Review: #17
Name: Starscream
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Decepticon
Line: Other (War for Cybertron promotional toy)
Year of Release: 2010
Size Class: Legends
Variations: A repaint of Cybertron Starscream, the mold was also repainted heaps before as Skywarp, Ramjet, Thrust and Sunstorm (may have missed some though). Also repainted and put into a Cyberverse 4 pack in DOTM.
JET MODE:
Starscream transforms into a Cybertronian jet, in a shape that resembles a tetrahedron. As far as Cybertronian jets go, this is a well defined one, and looks quite cool. He is well painted, with a lot more paint applications than the original toy.
He has two thrusters at the back, but you can also see his fists, as well as his head poking through up on top. Despite this, Starscream is still one little awesome jet.
You can also flip out the weapons here if you wish (although one of them is pretty useless in this mode), on the left wing is a gun, while the right is a blade, they are cast in red plastic so it looks a little bit weird.
TRANSFORMATION:
Transforms pretty much exactly the same as the larger Voyager and Supreme sized versions. Have to be careful with the legs as you have to twist it in a specific way as not to pop the hips off the ball joint. A nice and fun transformation for a small toy, being able to convert this with speed adds to Starscream's appeal.
ROBOT MODE:
Starscream looks buff in robot mode, mainly due to his beefy shoulders. His stance is awesome and he's got weapons, which is rare in toys this small. The distribution of jet mode parts in robot mode is great, only thing that might be considered an aesthetic flaw would be that his legs might be too long and appear disproportionate to the rest of the body.
Looking at his back, there's a lot of 'holes', some (like his legs) are required to be hollow due to transformation, others (like his shoulders) are just to save plastic. Anyway, he has a LOT of paint applications, all the blue on him are painted (which is a nuisance for the feet as he comes packaged with them loose and you have to clip them onto the friction joint, making paint scratches very easily). I especially like his chest as the paint is very detailed.
His head doesn't particularly evoke Starscream but since it's so small, it doesn't really matter anyway.
You can fold the weapons back up but he just looks so weird and unusual without them.
Starscream has excellent articulation, the only thing he is missing is elbows (they bend the other way for transformation). His head even turns from side to side! A robot mode that looks great, and with a lot of fun packed into it.
OVERALL:
This particular repaint is a bit of a hard figure to track down (not to mention that it commands a slightly higher than normal price for a figure this size) as this was a promotional toy given away to people who preordered War for Cybertron in the UK. Honestly, I think this is one of the best paint schemes on all of the variations. However, I highly recommend the mold, and pretty much any of the other (cheaper) variations will give you as much fun.
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Other photos can be found on this site.
Credit: pictures and text is all mine, but I've linked a few pages to TFwiki.net
Thank you very much for having a look at this review! If you're interested, more can be found on this page.