Megaplex
From Transformers Wiki
- Megaplex is a Decepticon from the Machine Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Megaplex is one of a series of specially constructed clones of Megatron. He exists to foment confusion in the Autobot ranks and protect against traitors among the Decepticons. He has led many battles in Megatron's stead.[1]
While Megaplex is ideally endowed with the same power as the original Megatron, the Decepticons' true leader is no fool. Realizing that a being based so closely on his own nature and with equal power would be quite likely to make a play to permanently replace him, Megatron thus had his clones constructed with a failsafe device that significantly restricts their abilities. Thus, though Megaplex is easily able to pass as Megatron for short periods of time, his intelligence, strength, firepower, and skill are capped at levels significantly below those of the real Megatron. The deception is likely to work best on the battlefield, from a distance, or when Megaplex is following a strict script set by the original.[2]
Megaplex prefers close-quarters combat, tearing into his opponents with his electron sword and energy flail. For artillery he prefers liquid helium "Freeze Shells".
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Fiction
Legends comic
During the battle for the Transform Super Cog in the late 1980s, Megatron used Megaplex as a decoy on the battlefield. When the Jumpstarters were fooled and blasted Megaplex, Megatron seized the opportunity and sicced Sunstorm on the Autobots. Slugslinger's Ambition
Wings Universe
Determined to ensure a peaceful Cybertron by any means necessary, Jhiaxus concluded that the old Cybertronian race needed to be wiped out in order to make way for a new, peaceful second generation. To achieve this goal, he created an army of clones governed by clone generals of some of the most effective warriors in Cybertronian history. Reluctantly, Jhiaxus realized his army would be most efficient if it were commanded by the greatest conqueror of all time: Megatron. Working in his laboratory, Jhiaxus attempted to create a balanced clone general, possessing all of Megatron's valued aggression, cunning, and battlefield skill, but limiting the ego and bloodthirstiness that led him down the Decepticon path. Jhiaxus's final efforts created a divergent copy of Megatron, called Megaplex. Megaplex's Tech Specs profile When Megaplex first emerged from the cloning process, Jhiaxus found that the duplicate's persona did not fit his agenda, and so attempted to bury the “Megatron” within Megaplex with a more manageable personality. A Common Foe
Megaplex proved a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. As the Machine Wars began, his army cut a path through space, conquering Cybertronian outposts and colonies along the way. He even brought down Optimus Prime and Galvatron as the campaign carried him towards the homeworld. A Flash Forward, Part 6
By the time the clone army lay siege to Cybertron itself and claimed the capital of Iacon, however, Megaplex had become conflicted in his attitudes. Although he knew his programming and his master Jhiaxus's will, Megaplex began to see the glories in war that once appealed to his template, Megatron. During a confrontation with the Autobot resistance general Obsidian, Megaplex was repeatedly goaded by his resemblance to Megatron, bringing to the surface his true megalomaniacal personality. This outburst activated a sleeper agent in the Autobot forces: Sandstorm. Secretly one of Jhiaxus's clones, Sandstorm declared that Megaplex had failed to overcome the burden of his template's personality, and Jhiaxus had now decreed Megaplex would be terminated with the other original Cybertronians. Termination
As the battle continued, Megaplex's "Megatron" personality resurfaced, immobilizing Megaplex. Haunted by his other self, and taunted by accusations of being weak, Megaplex lashed out and expunged Megatron's essence from his mind. Now freed from his split of consciousness, Megaplex proceeded to exact vengeance onto Jhiaxus. He enacted said vengeance by impaling the Cybertronian leader through the chest, after Jhiaxus had already surrendered to the united Autobot-Decepticon army. Megaplex was then taken down by a squad representing both factions, the Decepticons within it ignoring his ramblings about a Decepticon-controlled Cybertron. A Common Foe
2019 IDW continuity
A grey-hued Transformer attended a skitter race at Swindle's, enjoying a beverage and sitting next to a black-hued acquaintance. Swindle's
Toys
Machine Wars
- Megaplex (Basic Class, 1997)
- Accessories: 2-piece rifle
- Megaplex was one of two original characters introduced in the KB Toys exclusive Machine Wars line. His mold was originally designed, but unused, for the end of Generation 2. He transforms from a Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptor fighter jet to robot mode with a spring-loaded one-step transformation. The two halves of his rifle store in the back of his robot mode legs.
- The Machine Wars stock photos (and even the packaging art) have Megaplex as the blue jet and Megatron as the gray one, meaning either the package designers got everything wrong, or the toys were put on the wrong cards. The latter is more likely since gray is more associated with Megatron than blue is. But, well, that's how they were packaged, so that's how we list them.
| Generation 2 mold: Skystriker | ||
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Collector's Edition
- Megaplex (2003)
- ID number: 93
- Release date: December ??, 2003
- Accessories: "Megasight" scope/"fusion cannon", two-part silencer ("focusing barrel" and "accelerator"), three-part stock ("death charge unit", "saddle", "cannon base"), "energy flail", "high-density infra-red ray laser gun", "electron sword", 20 "Freeze Shell/particle beam" bullets
- Released in the Collector's Edition line as an e-HOBBY exclusive, Megaplex is a redeco of the original Megatron Walther P-38 pistol toy in the same colors as its original Takara Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers release (itself a coloration used in the Microman line the mold originated in), featuring blue plastic instead of the Hasbro red, and unchromed grey plastic. The spring-loaded firing mechanisms inside both the toy's main body and the stock have also been restored, letting the toy launch choking-hazard-sized projectiles in both pistol and robot mode.
- Based on The Transformers Collection reissue of Megatron, this version comes with all of Megatron's accessories. (The original Takara version lacked all of the gun's add-on parts, having only the chromed rifle and sword, and of course the flail is new to the "bookbox" Megatron.) His scope, stock, and silencer can combine to form a large "particle beam cannon" artillery mode (there is a variant configuration of this that seats a Microman figure, but that has been excluded from the instructions for obvious reasons), or attach to his robot mode to make a huge shoulder-mounted "telescopic laser cannon formation". Both of these modes can fire the small plastic bullets the toy comes with thanks to the spring-loaded "death charge unit" portion of his stock. This piece can also connect to the back of his pistol barrel in robot mode, letting him "shoot from the hip", as it were.
- Preorders for Megaplex closed on September 30 of 2002. Orders were shipped out in December.
| The Transformers mold: Megatron | ||
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Timelines
- Machine Wars: Termination (Box set, 2013)
- Accessories: Sword
- Timelines Megaplex is a redeco of Prime: Robots in Disguise Voyager Class Dreadwing, featuring an all-new color scheme strongly evoking his Machine Wars incarnation, which accurately includes a predominantly grey and green color scheme, all transparent bits being a cloudy-white like the original Megaplex's cockpit windows, even down to the pinstripes on his wings and tailfins. However, instead of stickers with random shapes used for faction symbols on either of his wings in jet mode, there are two modified Decepticon symbols prominently displayed in their place, presumably evoking the faction symbol of Jhiaxus's Cybertronian Empire. There are two more of these symbols on either side of his chest in robot mode. Other major differences from the original's color scheme include all the soft-plastic bits on the original Dreadwing mold being colored light blue on this version, and the face being painted white. The eyes are still a lovely shade of dead-cataract white, however.
- This version of the mold lacks the light-up blaster cannon accessory of the original, possibly due to cost-cutting reasons, but does include the sword, which can still be mounted (via 5 mm posts) onto ports on his forearms, hands, wings, and back, as well as behind the cockpit canopy via the additional peg featured on its hilt. He comes in a BotCon 2013 exclusive box set, with Hoist, Strika, Obsidian, and Skywarp.
- Megaplex, Skyquake, and Dreadwing's very similar looking left & right robot mode feet are notorious for being incorrectly added to the figure during factory assembly, resulting in a left foot on a right leg, a right foot on a left leg, two left feet, or two right feet. Not having the right foot on the right leg and left foot on the left leg causes him to not stand properly because each foot is designed on the bottom to sit at a specific slanted angle. Both feet look very similar to one another, however they can be identified by finding the corresponding "L" and "R" on each one. If placed on a flat surface to be viewed, one will notice that both feet have subtle slants to their stance.
- All versions of this mold have a spot that's very prone to breakage: the thruster/ stabilizer fin assembly which folds up onto his back has a joint that can crack and break the whole assembly off- even on brand new figures. This can be avoided by gluing it in vehicle mode configuration- while it loses functionality it is not detrimental to his robot mode.
- This mold was also redecoed into Prime: Robots in Disguise Skyquake.
- Machine Wars (Kreon Souvenir Figure Set, 2013)
- Accessories: Clip-on cannon, jagged blade
- The Machine Wars five-pack was exclusive to BotCon 2013, and includes Kreons of Hoist, Megaplex, Obsidian, Skywarp, and Strika. They have generally more parts than the Kreons packed in with larger Kre-O sets, but do not have alternate vehicle builds like Micro-Changers.
- Megaplex's Machine Wars packaging art is in fact a color-altered version of the card-art for the Predator jet Falcon.
- The e-HOBBY Megaplex's "Particle Beam Cannon" accessory configuration can actually also be slightly adapted to yet another mode used in the original Microman line; the "saddle" extension that raises the cannon up to robot-height actually plugged into the back of the cannon vertically. This made a backed seat that Micromen figures could sit on, making it a (Micro-)manned piece of field artillery; the back of the scope even has little flip-out handles for them to hold. The seemingly-nonsensical peg on the side of the "saddle" piece plugs into the back of the New Microman-era figures to secure them. (Modern Micromen are too big.)
- Megaplex's appearance in the 2019 comic issue Transformers #20 is inspired by a "virtual redeco" of Energon Starscream by fan artist Air-Hammer, posted to DeviantArt in 2012.
- Japanese: Megaplex (メガプレックス Megapurekkusu)
Kre-O
