Megatron G1 Transformers robot
Decepticon Leader- Robots in Disguise
Transformers the movie is right around the corner in this Year 2007. Can you believe that the series of Transformers toys, then animated film has progressed to CGI (computer generated imaging)? Megatron will soon be appearing in theaters near you. So it makes sense to pay homage to the big meanie of G1- Megatron the gun-robo.
Unlike current toy standards the 1984 U.S. kids opened their robot boxes to see full scale life-like gun. Note the chrome finish, simulated wood, and diecast heft. Even the trigger clicked and was almost ready for bullets. Note the pretransformers Megatron actually shot rubber bullets and came with a target.
G1 Megatron featured diecast toes, diecast leg joints, and a few other metal parts hidden beneath.
History of G1 Animated Megatron:
Megatron is a Decepticon, one of the lineal descendants of the military hardware robots created by the Quintessons on their factory world of Cybertron. Following a war between the Decepticons and the other robot race, the Autobots, the Decepticons were defeated by the Autobots' invention of transformation, which allowed them the advantage of stealth. The Autobot victory in the war began the Golden Age of Cybertron, but a viper lurked within this paradise, as the Decepticons too eventually developed transformation, eventually leading to the creation of Megatron. Gathering a small number of troops together, Megatron made a small strike on an outer city, killing the current Autobot leader. However, this event was not made public knowledge, and young robots like the naive Orion Pax still looked up to Megatron and his followers because of their new robot-mode flight powers. Pax soon learned the error of his ways when Megatron duped him into allowing him access to energon warehouses, and Megatron fatally injured him in a scuffle. However, the ancient Autobot, Alpha Trion, reconstructed Pax into a battle hardy configuration — now, he was Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots and Megatron's sworn opponent as the civil war erupted again (War Dawn).
Eventually, the war drained Cybertron of most of its energy, necessitating that both factions seek out new worlds and new sources of power. Megatron and his elite forces pursued the Autobots' craft (referred to as the Ark in Beast Wars, following the ship's name from the Generation 1 Marvel Comics) in their star cruiser (referred to as the Nemesis in Beast Wars) and attacked and boarded the craft, causing it to crash on prehistoric Earth, entombing all on the ship in emergency stasis as it crashed into a dormant volcano.
In 1984 (again, cited from Transformers: Beast Wars; the year was also mentioned in the Marvel comic, and "Starscream's Brigade, a second-season episode of the original animated series, features a subtitle that places that episode in 1985), a volcanic eruption jarred the Ark's computer, Teletraan I, back to life, and it proceeded to repair the Autobots and Decepticons, re-igniting the war on the energy-rich world they found themselves upon: Earth. After their first series of battles, the Autobots believed Megatron and the Decepticons were destroyed when their new space cruiser crashed into the Pacific Ocean, but in reality they survived and reconstructed the cruiser to serve as a sub-oceanic staging base and bunker.
Megatron re-established contact with Cybertron, and began construction of an intergalactic transport system called a space bridge, although the early tests nearly resulted in his destruction when he was sucked into the portal and teleported to Cybertron. The technology was eventually stabilized, however, and used in a grand scheme to transport Cybertron through space into Earth's orbit, where the natural disasters its gravity wreaked created tremendous energy which Megatron and the Decepticons gathered. The planet Earth was saved, however, when Megatron's stockpiles of energy were detonated by the Autobots, the explosion forcing Cybertron out of orbit. Again, however, Megatron was able to cheat death, and was forced to team up with Optimus Prime in order to stop the machinations of his treacherous lieutenant, Starscream.
In his next scheme in Heavy Metal War, Megatron absorbed all the separate powers of the other Decepticons into himself, and challenged Optimus Prime to one-on-one combat. With the added abilities of all his minions, Megatron easily defeated Prime in the battle, but when his deception was revealed, he and his followers were defeated in a group attack.
Over the following years, Megatron's schemes to obtain Earth's energies continued. His assorted plans included various attempts to harness the power of Earth's core, thefts of several unstable energy devices from human scientists, the draining of energy from a time-lost prehistoric island, forming a partnership with a corrupt human politician that allowed him to force the Autobots off Earth and briefly conquer Central City, co-opting Earth technologies, and reprogramming the robotic ninja Nightbird.
Fed up with the Autobots ruling the roads, Megatron ordered the creation of the Stunticons, four Decepticon cars and a truck. He even traveled to Cybertron and stole the key to Vector Sigma to give them full cybernetic personalities. Megatron used the Stunticons in many schemes, including sending the Stunticons to sabotage a race in the Middle East to obtain the power source to control weather.
Megatron even made a number of temporary alliances with the Autobots - including stopping the Insecticons and his own mind controlled troops, stopping the Combaticons from destroying Cybertron and forcibly making Perceptor cure him of a plague of Cosmic Rust (although most of these alliances ended in double crosses).
Eventually, however, Megatron turned his attention away from Earth, and succeeded in completely conquering Cybertron by the Earth year 2005. Learning the Autobots were preparing a strike against the planet, Megatron and the Decepticons intercepted the shuttle sent to Earth to acquire energy to power the raid, and unleashed a mighty assault on Autobot City. In the course of the conflict, word was sent to Optimus Prime, who arrived the following morning after the slaughter and personally confronted Megatron in a final, violent fight.
Megatron appeared beaten, but spying a discarded pistol, stalled for time by pleading for mercy as he attempted to reach it. The young Autobot Hot Rod then intervened, tackling Megatron, but the Decepticon was too powerful for him, seizing Hot Rod and using him as shield. Prime would not fire for fear of hitting Hot Rod. Megatron grabbed the pistol and opened fire on Prime. The wounds were fatal and led to Prime's death — but not before Prime delivered his own final blow to Megatron, seriously damaging him and forcing the Decepticons to flee.
On the return trip to Cybertron, it became necessary to jettison excess mass, or else the Decepticons would be unable to reach the planet. At Starscream's instigation, the wounded Decepticons were voted out, and set adrift in space, including Megatron. This was not to be the end for the deposed Decepticon leader, as the world-devourer Unicron offered Megatron a new body and new troops in exchange for Megatron's cooperation in destroying the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Thus, Megatron was reborn as Galvatron, while the rest of the wounded Deceptions became Galvatron's new warriors.
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