Galvatron

Come on, you all knew I was going to get to this one eventually. Besides, I wouldn't "DARE" neglect Galvatron, the evolved form of Megatron who made his first appearance in the 1986 animated film "Transformers: The Movie". Besides, I've already drawn sketches of Optimus Prime, Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Megatron, and Unicron. So I just "had" to do a sketch of Galvatron. And believe it or not, this is the first sketch I've done of Galvatron since the late 80s, back when I saw the movie for the first time. And well, I'm actually quite impressed with how this one turned out. Sadly, I don't remember the first sketches I made from way back in the day, but I can already say that this is the best sketch I've done of him in years since.

Anyway, as fans all know by now, Galvatron is essentially Megatron reborn with a more powerful body, courtesy of Unicron. Though his appearance differs greatly from when he was Megatron in the first two seasons of the original cartoon, his personality remained pretty much the same in the movie even after Unicron provided him with his upgrades. Galvatron was voiced by Leonard Nimoy in English, and by Seizo Kato in Japanese. The interesting thing is that Leonard Nimoy is most famous for his role as Spock from the Star Trek fame, which has been a popular and ongoing series for about 40 years. When Starscream betrayed Megatron and threw him out into deep space after his fight with Optimus Prime, Megatron came face to face with the planet eating monster Unicron, who provides him with his uprades along with new soldiers under the condition that he would destroy the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Galvatron however, goes straight to planet Cybertron, where he mercilessly kills Starscream out of revenge, and reclaims his position as the Decepticon leader. Though I can't say I blame him for doing that since Starscream was a backstabbing bastard who would always try to overthrow him every chance he got. And after all the times he's tried to take advantage of him as Megatron, it's only fair to say that Starscream got exactly what he deserved; an ugly death.

Along with being much stronger and more versitile, Galvatron's signature weapon was a powerful and deadly plasma cannon mounted on his left arm which could reduce enemies to ashes with a single blast. A good example is the scene where he kills Starscream. His alternate mode was an alien tank which had a very unique and distinctive design. Now I must admit that even as a child, I thought having his alternate mode as a tank that fires plasma made more sense than having him change into a handgun that would grow or shrink in size. The funny thing is that the later incarnations of Megatron would stray away from the "handgun" concept, and have him transform into things like jet planes, tanks, ect.

Still retaining his memories and free will from when he was Megatron, Galvatron wanted to lead the Decepticons and rule the galaxy independently, and did not wish to live as a mere servant for Unicron. So, much like how Starscream tried to betray Megatron numerous times before in the past, Galvatron kills Ultra-Magnus, and takes the Matrix for himself as the means of imposing his dominance on Unicron. Furious by Galvatron's defiance, Unicron transforms from planet mode to robot mode, and attempts to destroy planet Cybertron with his bare hands. Towards the end of the movie, young Hotrod came face to face with Galvatron in a one on one brawl while inside the body of Unicron. And just when it seemed that Galvatron had the upper hand, the Matrix mysteriously activates, and then Hotrod yanks it from Galvatron's chain necklace. Upon reclaiming the Matrix, he gradually increases in size and becomes Rodimus Prime. The last we see of Galvatron is when Rodimus tosses him out of Unicron's body and we see him drifting away into space. However, I just knew that that wasn't the end of him. Because as we all know, Galvatron returned for season 3 of the G1 cartoon, which served as a continuation of the story from where the movie left off.

Unfortunatley, during the course of season 3, which ran from 1986 until 1987, Leonard Nimoy did not reprise his role as Galvatron. Instead however, legendary voice actor Frank Welker took over the role. Now I understand that Nimoy had other things to do at the time. After all, famous celebrities like him are usually very busy people, so I can see why someone else had to take over as the voice of Galvatron. However, in my honest opinion, Frank Welker's performance as Galvatron wasn't all that great. Because one thing I instantly noticed when I first watched season 3 was Galvatron's voice. He sounded nothing like how he sounded in the movie with Leonard Nimoy's deep menacing tone of voice. Instead, he was given a whiny high-pitched voice which I found simply irritating and annoying. Don't take this the wrong way, I mean no disrespect to Frank Welker, but the voice he provided for Galvatron in season 3 was just unacceptable and unfitting for the character. He was perfect as Megatron, but that scratchy whiny voice made it hard for me to take him seriously as a villain, and it pretty much ruined how I pictured Galvatron in the movie as the ultimate badass. Again, I mean no offence to Frank Welker. But I prefer Leonard Nimoy because he made the character sound imposing, menacing, and believable.

And if that's not bad enough, they completely altered his character as well. Rather than retaining his level of intelligence and his ability to strategically plan his actions against the Autobots from when he was Megatron, season 3 often portrayed Galvatron as a mentally unstable maniac who was prone to violent outbursts and fits of anger. In fact, I feel that Galvatron was horribly misused in season 3, and they just totally ruined him as a character. Now I must admit that season 3 had its ups and downs, like most shows of the time did. In fact, some episodes were believable and had that same dark tone and atmosphere from the 1986 movie, while other episodes were fast paced and absurd as hell. But all in all, I did my best to focus on the episodes that stood out for me like "The Five Faces of Darkness", "Dark Awakening of Optimus Prime", "Burden Hardest to Bare", and "Return of Optimus Prime". I didn't really care about the last two episodes which introduced us to the Headmaster and Target Master concept, which thankfully was never touched upon again since the 80s.

To this day, the Galvatron concept has often been neglected and pushed aside. I can imagine that most people would rather not touch upon it for the sake of being more original and creative with their own series. In fact, the only other Transformers cartoons I remember that even made an effort to touch upon the Galvatron concept range from RID, Armada, and Energon to a lesser extent. However, in the English version of TF Energon, Galvatron is refered to as Megatron despite bearing a striking resemblence to the original Galvatron design. Even in the live action movies, which barely had much to do with Transformers to begin with, this concept is often ignored and pushed aside. However, just in my opinion, I think the Galvatron concept should be touched upon once more. It doesn't have to be exactly like how it was in the original movie, but I think today's writters should at least make an effort to modernize it in a way that's practical and believable. Becuase even though he was misused throughout the course of season 3, Galvatron still stands out for me as a significant and noteworthy villain. After all, he's basically a stronger version of one of my top favorite childhood villains of all time. And if he ever gets his chance to appear in a live action film, I think Leonard Nimoy should reprise his role just one last time. After all, he did the voice of Sentinel Prime in "Dark of the Moon". So why not? I think it would be nice of Nimoy to play as Galvatron after so many years since the 1986 film. Now I know that's very unlikely. But hey, at least I can dream about it.

Galvatron belongs to Hasbro.