Review: #346
Name: Thrust
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Decepticon
Line: Masterpiece
Year of Release: 2016
Size Class: Masterpiece
Mold Status: retool of Masterpiece Ramjet, itself a retool of MP-11 Starscream
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:
Like all Masterpiece figures, Thrust comes in a huge fancy black box that showcases the premium nature of this figure.
Thrust is a TakaraTomy Mall exclusive, meaning that he was actually quite hard to come by via your normal Japanese online stores. Thankfully, Asia also had a run which makes Thrust much easier to find.
Taking him out of the box you can see that the box is big for no reason. Thrust himself doesn't take up much space. The box is so thick too, they could have cut at least 25% of the volume easily.
Thrust is also a bit bare-bones on accessories, especially compared to recent Masterpieces like Ironhide and Shockwave. Sporting only two accessories, the first are the thicker bombs for jet mode.
The second is a translucent pilot. Not sure why they bothered keeping this accessory as it is completely useless. Would have preferred they included the display stand instead.
Lastly, there is an instructions booklet in booklet form this time, and a character card.
JET MODE:
Thrust is a modified F-15 with VTOL wings and a black, grey and burgundy color scheme. While not practical in real life, this is a fantastic jet.
There is a lot of sculpted detailing and the remolding works well. Some might find the color scheme weird, especially with the black clashing with the grey, but it is based off the cartoon although the shading of the black is off.
In terms of size Thrust is approximately Leader sized, probably a bit bigger though. Above is Combiner Wars Megatron for reference.
The new VTOL fans can be turned by hand and unlike the Generations Deluxe figure from a few years ago, it is molded onto the wings.
Based off the original MP-03 Starscream, this is a very sleek jet although the remolding has caused some transformation gaps to appears such as the sides of the jet but overall, still very decent and great looking. The thinner nullrays are on the sides of the jet which is annoying since they are jointed by three pieces and does not actually peg into place. He has flip down landing gear with rolling wheels.
Being a remold, he retains all the jet display gimmicks of the original, the first being that the nose cone folds out for a radar dish.
The second is that part of the fuselage folds up, as a braking measure I'd suppose.
The cockpit can open and you can place the small pilot inside. The pilot doesn't peg anywhere so he will rattle around if you pick Thrust up.
The back flaps open up to reveal the thruster engines.
The thrusters of which are on balljoints and can be aimed up or down.
Lastly, the air intakes can be folded down. A lot of these joints are also used for transformation mind you.
The rich vibrant colors of the plastic and paint together works amazingly well and Thrust looks stunning in this mode.
A fantastic jet mode that's worthy of the Masterpiece moniker.
TRANSFORMATION:
Transformation is largely the same as the original MP-03 figure. Thrust is complicated with a few trickier sections since the clearances aren't that great, especially his torso pieces. There are a few additional steps thanks to the remolding, including that his wings are now jointed in several places and can be slid higher, fold upon itself and rotate. Overall, the transformation isn't too difficult once you get the hang of it. Basically, the sides of the plane become his arms, the rear extends to form the robot legs, and the top collapses to form the torso. The way the nosecone head was incorporated was a clever touch (the robot head doesn't use the actual nosecone but it is close enough).
ROBOT MODE:
The robot mode, once again, is very cartoon accurate, right down to the large bulky kneepads.
He carries a huge amount of kibble, not least of which are the wings on his sides, which is accurate to the character design so you can't hold it against him. The fuselage and nosecone on his back is another matter as they do NOT peg in at all, being loose pieces. This is extremely disappointing considering it hinders the robot's stability and also the fact that the original mold of Starscream had them pegged together so it is a huge step backwards.
The headsculpt is pretty good but a bit generic with the grimace and just overall blank look. The eyes have a metallic gold layer to help reflect some light and make it stand out.
In terms of size, he is more on par with standard Leader sized figures now but much heavier and bulkier.
While he generally looks quite good, there are some angles where the proportions seems off. It's like his upper body is too thin compared to the lower portion. This isn't helped by the wings now being situated below waist height.
A quick comparison with the original Starscream and you can see all the small improvements to the mold, including better feet, streamlined arms, removal of the tailfin waist kibble and a rotated cockpit for his torso for better proportions.
He has separate thinner nullrays but the annoying thing about these is that they are on balljoints and are segmented into three pieces. This means that they can dislodge easily when posing Thrust.
Thrust retains the super articulated hands with a double jointed index finger, a single jointed thumb, and then all the other fingers double jointed as one piece. Thankfully, the index finger seems to be more resistant to popping off than the original.
Thrust has a major flaw, that pretty much ruins the figure. He has a loose waist. This was an issue on the original but it is even worse here. Not only does it loosely swivel side to side, but it also tilts forwards and back. It is unbelievable that the designer allowed this to past. It feels like such an oversight when a simple locking system with the nosecone kibble would have fixed it easily. As it is, Thrust will flop when you pick him up.
Interestingly, the jet wings don't get in the way at all. His heelspurs are also stable enough to keep him balances in a variety of poses. That said, his outward hip movement is limited but the waist flaps, as is his forward and back hip movement.
There are hidden missile pods you can reveal but flipping open the air intakes which is a nice feature.
The color scheme in this mode remains fantastic, although the random purple on his kneepads are kinda out of place, but in line with how he was portrayed in the cartoon.
His arms have a huge range of motion which makes up for the limited legs. Thrust has wrist swivels too. His head can be floaty since it is only a balljoint attached to a small piece that swings up.
A stunning robot mode for display only since any fiddling and you will get annoyed at his loose floppy waist.
OVERALL:
A Masterpiece version of Thrust was long time coming ever since the original Masterpiece Starscream was released. It has taken many years but he is finally here. Unfortunately, he is not without his flaws, the largest of which is the loose waist which seemed like such an easy fix if only TakaraTomy bothered. The color scheme may put some people off but he looks and feels really good once in hand. The only other big negative is the price. Being so expensive for a mold that's been redecoed and retooled so many times, as well as so limited in accessories, Thrust is hard to stomach considering he's twice as expensive as say Masterpiece Ironhide but not as cleverly engineered or as many accessories. Thrust is only recommended if you wanted to complete the (expensive) Masterpiece Coneheads or you like the character.
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