Straight off the shelf and on to the table we have Transformers: Titans Return – Galvatron. Galvatron first appeared in Transformers: The Movie in 1986 and since then has had only a few figures made. The quality of which has been debatable. Looking back, I’m glad I missed out on the Universe version. His Titans Return outing looks promising at least, so here we go.

First Impressions

Galvatron appears this time in the Voyager scale which makes for a fairly decent size. His colour scheme matches his original appearance and he has that recent “classic but new” feel about him. He still looks like Galvatron but with more fine details and modern design cues.

Accessories

You don’t get a lot of accessories with this figure. Do they even count as accessories if they’re an integral part of the character? Apart from the base figure, included in the package are his Particle Cannon and a removable head that goes by the name of Nucleon. “Nucleon gives Galvatron a universal systems upgrade with powerful but unstable results.” That sounds like Galvatron alright – overwhelming power at any cost. It’s interesting to see Hasbro bring back the old Headmaster line that first appeared back in the G1 days.

The head/Nucleon can transform into a little robot mode that looks a lot like a tiny G1 Megatron. So like the original Headmasters, the heads are interchangeable with other Titans Return figures. There’s very minimal paint apps on Nucleon which is a bit disappointing, even though it is a very tiny figure. At the end of the day, you only really get the important stuff with no extras, apart from the instruction sheet and a collector’s card.

Articulation

Galvatron moves quite well given his size. The head can turn left and right well enough but can only offer a slight tilt in the left, right, up and down directions. The blue faceplate doesn’t move at all so it looks silly if you turn the head while the faceplate is up. The shoulders can rotate all the way around and have a bit of ratchet to them. There’s a bicep swivel and the double joint in the elbows allows for a decent curl. The wrists can turn in due the transformation, but sadly there’s no swivel there.

There’s a swivel at the waist and thighs and the hips have a wide range of movement. The knees can only bend just past 90˚ and the joints in the ankles help Galvatron to plant his feet on the ground more securely.

All this adds up to make Galvatron fairly poseable so you won’t have any trouble getting him into some dynamic poses. Although not being able to really turn the head with the faceplate up complicates things.

Not-Megatron has very limited articulation due to his tiny size. He has ball joints at the head and shoulders as well as hinges at the hips and knees. His legs are moulded together so all he can do is sit really.

Transformations

This time around Galvatron appears as a triple changer. There are the usual cannon and robot modes, and this time they’ve added a spaceship mode (because why not, that’s why). Once you get through the transformations the first time, it’s pretty easy to repeat the process.

Cannon mode looks fairly decent. What you’d expect from Galvatron really. It’s nice to have him get back to his original alt mode and not have him be some sort of truck, or tank, or something. The massive Particle Cannon plugs in to complete the iconic look. The cockpit/nose kibble folds away underneath, just barely clearing surface level. The tracks are moulded and there aren’t even any little wheels to roll on – love them or hate them.

There is a spaceship mode, but it feels kind of unnecessary. The only part that makes it look like a spaceship is some tacked on cockpit and nose assembly. I would have preferred to have had just the cannon and robot modes done well than to have 2.5 modes in a triple changer. But hey, the spaceship mode does have that retro arcade shoot-em-up feel to it. Suitable for a character that originated in the 1980’s when you think about it.

How do you like your arcade shoot-em-ups?

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Conclusion

Transformers Titans Return Galvatron is a pretty solid figure in its own right. Fans of the original Transformers Movie should be sure to pick him up. He certainly looks the part, and will make for a decent addition for those looking to fill a Galvatron sized hole in their collections. I will add that Hasbro really missed an opportunity here to do something worthwhile with the Particle Cannon. It’s quite a large single piece, but there’s no firing mechanism or light-up gimmick to it. Even one of the more recent Grimlocks has a light-up chest area. To have a large gun that doesn’t fire or light up is a bit of a disappointment.

This particular version of Galvatron is a lot like the new movies – it’s new and updated and retains a lot of its original charms, but it’s not without its flaws and could have been a whole lot better. It also works as a much cheaper alternative to one of the recent Masterpiece versions which only appear to be made by 3rd party manufacturers.

Galvatron can be found at the link below along with other Transformers in the Titans Return range.