Size: Voyager
MSRP: $20
OUT NOW
The summer is magic, is magic, wowowoh…Whatever(my favourite line, yess), here in Milan it seems to be in some tropical area! These days my main activity got to be sweating… I was born for transpiration, that’s my destiny. And my doom, if it goes on like that. And our local pollution makes miracles to raise humidity and temperature… I am getting mad.
So mad, I wasted most of my Movie TF budget for… Starscream! I wanted to wait and get this figure’s much anticipated G1-themed repaint (with Thundercracker, of course) but I guess this hot day took the best of my brain cells… and 28 euros later, here we are: Transformers Movie Starscream, one of the main reasons why Micheal Bay has never been as unpopolar as in last years.
Megatron? Is that you? -KABLAAM!
Do you remember our lovely, tender F-15 jet that could convert to the G1 Starscream we all loved? It’s gone. We actually got a F-22, brand new.
Do you remember Starscream’s typical colors, white, blue, red and yellow? They are all gone. Now we have gret, black, beige… I also wanted some pink, but Satan said like this it was too much even for him, and we stopped. Bah.
We all now how people are arguing since months about this figure. Legs are like a monster’s or a bird’s ones, no arms, 2 stupid missile launchers as arms… look, I am pissed off. Now I’ll tell you why, in my not so humble opinion, you should buy one anyway.
Starscream… Tyrant of the Firmament, or just stupid?
As a F-22 military jet, Screamer loses lots of its charm, it’s a beige airplane with a huge belly and ridiculously large weapons under its wings… that’s it.
Its F-22 mode may not be that much fun or realistic, but its transformation and robot mode make up for it more than enough.
Transformation scheme is involved and fun, as it should be; the only problem I found is that missiles keep being fired around the room if I don’t place them somewhere else before manipulating this toy. The missile launchers’ triggers are quite sensible, if not… “overeffective”…
There is a very good detail level which includes panels, wires, cables and so on. But the pictures should be more than enough about it.
The Automorph feature is here represented by the cockpit sliding to the back of the plane, while all kinds of detailed machinery comes out of nowhere. It would be nicer if we didn’t get a huge gap on the plane’s fuselage because of this.
This is an ugly, nasty machine. Because you didn’t demand it, here’s Movie Starscream’s Gerwalk mode.
I will rule the universe, even if I am the only one left in the universe.
Remember, this movie is made to relaunch the TF brand to the masses, so it’s just fresh air what we are getting here… a new take on a very classic and rooted character. A betrayer, a powerful warrior, a top-tier charismatic character , Screamer is all of this and much more. This toy introduces us to an evil Decepticon who came to Earth to enslave us, exploit it, destroy us… everything he needs to do to fulfill his dreams of power. We get an evil-looking robot, with and evil (insectoid-like) head, massive weapons replacing his arms and monster-like legs… and it disguises as an armed to the bone military jet! I think this is one of the most charismatic TF toys even done, it really shows some personality. This is not some character you loved to see on TV and to play with, this is the second in commmand of the Decepticons, an alien race of robotic invaders! And one day he will conquer the universe with his own hands… and the fact that he has cannons instead of fingers only tell us more about what we are dealing with!
Missiles can be stored as shown in the picture, but they are quite loose… there is a small tab that normally activates the triggers when you roll the wheels behind each arm, but you can pull it back to prevent missiles to be shoot.
The 3 claws each arm has are more vestigial than anything else, but it’s nice to have them, especially if you are storing the missiles on the “biceps-mounted-missile-racks”.
Screamer is well articulated, there is no waist articulation, unluckily, but there is very good posability for arms, legs and head, I’m satisfied.
Nobody turns his back on me!
I think this is a new, but not unfaithful at all representation of the Screamer we all love. Movie Starscream makes for a beautiful display piece, you have never seen an Evil Decepticon if you have never owned this toy to appreciate it with your own eyes and hands.
A G1-themed and a Thundercracker repaints will be out in next months, so maybe you’ll want to wait to choose you own favourite version. As for me, I plan on getting all of them… and to repaint them as the Armada Seekers, BWAAHHAHAAHHAHehm.
The only real downsides I could see in this toy are the lack of waist articulation, the lack of hands and the color scheme… but only the first issue means something to me, anyway. This is Movie Starscream, not an Alternator or Masterpiece version.
On Elohim’s Energon scale, I give Movie Starscream 8 out of 10 cubes.
Take care,
Rikkomba
