Review: #433
Name: Sunstreaker
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: Masterpiece
Year of Release: 2017
Size Class: Masterpiece
Mold Status: new
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:
The 39th flagship figure in the Masterpiece series is Sunstreaker, which is another Autobot car down.
Like the rest of the line, he comes in a nice black box and as the series goes on, the more gimmicks there are.
The amount of accessories goes up to, and this is one of the most expensive "smaller" Masterpiece figure yet. He comes with two alternate faces, an alien mask, Chip Chase figure and his wheelchair, two guns and a spare pair of side mirrors.
Chip Chase himself is separate from his wheelchair. He doesn't peg in or anything, he just rests on top.
Lastly, there is a collector card with a nice piece of artwork on the front and stats on the back.
VEHICLE MODE:
Sunstreaker transforms into a licensed Lamborghini Countach LP500S. In "toon" mode, he has an exposed chromed engine. Note that the spoilers are also chromed which is toon accurate, but yellow would have been a lot more realistic.
From the rear, he features the weird rear headlights as seen in the cartoon.
The black gun can peg in between the engine on top or be stored within the body of the vehicle itself, hidden away.
The grey gun can only be pegged on top, there is no other place to store it in vehicle mode.
There are a plethora of gimmicks in this mode. The first of which are the pop up headlights, which is awesome. There's a tab underneath which you push up, popping up the headlights in the process (so no need to use your fingernail to claw it out).
The hood opens up.
As does the doors. However, opening the doors will just reveal folded up robot parts.
In one episode of the cartoon, he has an "anti-aircraft laser cannon", and you can replicate it here by splitting the spoiler and flipping up the yellow gun.
Of course, for the enthusiasts who would have preferred a more realistic car, TakaraTomy has gotten you covered as you can flip the exposed engines back into the body.
Furthermore, the taillights can be flipped back underneath to reveal more conventional ones. These modifications are all built in, there are no extra parts necessary which is impressive, and probably why Sunstreaker was a higher price, thanks to the extra parts
In this mode, Sunstreaker is roughly the size of a small Voyager classed toy (above is a comparison against Classics Optimus Prime) but feels a lot more hefty and compact.
While Sunstreaker sits fairly low, he rolls very well and he has plenty of clearance underneath such that nothing scrapes.
There is a big Autobot logo on the hood, and the Lamborghini badge is unpainted, which is disappointing.
The whole vehicle is painted yellow. Looks great but also susceptible to chipping if you're not careful during transformation.
There are plenty of nicely sculpted details, and he looks awesome in hand and can pass for a scale model if you don't look too closely at the transformation seams.
Having the opening doors and hood is a nice touch and looks really nice in this mode.
A fantastic vehicle mode and Sunstreaker takes the expectations up a notch thanks to the attention to detail paid to the sculpting, paint and gimmicks.
TRANSFORMATION:
As you'd expect of a Masterpiece figure, the transformation is complex. Thankfully, it is not counter-intuitive like some previous figures but it is still recommended to follow the instructions, especially since every single yellow part of the figure is painted, and very easy to accidentally chip if you force something. If you take a step back, Sunstreaker can be described as shellformer since only the car hood forms his feet, everything else either folds inside out (like his shins and torso), or compacts to form his backback. There's very little vehicular kibble that is made from the real vehicle parts.
ROBOT MODE:
Sunstreaker has a very toon accurate robot mode, right down to the proportions, so can seem a bit too cartoony and not enough robot (if that makes sense).
He has a decently sized backpack as that is comprised of most of the vehicle's rear. However, it is nicely compacted and acts as a jetpack.
The headsculpt is simple and once again, true to the cartoon design.
In terms of size, he is roughly Voyager height again but a bit slimmer.
When compared to some of the earlier "rebooted" Masterpiece figures, you can see that the direction has changed yet again. Compared to Tigertrack (the repaint of Sideswipe), they've done away with reimagining the robot modes and went all in with cartoon accuracy, leading to a lot more fake kibble.
Again, there are plenty of gimmicks in this mode. First up is the alien face that turned up on episode and took control of Sunstreaker. The face simply clips on.
Perhaps more impressively, the center of gravity is low enough such that Sunstreaker is able to balance on one foot without additional support!
He has two alternate faces, the first one is an angry shouting face.
This face is perfect for gun wielding shots.
The second alternate face is a smiling face, which comes off as a little bit creepy.
This smiling face is great for pairing with Chip Chase.
Chip can also be put upon Sunstreaker's shoulder and Sunstreaker is flexible enough to achieve a sitting pose flat on the table.
As already seen, Sunstreaker has two weapons. The first is his Flare Gun. He can hold is the same as other Masterpiece figures, in that his hands open and you peg it into the groove inside the palm.
When not in use, it can tab onto his back for storage. Note that it is a tight fit and will most likely scrap the paint off the tab on the gun.
His second weapon is the smaller Electron Pulse Rifle, unpainted black this time.
Sunstreaker has shoulders that can flex inward, allowing him to achieve dual-handed gun poses.
When not in use, you can flip up a panel on the side of his shins, peg the folded up rifle and then flip the panel back, storing the gun inside his leg. Yes, this means his legs are hollow.
You can see above that the backpack sticks out a lot but it is not as bad in person, and is quite ingenious in how is neatly collapses so much of the vehicle.
All the yellow that you see in this mode is painted yellow, which looks great. The wrists are also have a pin joint that allows it to flex up and down.
Unfortunately, the windshield you see on his torso is faux, however, the actual windshield is tucked inside his torso so it's really more of a cheat for cartoon accuracy rather than the designer being lazy.
Sunstreaker has an unbelievable amount of articulation. In addition to all the standard joints and the aforementioned flexing shoulders, he has ankle tilts that has a huge range of motion.
Then there's the range his hips can provide. The waist skirt can lift up to give him even more space.
One of the slight annoyances is how the vehicle hood ends up right behind his waist since it can make the figure more awkward to pose and hold.
On the whole, the robot mode is fantastic and amazing.
OVERALL:
Masterpiece Sunstreaker is a fantastic toy, striving for lavish cartoon accuracy in robot mode and vehicle mode, with the ability to go between toon-accurate car mode and reality-accurate car mode with no additional parts. There are plenty of extra accessories and while the pricing might have been a bit high, he is a lot more complex than previous Masterpiece figures.
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