The front of Galvatron's alt mode-- an Argosy Freightliner, to be exact-- looks pretty good and very proportional, especially for a Power Battler. The back end of the cab mode-- usually the weak spot on more simple truck-cab-formers-- has the general silhouette down, but looking at all the mold detailing there it's quite obvious that it's just Galvatron's robot legs folded up, with the knees at the back end and the feet right behind the cab portion. There's also a noticeable hole on the back end of the cab due to the transformation, and the chest grinder in robot mode (described in detail later) does stick out a bit TOO far from the bottom side of this mode, which can interfere with the truck wheels rolling solidly on a flat surface. On the plus side, the feet on the back end means extra interesting mold detailing and paint detailing in this mode. The front of the mode already looks pretty nice with black paint on the front windows and grill and silver on the front and side stripes, but the addition of some dark metallic silvery blue on the back end does help break up all the gray in this mode a bit better than Galvatron's other toys in the line. The gray that takes up nearly all of Galvatron's plastic is a bit darker and more swirly and semi-metallic than the gray used on Galvatron's other AoE toys, though, which makes the vehicle mode as a whole look more interesting from a color standpoint-- it doesn't NEED as much paint, quite frankly.
    Galvatron's transformation is simple, but effective-- the legs fold out from the back half of the truck mode, the arms fold out from the top half of the cab section, and the grill folds behind Galvatrons' back. The only really obvious kibble in this mode are the shells of the roof hanging off of Galvatron's lower arms, and-- to a lesser extent-- the lower sides and wheels of the truck mode on the sides of Galvatron's main body, which make him just a bit wider in that area than he should be. Otherwise Galvatron looks pretty darn good and proportional in this mode, and his mold detailing is incredible-- there's little bits of armor that look like "warped" bits of his truck mode, he's got wire/piping details all over his chest and arms, and pistons and more are all detailed very intricately in there. His headsculpt is also pretty spot-on, even if the safety orange-painted eyes aren't. His paint detailing is also a bit more intricate and interesting in this mode, with the aforementioned dark metallic silvery blue complimented by a good amount of metallic bronze on the chest and arms, and a bit of light metallic aquamarine in the center of his chest grinder, even. And speaking of his chest grinder, that's his Power Battler gimmick-- his "spinning grinder", which I'm surprised none of his other AoE toys even touch. Basically, unhook the back panel a little-- the piece that forms the front of his vehicle mode-- and the press in on his back, and the grinder will come spinning quite a ways out of his chest, opening up a little as it does so. (You have to push it back into his chest manually.) It's simple, but fun and rather addictive-- and, importantly, it doesn't affect the robot mode in any negative way! For articulation in this mode, Galvatron can move at the shoulders (at two points), elbows, hips (from side-to-side only, sadly), and at the knees-- not great, but better than most Power Battlers. Small bits of the truck mode also stick out behind his feet, keeping him pretty stable. I will say that if you keep Galvatron's arms straight, however, from a side view the lower arms are actually farther back than the upper arms, which looks rather odd.
    Power Battler Galvatron is my favorite toy of the subline, bar none. Yeah, the back end of his vehicle mode is a bit weak, as are the lower arms of his robot mode, and he REALLY could use some forward motion at the hips. But he's got excellent mold and paint detailing, good-to-great proportions in both modes, a really fun gimmick, and is just a solid-but-simple-and-fun toy; exactly what a toy from this subline should be. Heck, in some ways I think he actually SURPASSES the mainline voyager version, given how he's less of a shellformer and his gray looks better. Recommended if you want a simpler-to-transform version of the character.
 

Review by Beastbot

Back to Transformers: Age of Extinction Index