Activator Starscream's jet mode, from a top-down view, doesn't look so bad. Of course, as is befitting the age range the subline is targeted at, Starscream's proportions are a bit chibi-fied, with smaller wings, a larger nosecone, and a much larger main body of the jet. However, the shape still hearkens to an F-22 Raptor quite well. All of Starscream's wonderful "tattoo" paint detailing is on this mode, along with the usual mold details you'd find on a jet like this. However, when not looked at from directly above, it's blatantly obvious Starscream has his entire robot mode as the undercarriage for this mode, and it's a pretty big, thick undercarriage. However, at least everything's folded up underneath the outline of the jet, with nothing jutting out and making the undercarriage junk even more obvious (with the exception of bits of the hands and lower arms).
    As an Activator, to transform Starscream to robot mode you simply push in on the Decepticon symbol in the middle of his jet mode and he'll unfold into robot mode on his own, with only some minor tweaking with the arms and feet needed. You do have to hold his arms and legs into a certain position to lock him back into vehicle mode, though, so he's a tad harder to get back into that mode. Also, the button trigger for getting him into robot mode gets stuck often on mine, likely because of how the legs are tabbed into the undersized of the cockpit. As for Starscream's robot mode itself, it's... it's... hahaHAAAAAAAAAAAAAhahahah... erm... ahem... excuse me. *snirk* Well, I hope the attempt was to make Starscream look comedical with how "superdeformed" the toy is, and not at all threatening. Because with that hugely oversized noggin of his and the (relatively) small and thin arms and legs... heheh. He looks like a little kid with a Halloween costume on. Anyways, if you ignore that huge bit, the rest of the mode is fairly good. The jet parts tuck behind the back for the most part (though the nosecone can flop around a bit back there). The mold detailing is quite good, particularly on the chest and head (snicker). The paint detailing's quite impressive in this mode too, with the tattoos placed where they're appropriate, along with a well-detailed mouth and chest. The gold on the cockpit and the deep purple bits on the chest contrast quite well with Starscream's generally fairly dull color scheme, though the brown/bronze bits-- which become visible in this mode-- help a bit with that as well. The articulation is pretty good for an Activator as well-- Starscream can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows, wrists (at two points), hips, knees (at two points), and ankles. Since he's not really backheavy (the pieces on his back are hollow and made of the bendy kind of plastic, and thus don't weigh much), you can get him into some pretty neat poses.
    Activator Starscream is easily the weakest of the Autobot Alliance Activators subline. Although the mold and paint detailing-- as well as the articulation-- is pretty good on this toy, the jet mode has the entire robot mode hanging off the bottom, and in robot mode Starscream takes the slightly chibi nature of the line and exaggerates it to absolutely ridiculous-looking proportions. If you're a collector of oddities and think the look of the robot mode has a bit of a bizarre charm, this might be a buy, but otherwise it's an easy pass.

Review by Beastbot

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