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Post by Shockprowl on Dec 15, 2007 9:29:29 GMT
Mine arrived yesterday...
oh...
my...
God!
How much do I love this Transformer!?!?!
I've had a few initial thoughts on it, although I only had a few blessed hours with him before I had darn commitments to attend to! I love the overall design, detail and scale. Fits in perfectly with MP/Alts. The design is magnificent. They've done a cracking job in my opinion. He is so G1ick that it made my G1 sensor-probes overload. The two expression face thing is an excellant idea. The arm artic in partic is wonderfull. You can point his arm cannons the way we always saw in cartoons/comics, a way no other Starscream has been able to attain. With the sniggering face added, the poses one is able to obtain are just classic G1 goodness.
Jet mode is awesumeness in it's purest form. I'm not an aircraft expert, but I'd say the jet design is about as perfect as you could ever hope for. The missiles under his wings are a lovely detail. I don't own the Takara version, but from the pics I've seen I'd say the pain scheme looks more realistic on that version, but for, as I say, G1ick goodness, the Hasbro version just makes one do strange things in one's pants.
I do have a few issues with it. The tail-fin sections attached to his hips and the overall design of the hip joints slightly limited articulation in that area. You can still get great posses out of him though. His body section may be a little too long, but only a fraction though, barely noticable. The main gripe is no metal. Some folkes ain't bothered for metal on their TFs, but I like some on there. Seems to add class to a fig. Thought they'd stick a bit in there, considering he's a Masterpiece. Don't know what metal the Tak version has. I guess the Hasbro version is the Alternator to the Binaltech, if you know what I mean. If that's the case I'm disapointed he is quite the price that he is. At 69 squids, I feel he's a tad overpriced considering size and lack of metal. 50 would have been more reasonable.
Still this is in it's whole a minor gripe. I love this figure. He looks awesome next to my MP/Alts. For pure G1 goodness he is unbeatable. I have now adopted him as my second child.
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Post by legios on Dec 15, 2007 9:58:24 GMT
I love the overall design, detail and scale. Fits in perfectly with MP/Alts. The MP Starscream is rather nice, design wise. I'll be honest I prefer the Takara release. I don't feel that the grey/red-trim scheme really suits him. But the mold itself is an excellent job. Scale-wise he's out of scale for the Alternators - at least in alt-mode. They are something like 1:24 whereas as Starscream is a spit and a cough from 1:60th (based on the measurements of the pilot figure). A Starscream in scale to the Alt's would gave been absolutely monstrous. Fun to own, but it'd probably taken a couple of folk to transform effectively. The Sidewinders are rather nice - it's just a shame he didn't come with Sparrows on fuselage hardpoints (but I think those would have been hard to get into the design given the way the transformation is engineered. It's certainly the closest that a Starscream toy has ever got to accuracy in the alt-mode. There are one or two places where it does depart from reality - some of the dorsal surface is a bit off, the conformal fuel tanks aren't actually the proper shape. But those are just things that only a real plane-nerd is likely to notice. *hangs head sheepishly* Also, Takara have gone a bit cheapskate and just mirrored one of the side pieces, so Starscream is packing two internal guns. But it's Starscream, he even cheats a bit in alt-mode. :-) It isn't actually - it's a sort of olive colour scheme which isn't the right shade for any F-15 I can think of. It does however look like the shade that the USAF Low-viz grey scheme photographs in some lighting conditions. (Similar to the colour scheme Starscream wheres in the movie - it is actually grey but in low ambient light it photographs quite greenish). So I do wonder if what happened was Tomy was sent a poor set of photographic references when they worked up the colour scheme. The only metal on the Tomy one is in the form of structural pins. Other than that he is strictly made of plastics. I actually don't mind that - I've become a convert to the plastics over metal camp over the years. I've had too many things fall from shelves in ways that would have damaged them if they were metal, only for their ABS construction to weather the hit nicely. Fifty quid was what mine cost me (before shipping). At the scale he is at £65 isn't actually a bad price. When I compare him to things like the "Macross Zero" and "Macross Plus" VF's - which are the same 1/60th scale - which weigh in at about ninety quid, Starscream looked quite reasonable. For a product in the relatively small collector market he was originally aimed at Starscream is actually quite reasonably priced. Oh, just a heads-up - check the joints at the wing-roots, quite a few folk over on Macrossworld have been reporting that they have been seeing white stress marks appearing around there after a few transformations. It may be something that Tomy have fixed for later production runs - its seems to have been sorted out on the Skywarp, but I'm not sure whether the US re-colour Starscream is from the mold with the fixes or without. Karl |
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Post by Shockprowl on Dec 15, 2007 11:55:10 GMT
Scale-wise he's out of scale for the Alternators - at least in alt-mode. They are something like 1:24 whereas as Starscream is a spit and a cough from 1:60th (based on the measurements of the pilot figure). It's certainly the closest that a Starscream toy has ever got to accuracy in the alt-mode. But those are just things that only a real plane-nerd is likely to notice. *hangs head sheepishly* The only metal on the Tomy one is in the form of structural pins. Other than that he is strictly made of plastics. I've had too many things fall from shelves in ways that would have damaged them if they were metal... Oh, just a heads-up - check the joints at the wing-roots, quite a few folk over on Macrossworld have been reporting that they have been seeing white stress marks appearing around there after a few transformations. It may be something that Tomy have fixed for later production runs - its seems to have been sorted out on the Skywarp, but I'm not sure whether the US re-colour Starscream is from the mold with the fixes or without. Karl Thanks for your thoughts. By scale I meant cartoony/G1 toy robot mode to robot mode, as in The Mind of Shockprowl. It's very important to me that characters are correct height to each other in robot mode! It's good to have someone in the knows opionion! Lift your chin with pride good fellow! I know what you mean re metal, the toys that are metal certainly aren't as robust. It's just the weight and feel of metal that I like. Would have liked just a bit of metal on him, say his chest and poss lower legs, similar to MP Optimus I suppose. What metal does MP Megatron have on him? (he's next on the hit list! Don't tell Mrs Shockprowl!) And thanks for the tip, I'll watch out for the stress marks! Urgh! I can't wait to get home to play with him more! |
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Post by Cullen on Dec 15, 2007 16:59:33 GMT
There ain't much metal on Megatron either. If you are going to get him lower you expectations - I think he's a decent display piece in robot mode (looks cool but is very unsteady) and an extremely crap transforming toy. After Starscream, my favourite of the MP line, Megatron was a big let down.
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Post by Shockprowl on Dec 15, 2007 17:52:41 GMT
Thanks for the info matey. What I feared. I've had worries for Megs for some time. This the trend now is it? MP items with little or no metal? Reducing costs, but charging us long suffering collectors the same money? Typical.
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Post by Bogatan on Dec 15, 2007 19:43:25 GMT
Well again going against popular opinion I do like MP Megs, but I love a tranformer that takes a LONG time to transform and is a challenge (When I first got Tripredacus I tried combining it in a moving car in the dark and without having seen the instructions, good times)
It does look very cool but it is a different design aesthetic to the other MP's.
Andy
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Post by legios on Dec 16, 2007 16:31:46 GMT
Thanks for your thoughts. By scale I meant cartoony/G1 toy robot mode to robot mode, as in The Mind of Shockprowl. It's very important to me that characters are correct height to each other in robot mode! Ah, so more relative size than scale as such. (As the Sunbow cartoons conception of scale was rather... unique at times). Fair enough. I like the fact that the fighter mode is about the right scale to look the part opposite my VF-0S. Although since I got the Ghost Booster for that Starscream has been feeling somewhat armamently challenged poor fella. Someone has to be the resident 'plane-nerd and I guess I am elected. :-) I actually found that the metal on MP Optimus was one of the things that worked against him for me. I remember being concerned about scratching Ralph's and so ended up getting him to finish the transformation on him - and it also made it feel a bit unbalanced to me, with the weight in places I wasn't entirely comfortable with. (Hence the fact that Starscream is the only Masterpiece version I actually own). Hopefully you won't find any - they haven't been reported on Skywarp that I have heard so it may have been just an issue on the original Takara run (like some of the panel release problems that do come up on the first run ones - including mine). Karl |
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Post by Shockprowl on Dec 16, 2007 19:04:17 GMT
Well again going against popular opinion I do like MP Megs... It does look very cool but it is a different design aesthetic to the other MP's. Andy Glad it's all not bad. I have to get him, have to, Mind of Shockprowl wont allow anyother course of action. Given me an idea for a thread though, nay a POLL! |
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Post by Dark Stranger on Dec 17, 2007 8:39:05 GMT
Just won the Hasbro version on eBay last night, £35 delivered from the US. Result! I love the Takara one too. Now all I need is Skywarp and MP Prime....
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Post by Shockprowl on Dec 21, 2007 22:05:27 GMT
£35?!?! Great Ebaying dude! Blimey!
Still lovin' mine. Such G1ick goodness. Finding more detail on him all the time. Really well engineered and designed. Love the 'crown' motif below the cockpit in aircraft mode! So Starscream! Yeah, Skywarp is so on the Shockprowl hit list. Thundercracker! Thundercracker! Thundercracker! Imagine all 3 original Seekers... sweet Mother of Creation..
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Post by legios on Dec 21, 2007 22:14:52 GMT
£35?!?! Thundercracker! Thundercracker! Thundercracker! Imagine all 3 original Seekers... sweet Mother of Creation.. A Thundercracker wouldn't be bad. Not sure I could justify having three of the mold personally though. (I still don't have Skywarp because I am swithering as to whether the mold is good enough to warrant duplicates.). It would certainly look interesting in the Thundercracker colours though. Karl |
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Post by Shockprowl on Dec 21, 2007 22:32:55 GMT
It's alot of meat-balls, no doubt about that (don't tell Mrs Shockprowl I one day plan to have all 3 original Seekers!). I know what you mean about the mold. It's good, great in fact, but is it THAT great? Just imagine if they did the Cone-heads as well! No way I could justify SIX. But just imagine... all Six Seekers!
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 21, 2007 22:41:03 GMT
Just as long as MP Sunstorm never comes into existence.
-Ralph
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Post by legios on Dec 21, 2007 22:48:28 GMT
It's alot of meat-balls, no doubt about that (don't tell Mrs Shockprowl I one day plan to have all 3 original Seekers!). I know what you mean about the mold. It's good, great in fact, but is it THAT great? Just imagine if they did the Cone-heads as well! No way I could justify SIX. But just imagine... all Six Seekers! I don't think I'd actually want the second wave jets at that kind of size to be honest. At least, not with their fighter modes as they were. If they were reimagined to look a little more credible as aircraft go (not too much needing done to Dirge and Ramjet really, but Thrust needs a lot of work) it might be interesting. Karl |
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Post by Shockprowl on Dec 21, 2007 23:41:10 GMT
Just as long as MP Sunstorm never comes into existence. -Ralph Couldn't agree more! Hate Sunstorm!!! Phewie! |
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Post by elliotthopkins on Dec 22, 2007 19:01:10 GMT
Got mine out and Transformed.
So class. He's just hovering there off the stand looking menacing.
I'm trying to gauge whether I want the other two. I'm thinking maybe yes.
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Post by Shockprowl on Dec 22, 2007 20:16:28 GMT
Oh yeah, just imagine Starscream, Skywarp AND Thundercracker all standing over a beaten and defeated Optimus, Starscream holding the Matrix aloft in victory!
God I love Seekers.
Apart from that retcon freakin' a-hole Sunstorm. He stopped me getting 6" Ti. Skywarp! Grrr.
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Post by Dark Stranger on Feb 11, 2008 13:56:16 GMT
New coronation parts for Emperor Starscream!! Brilliant idea: 2005 boards |
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Post by Shockprowl on Feb 16, 2008 20:17:50 GMT
Ah I love this! Lots of fun!
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