Ever since the Masterpiece line entered it’s “rebirth” with MP-10 Convoy, a compatible Megatron has been on everybody’s hit list.
This year (and last) offered the first two real contenders for that spot: 3rd party titan Apollyon and the other Hasbro’s Combiner Wars Megatron — the first G1-inspired version they’ve done in nearly a decade.
For the G1 absolutist, Apollyon is the clear choice. His only real drawbacks are price and the complicated and delicate nature of turning a 9-inch robot into a Walther. Combiner Wars Megatron is a more toy-friendly and price-friendly option, but he suffers instead from other issues, which we’ve talked about before.
DX9 took on a few of these things in one fell swoop with their AL-01 kit. How’d they do? Let’s look.
First things first, this kit is very obviously intended for Megatron’s bot-mode. While it is possible to clip these pieces on to his tank mode, you shouldn’t. I appreciate the thought, but none of these upgrades help his tank mode at all. Just something to remember should you decide to upgrade your $45 figure by another $35 or so.
The parts included here are a barrel shroud for the cannon, a stylized gun-barrel attachment to emulate G1’s actual gun barrel, a set of articulated hands, a pair of shin guards, and his robo boots.
The hands were the first thing I did, and they were a bit of a pain. Since there are no instructions (and no, putting some pictures on the back of the box are not instructions), you have to kinda work it out on your own. There is a screw on the top and bottom of Meg’s forearm. The bottom one is by the elbow and no big deal. The top is covered by turret kibble, and is only accessible by lining up the peg hole on this kibble with the screw as close as you can. And you will have to flex it a bit to make that happen.
Once you get them reassembled, you will find the wrist pegs are a fair bit thicker than the original’s, so they fit very tightly. The better way to address this is probably to file them down, but as I was recently reminded, I’m an alpha male caveman type, so I just jammed those suckers in there and tightened the screws.
Everything else is no biggie. The shroud just lines up with the grooves on the cannon barrel and slides on, and everything else just pegs on nice and easy. On the silver barrel, though, you do have some placement options:
It’s designed to peg into that hole you see on the lower right of the picture, on the back of the figure’s arm. It’s hinged to allow the barrel to stay pointed upward if the arm is bent, which is a nice thought.
However, if you would rather have it on his back proper, removing a screw from the top rear of the tank tread leaves a hole that it can peg into there nicely:
This means having to keep the treads together in backpack mode instead of the . . . how did that commenter put it . . . “Asinine” way I had them before, but since we’re going more G1 than IDW/Dreamwave, I’m cool with it.
So there we are before and after the upgrades. He makes a significant jump in height, which is what this was really all about, but the shin guard pieces really made the biggest improvement to my eyes. Adding the red on the insides and the gun grips on the outside amped-up the G1 look and thickened his legs out really nicely.
The feet . . . well, that’s where you’re going to have to give this some consideration, should you want to pick it up. They are nicely detailed and painted, and they match up aesthetically very well. They are hinged, so they even add some ankle tilt — again, some really nice thinking.
But, man, are they some robot clown shoes. On his own, they don’t look all that odd, but next to another MP-sized figures . . .
That’s the only real downside. I was really jarred by it at first, but after playing with it for a bit, the added size and articulation — and stability, naturally — started to outweigh the clunky appearance. And so after that, they didn’t look that bad to my eyes. Your mileage may vary.
So that’s really what it comes down to — mileage. If you’re willing to add a little money into your Combiner Wars Megatron to buy time before Takara eventually gets around to him again, then it’s not a bad buy. Even at the $85 or so fully invested, he’s still a cheaper alternative to Apollyon by almost half. But it’s not perfect — tank mode is a wash, and then the giant boots — so it’s something you need to factor before throwing in.
In my case, I greatly enjoy Combiner Wars Megs, so I don’t mind using the kit to keep him leading my Decepticons a little longer. And, honestly, I do think it looks pretty sharp, all said and done.
