Archforce

Archforce is aDecepticonHerofrom theGeneration 2portion of theGeneration 1continuity family.

MEGATRON MAY OR MAY NOT RULE!

Archforceis a powerful and dangerous "Warrior Leader" willing to destroy everything in his path to fulfill his mission: defeating theAutobots.Enemy camps fall before the speed and strength of his tank mode, and he knows no weakness.^[1]Perhaps except for his own mental instability.

In some universes, Archforce is a fiercely loyalDecepticonwho volunteered forProject Re-Birth,in order to...oh, who are we kidding?He didn'tvolunteer.Straxusstrapped him to a table kicking and screaming while techs vivisected and rebuilt his body in the image ofMegatron—all part of a too-elaborate-by-half scheme of Straxus's to regain control of the Decepticon army.

Fiction

MarvelThe Transformerscomics

National Health Service.

A hapless Decepticon trooper was forced to become part ofProject Re-BirthbyStraxuswhich rebuilt his body in the image of Megatron.Two Megatrons!

Later on Cybertron, "Megatron" was tormented by strange memories of medical torture and disassembly amid flashbacks to Straxus's attempts to possess his body.Mind Games

Soon,anotherMegatron related his discovery of the hidden lab in Straxus's base where the trooper was surgically reconstructed into a replica of Megatron's own body which was then possessed by Straxus... who had in turn been overwhelmed by a copy of Megatron's own memories and believed himself to be the original to form a sort of Double-Decker Taco of mind-control and body horror.

Realizing the truth, the clone Megatron—who was barely clinging to sanity—chose to take his own life "rather than let Straxus win".Two Megatrons!

Ask Vector Prime

Though in some realities Archforce would die by suicide, in others such asPrimax 895.0 Gammahe'd become hisownDecepticon and a threat to bothOptimus PrimeandMegatronalike!Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/10

Vector Primeonce found an Archforce toy mint on sealed card at anano-fleamarket.Ask Vector Prime, 2015/07/24

Toys

Generation 2

No, this isnota Photoshopped Hero Megatron. This is the real deal. We respect you too much to fake an Archforce pic.

• Archforce(Hero,1994)

• Accessories:Rifle, 2 air-launch missiles
• Known designers:Masakatsu Saito(concept artist)

Available only in European markets,Generation 2Archforce isalmostwholly identical to theHero Megatron toy,transforming into a tank reminiscent of an M-1 Abrams. In both modes his main cannon is attached to a bellows that launches the included air-propelled missiles when quickly compressed. Both missiles can be kept on Archforce thanks to clips on his turret, which become his robot mode arms.

The only significant difference between Archforce and Hero Megatron is on the large chest sticker: Archforce's sticker drops Megatron's "MEGATRON RULES!" text, leaving a whole lot of detail-less lavender in its place. That's it. There is also the much moreinsignificant difference that Archforce's stickers' colors are ever so slightly lighter than Megatron's.

The joints connecting his biceps to his shoulders are reportedly easy to break due to overly-tight tolerances, so caution is advised.

• More information on Archforce at TFU.info

Notes

No, I am not the guy whose only difference from Megatron was not having Megatron written on his chest! (Also, I don't have Megatron written on my chest!)

• Like his wavemateSureshot,Archforce is a curiosity. PresumablyHasbro's European offices didn't want as manyOptimus PrimeandMegatrontoys on the shelves as the North American branch did, so they renamed the Hero toys of the two characters and altered any decals that bore their original names. Their bios were also reworded, but the new, briefer descriptions could easily apply to Optimus and Megatron anyway. They lackTech Specratings, so it's unknown if they were intended to inherit the "10" rank as well.
• Archforce had absolutely no fiction appearances until Ask Vector Prime retconned him into being one and the same as Marvel's "hapless trooper" in 2015.
  • Technically, everything described onMarvel Comics continuityMegatron's page from "Ancient Relics!"through"The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire."actually happened to Archforce. Yes, that does seem to imply that Marvel UK'sGalvatronwas created from Archforce instead of Megatron.
  • Several troopers sharing the same general design as Archforce's original pre-Megatron body, all displaying slight differences, appear atTransference Station Twoin "Resurrection!"around the time Straxus was implementingProject Re-Birth.It ishighly unlikelythat Archforce was among them; Straxus's plans were already well underway by that point. These troopers have the same yellow-red-and-white color scheme used byDarkmounttechnicians.
• Although no other official Archforce toys have been made since hisGeneration 2version, the original Hero Megatron has been awarded a handful of modern updates asredecosof other tank-basedMegatrontoys, withUnitedTank Megatron,EZ CollectionMegatron,andLegendsG2 Megatronall taking on the same deco. None of these are officially classified as Archforces, but considering how fundamentally identical they are (none of these even have the 'Megatron Rules!' marking that'd presumably distinguish the two characters), it's entirely up toyouif you want to treat them as such!

References