For Power of the Primes, Starscream's alt mode is definitely G1-esque, but it's a bit more futuristic of a jet; he's got a thicker nosecone, big thrusters in the back, and much smaller tailfins. The wings are a bit more ridged and angular, as well. Although I think the tailfins are way too small, otherwise the jet portion itself look good, but Starscream has a LOT of extras in this mode-- heck, basically his entire robot mode. His entire arms stick out the sides (the shoulders in particular, since they poke out from underneath the wings. The feet stick out from behind the back thrusters pretty obviously too, and there's a BIG undercarriage-- the robot chest, the lower legs-- it all sticks out FAR below the main body of the jet. I know this is a problem with jetformers, but this is pretty bad even by those standards. There is a flip-out landing gear piece near the front to mostly keep him level, but it folds out the wrong way (towards the front of the nosecone, not towards the middle), which is kinda weird. The mold detailing is pretty standard for a jet, with lots of angular lines all over the place, especially down the center of the jet. The color scheme is typical Starscream, being largely a light gray that's so light it's almost white, with some dark blue on the tailwings and light red on the front intakes. There's also some dark blue on the nosecone and black paint on the cockpit. Unfortunately there's a LOT of those AWFUL foil stickers on Starscream, including on his main wings as well as on the front intakes and on the upper tailwings. They mimic his G1 details with red stripes down the front of the wings, some simplistic details near the front of the intakes, and red-and-silver stripes on the rear tailfins. Not using paint apps in these areas just basically ruins this, I'll be honest, especially since the rest of Starscream isn't painted silver. The wings also fold up, which can bend the stickers at the edges a bit. Starscream has six little pegs on the top of this mode for Titan/Prime Masters; two on each wing, and one near the back of the front intake pieces. Starscream also has two null ray weapons which can be added to the sides of his arms or under his wings, and he has two "feet-like" Prime Armor pieces that you can fit a Prime Master in (he comes with a one pink Matrix-like piece that can fit in one of these indentations), and that also form the front feet for a combined mode. Those latter pieces unfortunately only really fit under the wings, and really stick out like a sore thumb.
    Starscream's transformation to robot mode is pretty simple and pretty obvious when looking at the jet mode-- mostly you just extend the legs, extend the arms, fold back the nosecone, and then rotate the wings around so they face the right way. It's pretty much an uncompressed version of the jet mode standing on end, to oversimplify things a bit. In this mode Starscream generally looks like his G1 self, but on steroids-- very SELECTIVE steroids. His main body looks pretty good-- he's got a very well-sculpted face with his usual details and a slight smirk, faux intakes and a faux jet cockpit in his chest, with some pretty darned good mold detailing that really makes it look like everything's been compressed from his jet mode. His arms are beefed up, at the shoulders but ESPECIALLY in the lower arms, which basically all-but-erase his upper arms, they're so beefed up (there's room for the combiner ports inside the arms, which explains why they're proportioned this way, but it still looks weird. The upper legs are pretty decent, but man, he has got some CHUNKY lower legs-- like he's wearing boots to wade into a swamp or something. Again, this is partially because of the combiner ports on the bottom of the feet, but it still just loooks weird in this mode. Starscream has his usual wings behind his back, but the jet nosecone and front intake pieces also stick out behind his back-- and fairly far too, even behind his wings. The front intake pieces also pop off rather easily, which is kind of annoying. As for the color scheme, the white-gray is still obviously the most common color in this mode, but the light red on the body and dark blue on the lower arms, knees, and feet helps break up the colors more than in this mode. There's some silver and black paint on the abs and chest, and his black head has light red eyes and silver on the face, as you'd expect. There's still some foil stickers, but thankfully only on his shoulders-- which again, imitate the simplistic detailing on his G1 stickers there. Starscream's null rays fit in his shoulder ports well enough, but again you've got the problem with those big Prime Armor pieces. You CAN stick the null rays into the back end of each Prime Armor pieces an dthen attach THOSE to his shoulders, but then the null rays look ridiculously oversized. Beyond just putting the Prime Armor pieces somewhere else, there really aren't any good options, here. For articulation, Starscream can move at the head, shoulders (at two points), elbows, hips (at three points), and knees-- decent articulation, but nothing outstanding.
    Starscream's combined torso mode takes some cues from Combiner Wars Silverbolt in terms of its general transformation-- you essentially turn the robot mode upside down and the arms become the upper legs/hips of the combined mode, while the legs compress together to form the sides of the chest. Meanwhile, the robot chest opens up and you flip out the combined mode head while flipping in the robot head. However, the way the rest of the jet folds up on the front is definitely less... elegant. Starscream's combined head (which is basically his normal head with his "Coronation Crown" on it) sits too far back compared to the chest, and those front intake pieces really stick out quite a bit, obstructing view of the head from quite a few angles. The large wings merely fold up on the sides of the main body and than fold back out again, essentially forming "smaller wings" on the lower chest, but they're still too large and stick out too far in front of the main body. I do like the nosecone down the center, though, which opens up at the cockpit to allow you to put a Prime Master in it. The big thrusters on the shoulders are also a nice touch, and the null rays can be pegged into the upper back and out of the way. Still, overall this mode feels... unfinished, like it's missing a few steps to really peg everything solidly together and create a more seamless main body. For articulation in this mode, Starscream can move at the head as well as at the hips (at two points).
    Of course someone like Starscream would want to be the main portion of his own Combiner, so logically this toy makes sense, but structurally it's not great. The jet mode is generally just bad and full of kibble (as well as obnoxious foil stickers). The robot mode is the strongest mode, but still has really oversized lower arms and legs, and a bit more kibble than you'd expect from Starscream. The combined mode torso has decent hips and a nice headsculpt, but the way all the jet parts just sorta clash together on the chest without being flush with the main body makes the whole mode look unfinished. If you REALLY want Starscream to be the main segment of a combiner, this toy is for you; otherwise, there's LOTS of better Starscreams out there. I think this is one of the poorest toys from the PotP line.
 

Review by Beastbot

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