Starscream (Transformers

Features

Write a Review

To write your own review, first locate the item in the Checklists. Then find the

Write a Review link for that item.

Starscream (Transformers - Retro) Review

Starscream
Transformers - Retro (Hasbro)While a lot has happened with the Transformers franchise over the years, its never forgotten its roots. Case in point, there's been a number of rereleases and variants of the original G1 figures, with the most recent being the "Retro" series. We've gotten two so far, Hot Rod and Starscream, and the latter has been popping up at Walmart for a little while now.

The packaging appears to be inspired by original toys, and I say "appears" because its similarity comes not in design, but in shape. Because of Hasbro's current dedication to plastic-free packaging, there's no windows or trays, but there is some very nice artwork on the front. The back has "Tech Specs" which I believe were with G1 figures, but I'm not too sure. A few twisties hold the figure to cardboard inside, and those are easy to remove, but all the little extras are inside a bag that you have to tear apart to get to everything.

This specific version of everyone's favorite backstabber recycles the mold his original toy had, but with one major difference: his deco is based off how he appeared in the Sunbow cartoon (more specifically, the movie, since that's what this one is based off of). There's plenty of bold colors, and for the first time ever with this mold, his head is painted to actually look like the cartoon. The face is light grey, the eyes are red, and the rest is black. The shape of the head is unchanged, so it's not entirely accurate.

Standing roughly 5 1/2" from feet to the weird things on his shoulders, Starscream is made from two different materials. His torso, save for the cockpit, is metal, and the rest is plastic. The wings, fins, missile launchers, and hands are all separate pieces that come detached from him in the box, but they pop on easily. Taking a cue from his Commemorative release, Starscream's missile launchers have firing null rays, but like that version, the rays are longer than the original. It looks alright, though, and the launching function works great. The only painted areas are the face, feet, and cockpit, but all have clean work, and the tamographed details are nice.

Since the original Transformers line valued the conversion to vehicle mode over everything else, Starscream retains the same super-limited articulation. The shoulders can swivel, as do the missile launchers, but that's it. On the bright side, the conversion to jet mode is easy to do. Pop off all the detachable stuff, flip up the feet and the nosecone over the head, partially fold back the head and nosecone so you can flip them and the cockpit upside down through the chest, fold in the arms to fill the hole in the torso, connect together the arms, cockpit, and nosecone, fold down the wing sockets, then reattach the wings, fins, and launchers in their proper spots. Don't forget to plug in the little wheels on the bottom, so Screamer can roll along.

In jet mode, Starscream spans roughly 7 1/2" from the tip to the thrusters. The prioritizing of the jet mode over bot mode means the former looks great (bot mode looks great too), and the ability to utilize the missile launchers in this mode is nice. There's also an opening cockpit, though I'm not sure what use that has. I have two complaints about this mode, however. One is about the tip of the nosecone; it's soft rubber, which I think is a good safety measure, but it's also a tad oversized. The other is about the missiles meant for this mode. They're supposed to be cluster bombs, but the ridiculous length of them makes them look more like goofy missiles.

Remember how in the movie, Starscream took advantage of a weakened Megatron and jettisoned him into space (along with the other seekers and Insecticons because Astrotrain couldn't carry all of them)? Well, ironically enough, this Starscream gets an extra in the form of Megatron's gun mode. The gun looks nice, albeit lacking in paint aside from a tiny tamographed Decepticon symbol, and is actually in two parts. The gun part plugs into the top of Starscream's hand, and the handle plugs into the bottom. It takes a bit of work to get them plugged into the hands, and the end result looks silly, but it's a nice inclusion. This feature comes from the Japanese-only Collection release of Starscream, which coincidentally also had cartoon-inspired deco.

Retro Starscream is a pretty unique release, being a combination of two previous G1 reissues (Commemorative and Collection) with all-new deco, and proves to be a blast from the past. However, he also proves that what we have now is a lot more fun than what came out in the 80s, but that doesn't make him bad. Granted, there are a few touch-ups I would've liked to see done here, but overall, he's a nice take on the original. Now can we see this mold reused for cartoon-accurate versions of Skywarp and Thundercracker?

- 2/22/23