Megatron (Beast Era)

The Beast Wars and Beast Machines version of Megatron is the main antagonist from the aforementioned parts of the Transformers animated series, toy lines, and multiverse. In the past, a few fans have referred to him as Megatron II to distinguish him from the original character of the same name; in the Japanese Transformers: Robot Masters series, he was named Beast Megatron for this purpose.

Beast Wars

Megatron is depicted as a cool-headed schemer - a Machiavellian plotter, and a master in psychological warfare, yet also a skilled battlefield commander. Honor is a disgusting concept to Megatron (ironic since he would later develop a form of it himself); he manipulates, lies and bribes to get his way, and is often given to fits of ego, patting himself on the back for accomplishments or making a smooth quote. He often uses his overconfidence and presence as a scare-tactic to intimidate foes and to get his subordinates in rank. Megatron always has a secret agenda which is usually convoluted and involves calculated risks, gambles, and manipulating other Transformers, and usually leads him to near, but rarely complete, victory. His ultimate goal is the conquest of Cybertron, where he was branded a criminal.^[2]

Megatron does, however, afford himself a selection of personal foibles, such as his trademark utterances of the word "ye-e-e-sss" or "No-o-o-o-ooo" in an exaggeratedly self-impressed way after certain statements, or as a stand-alone emphatic phrase, and his possession of a yellow rubber ducky, which he sometimes takes with him into the cryo-regeneration jacuzzi. He also has a rather dark sense of humor. Despite being brilliant and even charming at times, deep down Megatron is completely evil to the core. He is viewed as something of a fanatical terrorist even by his fellow Predacons and is willing to tamper with the fabric of existence just to settle his grudge with the Maximals. However, Megatron does not view himself as such: he believes he is fighting for the freedom of the Predacons, whom he views as being enslaved by the Maximals and the Pax Cybertronia.

Few pieces of information exist about Megatron before the Beast Wars. The Japanese Beast Wars II toy catalogue claims that he had battled and lost to Galvatron (the villain of that series) in the past, while the 2006 BotCon comics claimed he was previously a commander in the Predacon army who had developed many of the Predacons' tactics.

According to the 2007 CGI movie "Theft of the Golden Disk" Megatron was Cryotek's pupil. It was Cryotek who masterminded the theft of the Golden Disk, but Megatron betrayed his mentor and fled Cybertron with his prize, leaving Cyrtek and Dirge to be arrested by Maximals.

In a 2010 interview with David Kay by Shogun Gamer David Kaye said that Megatron is the role he's more like to be remembered for.^[3]

Reception

Megatron was named the best upgrade in Beast Wars history Topless Robot.^[4]

Animated series

Three centuries after the end of The Great War, when Maximal and Predacon had risen to replace Autobot and Decepticon, one Predacon in particular was discontented with the Maximals' control of Cybertron following the Autobot victory in the war. Studying the ancient Cybertronian text called the Covenant of Primus, the Predacon took the name Megatron from a great destroyer of the same name that the book foretold (which may or may not have been also in direct homage to his namesake, the Decepticon Megatron). Searching for energon to power his takeover bid, he stole the legendary artifact known as the Golden Disk, but discovered amongst its data more than the mere location of an energon source - encoded onto the disk was a message from the original Megatron, which contained the co-ordinates of the prehistoric planet Earth. Using transwarp technology this would allow a user to travel back in time and alter history - specifically, to destroy Optimus Prime as he lay in stasis within The Ark, thereby preventing the Autobots from winning The Great War.

Beast Wars season 1

Although respected by the ruling Predacon Triumvirate, the Tripredacus Council, Megatron was considered a rogue and a loose cannon who would disrupt their own long-term plans for regaining power. To this end, when Megatron assembled a crew of like-minded Predacons to embark on his voyage to prehistoric Earth, they installed within his group Tarantulas, a mole from the Predacon Secret Police, to examine his operation from the inside. Megatron proceeded to steal the Darksyde, a transwarp cruiser, and embarked on his mission, but was pursued through the transwarp portal by the Maximal exploration ship the Axalon, and both ships crashed on the planet, with only Megatron truly aware of when and where they were. Prehistoric Earth soon proved to be saturated with energon radiation, which threatened to overload the Transformers' systems, and so they adopted organic-skinned "beast modes" to block it out; by scanning dinosaur fossils, Megatron adopted the form of a Tyrannosaurus rex.^[5]

Following the dispatch of his traitorous sub-commander Dinobot, who went on to join Optimus Primal's Maximals, Megatron immediately began planning for the future. The discovery of vast reserves of energon on the planet, plus his hesitation to actually tamper with the timeline, left Megatron unwilling to actually follow through with the plan laid out by the original Megatron. He did locate The Ark, but decided to blast the tunnel he had dug closed, and began his own plans to amass power through the collection of energon. Megatron then tried a variety of schemes to gather energon and eliminate the Maximals in a series of conflicts dubbed the "Beast Wars" by Optimus Primal.

Megatron's leadership was not universally popular, however. Tarantulas, Terrorsaur, Blackarachnia and a brainwashed Rhinox would all attempt to overthrow Megatron at some point, although none succeeded for long. Even Waspinator dreamed of overthrowing his commander. Megatron would even face a challenge from the most unlikely of sources - the spark of the ancient Decepticon Starscream, thought long dead, would possess Waspinator and with the aid of Blackarachnia attempt to take over the Predacons. Predictably, he failed due to the efforts of the Maximals and Blackarachnia's own treachery, and his spark was cast out once again.

Some time into the Beast Wars, a third factor came into play - a race of mysterious aliens known as the Vok, who were, in actuality, responsible for seeding the planet with the excesses of energon, and whose technology Megatron coveted as another method of achieving the conquest of Cybertron. After some encounters with remnants of their technology left on the planet, and the discovery of a second Golden Disk of alien origin, which foretold their coming to Earth, Megatron entered into an alliance with the Maximals in hopes to stopping the Vok's plan to sterilize the Earth with a massive heat beam. Over time Megatron discovered Tarantulas' plan to use a stolen transwarp cell, along with a stasis pod from inside the Maximal ship, the Axalon, in order to flee the planet before destruction. Megatron hacked into the transwarp cell in order to trap Tarantulus within the pod and use it to destroy the alien device. However, Optimus Primal eventually came to pilot the stasis pod, equipped with the transwarp cell from Megatron's ship, which he would overload and create a transwarp explosion to destroy the Vok weapon, but ultimately Megatron's original plan to sacrifice Tarantulus to destroy the device, ended up playing more into his hand as he discovered Primal in the pod, sealing Primal within it leading to his believed demise.^[6]

Beast Wars season 2

The subsequent explosion destroyed Primal, and bathed the planet in a quantum surge that mutated the superstructures of several of the Transformers, Megatron included. Megatron lost Terrorsaur and Scorponok in the surge, but also gained a more powerful transmetal form. With Primal's spark soon restored in a new transmetal body by Rhinox the Beast Wars continued. It was during this time that Dinobot mentioned that a "madness" was growing with Megatron and over the course of the rest of the Beast Wars, his plans became more and more dangerous as well as insane. This trend would continue all the way into its sequel series, Beast Machines. Megatron once again attempted control of an alien structure through the Golden disk. Planning to take the ship back to Cybertron, he was thwarted by an unlikely alliance between the Maximals and Tarantulas, which succeeded in destroying both the ship and the second Golden Disk.

With his attempts at amassing energon and Vok technology consistently foiled, the would-be tyrant attempted more dangerous means of victory - though still unwilling to fully implement his namesake's plan, he attempted to alter history in another way, by killing off the early humans before they could multiply into efficient numbers to cover the Earth, thereby stopping the race from aiding the Autobots in The Great War. The plan was foiled, however, by Dinobot, who single-handedly fought off the entire Predacon force and destroyed the Golden Disk (at the cost of his own life) with his eye beams, leaving Megatron with no remaining options.

However, before he could take any further steps, the transwarp wavefront from the explosion that had destroyed the Vok weapon reached Cybertron, alerting the Tripredacus Council to the location of Megatron. They dispatched their agent Ravage, a former Decepticon rebuilt in a Predacon body (however retaining this original Decepticon mode of a cassette), through time to eliminate all those involved in the Beast Wars - Predacon or Maximal. Masquerading as a Maximal ally, Ravage successfully captured Megatron, but when he bore witness to the recording made by the original Megatron, his old commander, on a shattered fragment of the Golden Disk, he promptly switched sides and aided in an attack on the Maximals that ended with his apparent death. Megatron, meanwhile, played his hand and returned to The Ark, unleashing a full-force point-blank blast upon the deactivated body of Optimus Prime.^[7]

Beast Wars season 3

With this fatal injury, time began to destabilize, until Optimus Primal took Prime's spark into his body to protect it while repairs were made. The timeline was preserved, but Megatron was now more determined than ever to claim victory.

After a series of experiments in creating new transmetal upgrades using the alien Transmetal Driver - yielding a transmetal II clone of Dinobot Megatron sought to duplicate the upgrade that Optimus Primal had undergone when he internalised Optimus Prime's spark. Stealing aboard The Ark once again, Megatron took the spark of the original Megatron into his body, only to find the process was not as smooth as that which had created Optimal Optimus, as his ancestor's spark proved difficult to assimilate into his body. As he struggled to survive, Tarantulas betrayed Megatron by having Quickstrike (who was using a device to control the massive power of Optimal Optimus) hurl the helpless Megatron into a lava pit. Shortly after, as Tarantulas exited The Ark, Megatron rose from the pit, the power of his ancestor's spark having mutated him into a powerful fire and ice breathing dragon form. After throwing the astonished traitor into a lava pit he engaged and almost defeated Optimus Primal, before the arrival of the other Maximals drove him away. However, it is heavily implied that Megatron had received an additional powerboost while he held the G1 Megatron's spark, for he told Primal- "Did you think you could stand against the fury of BOTH Megatrons?"

The Predacons then suffered a crippling blow when their base was destroyed by Tigerhawk, a Vok-created hybrid of Airazor and Tigatron with control over the elements sent to stop Megatron interfering further with the timeline. Even Megatron's mighty dragon mode was defeated, but Megatron was saved by the most unlikely transformer of all - Optimus Primal, who viewed the damage that would be done to the timeline by the destruction of the original Megatron's spark (housed in Megatron's body) as just as bad as the damage caused if Megatron was successful in murdering Optimus Prime.

Despite this setback, Megatron then began his most daring scheme yet and seized the power of the crashed Decepticon space cruiser, the Nemesis, after discovering that the recently deceased Tarantulas had been repairing it for his own purposes. He attempted to unleash its power on The Ark as well as dispatching most of his remaining troops to destroy the early human settlement. He would engage Optimus Primal in a final battle as his own troops fell all around him (some, ironically, by his own hand) or, in the case of the Dinobot clone and the long-suffering Waspinator, betrayed him. Before the final blow could be struck, Rhinox, tipped off as to its location by the Dinobot clone, crashed an Autobot shuttle into the bridge of the Nemesis, crippling the ship and forcing it to crash. Megatron's plans had finally been thwarted and he was at last captured by the Maximals. After returning the original Megatron's spark to his body (in a cut scene from the final episode), the Maximals chained Megatron to the upper hull of their craft, as they blasted off from Earth and entered transwarp space, heading back to Cybertron.

Although the Beast Wars show would establish Megatron as a smooth, manipulative villain always thinking a step ahead, the Japanese dub of the show and the later Beast Wars Metals (seasons two and three) would change Megatron's personality completely. To inject more humor into the show, the dub made Megatron out to be little more than a bumbling idiot whose main characteristic was screaming in a high-pitched voice whenever someone attacked him, a move that did not go over well with the Japanese audience.

Beast Machines

In Beast Machines, Megatron's personality underwent a change to become a much darker character.^[8] Losing many of his previous personality quirks, he developed a hatred of organics and free will, but oddly saw himself as a savior of Cybertron. His sense of humor vanished, replaced with "Machine Precision" and his plans had evolved to galactic conquest. He even developed some sense of honor, keeping his word to Rattrap in one case where he would have formerly taken advantage of an opponent. However, he still retained his strategic brilliance and manipulative abilities, outwitting the Maximals and other enemies with his plans on nearly every occasion.

Part-way into the journey back to Cybertron after the end of the Beast Wars, Megatron was able to break free of his bonds and exited the timestream early, returning to Cybertron a considerable time before his Maximal captors. Once there, he adopted a new, zealous philosophy, determining that both Maximal and Predacon alike were threats to the integrity of Cybertron. Megatron came to believe that individuality was the root of all disorder, and envisioned all of Cybertron united as one perfect, technologically precise entity whose destiny was to conquer and consolidate the universe—under his control, of course. Megatron used a virus to hinder transformation and paralyze Transformers, leading to their deaths or their spark's being extracted. From their bodies he created Vehicon Drones, all under his control. The process went on until nearly all the Transformers had been wiped off the face of Cybertron, leaving only the Vehicons, and Megatron himself, using a control harness to interface with all of Cybertron's systems and his Vehicon Armies.

In conjunction with his new scheme to erase individuality, Megatron has also developed a fervent hatred of organics, and in his quest to remake Cybertron as the perfect technosphere, dedicated him to the extermination of any and all organic influences on the planet, including his own beast mode. His attempts to purge the organics from his body repeatedly met with failure, and in moments when he would lose control of his emotions, the beast within him would take over, forcing him to detach from his harness and revert into the remnants of his dragon mode. This would render all Vehicons inert. Unable to fully purge the last vestiges of his beast mode from his body, Megatron stubbornly refused to render himself vulnerable even for an instant by simply moving his spark to another body (although he did this several times later in the series), therefore leaving him trapped in the very thing he hated the most, a partially organic beast form.

When the Maximals emerged from the timestream at their intended point in time, they found the planet under Megatron's control, and were immediately devolved to their original beast modes by the virus. The Vehicons captured Rhinox and Silverbolt, while Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Blackarachnia and Rattrap were able to escape, and were reformatted into technorganic forms by the Oracle shell program of the legendary Vector Sigma computer.

With his technological purity shattered by the arrival of the technorganic Maximals and the revelation that Cybertron had formerly been organic and still possessed an organic core, Megatron bestowed three of his drones with the reprogrammed sparks of Rhinox, Silverbolt and Waspinator, in order to allow them to better combat the Maximals, becoming Tankor, Jetstorm and Thrust respectively. This, however, led to Rhinox's memories and intellect being brought back to the surface by Primal, but, corrupted by Megatron's programming, Rhinox now agreed with Megatron's vision, and set about concocting his own schemes. Duping Megatron and Optimus Primal into using the power of the key to Vector Sigma and the Plasma Energy Chamber, respectively, Rhinox hoped they would destroy each other, leaving him to rule, but when his deception was exposed and the opposing energies released, it only resulted in his destruction. Additionally, when these two energies met in Megatron's citadel, Megatron took a chance and once again attempted to separate his organic and technological sides—only to wind up trapped in the organic half.

Wandering Cybertron in a purely organic body that transformed from humanoid wolf to dragon, Megatron took the name Noble, feigned innocence, and was taken in by the unwitting Maximals, and then exploited them to enable him to return to his citadel, where he transferred his spark into a new, purely technological body, a massive fortress in the shape of his own head, which transformed into a space cruiser. However, his Noble body did not die, remaining purely organic and sparkless, it developed its own primitive intellect.

Floating above the planet's surface, Megatron began anew his scheme for control by acquiring a portion of the Oracle's data from Primal and absorbing the captive sparks into his own, in an attempt to create one, unique intelligence. During this attempt, the Maximals attacked and Megatron killed Noble, destroying his organic half, resulting in a sonic scream of rage from the Maximal, Nightscream. This scream depolarized Megatron's spark, leaving it wildly flitting around Cybertron, seeking out a new body. Leaping from shell to shell, it found itself unable to remain in a body for long, until Rattrap realized the truth of the matter and repolarized it, trapping it in the frail body of a Diagnostic Drone.

Even as a Diagnostic Drone, Megatron could still access a number of weapon and defensive systems, and he escaped with the help of Strika and Obsidian. Then, his options expended, Megatron submitted to the procedure that would transfer his spark into a new body. Since there was no time to build a new one, he decides on a template. His sense of irony intact, the body he chose was based on one of Primal's "Optimal" forms — minus the beast mode and with a face resembling Megatron's previous incarnations instead of Primal's. (An interesting note is that Megatron was the only Transformer to keep the same 'face' throughout the Beast Wars and Beast Machines) With the immense strength and firepower this granted him, he easily managed to fight off Optimus- the only Maximal left standing after the titanic final battle with Megatron's forces-, and, with his long-time enemy unable to do anything but watch, Megatron began the absorption of Cybertron's sparks, growing to three times his size. Opening a tunnel to the planet's center, Megatron threatened to activate the key to Vector Sigma at its core, transforming the whole world into a perfect technosphere and he would then transfer his consciousness into the planet and then go forth to conquer the universe. Fortunately Megatron could not access the Key while Primal still controlled half of the Oracle, but the massive Megatron simply attempted to separate Primal from the Oracle completely and began to convert Cybertron's organic core. However Primal fought back, overcoming Megatron's power and turning Megatron's throne into organic matter, trapping the Vehicon Leader. Telling Megatron that he needed to find the balance not only between the organic and the technological, but the balance between eternal enemies like him and Megatron, Optimus eventually pushed his foe off-balance, sending the two combatants tumbling down the shaft into Cybertron's organic core. There, together, these two seeds of the future were buried in the past, and, in death, Primal used the Oracle to reformat the entire world into a technorganic paradise.^[9]

BotCon comics

Megatron's sudden development of a transformation-freezing virus, spark-extraction and Vehicon technology and drones went without explanation in the animated series, with the large time gap between his return and the Maximals' left to serve as a grey area in which these innovations occurred. The comics exclusive to the BotCon convention, however, shone some light on this period of time, and revealed that upon his return to Cybertron, Megatron met his former mentor, Cryotek. Cryotek offered to free Megatron of his beast mode by transferring most of it to himself, only to have the transfer send him into a period of stasis lock. Megatron went into seclusion, using Cryotek's plundered inventions to develop the technology that he used to enslave Cybertron.

3H Enterprises

Megatron featured in several of the comics available exclusively at the BotCon Transformers convention, appearing in each of his different forms. He made his first Botcon appearance in a brief role in the 1997 comic in his original form where he was impressed by Fractyl's seeming new vigor in fighting Maximals.

He reappeared in his transmetal body in the 1998 play (voiced by Kaye) and the subsequent comic, where he defeated, captured and tortured the mysterious Transformer Antagony. Megatron realized she was from the future, and determined to acquire the secrets of his own destiny from her mind, but she activated a failsafe device that wiped her memory, denying Megatron what he sought.

Megatron returned in BotCon 2000s "Reaching the Omega Point", now in his dragon form, as the Maximals and Predacons came under attack first by Windrazor, a powerful Fuzor that Megatron was able to defeat, only to have it fuse with Unicron's essence, then from Shokaract, a future Predacon that had merged with the essence of Unicron. A spate of time anomalies, including Windrazor's fusion, threatened to ensure this union never happened and Shokaract wanted to ensure his own future, but Megatron used this situation to his advantage, destabilizing Unicron's essence in order to blackmail Shockaract into revealing Megatron's future. Megatron battled Shokaract, but even he was overpowered as Shokaract anchored Unicron's essence in his timeframe. However, even Megatron joined the final battle against Shokaract, aided by a group of Transformers legends, including the original Megatron.

In the BotCon exclusive Transformers Universe - Wreckers storyline Megatron developed a number of Vehicons with sparks not seen in the television series to counter the growing threat of not just Primal's Maximals, but the Mutants, Dinobots and the Wreckers. However, while Quake, Blastcharge and Spy Streak served him loyally, Cyclonus, Skywarp, Devcon and Rotorbolt openly rebelled against him and joined the Wreckers. The Vehicon Mirage was also mentioned in Apelinq's war journals.

Robot Masters

The short-lived Transformers: Robot Masters line released exclusively in Japan saw Megatron transported through the mysterious "Blastizone" to Earth in the early 21st Century, where he sided with the Decepticons, currently led by Starscream after the disappearance of Megatron. Dubbed "Beast Megatron" to distinguish him from his predecessor, Megatron bested Starscream and took leadership of the Decepticons until the original Megatron returned in the form of Reverse Convoy, and the two Megatrons merged their energies to create the "Double Megatron Tornado". This power, however, was thwarted by the "Triple Convoy Tornado Link Attack" formed from the energy of Optimus Prime, Optimus Primal and Lio Convoy.

Oddly, the Robot Masters series depicted Megatron standing as tall as original Decepticon characters, when Maximals and Predacons were much smaller. Additionally, he is capable of robot-mode flight, and breathes fire in dinosaur mode, none of which he could do in the Beast Wars TV Series.

Dreamwave Productions

Megatron's earliest fictional depiction in comics was in a two part short story told in Dreamwave's Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye series of character profiles. The tale started and finished the series, showing a mysterious figure (who would be revealed at the story's close as Megatron) and his accomplice accessing the supercomputer Vector Sigma through a node in an ancient Autobot library and viewing the profiles of the Autobots and Decepticons of the Great War (in reality the character profiles of the series). As the accomplice dispatched a Maximal security agent his leader obtained the Golden Disk and announced he wished to be addressed as Megatron from now on, implying he took the name after viewing the profile of the original Megatron.

In addition to his surprise appearance in Dreamwave's More Than Meets The Eye series (see above) Megatron was also set to appear in Dreamwave's unpublished Beast Wars comic. Although the company's bankruptcy meant that no issues were released, released art and information have revealed that the second issue would have dealt with Megatron's trial on Cybertron at the hands of Magmatron.^[10]

IDW Publishing

IDW Publishing's 2006 comic book, Beast Wars: The Gathering, saw Megatron's old rival from Cybertron, Magmatron, travel back to the time of the Beast Wars (shortly after Megatron's failed attempt at killing Optimus Prime) at the behest of the Tripredacus Council. Activating all the remaining stasis pods on the planet, Magmatron quickly assembled a Predacon army of his own, including a reanimated Ravage. Although Magmatron had ambitions to stage a coup like Megatron, he did not want to reveal his intentions to the Tripredacus Council yet, and aimed to capture Megatron for them as his mission required, to divert suspicion. Revealing himself to Megatron, the two would-be tyrants battled, but Megatron was captured when Magmatron's lackeys Iguanus and Drill Bit managed to knock Megatron out. Magmatron aimed to send him back to Cybertron, but due to the intervention of Razorbeast, Optimus Minor and Grimlock, Magmatron was sent back to Cybertron instead. Razorbeast left the unconscious Megatron on Earth, fearing an alteration to the time stream if he captured him.

Megatron's presence would be felt in IDW's second Beast Wars series as well, as Ravage (resurrected as a Transmetal by Magmatron) aimed to capture Razorbeast's chronal armband, which would allow him to interfere with the "main" timestream (the Beast Wars of the TV show). He planned to free Megatron from his imprisonment on the Autobot shuttle and ally with him to kill all the Maximals on the planet. His plan was thwarted by Razorbeast. However, in the very last panel of the series, Megatron is seen overlooking a ravaged Cybertron, presumably having just arrived from his long transwarp journey before his Maximal rivals.

Megatron had a biography printed in the Beast Wars Sourcebook by IDW Publishing.^[11]

Fun Publications

Megatron was featured in the 2006 BotCon tale Timelines: Dawn of Futures Past, which picked up where the Dreamwave story left off. Much more of the background surrounding his theft of the Golden Disk artifacts was revealed. A feared general in the Predacon army, he went rogue from the Predacons after the signing of the Pax Cybertronia, and took the name of Megatron. He swiftly gathered a crew of like-minded individuals and, while Waspinator and Terrorsaur stole a ship, he, Dinobot and Scorponok stole the disk, battling the guards and destroying one, leaving the other to commandeer a ship to pursue them. Picked up by their ship, they fled and were pursued by two ships - one of which was the Axalon. Tarantulas was able to decode enough information from the Golden Disk to set a course through transwarp space. With a little help from Laserbeak and Buzzsaw (secretly sent by Divebomb to ensure Megatron's plan to change history succeeded) they destroyed one of their pursuers, and the newly christened Dark Side fled into Transwarp space, with the Axalon in pursuit - thus beginning the Beast Wars.^[12] To marry the visual appearance of Megatron's pre-Beast form seen in the first episode of the Beast Wars animated series (indeed, Megatron was the only character whose entire body was depicted, albeit briefly, prior to reformatting into a beast mode) with the toy of the character available exclusively at the convention, the story notes that Megatron adopts a detachable suit of armor that transforms into a missile tank, similar to a Pretender Shell or Ultra Magnus' outer armor in Dreamwave's series. The tank is his toy; the profile given for the character in the widespread release of the comic notes that his original body transforms into a hover tank. Notably, Timelines presents a slightly different version of the disk's theft to the story presented in Dreamwave comics. In Timelines, Megatron seems to already be known to other characters by that name, whereas in Dreamwave's story, he only takes the name after taking possession of the disk. Whether the two are reconcilable is unknown.

Megatron appeared in the 2008 BotCon voice actor play "Bee in the City", voiced by David Kaye. After losing Optimus Prime and Sari to the Transtech incarnation of Shockwave, Bumblebee and Flareup meet Megatron, who goes by the name of "Joe" to avoid any attraction. Learning of the Allspark key on Sari's person, Megatron offers his aid. Once Bumblebee frees his friends, Megatron reveals himself as he uses the key to bring an army to life. However, when his army realize the consequence of their coming to being within Transtech Cybertron, a mutiny ensures as Megatron is dragged off while vowing revenge.

Megatron's story continued in the pages of the biography printed by Fun Publications for the 25th Anniversary Optimus Primal toy. Even his death at the conclusion of Beast Machines would not be the end of Megatron's villainy. Due to the inextricable link that had been forged between himself and Optimus Primal when Cybertron was reformatted, Primal's return to life to lead the "Children of Primus" against the machinations of Unicron meant that Megatron was also brought back to the land of the living. This time, however, the two old enemies found themselves in an uneasy alliance, travelling from universe to universe to wherever the multiversal conflict had spread.

Video games

Megatron appears in the 1999 Gameboy Color video game Ketō Transformers Beast Wars: Beast Senshi Saikyō Ketteisen. He is a playable character in the fighting games Transformers Battle Universe, a Net Jet game. He is among the licensed characters in the PC video game Beast Wars Transformers.^[13]

Other media

Megatron appears among the characters in Re-Unification, the 2010 TFCon voice actor play prelude comic.^[14]

He was featured in the Beast Wars Transformers Mutating Card Game by Parkr Brothers.^[15]

Toys

• Beast Wars Basic Optimus Primal vs. Megatron (1996)

The very first Megatron toy was a flip changer alligator, packaged alongside a bat version of Optimus Primal. The pack-in comic book, however, indicated that this Megatron and Primal were in fact new incarnations of the original Megatron and Optimus Prime -- when the Beast Wars animated series began and established its fiction, this idea was dropped, and all subsequent toys had profiles written in-line with the show. Another dropped idea was an imagining of Megatron and Optimus Prime being able to shapeshift from the alligator and bat bodies to their famous ultra-sized forms (making them "quadri-changers"). The figure was later redecoed in purples for a Japanese-exclusive release as Megalligator.

This Beast Wars alligator Megatron is often referred to as "Gatortron" by the fans.

• Beast Wars Ultra Megatron (1996)

Megatron's original "Ultra" size class T. rex body, equipped with several special gimmicks. The toy features a pair of spring-loaded missile launchers in its hips (used only once in the show, against Terrorsaur in "Power Surge"), and a gear-operated claw-shield for a left arm (missile launcher in the show, however). His right arm - the T. rex head - contains a pressure-activated water gun which squirts streams of liquid through a bellows when the mouth is opened. The largest individual Predacon toy released in the pre-transmetal era, Megatron was not entirely identical to his animated counterpart, primarily due to the presence of a "mutant mask" that formed an alternate face for the figure (although early animation tests showed Megatron looking more like the toy). This toy was repainted as the Dinobot T-Wrecks in the Beast Machines line. This version of Megatron features all 10s on his tech specs.^[16]

• According to DVD extras from one release of the Beast Wars animated series a working name for this toy was "Galvatron".

• Beast Wars Micro Megatron (1997)

A small, non-transforming Megatron toy that came with the Arachnid MicroVerse playset. This toy looked like a tiny version of alligator Megatron in robot mode.

• Beast Wars Red Ant Megatron (plans altered) (1997)

Beast Wars' story editor Bob Forward revealed in an interview that "For a while there Hasbro was planning to make the Inferno toy the new Megatron. We were going to kill Megatron and bring him back as Inferno." [1] For unknown reasons, Hasbro changed their minds and released Inferno as a separate character.

• Beast Wars Transmetal T. rex Megatron (1997)

Megatron's new transmetal form, released in the "Mega" size class. Transmetal Megatron is armed with a flexible claw weapon formed from the tail of his T. rex mode, and possesses a third "transport" mode involving two hip-mounted VTOL engines and wheels that deploy from his feet, acting like roller skates.

Transmetal Megatron was later remolded as the Decepticon named Predacon for the Transformers: Armada toyline in 2003.

Transmetal Megatron was voted the 4th strangest Transformers Beast Wars figure by Topless Robots.^[17]

• Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Dragon Megatron (1998)

In his new body, Megatron now transforms into a monstrous red dragon. With a push of the switch on his back, his wings fan outward, and a lever in his dragon-mode neck allows the flexible rubber to be moved, posed and locked in a straight position. The toy is armed with three missiles, two of which can store under his wings, while the third can be fired from either the dragon mouth or a launcher above the robot mode head. The toy features "transport mode" in which wheels and turbines deploy from the dragon mode legs.

This toy was repainted in icy blues and purples to become Cryotek for the Transformers: Robots in Disguise toyline, with the character then incorporated into Megatron's history by the BotCon comics.

• Beast Machines Megatron (2000)

Although released in the "Mega" size class, the solitary Beast Machines Megatron figured released in the American toyline is in fact smaller in stature than the next size class down, a Deluxe. The figure transforms into a pale imitation of the character's dragon mode, reflecting Megatron's attempts to purge his organic beast mode in the show. (As Beast Wars' transmetal II dragon Megatron was still found on shelves when this version of Megatron was released, it was not quite as well received, and mainly used as a low-budget substitute to the transmetal II.)^[18]

This figure was based on drawings by Hasbro designer Tim Bradley.^[19]

• Beast Machines McDonalds Megatron (2000)

A smaller version of the Beast Machines toy, given away with McDonalds Happy Meals.

• Robots in Disguise Megabolt Megatron/Megahead Megatron (2004)

Although designed to be part of the Beast Machines toyline, this figure of Megatron's fortress/spaceship body was aborted, and then revived for the Robots in Disguise toyline in 2002, where it was reimagined as a new body for that universe's Megatron. As an added feature, fans and collectors discovered that if the spider-like legs of the toy's "giant head mode" were removed, it would fit perfectly into Fortress Maximus's head cavity, which matched allusions made on Megabolt Megatron's RiD file card profile. When Beast Machines was then released in Japan in 2004 as Beast Wars Returns, the figure was redecoed and released as the character it was originally intended to represent, under the name "Megahead Megatron."

Although no proper name is offered for this body in the animated series, beyond the flippant use of "Megahead" by Cheetor, a later short story by Beast Machines writer Robert N. Skir dubbed the body the "Grand Mal" for unknown reasons. That name also featured in the scripts for the show.

• Robot Masters Beast Megatron (2004)

A newly-designed body for the Robot Masters line based on Megatron's original T. rex form, though smaller. Most notably, the T. rex tail/shield/claw arm, which was non-removable on the original figure, is a separate piece on this figure, with a full arm sculpted to which it attaches. This toy was only released by Takara, not by Hasbro. A black repaint of this toy was released in limited numbers as well.^[20]

• Disco Duck (2005)

A Dairycon 2005 exclusive collectible available only to attendees, this toy such was inspired by Megatron's rubber duck.^[21]

• Universe Megatron (unreleased)

A proposed exclusive for a future BotCon, this Megatron would have been a remolded version of Transformers: Robots in Disguise Megatron in the colors of Megatron's transmetal dragon body, with a new headsculpt based on Megatron's traditional head design (as well as remolded dragon heads) and a new accessory in the form of his famous rubber duck. Although the toy never materialized due to 3H Enterprises' loss of the license to the convention, the appearance of Megatron's glowing eyes within shadow in the Transformers: Universe comic books was intended to foreshadow the figure.

• Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Deluxe Megatron (2006)

In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Beast Wars line, a series of show-accurate redecoes of original Beast Wars figures were released. Megatron and Optimus Primal, however, received entirely new sculpts with Jungle Planet Cyber Planet Key gimmicks. Inserting the key into Megatron's tail reveals a firing missile launcher. The toy came packaged with a small model of the Darksyde. The Transformers: Cybertron fiction published exclusively in the newsletter exclusive to the Transformers Collector's Club established Primal's 10th Anniversary body in continuity, suggesting that Megatron's return to life in the Universe comics was in his own 10th Anniversary form. The back of the box of this version of Megatron had a printing error which referred to the included "Predacon" ship, so Hasbro placed a correcting label over it.^[22]

This figure was based on drawings by Hasbro designer Tim Bradley.^[19]

This figure was quickly redecoed in the color scheme of the above-mentioned Armada Predacon for the Transformers: Cybertron toyline itself, presented as a new, Jungle Planet body for that universe's Megatron.

• Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Ultra Megatron (2006)

Japan's take on the tenth anniversary of the Beast Wars franchise saw them remold and recolor the original Megatron and Primal toys in a two pack with more show-accurate appearances after demands from the fans. Megatron received a new head mould removing his "beast face" and several other modifications to his paint applications. This version was released with this version of Primal in a two-pack as a Toys-R-Us exclusive in 2006.^[23]

• Titanium 3 inch Megatron (2006)

A three-inch tall non-transforming die-cast representation of Megatron's original body, including a translucent Decepticon-symbol display stand.^[24]

• Timelines Megatron (2006)

An exclusive toy available only at BotCon 2006, this incarnation of Megatron is a recolor of the Transformers: Cybertron Cybertron Defense Red Alert figure. It is considered the most coveted of the exclusive Botcon toys to date due to the character's popularity and the fact that the figure was limited to a run of only five hundred figures making it extremely rare. With a new headsculpt of Megatron's traditional design, representing Megatron in his original Cybertronian body before acquiring his Tyrannosaurus mode, the figure transforms into a rocket-launching armored vehicle and, with the insertion of the toy's "Golden Disk holder" key (a redecoed Cyber Planet Key) into its port, the rocket splits open to reveal a launching missile. This Megatron and the accompanying Timelines Dinobot are the first Predacon toys to feature Mini-Con ports.

• Transformers 3D Battle-Card Game Predacon Megatron (2007)

Produced by Wizards of the Coast, wave 2 of their Transformers 3D Battle-Card Game included a Predacon Megatron card.

References

• Furman, Simon (2004). Transformers: The Ultimate Guide. DK Publishing Inc.. p. 82. ISBN 1405304618. 

External links

• Megatron at the Transformers wiki