Megatron Machinery

Megatron is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the ''Transformers'' media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. Megatron is the cruel and tyrannical leader of the Decepticons, a faction of sentient, war-mongering robotic lifeforms that seeks to conquer their home planet of Cybertron and the rest of the known universe. He serves as the archenemy of Optimus Prime, the leader of the rival Autobot faction. As with all Cybertronians, Megatron has the ability to transform between his robot form and various vehicles or weapons. His alternate modes have ranged from a Walther P38 handgun, a particle-beam weapon, a telescopic laser cannon, and a Cybertronian jet, depending on which continuity he is depicted in.

Megatron's most consistent origin portrays him as having risen up from being an oppressed worker to a gladiatorial champion who took the legendary name of one of the original Thirteen Primes— Megatronus—as his own. He shortened his name when he became a political revolutionary who attempted to reform Cybertron's corrupt governing body and called for an end to its decrepit caste system. As the mentor of the young Orion Pax, Megatron preached that freedom of self-determination was the right of all sentient beings. When Megatron grew corrupted by his power, Orion would utilize his teachings against him as Optimus Prime. In most incarnations, Megatron would eventually meet his demise at Optimus' hands, only to later be resurrected as Galvatron.

Megatron has become one of the franchise's most iconic characters and a widely recognized villain in popular culture. The character's popularity has seen him appear on a variety of merchandise, such as toys, clothing and collectible items, theme park attractions, and be referenced in a number of media. He has been adapted in live-action, animated, and video game incarnations, having been voiced by actors including Frank Welker, Corey Burton, and Hugo Weaving.

Thirteen Original Primes

The original Megatronus, better known as the Fallen, was one of the original Thirteen Primes created by Primus. Megatronus betrayed his creator by siding with Primus' dark twin, the malevolent planet-eater Unicron. In the final battle between Primus and Unicron, Megatronus fell victim to the same fate as his master, sucked through a black hole into another dimension. However, while Unicron emerged in another universe, the Fallen was not so fortunate, finding himself trapped in the "underspace" between dimensions. Another being addressed simply as Megatron is an apocalyptic figure said to bring about death and destruction through alteration of the time stream. Possible interpretations in the book of him are "Alpha and Omega" and "The Great Dragon".

The Fallen made his first appearance in the second volume of '' Transformers: The War Within''. The character appears as the main antagonist in the second live action film, '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'', the 2009 sequel to the 2007 ''Transformers'' movie, voiced by Tony Todd. Director Michael Bay described him as "apocalyptic". He has the ability to teleport and generate a shockwave upon reappearance. He wields a spear as his weapon and has the ability of telekinesis. Megatronus is also mentioned as one of Thirteen in '' Transformers: Exodus'' and later appeared as the main antagonist in the first-season finale of '' Transformers: Robots in Disguise'', voiced by Gil Gerard.

Megatronus's history would be retconned in '' Transformers: The Covenant of Primus'', which depicts him in more tragic light and omits his involvement with Unicron. Megatronus was one of the original thirteen Primes. Megatronus commissioned Solus Prime to create the Requiem Blaster. It's revealed that Megatronus and Solus Prime were in love, but that Megatronus was prone to bursts of temper and aggression due to his pride and secret shame at being a necessary counter-force to balance out light and darkness within the Thirteen. Following the War of the Primes, he exiled himself from Cybertron after unintentionally murdering Solus Prime.

Generation 1

Megatron is the founder of the Decepticon uprising and their most feared leader. Bob Budiansky, the writer for the Marvel Comics series, stated that originally Hasbro took issue with the name, saying it sounded too frightening. Budiansky responded that as the lead villain, that was the point. Hasbro later agreed with his reasoning, and approved the name "Megatron". Budiansky has said in interviews that it is a portmanteau''.

Megatron is able to transform into a Walther P38, delivering more focused energy blasts than he could in his robotic form. He can adjust his size and mass as he transforms, to comfortably allow another Transformer or even a human being to wield him. His robot form has an arm-mounted fusion cannon. He can retract and replace his right hand with energy flail. He can fire electrical blasts from his hands, laser blasts from his eyes, and can reprogram computers with a port in his head.

Megatron is a Decepticon, one of the lineal descendants of the military hardware robots created by the Quintessons on their factory world of Cybertron. Following a war between the Decepticons and the other robot race, the Autobots, the Decepticons were defeated by the Autobots' invention of transformation, which allowed them the advantage of stealth. The Autobot victory in the war began the Golden Age of Cybertron, but a viper lurked within this paradise, as the Decepticons too eventually developed transformation, leading to the creation of Megatron. Gathering a small number of troops together, Megatron made a small strike on an outer city, killing the current Autobot leader. However, this event was not made public knowledge, and young robots like the naive Orion Pax still looked up to Megatron and his followers because of their new robot-mode flight powers. Orion soon learned the error of his ways when Megatron duped him into allowing him access to Energon warehouses, and Megatron near-fatally wounded him in a scuffle. However, the ancient Autobot, Alpha Trion, reconstructed Pax into a battle hardy configuration at the behest of the Aerialbots, who had been flung back in time by Megatron. Orion, rechristened as Optimus Prime, became leader of the Autobots and Megatron's sworn opponent as the civil war erupted again.

The Decepticons had conquered Cybertron by 2005 in the feature film, '' The Transformers: The Movie''. After hearing of an Autobot supply run to Earth in order to procure a larger amount of Energon in the hopes of mounting a full scale assault to reclaim the planet, Megatron led Decepticon forces to commandeer the Autobots' shuttle and kill the crew, and proceeded with an attack on Autobot City on Earth. Optimus Prime confronted Megatron in an epic and internecine fight, in which they both sustained mortal injuries. As he was about to kill Prime, Megatron was defeated and would have died if he had not been saved by Soundwave. On the Decepticons' return journey to Cybertron, Megatron, who was still functional, was jettisoned into space along with the fallen Skywarp, Thundercracker, and the Insecticons, in order to reduce Astrotrain's mass to reach Cybertron. The end seemed to be near for Megatron—but it was not to be, as he was summoned by Unicron, who made him an offer—in return for Megatron's service, he would give him a new body and new troops to command. Facing destruction as an alternative, Megatron agreed to Unicron's offer, and was rebuilt with a new body and rechristened to Galvatron. Commanded by Unicron to destroy the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, Galvatron first returned to Cybertron to settle a score with Starscream, who had set him adrift in space and was now being crowned as the new Decepticon leader in a pompous ceremony. Demonstrating his new power, Galvatron annihilated Starscream with a single blast from his new cannon mode. The other Decepticons quickly accepted Galvatron as their leader.

Unicron's subsequent consumption of Cybertron's moons enraged Galvatron, but when Unicron mentally tortured him to put him in his place, Galvatron submitted. Leading another attack on Autobot City, he pursued Ultra Magnus and the Autobots to the Planet of Junk, where he seized the Matrix from Ultra Magnus, and attempted to use its power against Unicron. Unable to open the Matrix, Galvatron was powerless as Unicron transformed and attacked Cybertron with his bare hands, swallowing Galvatron as well. Shortly thereafter, a group of Autobots entered Unicron's body, where young Autobot Hot Rod encountered the Decepticon leader. Although Galvatron initially proposed an alliance with the Autobot against Unicron, he was once again tortured mentally by Unicron, who ordered him to destroy Hot Rod or face his own obliteration. To end the torture, Galvatron agreed and engaged Hot Rod in battle. Galvatron quickly gained the upper hand over the smaller Autobot. However, when Hot Rod seized the Matrix from Galvatron, he was reformatted into the much larger and more powerful Rodimus Prime. Rodimus defeated Galvatron and hurled him through Unicron's armor and into the void of space, before unleashing the power of the Matrix and destroying Unicron.

Later, Galvatron's Unicron-created minions, Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps, set out to find their leader in order for him to lead the Decepticons back to victory. Using the information stored in Unicron's memory banks, they traced Galvatron to the planet Thrull. They found him immersed in a pool of lava-like plasma, and rescued him only to discover that the plasma had seeped into Galvatron's head casing and damaged his "metaprocessor", resulting in insanity. Nevertheless, the Decepticon empire was reestablished with Galvatron as the new leader. Still, Decepticons at times questioned his ability to lead; on one occasion, Cyclonus tricked Galvatron into receiving therapy on a planet where the mentally ill are treated.

When the Hate Plague began to sweep the universe, Galvatron was the only Decepticon who was able to avoid infection initially, teaming up with the resurrected Optimus Prime in order to recover a protective alloy that would shield the user from the plague's effects. He later became infected in the process of recovering the alloy, but was eventually cured along with all the other victims of the plague when Prime unleashed the power of the Matrix. The same process also cured Galvatron's insanity; he declared a cease-fire and shook Prime's hand, saying that he had earned his respect.

A year later, the short truce ended as Galvatron formulated a new plan. Although appearing coherent throughout the scheme, it was shown to be his most insane - rejecting notions of conquest, Galvatron now sought the destruction of both Cybertron and Earth. To this end, he dispatched his troops to Cybertron, in order to recover the key to the Plasma Energy Chamber. Failing to do so, a plasma energy explosion sent the Autobots — possessing the key — and his Decepticons to the planet Nebulos. While Decepticons led by Cyclonus sought to reclaim the key and return to Cybertron, he led the main attack force on Cybertron. Victorious on Cybertron, Galvatron had a colossal rocket engine constructed on the planet's surface, which propelled Cybertron into Earth's orbit (for the second time during the Transformers television series). His troops soon returned from Nebulos with the key, but in their absence, they had become binary-bonded to the planet's organic inhabitants as Headmasters and Targetmasters - a union which Galvatron thoroughly objected to, threatening to destroy the Nebulons immediately. Nebulon leader Lord Zarak, however, was able to stay Galvatron's hand, as he now possessed the Plasma Energy Chamber key. Galvatron then used the key to open the chamber, releasing the energy with the intent of driving the Earth's sun supernova, destroying both planets. Galvatron and the other Decepticons then attempted to flee inside Scorponok, but a tendril of plasma energy struck the giant craft, sending the Decepticons hurtling off into deep space. Spike Witwicky and the Autobot-allied Nebulons were subsequently able to foil Galvatron's scheme and use the excess solar energy to re-energize Cybertron, restoring its Golden Age. Despite that, Galvatron was not finished yet, proclaiming that the Decepticons would build a more powerful planet and use it to rule the galaxy. However, as this was the end of the American cartoon series, Galvatron's future plans never came to light.

While the American series ended with the three-part miniseries, "The Rebirth", featuring Galvatron's scheme with the Plasma Energy Chamber, it was decided in Japan to continue the series in a different direction. Disregarding the events of "The Rebirth", they began to produce a collection of animated series exclusive to Japan, the first of which was '' Transformers: The Headmasters'', taking place a year after the Hate Plague incident. Of all the previously seen Transformers to appear in ''Headmasters'', Galvatron received the most attention, effectively remaining as the Decepticons' leader for 26 out the series 35 episodes, until he was entombed in ice by the Autobot Headmasters.

Other appearances

Megatron appeared in the short-lived online ''Universe'' cartoon, where he plots to steal gasoline in order to produce Energon. Notably, his alternate mode of a jet is exactly the same as that of Cyclonus, and he incorporates several elements from his live-action movie design, such as both arms fusing together to form his fusion cannon. Megatron made a cameo in the pilot of the '' Transformers: Animated'' series on a historical video being viewed by Optimus Prime. This historical video was stock footage from the original animated series.

Books

Megatron appeared in the following books:
* '' The Revenge of the Decepticons'' written by Suzanne Weyn and published by Marvel Books in 1984.
* The 1985 audio story ''Sun Raid'' and '' Satellite of Doom''.
* The Ladybird Transformers audio books '' Autobots' Lightning Strike'', ''Laserbeak's Fury'', ''Megatron's Fight for Power'' and ''Autobots Fight Back''.
* The 1985 Find Your Fate Junior book called ''Dinobots Strike Back'' by