Review: #323
Name: Starscream
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Decepticon
Line: Block Wars (Kabaya Model Kit)
Year of Release: 2016
Size Class: Kabaya Model Kit
Mold Status: new
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:
For those not familiar with Kabaya model kits, there are relatively inexpensive model kits that you build on your own, usually based on existing toys and simplifying them.
Each model kit will come with a piece of gum. To be fair, the gum is not the reason you buy the thing, it's not awful tasting but it loses its flavour very quickly.
The pieces come still attached to their sprues and they are tightly stacked on top of each other when you first take it out of packaging. It also comes with a sticker sheet as the plastics are cast in solid colours and any intricate detailing will come from stickers. Part of the fun is putting Starscream together yourself and it is a lot of fun. You really feel like you're putting in a lot of your own effort into making the toy and slowly seeing it take shape. Starscream is not hard to put together, will take roughly 30 mins, and most of that time is taking putting the stickers on carefully.
JET MODE:
Perhaps one of the most surprising things about this wave of Kabaya Tranformers is that all the figures are based off their Cyber Series Battalion toy. Starscream still transforms into a G1-inspired fighter jet.
This is a really good looking jet considering the budget and simplistic nature of the figure.
In terms of size, since it's a jet with a wide wingspan, it gives the illusion of being almost as large as Legends figures, although he is a fair bit lighter since there are a lot of hollowness.
One of the features of this figure is the fact that all the figures interact with each other, swapping parts and whatnot in both modes. For Starscream, you can attach the bottom of Megatron's tank onto the bottom and Megatron's turret on top. It looks like a mess to be fair, but somehow, it reminds you a bit of Blitzwing due to the turret undercarriage.
Surprisingly a great alternate mode, a lot better than one would expect.
TRANSFORMATION:
The fact with a lot of these Kabaya model kits is that they cheat and partsform, that is, the process of detaching various pieces and attaching them elsewhere to achieve their two modes. Considering that these are made of as little pieces as possible, its understandable. For Starscream, you take off the wings, cockpit and the arms and reattach them for robot mode. It's actually fairly clever for what it is worth.
ROBOT MODE:
Starscream's robot mode is equally good. He has fantastic proportions and looks powerful and menacing.
You can see that he doesn't have that much kibble, only the cockpit attached to his back.
He head attaches via a balljoint. The facial details are from a sticker, and the face stickers are the most horrible to put on, you will definitely need a pair of tweezers since they're so small. You can see that I managed to tear mine at the nose when trying to position it perfectly and getting it to stick. The problem with these kits is that all the parts have sculpted details mimicking the sticker detailing so the surfaces are not flat, making them harder to stay in place.
In this mode, he is a bit shorter than Legends Shockwave.
In terms of poseability, he has restricted balljointed shoulders, balljointed hips and a balljointed head. It's more than you would dare hope for to be honest.
He has his pair of nullrays as weapons but you can also use them as a pair of handheld guns.
The nullrays also has various points to plug into his forearms so you can attach them lower in the forearm to make them appear longer and more powerful. All in all, despite the limited articulation, he manages to stand and balance well.
Of course, in this mode, he can steal parts from other figures in the set. In this instance, he can take on Optimus' axe and wear the blade as a sort of head ornament, Bumblebee's car roof as a shield, and combine Optimus' axe shaft with Bumblebee's sword into a longer weapon. This is one of the better powered up modes and Starscream looks a lot more powerful.
Overall, the robot mode is fantastic and at a quick glance, you would even realise that Starscream was only a cheap model kit, he really looks that good.
COMBINED MODE:
However, that's not all, yes, there is an additional feature for this set that the original Cyber Series Battalion toys never had, and that is the fact that they can combine! Before we go into detail with this mode, a quick look at the whole set in vehicle mode. You can see that the whole wave shares the same four base plastic colours (yellow, red, grey and blue).
Now in robot mode and they actually look great as a set.
For Starscream, he forms the left leg (with Bumblebee's torso bulking the thickness of the leg) and his arms attach awkwardly on top of the shoulders as a pair of guns (maybe).
As you can tell, this combined mode has bits of all the figures everywhere, but he holds together surprisingly well and is quite stable.
The head is basically Optimus with his axe blade forming a sort of crown, it makes the combined mode look fairly majestic though.
In terms of size, being comprised of four roughly Legions sized figures means he towers over Legends Shockwave, and even Deluxes such as Nightbird.
The combined mode has a claw for a right hand and a gun for the left hand, they don't look too bad. The poseability is very limited especially when you consider his stability. He has elbows, wrists and shoulder articulation but as they are fairly short combined to the rest of the body, they aren't that useful. The hips are on balljoints but as the chestplate attaches to each thigh, it means his legs are fixed. He also has knees but since the hips are fixed, knees doesn't mean much.
In terms of weapons, you can combine bits of Optimus and Bumblebee's weapons together to form a spear-bladed weapon, and use Bumblebee's car roof as a shield.
Unfortunately, the head is also fixed into place. This combine mode is really only for looking good standing on your shelf and not meant to be played at all since parts will undoubtedly shift when you try to move him around. Furthermore, for some reason, Starscream as a leg doesn't seem to attach that well and likes to keep popping off.
Nonetheless, this is a very novel mode. While Megatron and Starscream will never join forces and combine with Optimus and Bumblebee, let alone having Optimus be the controller, it works surprisingly well and looks powerful.
OVERALL:
You have to take the perspective that Starscream is only around $10. These cheap inexpensive figures present a lot of play value not only when assembling them but also in the various modes and interaction between other figures it has. You have your standard two modes, but then you can start to mix and match parts from other figures in the wave to power him up and not to mention the fact that you can have him as part of a combiner. The only negative is the stickers for detailing as they will undoubtedly peel over time, and just even handling him more a few times, you can already start to see the stickers being worn out. Nevertheless, if you can find him at his normal price, then this Starscream is well worth your attention and money.
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