Starscream (Deluxe; Beast Hunters)
Vehicle ModeRobot Mode
Allegiance: Decepticon
Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation: Medium
Color Scheme: Dull milky grayish green, dull fuchsia, black, light milky pale purple mixed w/ dark purple, and some silver, chalky pale yellow, purple, light red, light milky gray, and dark bluish purple
Rating: 7.3

    Unlike most Beast Hunters Autobots and Decepticons, Starscream's deluxe foray into the line is not only a new mold, but doesn't completely evoke any beast in particular; it's just a more stylized, pointed, decorative version of his original design. He's still a jet, but with several pale yellow markings and protrusions everywhere, such as on the sides of his cockpit, his rear and main wings, and his tailfin (which is ridged like a bird or fish; the only part that looks animalistic). When looking at "just" the jet bits, this mold looks pretty good; the proportions of the jet mode are fairly spot-on, though the cockpit is a bit undersized. However, like many jet-formers, Starscream unfortunately has many quite obvious robot mode bits below his jet mode, even if they don't stick down below the underside a ton. His robot hips, lower legs, and feet are pretty darned obvious and can be seen from just about every angle. He does have a fold-out landing gear below his cockpit to make him level with the two wheels molded onto the underside of his lower legs-- this will straighten him out level if you don't include his weapon. Starscream's Beast Hunters weapon, though, is huge, and is a large finned claw weapon with a painted sawblade in the middle-- it's so large it almost looks like a drone Starscream can deploy as opposed to a weapon, which is how I like to see it. All this said, this large weapon can only store on the underside of this mode, making Starscream even MORE bottom-heavy than he otherwise would be. The main handle for this weapon CAN plug into the hole on the top of this mode, but the tailfin gets in the way of it sitting in the same direction as the rest of the jet mode, so that's a bit of a bust. Starscream also has two removable torpedos (one under each wing), which are a nice purple shade with a bit of fuchsia spray on them, both colors that go quite well together. They don't fire, though; they just come off, but can also be placed on Starscream's lower arms in robot mode to mimic his null ray weapons. Switching topics, the mold detailing follows the typical Prime aesthetic, with large areas of fairly minimal detailing (such as his ridged wings and top of this mode) mixed in with a few areas of quite intricate detailing, like the yellow vents behind the cockpit, the front of his saw/claw weapon, and the ridges on his robot hips. What's astounding is just how many different colors are on Starscream, and yet by and large he doesn't seem too busy; most of the colors tend to either naturally complement or contrast against each other. A few bright colors-- the yellow in particular, but also the light milky gray (boring, but at least only used in a few minor places) on parts of his underside, the silver on the wings, and the light red contrast with the "cooler" colors, like his main color of a dull grayish green, black, and his lighter and darker purple (which are more apparent in robot mode). His light purple has a bit of darker purple mixed in with, creating a cool complementary & contrasting effect. That said, I'm not a huge fan of Starscream's main color; the grayish green just looks old and moldy, and honestly slightly ugly, though at least it doesn't clash with anything.
    Starscream's transformation is pretty unremarkable, using a now-familiar method of unfolding the legs from the front, arms from the side, and then flipping over his cockpit and wings and exposing his head during the flip. I do like the way his chest/cockpit compresses, though. Robot mode is definitely the mode that took priority in the design, and it definitely evokes Prime Starscream's unique silouhette very nicely, the only major exception being that the wings behind his shoulders are a bit larger proportionally this time around. He still has skinny, lithe limbs, a flat chest with a bit of a cockpit on it, and a slightly hunchbacked appearance. I really have to give props to Hasbro for all the little "claw"-like edges in this mode, such as on his torso, knee caps, heels, shoulders, hips, and arms; they're all quite menacing-looking, and call back to his original Prime design but with a bit more of an "edge" to it all. Starscream's headsculpt is also done quite well, being essentially his original head design but with larger, yellow-painted "sideburns", which again give him a slightly more "wild" feel as befits the Beast Hunters line. The one thing I really don't like is this long "antennae"-like black piece that sticks out way above his back-- I'm not even sure why it's there, it does nothing in either mode. It just looks odd. Starscream's color palette is a bit better separated in this mode with the black and purple more apparent, and again, looks pretty decent except for the grayish green on his wings and chest. For articulation, Starscream can move at the neck (at two points), shoulders, elbows, wrist rotation, and movement at the hips, knees (at two points), and back-and-forth at the ankles. Most of these are ball joints, so you can get a lot of movement out of this guy, though his slight back-heaviness does make him a little harder to stand up by himself than you'd expect, given his long heels.
    Beast Hunters deluxe Starscream is one of the weaker molds in the line. He has a pretty decent robot mode, with only a few minor kibble problems-- but his jet mode has so much junk hanging off the bottom (particularly if you have his overly large weapon attached) that it looks borderline bad and a bit sloppy, and his main color of grayish green is a tad ugly, in my opinion. Mildly recommended if you're a big Starscream fan and intend on keeping this in robot mode most of the time; otherwise, all but completists can probably skip this release.



Starscream (Beast Hunters, Deluxe) Bio & Instructional Story:
The scheming Decepticon second-in-command Starscream looks forward to the day both the Autobots and Megatron are out of his way!

(Continued from Chapter 6, Voyager Predaking)
When Predaking returned to the Nemesis speaking of mysterious explosions and the disappearance of Megatron, all optic sensors immediately turned to Starscream. The Air Commander had long coveted the command of the Decepticons. It was obvious to everyone that Starscream must be responsible. Now, he finds himself hunted and alone, cut off from the other Decepticons who believe him to be an assassin. Starscream finds himself where he never thought he'd be-- hoping Megatron turns up safe and sound, if only so his name can be cleared.
(Continued in Chapter 8, Deluxe Ripclaw)

Thunder Talon:
-Pincer claw can pierce any armor.
-Once a target is grabbed, energy siphons activate, making Starscream even faster.
-Also generates a force field around Starscream, making him much tougher.

Strength: 8.0
Intelligence: 7.0
Speed: 9.0
Endurance: 6.0
Rank: 9.0
Courage: 3.0
Fireblast: 9.0
Skill: 10.0


Review by Beastbot

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