Studio Series Starscream (MTMTE Collection)

Prelude: Here we have a new figure for the Studio Series 86. Which is no longer called Studio Series 86, but rather just Studio Series now. Because everything is a studio these days. But wait, it’s an exclusive, so it’s also from the More than Meets the Eye Collection, but only in the US, because we don’t have Target here in Europe. So we can buy them here and ship them to the US so buddies don’t have to pay scalper prices. Where was I? Oh yes, Starscream, as seen in the movie, but without crown and cape this time. Let’s say go!

Robot Mode: It doesn’t seem so long since we got the entire Seeker line-up using the Earthrise Starscream mold. But honestly, it’s been six years, meaning it’s time to reissue every single G1 figure ever in a slightly more cartoon-accurate form, so Starscream gets an entirely new mold. Well, Thundercracker got it first this time, but this is my first taste of the new version.

Starscream is once again a Voyager-class figure and admittedly looks very much like the cartoon/movie character from the 1980s, no doubt. He’s smoother, featuring far fewer surface details than the Earthrise mold, and comes in his classic colors of grey and red with some blue, too. The grey is a bit darker than on most of the more recent Starscream figures, but otherwise he is looking pretty good and Starscream-y, no doubt about it. He’s got a wonderful Starscream smirk on his face. Love it.

As expected, articulation is pretty great. I think this is actually the first G1-based Voyager-sized Starscream who can turn at the hip. Ankle tilt, twisting wrists, head on a ball joint, everything you need. Also, unlike quite a few earlier Starscream figures there is no big hollow space in his torso where you can look right through him from the side. Very nice. 

Now you might prefer the look of the cartoon over the toy or vice versa, so this figure offers a bit of options here. The side fins of the jet are attached to the ankles like in the days of the G1 toy, but if you prefer the smoother legs from cartoon and movie, you can detach them and instead store them on the back of Starscream’s big wings. That also serves the double purpose of somewhat camouflaging that the wings looks kind of weird from the back with multiple peg holes and hollow spaces (see picture no. 5 in the gallery). Sadly it’s not possible here to fold the wings backwards to enable better arm movement, but that’s not a big thing.

There is nothing really wrong with this robot mode, though one thing worries me a tiny bit. Starscream’s got his familiar Null Ray cannons on both arms and can easily replicate his shooting poses from the cartoon and movie, no problem. However, the pegs that attach the cannons to the shoulders are made from clear plastic. So it might become a problem one day if you transform the figure too often, which involves unpegging the cannons.

So bottom line for the robot mode: it’s clearly G1 Starscream, no arguing with that. And in quite a few ways it’s better than the Earthrise mold, but only in increments. So nothing really new or revolutionary here, just a tiny bit of improvement.

Alternate Mode: Same thing for the jet mode, I guess. The transformation is mostly the same one as ever, going all the way back to the Classics Starscream mold. Getting the legs lined up properly is a bit fiddly, but otherwise nothing really new here. And lo and behold, here is the large hollow space we were missing from the robot mode, right there on the underside of the jet. Well, it had to be somewhere.

Starscream transformers into the familiar F-15 Eagle jet as ever, mostly grey and red, and manages to look quite smooth from most angles. Not from the underside, naturally, but the rest works pretty well. The Null Ray cannons are now underneath the wings and, for the first time in a long time, we have a jet with an unfolding landing gear. Just a front wheel mind you, but better than nothing. Also, the cockpit opens up, if that is your thing.

Not much else I can write here, to be honest. It’s Starscream in jet mode. It works out nicely, nothing spectacular or original here, but I guess we don’t really want original, do we? Just something that looks as closely as possible like the cartoon characters we saw 40 years ago or so. Do I feel old? Nah!

Remarks: I don’t think I need to say anything about the character Starscream, do I? If you are in any way a Transformers fan, you know who he is. This figure was only available as a Target exclusive in the US, which is a nice reversal as it’s usually Skywarp and/or Thundercracker who is the exclusive. Apparently there was a problem, though, as the release of the toy coincided with some kind of toy aisle reset by Target, so many stores simply didn’t have this figure available at all and even preorders were cancelled or set back.

I had zero interest in getting a new Starscream, to be honest. The only reason I have this toy here for the review is that my buddy James was unable to procur him in the US and asked me to buy him here. So once this review is finished, Screamer is going into a box and off to Kansas. 

So bottom line here: if you somehow don’t own a good representation of G1 Starscream yet, this one here is definitely worth getting. Otherwise, though, it’s simply a very slight improvement of a toy we already had just a few years ago, which in turn was also but an improvement of a toy we already had several years before that one. So what I’m saying is: a good figure, no doubt, but kind of superfluous unless you have just begun collecting Transformers or a simply a Seeker fanatic.

Rating: B

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