Here is something extraordinarily cool. During Beast Machines’ second season, you might remember that Megatron had a gigantic flying fortress modeled after his head – the Grand Mal. You might also be aware that a toy was designed for the Battle for the Spark subline of Beast Machines toys, which was canceled from that line and ultimately released in the following Robots in Disguise line. You might also remember that toy being rather unlike the depiction of the Grand Mal from the series, featuring spider legs not featured in the show.
What we have here to share with you now by way of the Robot Points blog is a previously never-before-seen prototype of Megabolt Megatron – one which follows the on-screen design of the megahead fortress much more closely. The design of the alternate head form lacks the spider legs, and features the thrusters at the rear as on the original design. As with the release version, the toy transforms into a robot mode, this one with clear chest panels showing off moving gears.
What is shown in this blog post is a resin prototype, and it is believed that this concept never progressed beyond this point. It is thought that the design was overhauled into the one that was released to maximise playability with the spider legs, and perhaps also because the gears in the chest were too expensive to implement.
Check out the full story on the Robot Points blog and take a look at this rare piece of unreleased Transformers merchandise.
Infosaur
Chip!
Single Elegant Machine
I'm salivating. That head sculpt is leaps and bounds superlative to the one we got. Was this envisioned as a Mega-class?
Emperor Zarak
so want
chnkyclnkytrike
The head sculpt looks amazing mabee could show us some nice pics of the megabolt version to kinda c what this bot mode should kinda look like
UltraPrimal
I wonder if it can transform into the ship mode too.
Beast Machines Megatron (Grand Mal Ship Mode) – YouTube
I wish a 3rd party would make a Megatron based on this incarnation. But it'll never happen.
megatroptimus
How on Earth did you get your hands on that thing?
Pete Sync
Bout time I got my pics
Rattrap Primal
Easy to see where the Megabolt version came from. This may be why Unicron.com had a Grand Mall listed in the Beast Machines section (though they initially listed it in the Ultra size, or it was rumored and they reported it, like the G1 MacFarlane like figures that where supposedly on the drawing board, or all the other unrele)
Triggerhappy
thats cool to see, but the one we got is a great figure (as long as you get his centre of gravity right, he's top heavy)
Ras
Hey gang, glad you enjoyed the post. It's interesting to see how people are tending to favour the production toy over the concept. Personally I prefer the concept for the most-part, but the robot mode legs are way better on the production version.
Maybe I should have further clarified the state of transformation in robot mode. The upper body is not fully transformed due to extreme delicacy. The arms would continue to fold down and twist and all that kind of stuff, but had I tried to complete transformation, it would have broken. The best way to describe it would be a male and female circular joint overlapping. So from above there are three circles, two outer (female) and one inner (male) with a pin through the centre so that the joint both moves and is secure. Oftentimes when this joint is used, there is a small raised portion on one of the circles to lock the joint in place. On this piece the raised portion is far too large to pass without resulting in breakage. I'm not sure if that made any sense whatsoever.
Karl: haha. The box was reunited.
Shodax
Just goes to show that I have no idea what is going on in this world of TF collecting!!! I saw numerous complaints on the new Seekers line from Igear, BUT people seem to love this design???? The alt / head mode is pretty cool and fairly accurate, HOWEVER the following Robot Mode is a P.O.S. on multiple levels. It has absolutely no symmetry, no cohesiveness, etc. etc…. Call me John Locke and consider me LOST.
Chaos Prime
Hasbro should release that figure for the Generations line,
ShadowDragon
Chips or it didn't happen.
SPLIT LIP
If you actually read the article, you'd see he points out it's finicky, and on resin prototypes like that, "finicky" can mean "pieces" quickly. Plus, he doesn't know what the robot mode is. Those protos don't usually come with instructions.
Karl Hartman
Cool toy. The feature does appear to be a bit "underwhelming."
Ras, did you get the box this came in? Just curious.
Primus_feather
2 things: you'd think that someone who wrote an article on it, could at least transform it all the way!! And there goes my hope that what we got was the prototype and what was intended was a voyager head/ship/bot triple changer, but oh well neat thou!
NemiMonkey
Flying head/fortress mold looks pretty solid. That robot mode, good lord I hope that's a horrible horrible mistransformation.
Anti Spark
Seeing this makes me wonder if they made a Head that turned into that cybertronion Space Craft seen very briefly.
VictoryLeo19
Very cool. Always like seeing prototype stuff for Transformers. Especially Beast era stuff.