Starscream's F-22 Raptor mode is slightly chibi-fied, given that he's a Fast Action Battler aimed at a younger audience than the "normal" movie toys, but it's not TOO chibi-fied-- his cockpit is a bit stubby and his jet mode is a tad wider proportionally than it should be, but that's it. The color scheme, consisting almost entirely of pale light tan in this mode, is pretty darn dull, even if it is realistic. Putting a few paint apps on the center of his jet mode to help break up the colors would have been appreciated, even though the white lines on the edges of his nosecone and wings help out some. (It's not nearly as bad in robot mode, at least.) His mold detailing is very good, though, with little mechanical plating and aerodynamic patterns molded all over his jet mode. However, although Battle Blade Starscream has less undercarriage junk than his mainline Voyager class version, he still has some pretty darn obvious robot extras in this mode that pretty much ruin its look. For one, the robot legs just hang off the bottom rear end of this vehicle mode, and they're folded up in such a manner where the feet stick out REALLY obviously from behind the rear wings. I mean, Starscream's feet stick out from the bottom of the plane so much that you HAVE to have his landing gear under the nosecone extended or he leans forward big time in this mode. Plus, Starscream's hands are pretty obvious sticking out from the front of the jet mode. There's missiles molded on the outside (in this mode) of the hands to try to help them "blend in", but honestly it's a pretty pathetic attempt at it.
    I don't have many good things to say about Starscream's extremely awkward robot mode, so let's get the few good things out of the way first. His legs are decently proportioned, and the black wash used on many of his robot parts really brings out all the excellent molded-in detail very well. His head sculpt is also very well-done and has quite a few paint apps. His action gimmick is a flip-out "Battle blade" on his right arm, which can be activated by releasing a lever on the shoulder. It's not uber-cool or anything, but it's nice to see Starscream with a melee weapon and actual HANDS instead of them both being missile cannons like on the mainline Voyager toy. Alright, now on to the extreme awkwardness of this mode. The hands are way too skinny, and due to the way the toy in constructed, although the arms can both move at the shoulders, the right arm can only face straight outwards or straight downwards, with no real "in between" positioning. (Starscream's other points of articulation are at the neck, hips, and knees-- he's not all that poseable.) Having missiles in Starscream's palms also looks rather odd. His head is also looking downwards into his chest, and can only look from side-to-side so it's not like this can be compensated for by tilting his head up or anything. The biggest beef I have with this mode by far, however, is the fact that the halves of the main body of his vehicle mode just hang off the sides of his body, which is already too wide proportionally. It just looks really odd, having these highly detailed pieces of plastic hanging off his body that shouldn't even be there in the first place and don't even look like anything. I've seen Transformers with a lot of kibble before, but not kibble with a ton of paint-washed detail that screams "look at me!" too.
    Battle Blade Starscream is the worst of all the Fast Action Battlers. Both of his modes have some pretty crippling downsides-- in vehicle mode it's his incredibly obvious robot mode extras, and in robot mode it's his very awkward proportions and vehicle kibble. Recommended only for completists or hardcore Starscream fans.

Review by Beastbot

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