General Information: Images:
*Images and text below from Hasbrotoyshop.com: Prepare to do battle – DECEPTICON style! Fire either of two missiles from this eager enemy’s pop-out missile launcher in robot mode. Activate gears with a turn of STARSCREAM figure’s head! Or convert to an F-22 Raptor aircraft in vehicle mode and let your imagination soar! Recreate exciting scenes from the movie or create your own! Figure comes with missile accessories. Detailed robot-to-vehicle figure features pop-out missile launchers and two firing missiles! Turn head to activate moving gears! Figure comes with missile accessories. Ages 5 and up.
Vehicle Mode: Starscream's vehicle mode has all the requisite elements of the F-22 design. The wings and horizontal stabilizers all have a four sided design resting against the main body of the vehicle. The vertical stabilizers are set at angles (though they are adjustable) while the nosecone flattens out towards the center, coming to an angle before curving down to the lower portion of the vehicle. It also has some of the finer details fo the F-22 design including the jagged lines on the nosecone and towards the rear of the vehicle. Near the vertical stabilizers are vents and the wings have several lines indented into them indicating where armor panels join each other. You'll also find some fantastic detailing on the underside of the vehicle. The wings seem to be the focus of these details, with lines, rectangles, tubes, circles and more. You'll find more detail inside the cockpit where there is a pilot's seat and control console. I'm loving this sculpt so far. This is one impressive vehicle mode! Part of "thinning" Starscream out also involves making him a little less accessory heavy. Instead of having six missiles as his accessories, he has two. These can be plugged into his arm weapons into the rear (which I like, since it looks like Starscream has rear defense weapons) but they're really meant to be attached to tabs on the underside of each wing. They hold to the tabs really well, and they don't stick out too much when viewed from above which is a bonus. starscream has three landing gear pieces. Two are attached to his arms in the center of the vehicle. Swing the black wheels out and then unfold the leanding gear from the underside of the nosecone and he stands on the landing gear just fine. I really like the way the landing gear on the nosecone isn't just the standard stick of plastic that swings down, but instead it actually has an extra hinge that allows it to tuck into the underside of the nosecone. Starscream is mostly cast in a metallic beige color. He has some black plastic too, but most of that you'll see on the underside including the robot hands and landing gear. The cockpit is cast in translucent yellow plastic. In a rather unusual move, Starscream only has one primary paint color in this form: black. this color is used to paint the complex series of glyphs that resemble a bit of ancient writing and circuit board patterns combined. On his right wing is a large Decepticon symbol. The patterns reallyd raw your eye, and my favorite part about the design is that it is asymetrical. The designs on one side do not necesarily match on the other side, yet they don't look overly confusing at the same time. A beautiful deco job overall. Transformation to Robot Mode:
I have to say that this is one of the most impressive transformations I've seen in quite some time. It's very complex and I was honestly surprised that in a figure on this scale there were so many small hinges and parts to move around. I caution against pulling too hard on the chest panels as mine popped out when I used a bit too much force.
Robot Mode: The CGI model of Starscream is extremely detailed, with tons of wires, tubes, mechanical bits and so on sticking out everywhere. The designers have made an attempt to duplicate as much of these features as they could in this figure. Among them are:
The two parts which draw my eye the most are the head sculpt and the torso. The head sculpt is fantastic. The one from the first movie was very well done, but this one refines that one and enhances certain details such as the mandibles on the face and the raised details on the crest. The chest is the most incredible part. Utilizing a series of gears, this activates the "Mech Alive" feature. Turn the robot head side to side and the gears in the torso turn. There are tube shaped gears and a circular one. It's very cool and is one of the best examples of this feature. Starscream has twenty five points of articulation in this form. There are five in each arm, including the ability of his hands to move up and down. Each leg has seven points of articulation. There are several hinges as well as joints that can rotate in and out. On each arm is a missile launcher. Press the trigger and the missile will fire. If you look carefully at the sculpt, there are two hinges sculpted into each forearm. Originally there was going to be an action feature which would have allowed the missile launchers to spring up before firing the missile. This would have had the added bonus of setting the launcher clear from the hands. Most likely this was eliminated as a cost saving measure. However, truth be told the hand doesn't really get in the way so it's not absolutely necessary to have such a feature. In this form, Starscream is still mostly metallic beige, but several parts are also cast in black. This includes the hands and several joints in the arms and legs. Several of the details inside the torso are cast in black as well. The black glyph patterns distribute throughout the robot mode, and look really awesome. Inside the chest, sections of the black plastic are painted metallic silver and gold. Black, gold and red paint are used for details on the robot head. I really like the color break down a lot on this figure. The beige color of the original could get a bit monotonous, but the black, gold and silver colors enhance it a lot.
Final Thoughts:
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There's a challenge that I don't envy when it comes to being a Hasbro toy designer. In the first live action movie toy line, there were several iterations of the character Starscream. In the Voyager Class alone there were several releases of the sculpt as Starscream and other Seekers. This even continued with this year's Wal-Mart exclusive Ramjet and Skywarp redecos. It makes sense that Starscream would appear again in the toy line. However, I was surprised that the designers went ahead and made a whole new sculpt on the Voyager scale for this toy line.
