Galvatron - Beast Wars II - Figure


Although he spends a good portion of time snoozing in his bed (just like yours truly), BW2 Galvatron's a force to be reckoned with whenever he sees fit to get up. Prior to Botcon 2001, I'd read nothing but glowing reviews of his toy, so naturally I had to snag one for myself.

Beast Mode: In beast mode, Galvatron is a robotic dragon. Main colours are black, purple, and lavender, with red, silver, and green highlights and gold feet. Although some people have complained about this colour scheme, I think it looks very G1 Decepticon-ish. Besides, it's a helluva lot better than painting him pink like in the cartoon. From snout to tail, Galvatron measures about 30 cm(12") long and has a wingspan of up to 36 cm(14"). He can be anywhere from 15 to 23 cm(9") tall, depending on whether you want standing horizontally like a T. rex or completely upright like John Wayne.

Galvatron's dragon head is small, but looks quite fearsome with its piercing green eyes and sharp silvery teeth. He's also armed with sharp claws on his hands and feet. His tail is shaped rather like a giant pincer claw, but can't clamp shut or anything like that. And he's got gatling guns on his knees, cool! But it's his wings which are the most formidable part of his arsenal. Not only do they unfold to reveal jagged edges, but by pulling the purple tab on his back, they open and close like a monstrous pair of scissors, seizing and slicing anything in their path! Great for eviscerating Maximals, or simply doing a bit of yard work.

Galvatron has quite a bit of articulation in this mode. His mouth opens and closes, his head can look up and down, his spiky neck is jointed in a manner similar to Transmetal Megatron's tail, and his shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and toes all move. Though it really would have helped had his shoulders were on ball joints instead of just swivel ones. His tail can wag a little. Also, pressing the red tabs on either side of his tail causes the black missile blades to launch about a meter or so. Finally, pushing in the black button on his back causes his neck and head to spin around, as if he's possessed by some evil spirit. Just hope he doesn't start projectile vomiting.

Now for his weak points. Galvatron's thighs are grotesquely out of proportion with the rest of his body. He looks like he's spent one too many sessions with a Thigh Master. His neck seems too short and his head too small. Indeed, many have made the apt observation that he resembles a robotic chicken more than he does a robotic dragon. A squatting robotic chicken, about to lay a robotic egg. And then there's the shoulder pads. He's got two great big golden shoulder pads that tend to get in the way a lot. They're so big, they look like a second set of wings. Ugly, ugly. I make a point of carefully removing them whenever he's in this mode.

All this sheer ungainliness becomes painfully apparent when one places Galvatron next to the very streamlined TM2 Megatron. So in a fight, Galvatron would have the wider arsenal, but Megatron would have speed, manoeuvrability, and longer reach on his side.

Vehicle Mode: Close the shoulder pads/drillbit halves over the dragon's head and neck, fold in the shins and do some finagling with the legs, and you get a nifty-looking Cybertronian drill tank that measures just over a foot long and rolls along on four small red wheels. Repeatedly pressing the afore-mentioned black button makes the drillbit spin rapidly, cutting through enemy fortifications like Swiss cheese. If that's not enough to slag his foes, Galvatron can always use the gatling guns mounted on his treads. And if someone tries to attack the tank from behind, the firing missile blades will negate that threat, permanently.

Overall, Galvatron's drill tank mode easily beats out TM2 Megatron's lameass dragonster mode. Only thing is, well, more than one person commented to me at Botcon that the drill tank looks . . . kinda phallic. Buncha sickos.

Transformation: Reasonably complex for an Ultra-sized toy, but I managed to figure it out without the use of the instructions. Basically his tail splits to become his robot arms, his dragon legs become his robot ones, and his drillbit and wings end up draped over his back.

Robot Mode: Galvatron stands 19 cm(7.5") tall in robot mode. Aside from the junk on his back, his body's pretty much kibble-free, unlike his counterpart LioConvoy. He's a nice blend of lavender, black, and purple, with long red feet and red, gold, and gray accents.A gold glass marble is mounted in his chestplate, which is actually styled to look like a demonic robot face, complete with green eyes and golden eyebrows. His robot head is lavender with a red crest, a purple face, baby blue peepers, and a pearly-white toothed grimace, as if he's suffering from a bad case of Cybertronian haemorrhoids. You want to scream? It'll give you something to scream about!

Galvatron has a ton of articulation going for him in this mode. His head, shoulders, upper arms, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, thighs, knees, and feet all move. The drillbit hanging down off his back functions as a third leg for supporting active poses. His feet can't bend upwards however, thus limiting poseability somewhat. His missile blades can fit into his fists to function as handaxes. Gonna chop some firewood, man. His scissor wings still work in this mode, and can also detach for use as a handheld weapon. I crush your head, ha! And he's still got those twin four-barrelled gatling guns attached to his legs. Other 'Cons shoot from the hip, but Galvatron shoots from the knees, the sneakyass.

Overall Suspsy Sez: Although TM2 Megatron still remains my favourite dragon TF (until Cryotek comes along anyway), BW2 Galvatron is one helluva fine toy. The dragon mode isn't pretty to look at, but fun to play with. The drill tank ranks right up alongside Rampage's tank mode for best third mode. And the robot mode is just fabulous; great colour scheme, fierce looks, more articulation than an entire G1 merge group, and neatass weaponry. Definitely a worthy purchase.

Suspsy

"Only Galvatron leads! Only Galvatron! RAARRRGGHHH!!!" -Galvatron (the original)

ReviewerSuspsy  
DateDecember 16th 2001  
Score 9 stars (9 out of 10)  
Reads11851


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