Starscream
(Energon)
Vehicle mode is a jet.
From a top view at least, this mode is very nice. The proportions are great
(except for the oversized Energon weapons under each wing, but I assume
that it's that way for safety purposes), and Starscream has much more realistic
of an alt mode than his Armada version
did. There's even a seat inside his see-through cockpit- a completely unnecessary
detail, but very appreciated nonetheless. His mold detailing is also excellent,
and his paint detailing is above-average too. Starscream also has some
great battle damage detailing on him, ranging from just subtly crooked
lines to a large neon green "energy" patch on his left wing. It definitely
makes him different from "just another Decepticon jet", if nothing else.
Starscream also has miniature fold-out landing gear. His large Energon
gun mounted under his left wing looks pretty nice in this mode, but his
Energon sword under the other looks kinda odd coming out from under the
wing of a plane, as it has no obvious long-range capability. The thing
that really bugs me about this mode, though, is that Starscream has quite
a bit of undercarriage "junk". It's a problem with quite a few jet Transformers,
to be sure, but that doesn't make it look any better. The designers tried
to make it less obvious by attaching small wings to the back end of this
undercarriage, but it's still so obviously just Starscream's folded-up
robot legs they might as well not have tried at all. Especially when you
consider how much lower the extra wings are from the main jet body- it
just doesn't look right.
Starscream's robot mode
is just awesomely awesomely awesome. It's almost perfect- my only complaint
at ALL is that his elbow joints are made in such a way where it makes his
arms look a little on the puny side. Other than that, he's great. For starters,
his proportions are, again, perfect, and the only plane extras- his various
wings and the cockpit on his chest- only accentuate this mode rather than
detract from it. Like in his vehicle mode, his color scheme works great
together, with just the right blends of darks and ghastly blue to make
him look all the more like an "Energon ghost" (which is what he's supposed
to be in the cartoon). Although they're not as widespread as they were
in his vehicle mode, his "battle damage" still carries over into this mode
some- the biggest example being that is right shoulder is transparent green
and covered with neon green damage detailing, whereas his left shoulder
is solid light blue and is not. The designs of his shoulders and face are
also heavily reminiscent of Starscream from the War Within comic book miniseries,
which I think is a nice but subtle fan nod. He has transparent green light
piping used for his robot eyes, adding to his "ghostly" persona. In addition,
his articulation is top-notch; he has all the points of articulation you
could reasonably ask for on a deluxe-sized toy with the sole exception
of waist movement. His Energon weapon (I thought only Omnicons and Terrorcons
were supposed to have Energon weapons? Ah, well.) is a HUGE, very cool-looking
sword, and make Starscream look like he could really kick some skidplate.
This is only made all the more obvious when you transform him into his
"hyper mode", in which the wings on his back turn around to become missile
launchers. Starscream ain't taking no prisoners this time.... Starscream's
Decepticon spark crystal is on his chest in this mode. His two Powerlinx
ports are on the forward-facing sides of his wings in robot mode, and his
Energon weapon also has two Minicon ports if you so desire to attach it
to a larger Transformer in that way.
Starscream's robot mode
is one of the best Transformer robot modes I've ever seen, but the fact
that he has so much undercarriage in vehicle mode rather hurts him, I think.
Still, with so awesome of a robot mode, I couldn't bare to knock him below
the "must-buy" rating of 9.0+. This guy's defintiely worth purchasing.
Review by Beastbot