Starscream
(Cyberglyph) [Target Exclusive]
(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 the original RotF Voyager Starscream toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original RotF Voyager Starscream toy here.)
For his "Cyberglyph"
outing, Starscream keeps his same general colors of gray with a bit of
brown, though the shades used on parts of his robot mode-- his arms and
parts of his chest and head, specifically-- are a rather nice, metallic,
gunmetally gray that looks really neat regardless of how much gray there
already is on the rest of the toy. The bits of brown do help alleviate
the "sameness" of the gray all over Starscream a bit, but what really helps
the toy pop-- at least in a few areas-- are the bits of light red used
for his cockpit and parts of his chest. It's a rather eye-catching shade,
and is light, but without crossing that barrier over into obnoxiousness.
Unfortunately-- though I'm glad it's an accent color-- I wish there was
a bit more of it, as particularly in jet mode he could've used a bit more
coloration. All of the gray really does make him look quite boring, even
if it is (for the most part) movie-accurate. Starscream still has all of
those Cyberglyph "tattoo" paint apps in vehicle mode, so how to make a
character that already has Cyberglyphs into a specifically "Cyberglyph
version"? Add even more glyphs, of course! Down the center line of his
vehicle mode, as well as on his nosecone and right tail fin, are a few
extra Cyberglyph marks. Unfortunately, all of these glyphs are done in
a silver that's so close to the gray plastic, only when the light reflects
off them directly are they particularly noticeable. That's a real shame,
given all the paint apps that go into Starscream's vehicle mode-- even
just making the silver a little darker would've really helped.
No mold changes have
been made to this version of Starscream.
"Cyberglyph" Starscream
has a few neat little accents to his color scheme-- namely the light red
plastic and the metallic gunmetal gray on his robot arms-- but generally
he's kind of boring with all the various shades of gray plastic on him,
and the one thing that could help make him stand out-- all his vehicle
paint apps-- don't stick out against the plastic well enough. If you haven't
gotten a version of this mold and want something bigger than a deluxe for
this line, this'll do in a pinch. It's certainly not in a "must-have" deco
if you already have the mold, though.
Review by Beastbot
*The first releases of this figure came with opaque light red plastic, whereas later releases had that plastic replaced with a transparent color. (Pictured above is the initial version.) Although I think the solid light red pops a bit more, a translucent color makes more sense for parts like a cockpit window, so all in all I like one variant as much as the other in this case.