(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Autobot Alliance Terradive. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Autobot Alliance Terradive here.)

    Like the other Machine Wars "updates", Starscream's look isn't based on anything resembling his G1 version (beyond being a Decepticon jet). He's based on the mold that was eventually used to make Universe 1.0 King Atlas (to link it to a mold I've already reviewed, since I never reviewed the orignal Machine Wars toys). He mimics the color scheme of his Machine Wars version fairly closely, with black being a main color, as well as a fair amount of light milky gray-- the latter particularly in robot mode. Unfortunately, it's that pretty blah version of light milky gray I think looks boring and I really am not fond of-- I wish FunPub had used a more metallic version of the plastic color or something. If you think this would make for a pretty boring color scheme, well... you'd be right. Starscream does have some additional colors and paint apps, though-- most notably the light green paint on his trident and a bit on his robot chest, both of which contrast excellently against the black (less so against the gray, but it still looks good). There's also a bit of silver paint on the bottom of the nosecone, and on small bits on his wings. There are some other accent colors, but they're used rather sparingly; Starscream has some white on his face and some red on his forehead crest to mimic somewhat the original Machine Wars toy, and some dark red paint apps on his knees and behind his cockpit. (The cockpit, by the by, is a transparent dark blue-- unfortunately a bit TOO dark to really contrast against the black much.) There's also a bit of dark blue paint on his lower legs, the Decepticon "elite" emblems on his wings and on his robot chest that connect him with Megaplex, and "shark" eyes and jaw paint apps along the sides of his nosecone. Unfortunately, the latter look pitifully small in comparison to the size of the nosecone. This was partially due to the mold's transformation, but honestly given how small it is I think it looks more goofy than cool. The mold itself also just doesn't fit Machine Wars Starscream all that well-- for one, it's far too small as a deluxe, while the original MW Starscream was known for being ridiculously huge. The wings are also more curved and aerodynanmic, and beyond having a long nosecone it doesn't fit the profile of MW Starscream all that well. The head does share a couple of similarities like a masked face and the shape of the headcrest, but it's also noticeably skinnier than the original and this version as a whole seems a stretch. Additionally, the original MW Starscream had its colors spread more evenly throughout the toy, whereas with this toy, the jet mode is straight-up boring, having far too much unbroken black on it.
    No mold changes have been made to Starscream. It's worth noting that, in addition to being a BotCon 2013 exclusive, this toy was only available ("free") if you preregistered as a Primus attendant AND picked up the set in person at the convention. NORMALLY, this would mean that he'd fetch a pretty penny, but this year's set as a whole was in very low demand, so he can be picked up pretty cheaply for a BotCon exclusive.
    BotCon 2013 Machine Wars Starscream is an excellent mold, but as an homage to Machine Wars Starscream it falls rather flat, not being close enough to the original source for my liking-- and just as a toy, he's a bit boring with not enough coloration. This is particularly bad in vehicle mode, where there's large patches of unbroken black. Definitely one of the weaker exclusives from this BotCon, if you ask me.

Review by Beastbot

Back to BotCon/OTFCC Exclusives Index