Allegiance: Decepticon
Size: Cyberverse Vehicle Set
Difficulty of Transformation of Robot: Very Easy
Difficulty of Transformation of Base: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Light milky tannish gray, bluish gray, and some dark metallic gunmetal gray, black, pale light metallic gold, metallic bronze, and red
Figure Rating: 5.7
Base Rating: 5.0

    Starscream finally has a new legion-class figure-- one badly needed, given how bad his previous one looked. In vehicle mode, Starscream is still his F-22 fighter jet self, complete with Cyberglyph tattoos. As I've said before many times about his markings, I love the intricacy of them here, and they really help to make a mode visually interesting that otherwise would look rather boring. After all, literally all of Starscream's plastic is of a rather ugly light milky tannish gray color. There's ways to make this color look good, but this version of him doesn't employ those methods. Still, at least here the Cyberglyphs-- along with the bit of copper and gold detailing-- can make one easily overlook it. There's quite a lot of robot mode kibble on the underside of this mode, but it mostly tends to stick underneath the wings-- the feet are the only things that REALLY stick out annoyingly. The top "jet" portion of the vehicle mode is quite good and looks proportional, and two of his tailfins can also be repositioned as they're on ball joints, which is appreciated.
    Starscream's robot mode could definitely use some improvement, but honestly after his disaster of a first Legend/Legion class figure he looks better here. His main wings jut out REALLY blatantly from his sides in a manner wholly unlike how they incorporate with his robot mode in the movie, and is my main beef with him here. The rear part of his vehicle mode also simply collapses against his upper back, though at least they mostly stay out of the way visually-- I wish they pegged into something, though, as they tend to flop around a little too easily. The arms are also a bit odd-looking, as the pieces that connect them to his chest try to imitate his extended cockpit-chest look in robot mode, but it doesn't really succeed, and instead make his waist look practically insubstantial while his shoulders are too wide even for Movieverse Starscream. That said, he mold detailing on this figure is quite good, particularly on the arms and legs, and his head has some nice paint detailing on it with the eyes a nice red to really contrast against Starscream's base colors. His articulation is also slightly above-average for a Legion class figure-- he can move at the shoulders (at two points), elbows, and hips (at two points). I really wish he had some knee movement, but at such a small scale I couldn't reasonably ask for anything more.

    Starscream's Orbital Asssault Carrier is, in its vehicle mode, meant to be a replica of the little spaceships all the generic Decepticons use to take over Chicago in the movie. It's pretty accurate for the most part, with nice proportions and excellent mold detailing that is accented by a slight black paint wash on many of the details on the main body of the vehicle. The exception to this is that the bottom of this mode extends downwards too far, leaving a rather empty, ugly hollow shell beneath the side-mounted guns. The color scheme also unfortunately largely borrows from Starscream's in terms of its main color, but to be fair this is rather accurate to their appearance in the movie. The copper detailing here-- and on parts of the base mode-- really helps where it's applied near the rear of the vehicle, and the nice metallic gunmetal gray also works wonderfully on the excellently-detailed rear thrusters, which can each move up and down. There's also a few areas for C-clip weapons to attach in this mode-- particularly on the thrusters-- as well as little holes to hold Cyberverse-sized weapon accessories. And speaking of weapon accessories, there's a spring-loaded missile launcher that comes with the toy that can be held in a few places on the toy, but sadly the peg size is too large to be held by the Starscream figure.
    The base mode looks a bit more like a flying throne, which I suppose is certainly appropriate for Starscream. The sides of the vehicle flip up so that the main guns can move up and down a little (at two different points), while the front of the vehicle splits in half and rotates downards to become less obvious. Unfortunately, the hinges that you use to flip these side sections up are way too weak to hold up the weight, and they tend to flop right back down. There's also still that ugly hollow section on the bottom that this mode only makes more obvious. On a positive note, the mold detailing on this toy, particularly in this mode, is very good, with little ornate and mechanical details all over the "throne", thrusters, and guns.

    Overall, the Starscream w/ Orbital Assault Carrier is definitely one of the weakest-- if not THE weakest-- of the Cyberverse Vehicle sets, as the set has a weak base/throne mode and is best just left in its vehicle mode. The Starscream figure is a definite improvement over his previous movieverse Legends/Legion toy, but that's a pretty low bar to jump over-- there's still some definite kibble problems in both modes and his arms are molded in a really weird fashion. If you really want an Orbital Assault Carrier toy from the movie or a movie-accurate-colored tiny version of the new, better legion Starscream figure, this is a mild recommendation, but otherwise skip it.

Review by Beastbot

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