Archforce

Archforce is a Decepticon Hero from the Generation 2 portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

MEGATRON MAY OR MAY NOT RULE!

Archforce is a powerful and dangerous "Warrior Leader" willing to destroy everything in his path to fulfill his mission: defeating the Autobots. 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 loyal Decepticon who volunteered for Project Re-Birth, in order to... oh, who are we kidding? He didn't volunteer. Straxus strapped him to a table kicking and screaming while techs vivisected and rebuilt his body in the image of Megatron—all part of a too-elaborate-by-half scheme of Straxus's to regain control of the Decepticon army.

Fiction

Marvel The Transformers comics

National Health Service.

A hapless Decepticon trooper was forced to become part of Project Re-Birth by Straxus which 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, another Megatron 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 as Primax 895.0 Gamma he'd become his own Decepticon and a threat to both Optimus Prime and Megatron alike! Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/10

Vector Prime once found an Archforce toy mint on sealed card at a nano-flea market. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/07/24

Toys

Generation 2

No, this is not a 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 2 Archforce is almost wholly identical to the Hero 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 more insignificant 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 wavemate Sureshot, Archforce is a curiosity. Presumably Hasbro's European offices didn't want as many Optimus Prime and Megatron toys 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 lack Tech Spec ratings, 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 on Marvel Comics continuity Megatron'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's Galvatron was 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 at Transference Station Two in "Resurrection!" around the time Straxus was implementing Project Re-Birth. It is highly unlikely that 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 by Darkmount technicians.
• Although no other official Archforce toys have been made since his Generation 2 version, the original Hero Megatron has been awarded a handful of modern updates as redecos of other tank-based Megatron toys, with United Tank Megatron, EZ Collection Megatron, and Legends G2 Megatron all 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 to you if you want to treat them as such!

References