Starscream
(Gravity Bot)
As opposed to all the
other Gravity Bots, Starscream's alternate mode (obviously) is a jet as
opposed to a ground-based vehicle. I'd like to say that gives him kudos
points; unfortunately, his jet mode looks just plain bad, even accounting
for the "kiddy factor" needed in the look given the target audience. The
cockpit is absolutely ridiculous-looking, a big stubby bump sticking out
from the top of the jet more than from the front. His wings are little
bitty things as well, and the rear section of this mode sticks up from
the rest of the alternate mode for no good reason (other than obviously
becoming the legs in robot mode, which couldn't have been more obvious).
On the plus side, the "Cyberglyph" tattoos all over Starscream really look
good here and help to spice up the alt mode just as much here as they do
on other, more "mainline" versions of the toy. Which is good, because otherwise
his color scheme of light brownish gray is really realy boring. Starscream
also has some pretty good detailing, with all the revelant plane details
present, despite their "superdeformed" size. Starscream does have wheels
on his underside loosely approximating landing gear, so he can move around
on a flat surface a bit.
Just like any other
Gravity Bot, all you need to do to transform Starscrem is place his vehicle
mode on its rear end, and he'll automatically convert because of gravity.
His wings flip around to show his arms, and the cockpit section swivels
around and flips down to reveal his robot head-- that's really it. Like
other Gravity Bots, he has no articulation whatsoever in this mode, and
his proportions are even wonkier than is the standard for this line. His
arms are way too low and don't seem to be connected to his chest in any
reasonable manner, the cockpit piece is hollow and there's a big gap between
it and Starscream's actual robot head, his legs are one big block of plastic
that doesn't move.... just, ugh. As for positives, man... this is tough.
Let's see his head sculpt is pretty darned good, and the paint app and
mold detailing on his arms is great. That's... about it.
Gravity Bots certainly
have their downsides, but many have upsides too, such as a cool gimmick
and at least somewhat reasonable proportions in both modes. Starscream
complete lacks the latter, with a goofy plane mode and an extremely weird-looking
robot mode in practically all respects. I wish I could say having a jet
Gravity Bot is great, but man... they should just have stuck with cars
for this subline. My least favorite of the Gravity Bots. If a little kid
really wants a Starscream toy, get him the Legend, Robot Replica, or Fast
Action Battler version instead.
Review by Beastbot