[Transformers] Generations Deluxe Class Wave 2

Continuing off after my review of the first wave of Transformers Generations Deluxe-class figures, this second wave only consists of two figures where the first wave had four. And given that there were other toylines based on the Michael Bay movies also being released, the Generations line would continue with these smaller release cycles for quite some time.

If you have been keeping track, then you would have noticed that the first wave consisted of 3 Autobots and only 1 Decepticon. This second wave seemed intent on trying to even the score a bit with the addition of two more Decepticons - although their choice of Decepticons may have skewed things instead.

After all, both figures represent leaders of the Decepticons at one time or another. Thus they represent some pretty heavy firepower brought to the table indeed.

As far as Transformers figures go, these two characters do have some pretty stellar machismo in either mode. And yes, they both transform into tanks, since Decepticons always get the cooler alternate modes. It's a thing.

Cybertronian Megatron is another figure coming from the War for Cybetron game. He does look pretty cool in his robot form, although I'll admit the actual transformation was rather simple to a slightly disappointing degree. And things just don't snap in place as much as I'd want them to - especially for his main cannon on his right arm. It's rather delicately balanced and if you nudge it the wrong way it comes right off.

But it's still a cute gun and of course it can fire off a fun translucent projectile.

His arms are sadly deficient in the flexibility department. In fact, you can only roughly pivot them at the elbow and the fingers themselves are rigid things that swivel in and out of his forearms. And I have no idea what's with the pincher on his shoulder plus his snow shoe style feet. They do give him some rather impressive stability but they don't offer much in terms of additional poseability options.

His vehicle mode definitely looks better, but when you examine it the result is weird feeling of it being rather hollow. But it is still rather stylish given it is supposed to be a hover tank and thus his treads do decently retract if you want them too (but that may be more outside the official instructions).

Admittedly I do admit that I enjoyed how his gun integrates efficiently as the tank's cannon. It's shame that you can't swivel the cannon though - he has to turn his entire body in order to acquire a new target. Comes with the territory I suppose. Overall, he's a decent figure and somewhat reminiscent of the Transformers Animated version of Megatron.

The 2nd figure in this wave is a little harder to recognize, but is still fun. Officially he's named Darkmount due to licensing issues with his actual name - Straxus. While he was not featured in any of the cartoons, he was a rather big figure in the original Marvel Comics series based on the Transformers. For a time he was leader of the Decepticons and even Megatron feared what he was capable of. He was that bad ass.

Since his coloring in the comics was a tad inconsistent, I liked the final template that they toy designers ended up with this figure. It's a nice balance that doesn't look too cheesy and keep him pretty scary - except maybe for the size of his head. Plus he has his signature axe, which is definitely a good thing.

His feet could be more stable, but beggars can't be choosers, I suppose. He does have a relatively decent range of motion for those of you keen to pose him in different ways, but he's also rather top-heavy and the empty shell created by his treads makes for a horrible way to disrupt the figure's balance. So yeah, maybe they didn't quite think things through.

His vehicle mode is another gnarly tank, although more of an artillery vehicle. He also has a number of interesting c-joint guns that can be moved around whether in vehicle mode or in robot mode. This is certainly something that became popular with a number of other Generations figures such as Wheeljack's wrenches or Sergeant Kup's rifle.

Straxus also has a weird third mode where he transformers into a battle station of some sort. I'm not sure what scale he was supposed to be in since it made for a very small station and I could imagine it more as a heavy gun that another Deluxe-class figure could stand behind like a heavy weapons platform or something. This mode is rather forgettable and I rarely find myself transforming him into it.

On the whole, this second wave of Generations figures was still interesting but not necessarily all that amazing. I need to penalize Megatron for his limited poseability options and thus gets 3.5 out of 5. Straxus is decent but at times overly complex and the third mode was just weird - so he's 4 out of 5.