Beast Wars II: Starscream & BB
Beast Wars II took off where season 1 of Beast Wars ended, and the toy line (which was
used as filler between Beast Wars season 1 and 2, which were separated by nearly a year in
Japan) was comprised entirely of repaints and re-releases (with the exception of Lio Convoy and
Galvatron). The majority of them were from Beast Wars, but a few molds from G2 were also used
in this line. One of those was the old Dreadwing & Smokescreen mold, repainted as Starscream
& BB.
Many fans of Transformers will tell you this mold is one of the best from G2, and they would
not be wrong. Essentially this is something a lot of the molds in G1 should have been. A cool
looking, realistic alt mode with a poseable robot mode. Actually, this mold is really two
robots, though they can join together in vehicle mode.
Combined Mode
Combined together Starscream & BB form a very cool looking stealth bomber. It's really
very cool looking, and pretty big as well. The colors, which have been changed from Dreadwing,
are black with some purple parts and transparent yellow plastics. Attached to the bottom of
the jet is a huge rapid fire weapon that fires six yellow missiles in succession (and pretty far
too, might I add). It also holds six more missiles under the wings of BB which is sufficient for
a reload, and also good if you lose any of the originals. Actually, in total this toy comes with a
whopping fourteen missiles since Starscream can also fire two. Quite impressive.
The jet also loses something in the way of sleekness with all the undercarriage garbage. Not
only does the huge gun take away something (though you can interpret it as a giant engine as
well), but there's extra stuff which doubles as BB's legs and tank treads under there as well.
Nothing major really, and it doesn't take away from the overall coolness of the jet at all.
Starscream
If you yank Starscream out of the back of BB (hrm, lots of possible suggestive things there that
I won't get into) BB's wings will fold up in a cool spring loaded action which is actually
very similar to how some of the new Armada toys may work. I'll get into BB as a whole in a bit
though.
Starscream is a spiffy little jet. Actually, he's probably big enough to sell as a deluxe, though
that may be pushing it (he's definitely bigger than a basic though). He's longer and taller
than the other two G2 jets I own (Skyfire and Wind Sheer from RID, repainted Megatron/Megaplex
and Skywarp/Thundercracker, who weren't actually released under the G2 name, but they were originally
intended for G2 release), and he has a lot less undercarriage junk since his legs actually peg
into something and his arms are pretty well hidden.
Starscream's guns, which attach at the sides of the jet in jet mode are pretty finicky.
One of mine actually only loads when it wants to and sometimes it fires the missile so fast
it seems like it's going to go through the walls, and other times it's lucky to get a few
inches. The other one is more consistent, though it can never seem to fire with the same
power the other is capable of. Both, however, can fire missiles very far, something I wish a
lot of the RID stuff could have done. The trigger doesn't seem too sensitive either, I've
only made them fire once when I didn't want to.
Transformation isn't too tough, I was able to do it the first time with no problems (aside
from one of his legs popping off). Robot mode is cool, if a bit loose in places. His shoulders
don't peg into anything and the purple thing on his back is supposed to peg into, um, his
other back, but it really just kinda sits there. Also the way his wings fold around they don't
really peg into much either, but you can get them to stay in place pretty well.
Oh, and, he has no hands. Well, that's a lie actually. His hands are just very indistinct.
Heh. There's some funny stuff about that on this
panel of My Little Beast Wars. His guns are also huge, longer than his arms, and longer than
his legs if the missile is loaded. Of course, one would expect Starscream to have some heavy
weaponry as he'll need ways to defend himself from the Wrath of G2 Megatron who is roughly
double the height of Screamer and probably more than four times the mass. Machine Wars Megatron
on the other hand, Screamer could take him out in a second.
BB
Anything you need to know about BB's jet mode you can find out from the combined mode, as BB's
jet mode is combined mode without Starscream stuck in the back. Yanking Starscream out, however,
will cause the start of BB's tank mode, which is essentially the jet with it's wings folded up.
However, it gets the job done. You also need to press two buttons on the back of the jet
which will flip out the tank treads and fold up the huge gun so it's on top of the jet, not
below it.
Tank mode is pretty cool, and Screamer can ride on top with some effort, but it has troubles
rolling as the little purple wheels on the treads are so tight they're almost at the point of
being fixed in place.
Getting BB to robot mode can be somewhat of a chore and I needed to check the instructions
a couple times to figure a few parts out since it pegs together quite tightly and I didn't want to
break anything.
The end result actually reminds me a lot of Gigantor. He's big and clunky looking and his
head is a round dome sort of thing. The only thing that takes away from that, aside from the
jet wing backpack and the huge gun on his shoulder, is the fact that his arms are kinda skinny
compared to the rest of him.
BB actually has the same exact color scheme as Starscream. His lower legs are purple, upper
legs, upper arms and feet are gray and body is black. Their heads are different colors, though.
BB also has trouble standing (that wasn't a comparison, I'm kinda jumping around now, Starscream
stands fine) as he's very back heavy, though the big horkin' gun helps balance him a little, though
I kinda wish his thigh ball joints were stronger. If you want BB can hold Starscream's guns,
though it's hard to imagine why he would need to as he's already a walking arsenal.
The Set
Yes, so now that I've reviewed the two components and the combined mode, just let me make a
few comments on the toys overall and the packaging.
First off the plastic quality of the toys seems to be a bit low, especially considering
these are Japanese toys which are usually made of a very high quality plastic. These toys
seem to be only slightly above even bootleg quality plastic in some places. They just seem
to be kind of frail to me. However, they are very solid and stable toys, and the spring
loaded stuff works perfectly, unlike some spring loaded bootlegs I have.
I'm not sure if this is an isolated problem, but Starscream's wings seem to be scratched up
a bit. I did not buy a used set either, the box was still factory sealed, so I'm not sure what that's
about. Also, Screamer's right leg seems to have a ball joint too big, though I was able to push
it on and it seems to be staying now, though it is much more prone to pop off than the left
leg and more than it should as well.
The packaging, as always, is very cool, though the cardboard is not as good as the cardboard
from the BW Neo and Metals toys I own. They also do not come with any tech specs that I can
see, though the instructions were pretty well done (they looked like a copy of the G2 ones)
and there's a nice BW2 poster with it as well that contains all the new (or old now) BW2 stuff
you can buy.
Also let me reiterate that there are a frickin lot of missiles. I don't think I
own any Transformer with so many missiles. Fourteen. That's crazy.
Overall
So overall? Well, I bought mine from BBTS for $56.99 (sub-standard grade, which consisted of a
few dents and creases in the box and some scratching of the plastic, but the toys were fine),
which is a bit pricey, I admit, but I cancelled by New Years Convoy (Optimus Prime) pre-order
due to a massive shortage of them and grabbed this (plus Savage/Noble) instead. While I think
the $57 I spent on it may have been too much, sadly it's kinda tough to get them for less (they pop up
on eBay once in a while for around $30). However, if you want a good, solid mold that's a
lot of fun to play with, then this is an excellent choice, also given the relative scarcity of
Dreadwing & Smokescreen. Excellent stuff here.
