Starscream's new form for RID2015 is a bit closer to his classic G1 look than his unique Prime form, as he has the same general light milky gray color scheme across much of his jet mode, along with red stripes on his wings and a orangish-yellow cockpit-- similar to his G1 form. However, the jet itself is "skinnier" than his G1 design, particularly when it comes to the long nosecone, and looks like a smaller jet than his classic design, hearkening to his Prime form in these latter aspects as well. So he's sort of a mix of both forms, with perhaps a bit more of a tilt towards his G1 look. Regardless, this mode is fairly good from a relatively top-down look, with a more "elongated" look than most TF jets, and with his major wings being much further back than typical and with two sets of smaller tailfins near the back end. It cuts a pretty unique silhouette, that's for sure. However, as is unfortunately the case with most TF jets, he's got some undercarriage in this mode. His shoulders are the biggest offender, being right below his wings (though they do follow the same slight diagonal shape as the wings above), and sort of ruining the thin design of said wings from most angles. The arms also just kinda... come out the back of the wings. They DO peg solidly into a place below his rear tailfins, so they don't just hang back there without any place to "set" them, but they kinda poke out a bit. On a lesser note, his feet are a bit obvious on the back end, though they do still fit in with the general look and silhouette of the mode quite well. (Surprisingly, there's a flat piece below the feet on the back end with molded-in vent-thrusters, so Starscream does still have an actual back end to his jet mode.) Beyond his classic G1 colors already mentioned, Starscream does hearken a bit to his Prime version once again, with bluish gray plastic used for the center of the mode (the parts that become the robot legs). There's also some somewhat light blue used on the pieces that become the knees and feet. Beyond that color and all of that (unfortunately) blah light milky gray plastic on most of the rest of this mode, Starscream's blasters are also painted a metallic black, and are mounted in the bottom end of each wing.
    Starscream's transformation is likely the most difficult of any RID2015 toy. Granted, that's not saying much, but the way his arms and wing assembly interweave and disconnect from each other can be a bit confusing the first few times, particularly when finding out where things peg/unpeg in. The end result is, again, a sort of combination of Starscream's traditional form and his Prime form, with slightly more emphasis on his classic look. He's got the traditional "cockpit on the chest"-- though it's only a small portion of his cockpit, with the majority actually behind his back in this mode. There's the red chest with the vents and the red waist, but they're definitely a lot slimmer here than on most Starscream toys, fitting in with his Prime aesthetic. (It's also a really nice shade of red, being dark, milky, and semi-metallic with a bit of glitter in it, like most of the rest of the plastic on this toy.) His legs have blue kneecaps and feet like his G1 self, but his arms and legs as a whole are much slimmer and more inline with his Prime look, especially with his wide, sharp shoulders but otherwise skinny appendages with claw-tips on his fingers. His weapons also peg into the lower arms, as opposed to pegging into the upper arms like on most G1-ish Starscream toys. The wings don't just jut out from behind his back, but rather come down from the lower jet body assembly behind his upper back and form a cloak, which looks pretty darn cool-- I think way cooler than just having regular wings behind your back. Most of the jet "kibble" stays out of the way too, being only minimally intrusive-- yeah, you can see the top of it and the top of his wings behind his shoulders, but they don't really get in the way of articulation. Same with the jet cockpit on his back that juts out a little below his butt-- it looks a bit weird, but doesn't get in the way and isn't REALLY obnoxious. His main body has what look like faux fragmented parts of his vehicle mode on it, giving him abs, and his head is like a slimmer version of his G1 head. He's got the typical Seeker black helmet, but the red little forehead fin from Prime is highlighted on said helmet, and he has the long silver face, long chin, and slim red eyes of Prime Starscream. He also has the intake details above the sides of his chest like on his G1 version, but they're MUCH smaller here and unpainted. Although his main body colors are very G1-ish with the red, light milky gray, black, and orange-yellow, his appendages are that grayish blue mostly, with some actual light blue on the lower arms, knees, feet, and a bit on the shoulders. It all makes for a more diverse, attractive color scheme than vehicle mode, with the red really popping. (That said, I still wish he had less gray, but this is Starscream we're talking about.) For articulation in this mode, Starscream can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows, hips (at two points), knees (at two points), and back-and-forth at the ankles. He's SLIGHTLY back-heavy but still pretty poseable-- though on my copy the hips are quite loose, so yours might need a bit of floor/nail polish to hold him steady.
    All in all, RID2015 warrior Starscream is a great meshing of the traditional Starscream design and the skinner, more lithe Prime Starscream design. His transformation may be a bit tricky the first few times (particularly back to jet mode), but you end up with a stupendous, characterful, articulate robot mode that looks sleek yet powerful, while his jet mode has a unique silhouette as well, even if there's a bit of obvious kibble under the wings. Highly recommended-- unless you're getting Starscream for a young one, in which case I'd go for one of his simpler toys.
 

Review by Beastbot

*Starscream was initially released in 2016 as part of the Toys "R" Us-exclusive "Clash of the Transformers" exclusive deluxe assortment before being released at general retail in early 2017 in "Combiner Force" packaging. Both versions are identical to each other.

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