Meklords and their "weak" bosses

Also, Konami totally blew up with the names

Meklords are the monsters used by the Yliaster members on Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. Their anime forms are not in conformation with the real life game, so they had to change the Meklords a lot to release them. The 3 Meklord Emperors, Wisel, Skiel and Granel didn't lose a lot on what refers to effects and stats. But the two bosses, Meklord Astro Mekanikle and Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk got very watered down.

Let's compare their Anime and Real effects:

Meklord Astro Mekanikle

Machine/Effect

LIGHT/12*/ATK 4000 DEF 4000

This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by sending 3 other "Meklord" monsters from your hand to the Graveyard. Once per turn, you can select 1 face-up Synchro Monster your opponent controls, and equip it to this card. This card gains ATK equal to those equipped monsters' combined ATK. Once per turn, during your Standby Phase, you can send 1 of those monsters to the Graveyard to inflict damage to your opponent equal to its ATK. You cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this effect.

Machine Imperial God Machinicle Infinity Cubic

Machine/Effect

LIGHT/12*/ATK 4000 DEF 4000

Once per turn, you can equip 1 face-up Synchro Monster your opponent controls to this card. This card gains ATK equal to the combined ATK of all Synchro Monsters equipped to it. You can send 1 "Wisel", "Skiel", or "Granel" monster that includes "Top", "Attack", "Guard", or "Carrier" in its card name from your hand to the Graveyard to have this card gain that monster's effect(s) until the End Phase. If this card would be destroyed by your opponent's attack or card effect, you can remove from play 1 "Wisel", "Skiel", or "Granel" monster that includes "Top", "Attack", "Guard", or "Carrier" in its card name from your Graveyard instead. During your End Phase, you can send a Synchro Monster equipped to this card to the Graveyard and inflict damage to your opponent equal to the original ATK of the Synchro Monster.

 Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk

Machine/Effect

DARK/10*/ATK 0 DEF 0

This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. If you control 3 or more face-up "Meklord" monsters, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. When this card is Special Summoned, select any number of other "Meklord" monsters you control, and send the selected monster(s) to the Graveyard. This card's ATK is equal to the combined original ATK of the sent monster(s). Each time a player Special Summons a Synchro Monster, inflict 1000 damage to that player.

Machine Imperial God Dragon Asterisk

Machine/Effect

DARK/10*/ATK 0 DEF 0

If you control 3 or more face-up "Machine Emperor" or "Machine Imperial" monsters, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. This card's ATK is equal to the combined ATK of all other face-up Attack Position Machine-Type monsters you control. Your opponent cannot select another Machine-Type monster you control as an attack target. If this face-up card would be destroyed by battle or by a card effect, you can send 1 other Machine-Type monster you control to the Graveyard instead. Each time a player Special Summons a Synchro Monster, inflict 1000 damage to that player.

Mekanikle, aside from the horrible name change, got a hard summoning condition. You have to discard 3 Meklords to summon it. That's an instant -3. It can turn itself into a -1 if you steal the opponent's Synchro, but that depends on your opponent HAVING a Synchro out. It can become a big beatstick, with more than 6000 ATK, but it's still suscetible to your opponent's backrow. And during your Standby Phase, you can make it lose ATK to deal damage. But then you can't attack on that turn. 

Looking briefly, the only thing that drastically changed is the summoning condition. But, if you look closely, you'll see many other differences. Firstly, the anime one is pratically invincible, because if it would be destroyed, you just had to remove 1 of the parts of fallen Machine Emperors to prevent the destruction. Also, you could use the burn effect AND attack on the same turn. If it kept these effects (except, of course, removing Meklords insteads of the parts becuase the parts are only in the anime) and the current summoning condition, then it would be decent.

Asterisk, on the other hand, is a totally different monster from its anime version. To summon Asterisk in the real life, you have to ditch 3 Meklords for it  to gain ATK, while the anime one doesn't need to sacrifice the other Machine Soldiers. Plus, the Asterisk used by Aporia has two other effects that the real life one doesn't have: your opponent cannot attack another Machine monster and if it would be destroyed, you could just dispose of 1 other Machine you control. That would make the card much more interesting and playable. And the last effect is equal for both versions: Each time a Synchro Summon happens, the player who tuned takes 1000 damage. That's not good in nowadays meta, where card advantage is much more important than Life Points.

The Meklord Emperors and Meklord Army are monsters that didn't lose much from their anime counterparts, except of course on the names. But the "Astros" got very nerfed and became quite obsolete. Konami messed up again because they turned the bosses from great cards to almost useless ones. It has happened a lot of times though, but this level of watering down is over the limits, in my opinion. Mainly on Mekanikle. What about your opinion? Do you think that the Meklords got too much nerfed? Leave a comment!