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So we all know Megatron, we all love him.



His grey and black color scheme, the sight from his gun turning into a laser bazooka thing, the sheer brutality of transforming into a gun... Lots of good things.

But there's a perennial problem.

He turns into a gun.



So he becomes smaller and weaker and his own henchmen have to carry him and fire him. When they go somewhere his henchmen carry him in their front seats. Not a good look for a boss.

Later cartoons and comics had him turn into a tank, which keeps many of the good things about him but still means he's slower than his own henchmen who turn into supersonic jets.

He's also turned into a space ship and a space laser cannon, but I consider that cheating. Transformers should turn into real world items or it's just too easy.

So where can we find something as unambiguously brutal as a gun or tank which can still hold its head alongside planes?



A friend called the A-10 a gun with a plane built around it which makes it perfect for Megatron. It's slower than an F-15 (or whatever Starscream turns into these days) but that's fine for a leader who should arrive late in the battle to clean up. The A-10 carries an absurd number of bombs and missiles giving Megatron a scary alpha strike before he even opens fire. And it would give Megatron a slimmer more insectoid appearance that makes for a nice contrast with Optimus Prime's blockier, sturdier appearance.

There have been a few transforming A-10s over the years



(why is this guy an Autobot? He should be a Decipticon if he's a jet!)

And an A-10 was one of my favorite Gobots/Micromachines



So it can work. The A-10s oversized engines could even become an arm bazooka like classic Megatron's to give him some scary firepower.

There's even a later generation Decepticon A-10



Not great but he uses the nose cannon as a robot weapon so that's close.

So therefore I have concluded that henceforth Megatron should turn into an A-10.

Hasbro make it happen.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
There have been a few transforming A-10s over the years



(why is this guy an Autobot? He should be a Decipticon if he's a jet!)

Don't mock Powerglide!

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
And an A-10 was one of my favorite Gobots/Micromachines

Wow... I once owned that toy.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
There have been a few transforming A-10s over the years



(why is this guy an Autobot? He should be a Decipticon if he's a jet!)

Don't mock Powerglide!

I hated Powerglide, HATED. Jetfire had a whole tragic backstory explaining how he ended up in the Autobot camp but PG and Cosmos (the UFO) just pop up out of no where. And they were crap toys too.

I used the Micromachines versions for both, can't remember if I ever came up with head canon for why they were Autobots...

Blame Teletran 1.

It sorted out the transformation disguise for the Decepticons and Autobots on Earth.

How about having his alt mode still being a gun, just a bigger one?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M109_howitzer

Then he's still clanking along at 35mph while his henchmen are sonic booming overhead.

He's basically the guy in college always bumming rides because he doesn't have a car.

Y'know though, a B-1 or B-52 bomber might work.

Or some variant of AC-130 gunship - that keeps the big ol' gun.

How many of the Decepticons turn into aeroplanes, anyway? I mean, it's not just Megatron that has to roll.

Yeah, Megs can always hang with the Constructacons or Insectacons. They don't all fly around.


I have now used up all of my Transformers knowledge.

Megatron/Galvatron could fly while in robot mode.

All of them could - which always struck me as a bit of a cop-out.

Well it was a cartoon to sell toys.

To decepticons that were terrestrian: scads of them: insecticons, constructicons, predacons, stunticons. Most of them now that I think about it. There were about four fllyers initially.

Now later with Galvatron you had Scourge and the disposable Sweeps, but at that time Galvatron would deep strike in, and act as a autobot killing base of fire, else would pilot Scourge.

Pro-tip, when traveling, put megatron in robot mode, else the brainiacs at Homeland Security will bust a gasket.

favorite Gobots/Micromachines

Obvious trolling.

No one actually liked the Gobots

.. and as for the Rock Lords

Megatron has been a tank before in one of the later iterations. Also a helicopter and likely one or two other things that I cannot think of currently for some reason.

 reds8n wrote:

favorite Gobots/Micromachines

Obvious trolling.

No one actually liked the Gobots

.. and as for the Rock Lords

The cartoons were pants, and the names made the Transformers names look like Shakesphere but the Gobots toys were miles ahead of the small scale Transformers!

 vonjankmon wrote:
Megatron has been a tank before...

Megatron is a tank.

http://fighting-vehicles.com/challenger-2-megatron/

 reds8n wrote:


.. and as for the Rock Lords

Heh... My sister took me to see Transformers: The Movie and The Battle of the Rock Lords as a double feature when they first came out. Seeing them both side-by-side like that was... interesting.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
... but I consider that cheating. Transformers should turn into real world items or it's just too easy.

Where were you in 1985 when I needed you? The rot started real early with Transformers.

You guys remember that time Scourge and the Sweeps committed Galvatron to a psychiatric ward and one of the activities he had to do there was build models to help him develop self-expression? He built a gun and started shooting people, but I can't help but think it was a pretty effective self-expression exercise.

I rather liked the Transformers" Prime iteration of the character where he never takes on an Earth vehicle mode cause feth that. It's fitting for the character I think cause Megatron doesn't give a gak about humans or what they think.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I hated Powerglide, HATED. Jetfire had a whole tragic backstory explaining how he ended up in the Autobot camp but PG and Cosmos (the UFO) just pop up out of no where. And they were crap toys too.

Most of the characters in the 2nd season just show up out of no where.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I hated Powerglide, HATED. Jetfire had a whole tragic backstory explaining how he ended up in the Autobot camp but PG and Cosmos (the UFO) just pop up out of no where. And they were crap toys too.

Most of the characters in the 2nd season just show up out of no where.

The totally random roster of Autobots who would show up in any given episode was one of my bigger frustrations with the show as a kid.

Second only to 'WHY DO THEY CHANGE SIZE???' Always bugged me that Megatron went from giant robot to a pistol that was whatever size it needed to be for whoever was going to grab him.


(And don't even get me started on the scaling of the toys...)

The size problem would be instantly fixed if they would just make Megatron an A10!

Or a AC130... I could work with that.

Maybe a B52 or even better a Russian bomber.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Don't mock Powerglide!

Why not? The show did.

I had Powerglide, and so used to cheer him on when he was in an episode. This was tough because Powerglide really sucked, and always got his ass kicked. In fact I think he featured in a few episodes just because sucking was a defining feature of his, and so it could be used to tell stories about hiding from Decepticons until better Autobots turned up. The small Autobot tank seemed similar.

As a kid I could never figure out how power levels worked in Transformers. How can a tank and an A-10 be worse at fighting than construction vehicles or a tape recorder? As an adult the answer is obvious - power level is tied directly to how expensive the toy was

Megatron as an A-10 is the probably the most awesome idea I've ever read on the internet.

I'm a little biased though.

 insaniak wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I hated Powerglide, HATED. Jetfire had a whole tragic backstory explaining how he ended up in the Autobot camp but PG and Cosmos (the UFO) just pop up out of no where. And they were crap toys too.

Most of the characters in the 2nd season just show up out of no where.

The totally random roster of Autobots who would show up in any given episode was one of my bigger frustrations with the show as a kid.

Second only to 'WHY DO THEY CHANGE SIZE???' Always bugged me that Megatron went from giant robot to a pistol that was whatever size it needed to be for whoever was going to grab him.


(And don't even get me started on the scaling of the toys...)

Ahh, the joys of licensing two or three toylines into a single property

Never forget that the original toy of Ironhide didn't have a fething head!!!

 insaniak wrote:
The totally random roster of Autobots who would show up in any given episode was one of my bigger frustrations with the show as a kid.

The stranger thing about Powerglide is that, other than appearing out of no where, all the Autobots celebrate his rescue of Spike. The whole episode finally gave Windcharger, an original character who never did anything in Season 1, the time to shine and yet they cheer the never-before-seen Powerglide at the end.

Then Windcharger died off screen in the movie, so we only see his dead body along with Wheeljack.

 insaniak wrote:
Second only to 'WHY DO THEY CHANGE SIZE???' Always bugged me that Megatron went from giant robot to a pistol that was whatever size it needed to be for whoever was going to grab him.

Mass shifting. Totally.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
There have been a few transforming A-10s over the years



(why is this guy an Autobot? He should be a Decipticon if he's a jet!)

Don't mock Powerglide!

I hated Powerglide, HATED. Jetfire had a whole tragic backstory explaining how he ended up in the Autobot camp but PG and Cosmos (the UFO) just pop up out of no where. And they were crap toys too.

I just hated him because The Girl Who Loved Powerglide insisted on smuggling a lovestory into Transformers and five-year-old me was UNHAPPY.

You guys ragging on Powerglide, keep in mind Silverbolt was afraid of heights.

And he transformed into a plane.

 sebster wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Don't mock Powerglide!

Why not? The show did.

I had Powerglide, and so used to cheer him on when he was in an episode. This was tough because Powerglide really sucked, and always got his ass kicked. In fact I think he featured in a few episodes just because sucking was a defining feature of his, and so it could be used to tell stories about hiding from Decepticons until better Autobots turned up. The small Autobot tank seemed similar.

My first two transformers were Starscream and Brawn -- the latter being noted as beng 2nd in Str only to Optimus Prime if you recall -- and I was ecstatic as I could then refight/play the awesome "enemy within" storyline from the comics

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Enemy_Within!

after that I was very happy to get Sunstreaker ....

... who then was injured and spent pretty much the rest of the series in the med bay



.. still hurts to this day

H.B.M.C. wrote:Never forget that the original toy of Ironhide didn't have a fething head!!!

Was that the version that had a sticker with a face in the cabin behind the windshield? This one, the black blob that's barely visible is a face, black with silver lines if I remember correctly?