Megatron (KOU)

Megatron is a rocker from the Knights of Unicron continuity family.

If you were to ask Megatron, he would tell you that only he truly has "The Touch," and deserves to lead the Knights of Unicron to musical greatness! He is constantly vying for Optimus Prime's position as lead singer, even going so far as to enlist an army of Vehicon roadies to side with him. Megatron's various power plays have resulted in petty in-fighting that regularly threatens to split the band. Nonetheless, as the Knights' lead guitarist he is integral to their legendary status in the music industry.

Fiction

Behind the Music

Megatron was once part of the band "Bumblebee and the Hive," until the lead singer shredded his audio box. In order for the band to continue, new talent needed to be recruited. That talent was Optimus Prime, who would serve as Megatron's constant rival in the following years, as the newly rechristened Knights of Unicron rocked Cybertron's music scene. The first major squabble Megatron and Optimus got into was over Prime's girlfriend, and her growing influence over the band. At this time, Megatron began to publicly question Optimus's commitment to the Knights. Following a brief break-up, the band reunited for the "Cybertronian Democracy" tour, with Vehicon roadies hired to help out with the increasingly demanding load to keep the tour on track. As the tour neared its end, an all-out backstage brawl took place. Though the Vehicons took Megatron's side, claiming he was unfairly blamed for triggering the incident, the lot of them walked out, leaving the band without its lead guitarist.

Pursuing a solo career, Megatron organized an invite-only show at the underground club, The Forge. At this time, Megatron's elitism became increasingly obvious, as he turned away thousands of bots to his private concert. A year later, when Smooth Jazz attempted to perform his own show at The Forge, Megatron refused to leave the stage, leading to an impromptu battle of the bands. The crowd sided with Megatron, and Smooth Jazz lost the battle and his sonic circuits in the process. Empowered by his victory, Megatron continued to challenge musicians on-stage nightly, with none able to defeat him. Declaring himself "the most powerful force in rock," Megatron retired from recording albums, only performing live for those he deemed worthy.

At some point, bootleg recordings of Megatron's performances began to circulate, leading to a lengthy court battle between Megatron and the file-sharing service Botster.

Prior to the Knights' 2014 reunion tour, Megatron was the lead for his own band which, despite his best efforts, never made it to the top of the charts. Behind the Music

Games

Transformers Legends

Due partly to Megatron and Optimus's constant squabbles, the Knights of Unicron found themselves vying to find a new direction for the band, and began scouting for talent. After a series of grueling auditions, Megatron and the rest of the band welcomed Smooth Jazz into their ranks. Years of glorious thrashing followed. Megatron and Optimus's rivalry eventually came to a head once more unfortunately. The band split and went their separate ways, though predicting they would reunite in the future once more would be a safe bet. Knights of Unicron

Toys

Knights of Unicron

♪And even though you know
It's gonna cost a lot of dough
You have to have the world's best pants♪

• Knights of Unicron Reunion Tour Set (San Diego Comic-Con 2014 exclusive, 2014)
  • Accessories: "Fusion cannon" launcher, missile, "Laserbeak" guitar, big hair, scarf, leather jacket

Knights of Unicron Megatron is a redeco of the Generations Deluxe Class War for Cybertron Megatron with gaudy paint-splatter on his armor and bright blue leopard-print "pants" in robot mode, transforming into a Cybertronian self-propelled gun. The treads of his vehicle can be positioned in either a vertical configuration like a traditional tank, or in a horizontal hover-tank configuration. His massive spring-loaded "fusion cannon" accessory can mount on either arm, though that kinda makes it harder to pose him with his guitar-partner Laserbeak. His head has a light-piping gimmick that has been neutered by his painted eyes... and his big hair.

Megatron's glam-rock paint job is augmented in robot mode by a host of soft-goods add-ons, including a leather vest, zebra-stripe scarf, and a wig of long black hair (held in place by an elastic fabric strap). All of these need to be removed to transform him to vehicle mode without damaging them (or in the wig's case, to not have Megatron's vehicle mode just sitting immobile on a giant hairdo). The scarf can be tied around some other part afterwards if you like; stock photography puts it around his cannon.

He was only available in the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con "Knights of Unicron Reunion Tour Set", which also included hair-metal versions of Optimus Prime, Smooth Jazz, Soundwave, and instrument-bots Laserbeak and Ratbat.

This mold was redecoed into United Megatron Cybertron Mode and Darkside Megatron.