, he’s constantly scraping bits of himself across the floor, and most of it doesn’t work Carpet. While you may While driving up slopes or thin carpets with the very noisy rubber treads, I was unable to turn on soft surfaces: while trying to turn the tank around on a carpet, I caught badly on one of its rubber treads.
But like Optimus, which had its problems, none of it dampened my enthusiasm. This is one of the coolest toy lines ever made; I just want them to get even better.