Galvatron made his debut 28 years ago in Transformers: The Movie as a reformatted Megatron who was bound to Unicron as a minion tasked with the duty of procuring the Autobots’ Matrix of Leadership from Ultra Magnus, the Matrix-bearer at the time. This was the Galvatron many Transformers fans fell in love with immediately — it was Megatron, but more awesome in practically every way. This past week, Galvatron has made his second appearance on the big screen, this time in Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction. While this new interpretation of Galvatron will no doubt generate plenty of discussion and debate, the character is actually no stranger to controversy. In fact, much of the confusion and many of the questions surrounding the character began right here — with Hasbro’s original Galvatron Transformers action figure. Let’s take a look back at the figure many Transformers fans loved to hate.
It was not unusual for Transformers figures to hold only the slightest resemblance to their on-screen counterparts, especially in the G1 days, and Galvatron here was perhaps among the worst offenders. Now, this is the Galvatron figure I got from Kay Bee Toys way back in 1986, and I got him a short while prior to the movie’s release, so my impression of what the character was all about or what he should look like hadn’t taken root yet. All I knew was this figure looked awesome on the shelf. He was a futuristic-looking triple-changer — that was all I needed to know. But when I saw the movie and started seeing him in the comics, all I could do was sigh because… the toy didn’t look anywhere near as cool. So my fondness for the figure dwindled, and my friends, who only knew Galvatron from the movie, took one look at the figure and let out a pointed “PFFT!”
His look in the Marvel comic wasn’t as drastic a change. He maintained the toy’s colors, but his basic form is much more streamlined and commanding than the figure we got. His movie interpretation, however, that was just cruel at the time. In fact, barring an unlicensed, third-party release here and there, we’re still waiting for a Galvatron that looks the way he did in that movie.
Video breakdown and some additional thoughts:
The tragedy was that for years, if you wanted a Galvatron figure, this guy was the only option, which disappointed many a Transformers fan. And it really isn’t even that bad a figure, especially by G1 standards. If the movie hadn’t presented us with such an awesome interpretation of the character’s look, this figure would have fared much better among fans — I’m sure of it.
This Galvatron, like most G1 Transformers, is fairly simple in terms of both design and transformation. The details of his head sculpt are soft, but the shape of his eyes does clearly suggest he’s a villain. They’re “menacing.” There is a light-up feature that can be activated that makes his eyes glow, but that functionality left my figure long ago due to a battery that was never removed (see the video for details).
His articulation is practically nonexistent. His arms can move at the shoulders, and he does have elbow joints, but that’s it. His head can’t even swivel. When people refer to G1 figures as “bricks,” this is what they’re talking about.
He came with a small black rifle he carried in addition to his giant cannon, but, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, that rifle’s whereabouts is a mystery.
Thankfully, his cannon-tank alt mode looks really cool, and it more closely resembles what we saw on screen and in the comics than his ‘bot mode does. It’s some sort of space-tank-cannon-thing with a cannon barrel that would light up when the electronics were activated. It also made a series of space-cannon sounds that were really cool at the time. He had a third mode that was some sort of ray gun, but since we never saw that mode in any media, I tend to ignore it (though it is mentioned in the video breakdown).
In terms of size and scale, he towers over the new Galvatron, but he’s just about the same size as Masterpiece Soundwave and Soundblaster. I actually have him displayed on my Masterpiece Decepticon shelf just because his size makes sense there, but, of course, he’s certainly not “Masterpiece quality” or anything.
It’s funny — when I first got this figure, I loved it. And then the movie made me sort of hate it. But when I look at it now, I feel a fondness for it that I don’t think is just nostalgia. I love that there are finally some Decepticons besides Shockwave, thanks to the Masterpiece figures, that can be posed with him without his dwarfing them. It makes him feel less conspicuously odd. And, honestly, when Takara does get around to releasing a Masterpiece Galvatron, I would totally buy a second one if they were to release a version in these colors. It’s taken me a couple decades, but I’m finally cool with its not being a facsimile of the animated movie Galvatron.