Review – Renderform Mega Commander Upgrade Kit

An exclusive upgrade kit available from Captured Prey, this Mega Commander kit upgrades the official Transformers Megaplex (Amazon.com search*) from the 2013 BotCon set and makes the official toy look a lot more like the 1997 Machine Wars Megaplex that inspired it. This is a fairly basic kit, but with this the Transformers Prime-based toy really does look a lot more like that older Machine Wars toy.

Packaging

The Mega Commander kit from Renderform is packed in a ziplock bag with a backer insert (shown above and below). It’s a very simple package and works just fine; at least we can be certain we’re not spending a lot of cash on packaging when buying this kit. It took me just a few seconds to pop the bag open and start modifying the official 2013 Machine Wars Megaplex toy.

Installing the new head.

Below you can see the original head on the BotCon Machine Wars Megaplex toy. At first I was a little concerned and careful with removing the head, but I soon realized that a good yank on the head straight up popped it right out. What’s left behind is an empty socket where you can plug in either one of the new Mega Commander heads. Trust me, this was way easier to do than I was expecting.

Helmet slots over the new head.

The Mega Commander head is in two parts, a central plug with the face and an outer helmet that slides down over the core of the head. The end result works wonderfully and I’ve removed and installed both heads a couple of times now; the trick is to grasp the base of the head and pull without scratching or grabbing the face. I’ve found that trying to twist the two parts to separate them is bad; there’s a channel inside the helmet where the two slot together so all twisting will do is ruin the new head. Ruining new third party Transformers upgrade kits is bad; don’t do that.

Two cannons combine into one.

The above photo shows the two guns that are packed with the Mega Commander upgrade kit merged together into a single BFG. Megaplex can hold the combined weapon by the handles, but the poseability is pretty limited if you try to keep both hands on the merged cannon. Personally, I think I prefer the weapon divided into its two smaller rifles.

Really, the two faces are different.

The above pic shows the two different core heads/faces that are included with the Mega Commander kit and I swear these are different. I’ll admit the differences are very subtle; the two are so close that I personally would have been happy if the kit had come with only a single new head.

Closing Thoughts

Still available at Captured Prey, the Renderform Mega Commander upgrade kit likely has a very limited target audience making the limit of 200 pieces completely understandable. You see, the 2013 Machine Wars Megaplex (Amazon.com search*) isn’t exactly one of the cheapest Transformers toys on the market so the audience for the kit is tiny. Hell, it has been over a year since the kit was released and it’s still for sale. That tells us something.

BUT if you do have that Megaplex I think this kit’s a fantastic buy. The chance to swap out that Transformers Prime-styled head for a proper Megaplex head was worth the price tag, and the two rifles are much better weapons than the sword that was included with the official toy. A great buy . . . for a very small audience.