Megatron (BW)
Megatron is a Predacon and a Vehicon in the Beast Era portion of Generation 1 continuity.
Megatron has one goal -- restoring glory and power to the Predacon race, with himself at the helm. What distinguishes Megatron from the countless others who share this goal at various volumes is his chutzpah. He is willing to risk everything -- time, space, himself -- if need be.
Megatron is skillful at orchestrating vast schemes by manipulating others into doing them for him -- an idle suggestion here, a conspicuously-planted object of interest there. He knows his enemies inside and out and exactly how to provoke them. He has no friends, only pawns. Because of this attitude, this superiority complex, he despises working with the very troops he needs to carry out his plans. His hubris does not make him very popular, and so he must rely on power and fear to rule them.
Megatron is a gambler and can sometimes be a ham. (His manner of saying "Yesss..." is practically vaudevillian.) He has a twisted sense of humor and an over-developed sense of drama which rule everything he conceives, both long and short term. When he destroys you, he wants you to know that it was he who did this, and just how badly you were had. This is his greatest weakness. Like a Bond villain, he'll gladly boast to the hero at length about how smart and clever he was, giving his victim time to formulate a counterattack. He often sabotages himself by neglecting the quick and easy solutions for the bigger, meaner, and more complex.
Note: the Japanese dub of Beast Wars chose to interject humor at every available opportunity. Due to this, Megatron's personality and character were taken on a complete U-turn. Instead of being a smooth and charismatic leader, he was a screaming maniac and a bumbling oaf. His most notable character-trait in Japan was that whenever he was fired-upon or startled he would let-out a high-pitched shriek like a little girl.
Japanese name: Megalligator (alligator)
European-market name: Dragone (Transmetal 2), Metal T-Rex (Transmetal)
Fiction
Animated continuity
Timelines: Dawn of Futures Past
Dreamwave Comics continuity
After stealing the Golden Disk (wrongly drawn as the Alien Disk), he broke into Vector Sigma along with Dinobot and reviewed historical files on many of the Autobots and Decepticons from the Generation 1 era. He subsequently adopted the name "Megatron" for himself. (Note: Possibly of negligible canon. We know Megatron had taken his name earlier than the theft, and Megatron even steals the wrong disk.)
Beast Wars
Voice actor: David Kaye (US), Shigeru Chiba (Japan)
(Note: background which occured only in the Japanese timeline appears in italics.)
On Cybertron, Megatron had a rivalry with Galvatron, the Predacon Emperor of Destruction. Megatron did not agree with Galvatron's plans in regards to galactic invasion and the over-throwing of Maximal power, leading the two to have a brief skirmish. Megatron momentarily let his guard down, allowing Galvatron to gain the upper hand and win the battle.
Megatron assembles a crew of Predacons to steal the Golden Disk to find Earth, to follow the original Megatron's plans to alter time, with the cover story of looking for Energon. After stealing the Disk, Megatron and his Predacon crew in the Darkside are chased by the Axalon, a Maximal exploration vessel. To escape, the Predacons activate a Transwarp portal to perhistoric Earth. In the tussle that follows, both ships crash onto the planet.
There, none of the Transformers but Megatron are aware of where they are, taking beast forms to protect against the massive amount of Energon radiation on the planet. Megatron takes the form of a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Later, Dinobot chasties Megatron, accusing him of leading the Predacons to the wrong planet and challenges Megatron for leadership of the Predacons. Megatron simply ignores the challenge and has Scorponok blast him off to the horizon.
Tales of the Beast Wars
IDW Beast Wars: The Gathering comics
After dispatching Rampage and Inferno to oversee the installation of Sentinel into the Darkside, Megatron was attacked by Magmatron, who had been assigned to arrest him by the Tripredacus Council. Although Megatron kicked Magmatron's ass, he was ambushed and paralyzed by Iguanus and Drill Bit. Magmatron intended to use a transwarp shunt to transport his prisoner back to Cybertron, the intervention of Grimlock, Optimus Minor, and Razorbeast, Magmatron was sent home empty-handed. Razorbeast was tempted to dispatch the prone Megatron, but released him instead, due to his desire to avoid interfering with the timeline.
{Note: Razorbeast's refusal to destroy Megatron in order to preserve the timeline is puzzling, as Razorbeast and Megatron are contemporaries.]
Beast Wars Metals manga
(Note: although it picks up after the events of the first season, the Beast Wars Metals manga is not in-continuity with the television series.)
Megatron is presented in the Beast Wars Metals manga precisely as he was in the Japanese dub of the television series (a bumbling oaf), constantly leading the Predacons against the forces of the Maximals.
Beast Machines
Voice actor: David Kaye (US), Shigeru Chiba (Japan)
Breaking free from his constraints on the Autobot shuttle while it travelled through transwarp space, Megatron arrived back home on Cybertron well before the Maximals did. Using technology of his own devising and of Cryotek's, he took over the entire planet, and stored the spark of every last inhabitant under his citadel.
When the Maximals arrived in their shuttle, they found the planet empty aside from countless mindless drones controlled by Megatron. Megatron's drones immediately bombarded the Maximals with devolving gas to revert their powerful Transmetal bodies to normal beast mode bodies, and they were also affected by a transformation lock virus which Megatron had used to help him conquer the planet in the first place.
Despite his best efforts, the Maximals escaped, and learned to transform again after Primal used the Oracle's power to reformat them. They began making short work of his Vehicons, so he removed three sparks from his collection to create Vehicon generals which could think on their feet in battle. For the generals he chose sparks of Transformers that the Maximals already knew, such that if they ever discovered the sparks' identities, they would be reluctant to destroy them: Silverbolt became Jetstorm, Rhinox became Tankor, and Waspinator became Thrust.
Ultimately, Megatron succeeded in capturing the sparks of all the Maximals, leaving just Optimus Primal and himself as the only two Transformers on the entire planet. At the end of a fierce one-on-one fight, in which Megatron wore a copy of the powerful Optimal Optimus body, Megatron began consuming his amassed sparks, growing ever more powerful. However, when he attempted to use the Key to Vector Sigma to transform the planet's organic core into technomatter, Primal managed to dislodge them both. They plummeted into the planet's goopy core and, somehow, Primal was able to reformat the entire planet, destroying himself and Megatron completely, but freeing all the lost sparks to repopulate their newly redecorated planet.
Universe
When Optimus Primal's spark is retrieved from the core of Cybertron to protect the multiverse, this action freed Megatron's spark as well. The reborn Megatron returned to the ranks of the Predacons, but this time, Optimus Primal found himself in an uneasy alliance with him against Unicron. Megatron travelled with his old nemesis from universe to universe, wherever the growing multiversal conflict had spread. But now with Unicron disappeared into the Unicron Singularity, it remains to be seen whether Megatron's insane ambition will resurface.
Robot Masters
Robot Masters Pack-In Manga
Robot Masters Online Manga
Robot Masters DVD Cartoon
Voice actor: Toshitsugu Takashina (Japan)
Beast Wars Reborn Manga
Transformers Legends Anthology
Toys
Beast Wars
- Megatron (vs 2-pack)
- Japanese ID number: D-06
- Megatron
- Japanese ID number: D-01
- Megatron (Transmetal)
- Japanese ID number: D-40
- Megatron (Transmetal 2)
- Japanese ID number: D-47
- Megatron (Beast Wars Tenth Anniversary)
- Megatron (Beast Wars Reborn)
- Japanese ID number: BWR-01
Beast Machines
- Megatron
- Megatron (Happy Meal)
- Beast Changer
- Japanese ID number: BR-11
- Megatron (Beast Wars Returns)
- Japanese ID number: BR-05
- Megahead Megatron (Beast Wars Returns)
- Japanese ID number: BR-12
Robot Masters
- Beast Megatron
- Japanese ID number: RM-02
Titanium Series
- Beast Wars Megatron (3" Robot Master)
Merchandise
External Links
