Megatron at The Outpost E

So, here you go, Megatron.

Which is quite big, even in my hands. Would I buy it?
Initially, I would, but after today's transformation, I decided not to.
His transformation is too complicated and fragile for me
I prefer to let Optimus Prime kill him. Ha ha ha ha

Megatron at The Outpost D

OK, sorry. I can't resist it but I like Gerwalk modes. Blame it
on Macross if you like. But it would be funny if Megatron did
transform halfway and then changed his mind. I couldn't
make the legs go further back as this would offset the
centre of gravity and Megatron would topple over

OK, I give up. Its time for my appointment and Richard
has to continue the transforming.

After more than an hour, when I came back, it was almost done.
Here is Richard with Megatron in his hands. The P38 looked a
bit oversized but then, maybe it was because the designers
wanted it to match with masterpiece Optimus Prime

Megatron at The Outpost C

After more than 40 minutes, I was still struggling to transform Megatron. It is really not as easy as I first thought.


One thing about his hands is that it swivels in and all
five fingers can move independently

5 minutes after that, I gave up because it was time
for my appointment and my friend has still not arrived

See this shoulder join? Its very hard to snap it out
and harder to keep it aligned to the other

50 minutes worth of sweat

Megatron at The Outpost B

So, I started to transform while waiting for my/our friend. And let me remind you that this figure is quite big. And not only that, because its a "virgin", the parts were tight and sometimes, I was afraid that I might have broken it.

My hand for comparison

This is his head which is quite thin to me and he has a hole at
the back of his head, which is for his recent screw job

No wonder he has a frown. When transforming, his upper
head will collapse down to his chin before being hidden.
Ha ha ha

Puny Human! I will squeeze your balls like I squeeze this... this... rubber thing

Megatron at The Outpost A

So, I was waiting for a friend of mine, who is also a friend of our company, to hand over some detailed information at The Outpost. When I arrived, I saw the Masterpiece Megatron. And Richard approacehed me because the light on Megatron's scope is on the blink. So, after repairing it, I decided to take some shots. Then I was approached again because someone had trouble transforming Megatron.

The problem with Binaltech/Masterpiece Transformers was that although they were designed to resemble closely to their original figures, sometimes transforming them is not as simple as it seemed.

Megatron's scope uses two LR44 batteries, which is protected by
a plastic cover which you need a screwdriver to open

The problem lies with the plastic piece held with the loose screws.
This caused the button on the outside to spin and lost its place.
So when you press on it, it gets stuck

Once I tightened it, everything worked! This is how the scope looked when
opened Just a simple red LED, a resistor, a switch and two batteries. All
designed into an object a lot of people would kill for.

The scope alone is about close to 8.5 inches .You can view through the scope
but the LED is blocking your view. There is a nice cross-hair but since everything
is blocked its useless

A closer look at EL

I had the chance to open the inverter up this morning and true to my suspicion, they were using a transformer. This is the part that makes the whole unit hums or gives a high-pitched noise. Anyway, do not try to open it up when there is power because in effect, the circuit transforms a normal 12volt battery DC (Direct Current) to an AC (Alternating Current), which I guessed, could be 160 volts and at a frequency in the Kilohertz range.

Although I did not have the time to test it out on the project, a quick measurement looked as if it could fit. And later on, join it with blue EL and control it with a relay.

There is a switch on the right of the picture which controls the mode
of the inverter, (OFF/MUSIC/ON). So, you can either set it to light
all the time or flash in sync with music/sound. We set it to music
and it flashed while were were arguing about the price at the shop.
On the left, is the volume control to adjust the Mic's sensitivity

On the left is a fancy-wancy 12volt plug for vehicles and it has quite a long lead.
And on the right is the connector from the inverter to the EL string. I can put
about 4 EL strings as the inverter is powerful enough to do that. However,
since both of us could not verify the inverter's potential power, I think one
or two 1.5m LE strings are enough. If its longer, the LE string might be
not be very bright at all. Still, let's see how it will be when my Credit
Card clears up soon.

Here is a closer look at the connectors. The left is from the inverter while
the right is from the EL string

You can easily cut these strings to make it longer or join with another
EL string of another colour. All you need to do is to strip the outer
sheath, locate the two thin wires and that is all there is to it.
In theory, that is