Studio Series 86 Megatron

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Summary:

This is essentially a Voyager size figure at the Leader class price. Hasbro doesn’t tie price strictly to size like they used to, so how does this one justify the upgrade? Well it has above average articulation, including fingers with separate index fingers like SS86 Optimus. And it has 54 transformation steps, compared to Optimus’ 40.

But there is an inherent problem with making a “Studio Series” Megatron: you can’t do the alt mode, especially if you’re Hasbro. So they made it a tank, which breaks the Studio Series implicit rule of screen accuracy. But what else can they do?

Even so, I’d say the tank mode has issues. We might say this is the alternate version of Megatron where his Earth mode is a tank instead of a gun. But this doesn’t look like an Earth tank: the barrel is way too big and it has a gun sight on the end.

The other issue is the turret rotation: the hinge is at the back, so it doesn’t look good when it’s turned.

Mine also has a couple of bits of stray paint, only visible in tank mode, as if someone was testing their brush.

The bright side is that the bot mode looks great, and more screen accurate than Optimus because there’s no backpack. I like to transform my Transformers, but I think I’ll keep this one in bot mode.

Studio Series 86 Optimus Prime

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Summary:

I didn’t grab SS86 Optimus right away because of 4 concerns:

Did it really earn the Commander Class price point?
Those windshield tab holes bug me.
I’m not a fan of the boost effects.
Is it different enough from my other Optimus Primes?

And then as I opened it, I discovered a 5th issue: the smokestacks are surprisingly loose. They come out of place just while posing or transforming it.

My conclusions on the other questions:

The price is pretty much justified, comparing the complexity of it to Earthrise Optimus Prime, including number of parts.
Thanks to Toyhax, I can cover up the tab holes.
The boost effects did not win me over.
I do feel like it earns a spot on my shelf, and it’s actually mostly because the trailer is so much better than the Earthrise one.

So, including the smokestack issue, that makes it 3 out of 5 issues where I’m satisfied.

Studio Series on David T Catmull

Studio Series 86 Megatron

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Studio Series 86 Optimus Prime

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