OptimusPhillip

*tosses apple into the crowd*

Eris: Perfect. They'll tear each other apart to claim that title, and I get to just sit back and watch the chaos unfold.

Athena: "Hang on a second, isn't being the prettiest literally Aphrodite's job? I think there's only one logical answer for who she meant."

Hera: "That's a good point. I don't think there's any sense in fighting amongst each other when there's an obvious winner."

Other goddesses: [nod in agreement]

Hello again, Tumblr! Life has gotten weird lately, so YouTube video production is kind of slow. But, I recently got a Transformer that I really want to talk about, so enjoy what will hopefully be a brief return to the text review format as I talk about Legacy United Armada Galvatron.

Tank Mode

Galvatron's vehicle mode is the H-tank that Hasbro seems to really like for some reason. That said, it does look pretty badass. The thick treads with the jagged bumpers make me feel sorry for anyone he ends up ramming. And the barrel is absolutely massive, looking like it could level a skyscraper with one blast. Even the exposed robot head adds to the look, with his giant horns coming out the front like a capture claw. They aren't hinged on this version, though, so it's more left to your imagination.

The detail work is impressive as always. In addition to the usual greeble, there's a ton of molded in details replicating the gimmicks of the original toy. On the front treads, you can see both the Mini-Con catapult, and the flip-out panels for extra Powerlinx plugs. And going around to the rear left, you can even see the edges of the Mini-Con storage hatch.

Of course, the turret is the real highlight of this design. Once again, we're not only seeing the accent detail from the original toy, but recreations of that toy's extra features. And on top of all that, there's even some extra paint that was missing from the Galvatron release. The speaker grill and Mini-Con turntable, both unpainted on Galvatron, are painted in charcoal gray, giving them an extra bit of pop. And with no LED to shine through it, the Decepticon symbol on the front is highlighted with some nice silver beneath the classic purple tampograph. Interestingly, the rail for deploying the missile launcher is styled after the Japanese toy, with a slight offset between the sideways locking position and the back of the channel. Don't know if that's for screen-accuracy, or just a little concession made for the Japanese design team.

But this all kind of brings me to my main problem with this mode. The fact that all of these features aren't actually there. The original toy had a lot of extra features to really hammer home the Mini-Con play pattern. Here, there's nothing he can do that you wouldn't expect from any other tankformer. He has wheels on the underside so he can roll, and the turret is articulated. Aside from that, he's got 5mm ports where the original had most of its Powerlinx plugs, and that's all you get.

Even the turret articulation is limited. For some reason, it can only rotate 90º to the left, and 135º to the right. So if there's a target anywhere from 5 o'clock to 9 o'clock, he's kind of screwed. The missile launcher from the original toy is here, but it can't point forward at all. It only folds out far enough to point straight up in tank mode, so it serves basically no purpose in this mode. It seems to be designed solely for robot mode.

And that's basically it for the tank mode. It looks really good, but is severely lacking in play value. He barely even crests the bare minimum for what a tank toy should do. He really could've benefited from borrowing at least a couple features from the original, like the fold-out catapult, one of the Mini-Con traps on the back, or even just having the missile launcher fold forward. As it is, it's little more than a nice display piece.

Conversion

If you know how the original Armada Megatron mold works, you likely won't be surprised by this toy's transformation, though there are some slight differences that mostly serve to give the tank a narrower profile. The rear treads come down to form the legs, albeit with some extra panels to shore things up, and a simpler transformation for the feet. The turret is also on a hinge that lets it get out of the way of the waist rotation, which is nice.

The torso is where things get a little more interesting. Two chunks come down to fill out the torso, then the arms shift down almost like the original Energon Megatron toy. Oh, by the way, make sure to lift up the Decepticon symbol panels before doing this. They actually tab into the chest panel, and will provide a surprising amount of resistance. The arms fold out from the shoulders like before, with an extra step to bring out the hands. Finally, just like the original toy, you have to bring down the panel covering his face. But instead of a slider, now you bring down the entire chest panel to fold it in on a hinge. Which feels a little bit overkill if you ask me, but whatever works, I guess.

It's basically what you'd expect from a modernized Armada Megatron toy, and I don't mean that in a bad way. I like transformations with big chunky parts shifting around smoothly, and the Unicron Trilogy had that in spades. So the fact that this figure sticks to that spirit is good news to me.

Robot Mode

In robot mode, Galvatron's color scheme is on full display. He seems to be drawing from multiple sources. The torso and limbs are done in anime-accurate lavender, rather than the pink used on the toy. But instead of the anime's flat white base color, this figure goes for a bone color more akin to the Takara toy. I think it comes together really well. Armada Galvatron's colors can easily come across as garish, but this figure manages to make it look imposing.

In terms of sculpt, this figure captures the asymmetric look of the original design quite well. The lines across the chest are straight out of the anime, while the exposed mechanisms on the forearms call to mind the original toy. I think the legs really take the cake here, though. Not only are the kneecaps both sculpted and painted differently, but the open mechanical panels are subtly different, and they even painted in the little extra vent on his left shin. I will always appreciate this kind of attention to detail.

What I didn't realize about this toy going in was that he actually has a slightly different head sculpt from the Megatron release. Instead of that version's stoic glare, this figure's face is sculpted in a permanent yell. I know some people will find this ridiculous, but I actually kind of like it. It really does capture the energy of the fight scenes in Armada, with everyone just shouting at the top of their lungs as they try to kill each other, like the early 2000s anime characters they were. Other than that, it's basically the head from the anime, tall horns and all. I'll admit, as kind of silly as they look, they are pretty intimidating. They're actually separate pieces, cast in soft plastic, and apparently can be taken off, but mine seem to be glued in place. It's probably a Bonecrusher situation, where they just weren't secured in place on some production runs, creating an unintended bit of play value.

Articulation was limited in the days of Armada, so I'm happy to say this figure is quite posable. The neck is on a ball joint, but most of its range is in rotation, rather than tilt. His arms swivel at the bicep, and bend just past 90º at the elbow. His wrists swivel, and the shoulders... well, this is where things get messy. Unlike the original toy, the massive shoulder treads don't rotate. This wouldn't be such a bad thing, if it weren't for the fact that the arm itself is still attached to the tread piece. This means that the arms can only move forward on a hinge, which makes posing his arms even more awkward than Studio Series Hot Rod.

Thankfully, things are much better below the belt. Even without moving the turret, the waist has a good range of swivel, and the hips are on proper universal joints, with nice ratcheting on the forward swivel. The thighs swivel, and the knees are on very solid ratchet joints. The toe and heel pieces can bend down from the transformation, and he also has an inwards tilt. Though I will note that the ankle tilt tabs into place very securely, I guess for tank mode, so that's gonna be a bit of a hassle.

So the articulation level is no slouch. But unfortunately, the awkwardness of his shoulder joints makes it almost impossible to pose his arms in any direction but outwards, which drastically limits the effective posability. This is a very rare instance where I would say an aftermarket upgrade is warranted, and fortunately, one exists.

Just like the original toy, this figure can assume the "Full Blast Mode". Pull the waist down on a slider, fold the turret out on its hinge, and get the arms out of the way, and you can rotate his midsection around to bring the turret to the front, where you can point all of the barrels forward at once for an all-out blast. I'll admit, this configuration looks a little naked without Leader-1, or I guess Clench here, but it still makes for a nice display... which is basically all this is good for. Because the turret can't do a complete rotation, you can't really do the spinning turret attack, the best you can do is spin the missile launcher bit for some reason. It's basically just here for looks. I'd question what the point of restricting the turret's rotation is... then I remembered how many hormonal pre-teens would be buying this toy, and suddenly it all clicked into place. Still annoying, though.

As for other features... the tank barrel can come off, and if you fold in one of the hands, you can peg it onto the stump. Which is... a neat trick, I guess. But that's basically it. He doesn't have any other accessories or features, not even his knife. The only other functionality he has is all the 5mm ports, which you can use to kit him out with accessories from other figures. Which of course, includes the armor pieces included with Titan Class Tidal Wave.

Final Thoughts

Without fail, every leak that I've seen hit the Transformers community seems to result in anger and frustration. Either it's a leak about some dumb business decision that everyone will get mad at Hasbro for even considering, or it's about some cool new toy that everyone loves... and then they get frustrated when the official "reveal" ends up being disappointing as a result.

Like, what even is the point? Does it provide any benefit to us fans? Where I'm sitting, it seems the only people who get anything positive out of leaks are the leakers themselves, who get fifteen minutes of internet attention every time they post a leak. For the rest of us, it feels like all that happens is that people get pissed off. I stopped paying attention to leaks a couple months ago at least, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything for it. Granted, leaks tend to spread into my field of view anyway, so I still have to deal with the nonsense.

I don't know, maybe it's just my imagination. After all, it's not like the Transformers fandom is new to pointless outrage. But it feels like it's gotten harder to avoid ever since these leaks started coming out, because "it's news, we need to talk about it". Which just makes it more frustrating. I just want to play with fun toys and watch cool shows and movies. But it feels like nobody wants to do that anymore, not even the people who used to be all about that.

It's Christmastime once more?

What's this?

There's wreaths in every store

What's this?

This simply can't be right, I must be dreaming

It's October, I was sure!

In the act of cooking, the one doing the cooking creates something that can be enjoyed by themselves and others. The thing being cooked, meanwhile, is subject to heat so intense that any living thing would almost certainly die a fiery and painful death.