Found Mega-Octane at Fred Meyer a couple of days ago. They're having a sale on their Deluxe toys; I got mine for $7.99. Remember, most reputable shops honortheir competitor's prices, meaning that until this sale ends, just about *every* store will sell you one for this price. :)

Anyway, I did notice quite a few other differences that have not yet been documented. Note that I do not own Dolrailer, so I have no idea which of these changes were Takara and which ones were Hasbro. If anyone who's got a Dolrailer toy wants to follow along and let me know which ones correspond tothe Japanese toy, I'd appreciate it.

Aside from what's already been covered (see the RiD FAQ) the peg holes for his twin lasers weren't the only ones changed to an octagonal shape. They did the same thing to the peg holes that connect his arms together in vehicle mode, as well as the ones that hold the rearmost section of the truck in place.

The extra tabs present on his robot-mode chest plate are also on the Ruination chest armor. Ruination's armor also has some new reinforcement bars that connect the insides of the top wings to the center of the chest plate. This was a fabulous idea, since I worry about G1 Bruticus' chest armor breaking at precisely these points every time I remove it. (Egad. I just checked, and there are already cracks in the plastic...!) They also changed the shape of the wings slightly so that instead of descending to a sharp point, they curve upward slightly before they meet the center chest panel. This makes the whole piece much more durable. I heartily approve.

What else...aside from the tip of the gun barrel being lopped off, they also extended the laser sights (or whatever that is) on the top of the gun barrel so that it extends nearly to the end of the newly-shortened barrel. The reason for this, I assume, was to make it more difficult to simply break the barrel off (in previous versions, the part where the barrel meets the rest of the gun is its weakest point). Also, the second set of holes that are *not* used in the combined weapons mode were plugged up. I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind that one.


For the base-mode ramp, the bars running along either side on the bottom were widened a bit. The tab that connects the ramp to Mega-Octane was also enlarged a bit for a tighter fit.

(BW Sidecutter already pointed this out, but I *really* like the redesigned back-end of the truck mode. Those folding panels pop off nicely and easily. This *is* where my G1 Onslaught broke, by the way...and not when I was a kid, either. This was years later when I was actually just fiddling around with him one day.)

None of these changes are evident in the Robot Fighter knockoff, by the way, which suggests to me that these are all changes exclusive to RiD. I'd still like some confirmation of this, though.

By the way, I'm noticing a *lot* of minor imperfections in the plastic on Mega-Octane. He's covered with little scratches and dents and other flaws, and he's never set foot inside my toy box yet (he's sat next to the computer untilI had a chance to look him over thoroughly). You can really see the difference if you compare him to the G1-issue Onslaught; four or five production runs really do take their toll on the molds after a while. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if we never saw another pressing of this mold again. It may simply not be viable any longer.

Also, something I've never noticed before (probably because I've never owned so many versions of the same toy before) is that the mold flaws are in the exact same spots. I'm comparing G2 Onslaught's gun to RiD Mega-Octane's, and there's a component near the top of the guns that has three little imperfections in precisely the same spot on both guns. This is irrefutable evidence that these toys were *definitely* pressed from the same mold. (I used to think maybe there were multiple factories, and that one copy of the mold being destroyed didn't necessarily mean permanent doom for that toy. Now I'm thinking otherwise.)

Zobovor...I'm mainly writing these for Fred's benefit, at this point. :)

(Editor's Note: Thanks. :-) Also check out the 4 packaging variants on Ruination.) :-)