Starting with the Jet mode, and its clear out of all the three modes this toy has to do, this is the mode that took the biggest hit to make the other modes work. This guy has an awful Jet mode. The jet parts look fine, its when you look at any other angle that doesn't hide things under the jet mode. Starscream suffers hard from Robot under a Jet syndrome, almost nothing is hidden in this jet mode. The only thing hidden is the robot mode thighs, which are inside the gigantic robot mode shins. I'll at least give them credit for not reusing the Combiner Wars Silverbolt mold again, but even Silverbolt could hide his head. In terms of functions this mode has, there isn't much there. The cockpit can open up to plug a Prime Master/ Titan Master in, or the included Seeker Enigma, and there are ports to store the Null Rays and the Combine mode feet (which looks awful anywhere you put them so do yourself a favor and leave those feet off the jet). A landing wheel can unfold from the nose cone for display, and that's about it. What you see is what you get with the jet mode, including all those foil stickers. While I was willing to let Grimlock slide because they're tasteful and not all over the place, on Starscream, they're almost everywhere and it looks awful. They're covering almost all of the wings, the Decepticon badge on the nosecones (the real one and the fake one for robot mode), the mini Autobot stickers on the side to show how many Autobot's he's killed (which apparently makes him one of the most successful Starscream as he's killed 5), the tail fins, above the vents (I don't know what they're actually called), and that's just the ones for Jet mode. On robot mode you have more on his feet, more on his shins, more on the sides of his arms, and two more inside Starscream's signature collar vents. Who's idea was it to put silver stickers on a cream white toy? I hate these stickers with a passion because the amount of times I've gotten a toy that has them decently applied can be counted on one hand! Is it to much to ask for at least a sticker sheet? Or using decent quality stickers?! Anyway, to robot mode!
The robot mode, a few flaws excluded, is a solid Voyager Starscream. A lot of the flaws people have with it in terms of proportions kind of grew on me as I continued to mess around with the toy. Yeah, he's a bit overly bulky due to combiner boss obligations, but it does kind of work when you consider he is the second in command of the Decepticons. The big problem I have with the toy is that I wish the nosecone from the jet folded up a little more, to make the backpack cleaner. The Null Rays as well could also be a bit bigger on his arms, but they do look surprisingly good when used as hand-held weapons. If you wanted to, you could attach them to the combined mode feet and stick them on his arms, but that actually looks worse then when they're stored in jet mode. He has the standard posing points for a voyager (Neck swivel, can look down due to transformation, ratchet shoulders for both outward and rotation due to combiner obligations, bicep swivel, friction for elbows (90 degrees), friction hips forward and back with ratchets for outward and friction knees with 90 degree bends) but missing some extended features like moving ankles. It would be nice to see the other seekers in this style, but that's coming from a Transformer fan who... doesn't have a set of Seekers in any form...
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| Please note that three of the five robots used here are fan retools of existing moulds and are not official releases. Image was found here http://www.bwtf.com/toyreviews/generations/potp/starscream |
Going into the combined mode and... he does make a solid looking combiner torso. It looks powerful and even incorporates some references to the 86 movie and Bayformers. Meet King Starscream, a combiner so full of himself that he makes sure the combined mode head is just a bigger version of his head with a crown. The body design does remind me of Movieverse Starscream and manages to look a little better than it because it looks less like a random pile of parts forming a Dorito with birthing hips. I'll go more into my views on Movieverse screamer soon cause I do have the Studio Series one. In terms of functionality and how well the combined mode works, I want to hold off on that until I see it with Dreadwind, Blackwing and the two mysterious limb bots he may or may not get.
Is he as bad as everyone makes him out to be? Not really. With the exception of the stickers, he doesn't do anything that I haven't seen in several other jetformers. A lot of the hate I've seen has been tied to the "Starscream shouldn't combine!" argument, and, for me personally, I don't care if gimmicks are given to characters who didn't have them, if the gimmick works, doesn't take to much away from the toy, then they could put anything they wanted into characters. There are even some characters that benefit from the new gimmicks (Topspin and Twintwist say hi). Besides, it doesn't retroactively make the character tied to that gimmick since the beginning, and people who wanted a G1 Starscream that doesn't combine to have alternatives (Masterpiece Starscream and its knockoffs along with MakeToys's Meteor come to mind). If there was no other way to get this character, then I'd be saying something different in the case of the combining gimmick. There's going to be a break in content while E3 happens, so the next thing for both sites is going to be a video covering the news from it. Next toy to review in a few weeks though is going to be another Decepticon Voyager, another combiner, but this is one a lot of people have been wanting, myself included. Terrorcon Hun-Gurrr.
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