Starscream's vehicle
mode is the same here as on his other Prime toys-- a fairly small jet fighter.
The proportions are quite off for this mode, however. For one, the wings
are too small, and the robot feet can be VERY obviously seen on the top
of the rear section of the jet, the latter being a particular eyesore.
The biggest proportional issue, though, is the size of the cockpit/nosecone--
it's far too large and long proportionally, and just really makes the toy
look off, here. There's also some moderate undercarriage robot kibble here,
with the robot chest, shoulders, and upper legs sitting below the jet in
a fairly obvious manner. Given how small the toy is-- i.e., you're almost
always looking at it from an above-angle few-- this isn't as big a deal
as it would be on a larger toy, but it definitely is worth noting (and
it also keeps Starscream from having any landing gear in this mode). The
color scheme is quite accurate to Starscream's show model, with two different
shades of bluish gray making up most of the colors. There's a bit of transparent
red as well to help with some contrast, but it's confined to the interior
of the robot chest and the weapons, and as such makes a fairly minimal
contribution to the color scheme in this mode. There's a bit of white on
the wings and nosecone and some black on his cockpit, but these are mere
accent colors. This means that largely, Starcream's colors are fairly dull
here, though at least they're complementary. Starscream's weapons are transparent
red guns, which are how his hands look when transformed into their "gun
mode" in the cartoon-- a nice touch, and although most of Starscream's
mold detailing is somewhat sparse given the Prime aesthetic, these are
really intricately detailed and nice-looking. However, they're attached
to the underside of the wings by mere friction by a fairly shallow peg,
and as such fall off easier than I'd like.
For a toy at this size,
Starscream's lithe, skinny robot mode aesthetic is represented quite well
at this mode, with his proportions quite show-accurate. The only exception
to this are his arms, which are made from the halves of his cockpit-nosecone--
because of this, they look a little too long/large, and the hands are merely
molded onto the insides of these pieces, and thus aren't as lithe as the
rest of him. Although Starsscream's wings fold behind his chest quite nicely,
they way they do so also isn't show-accurate at all. (At least it doesn't
impede articulation, though.) The mold and paint detailing on Starscream
in this mode is quite impressive, with his chest, hips, and head all detailed
particularly accurately and having quite a few paint apps, keeping Starscream
from looking nearly as boring in this mode. Starscream's articulation is
pretty good here-- he can move at the shoulders (at three points), elbows,
up-and-down at the head, and at the hips, knees, and rotation at the ankles.
Normally this would mean you could get him into a number of cool poses,
but his feet are pretty small (albeit quite show-accurate), and this means
that his stability isn't the best. (That said, he IS a little more stable
than you'd expect from looking at the pics above-- so long as he's in a
fairly neutral stance.) Like with other 2012 Prime commander-class toys,
Starscream's chest is partially translucent, to allow you to hook up an
LED weapon from one of the Cyberverse vehicle sets to make the translucent
red bits of the stomach and eyes "glow"-- but, just like pretty much every
other toy that has this feature, it works minimally well at best and is
best forgotten. Starscream's weapons can either be held in his hands or
stuck into a hole on the side of each of his lower arms to give them a
more show-accurate placement.
Prime Cyberverse Starscream
does a surprisingly good job of emulating his robot mode proportions at
a smaller scale, with his accessories and mold and paint detailing also
being top-notch. However, he's got some fairly major problems, particularly
in vehicle mode, with small wings, an overly large cockpit, and a fair
bit of undercarriage junk, while his robot mode has his jet mode stuff
behind his back in a very show-inaccurate manner. If you want a Starscream
that isn't a large toy, try to find the First
Edition version instead-- this is definitely the least-accurate and
generally least appealing Prime Starscream mold there is.
Review by Beastbot