For Transformers fans, especially those from the original era, the assertion that Galvatron was a new character introduced in
The Transformers: The Movie has to come with a caveat. After all, Galvatron is merely an upgraded body and new identity for Megatron, who had been the leader of the evil Decepticons since the franchise began. That said, it has always been convenient to discuss Galvatron somewhat separately from Megatron, and even the TFWiki gives them
separate entries (
both of which are considerably longer,
and require separate sub-pages, compared to entries for many characters without such ambiguity!), so I feel pretty safe including a Galvatron toy in this series.
When I last featured a Galvatron toy on this blog, it was 2019, and I featured
the 2016 Titans Return version which, after going to the trouble of buying third-party accessories to address the toy's few (if significant) deficiencies, I truly expected to be the last Galvatron toy I would likely ever buy. Indeed, even though the original version of the mold featured here today (
War for Cybertron: Kingdom Galvatron, released a few months before this
Generations Selects version in 2021) was widely praised by fans for being the best Galvatron toy ever made to-date, I felt that the
Titans Return toy was good enough, and I didn't need another. It was a year later, shortly after a move into a much smaller space than the one to which I had been previously accustomed, that I picked up this toy. I was selling off some of my collection to make more room, and was offered this toy as a greatly reduced-price trade-in (I
did also get some cash for my trouble!). Since it featured a color scheme more reminiscent of the original G1 toy than the animation-based
Titans Return Galvatron, I decided that it wasn't a redundant acquisition.
It wasn't long at all before I finally understood why fans had praised this mold so much. The transformation is elegant without being too simplistic, very much the "sweet spot" for me in terms of transformability, while also giving the kind of articulation expected out of a modern Transformers figure. I do wish that the folks who designed the color scheme were a
little more faithful to the original G1 figure (why the heck is his crown
purple?), but even though I
could have used the supplied stickers (which feature details intended to replicate sticker details of the G1 toy), they don't even cover the entirety of the purple (just the front, at best), and since I don't care for stickers much, anyway, the sticker sheet remains unused.
The toy also has a few neat add-ons that my other Galvatron toys don't have. For example, the black weapons are molded to resemble the warship (called
Revenge in source materials) that Galvatron used in the movie. It also includes a green-colored version of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership on the end of a chain that fits around the figure's neck (homaging an important scene in the movie, if recolored for this release). I'm definitely glad I picked this toy up. Will
this be the last Galvatron toy I ever get? Time will tell....
For Transformers fans, especially those from the original era, the assertion that Galvatron was a new character introduced in The Transformers: The Movie has to come with a caveat. After all, Galvatron is merely an upgraded body and new identity for Megatron, who had been the leader of the evil Decepticons since the franchise began. That said, it has always been convenient to discuss Galvatron somewhat separately from Megatron, and even the TFWiki gives them separate entries (both of which are considerably longer, and require separate sub-pages, compared to entries for many characters without such ambiguity!), so I feel pretty safe including a Galvatron toy in this series.
When I last featured a Galvatron toy on this blog, it was 2019, and I featured the 2016 Titans Return version which, after going to the trouble of buying third-party accessories to address the toy's few (if significant) deficiencies, I truly expected to be the last Galvatron toy I would likely ever buy. Indeed, even though the original version of the mold featured here today (War for Cybertron: Kingdom Galvatron, released a few months before this Generations Selects version in 2021) was widely praised by fans for being the best Galvatron toy ever made to-date, I felt that the Titans Return toy was good enough, and I didn't need another. It was a year later, shortly after a move into a much smaller space than the one to which I had been previously accustomed, that I picked up this toy. I was selling off some of my collection to make more room, and was offered this toy as a greatly reduced-price trade-in (I did also get some cash for my trouble!). Since it featured a color scheme more reminiscent of the original G1 toy than the animation-based Titans Return Galvatron, I decided that it wasn't a redundant acquisition.
It wasn't long at all before I finally understood why fans had praised this mold so much. The transformation is elegant without being too simplistic, very much the "sweet spot" for me in terms of transformability, while also giving the kind of articulation expected out of a modern Transformers figure. I do wish that the folks who designed the color scheme were a little more faithful to the original G1 figure (why the heck is his crown purple?), but even though I could have used the supplied stickers (which feature details intended to replicate sticker details of the G1 toy), they don't even cover the entirety of the purple (just the front, at best), and since I don't care for stickers much, anyway, the sticker sheet remains unused.
The toy also has a few neat add-ons that my other Galvatron toys don't have. For example, the black weapons are molded to resemble the warship (called Revenge in source materials) that Galvatron used in the movie. It also includes a green-colored version of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership on the end of a chain that fits around the figure's neck (homaging an important scene in the movie, if recolored for this release). I'm definitely glad I picked this toy up. Will this be the last Galvatron toy I ever get? Time will tell....
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