Supreme Starscream - Cybertron - Figure

Intro:

"Decepticons, Feast your eyes on your new leader."- Starscream, G1 Episode Starscream's Brigade.

During G1 Starscream always tried to take over leadership of the Decepticons from Megatron. My favorite episodes of G1 are focused around him (Starscream's Brigade, Starscream's Ghost, Ghost In The Machine) and his quest for leadership. This quest ended briefly in Transformers The Movie when he finally disposed of Megatron and being crowned the new leader.

Sadly his reign was shortl-lived as he was destroyed by Galvartron just after his coronation. But even death could not keep him down and he actually played a role in Beast Wars. So it is quite an iconic character indeed whom was featured in many of the Transformers shows, always looking out for #1 (himself) and seeking power. Of course he always was the lesser compared to Megatron.

How the show will progress, I do not know but I did feel that Starscream would finally beat Megatron as a toy with this Supreme-sized version. Not only is he finally bigger than Megatron but he also comes with a "gold" Force Chip/Planet key (in addition to the same chip that came with the GF version) something that only planet leaders (Override, Evac, Scourge) and Optimus Prime have. So that makes him the leader of the Galaxy Force/Cyberton Destron/Decepticon versions.

But does this bigger figure really deliver? Read on and find out. Do note that I will be comparing it to the smaller GF version and somewhat to Megatron as well seeing how both are vying for Decepticon leadership.

Robot Mode:

In this mode you have the biggerst Starscream ever (and possebly one of the 10 biggest Deceptions ever, not sure) which is quite an impressive site. Starscream measures roughly 35 cm or 14 inches without crown. The GF version is 18 cm or 7 inches tall so this one is twice as big. Poor Megatron barely comes up to this waist.

Naturally that means he is more detailed as well allthough most of it is just a variation of his smaller counterpart. So I must confess that at times there is little detail on him. But seeing how jets are generally really sleek I do not really mind. What I did love are the red shoulder panels. They are metallic red but when you look closely then you will see that these parts are translucent and there is actually tech detail below them. Amazing!

There are also small differences with his smaller version. The "missile" racks alongside his face are now purple and are both round which I prefer. The translucent purple plastic is lighter in color or more smokey if you will. That is a downer as I loved the purple of the GF version and it does not look as cool here. Had it been the same I would have loved it a lot more. It is still cool to have though.

The other major difference is that the red is now a metallic red which looks a lot cooler. Much darker and therefor more evil. The other colors are largely the same for minor detailings. The things I noticed most is the area behind Starscreams head being gray instread of black and the eyes being black instread of red.Most other differences are gimmick related so I will cover those later.

Visually GF/Cyberton Starscream is one of the best looking Starscreams ever. Modeled after Don Figueroa's War Within design he looks like the G1 version of Starcream (sadly missing the blue) while being upgraded. He had the intakes/missile racks on the side of his head that his G1 counterpart had as well as the cockpit on the chest. His face is also modeled after his G1 face ending up looking like a cold and heartless Deception. The black eyes could be a downer at first but I think it reflects how soulless and evil he really is. And there is a reaspn for the black eyes but I will cover that later.

The colors are are typical Starscream (aside for the missing blue) gray, red and black. Most of Starscream is grey but there ar plenty of red parts such as the chest. The upper legs are black. The wings are a beautiful combo of all 3 colors with a Deception symbol on them. The intakes on his arms are gold as well as those on his feet. The translucent parts are purple. And finally his face is white.

Sadly he could have been a little better because some small paint applications have been left out. One would not see them at first but if you look at the box/catalogue pictures you will see what is missing. They are minor (the silver touches on the cockpit guns) but still a darm shame that those were left out. Especially considering this guy does cost 50 Dollar.

What I noticed

Starscream does not come with a projectile launcher like the GF version but he does come with a crown. Being made of rubber and modeled after the crown that Starscream wore briefly in Transformers The Movie, it looks really nice and is a unique accessory to booth. If anything it makes Starscream look even more imposing than he already did. It fits nice and snug so it does not fall off easily.

Starscream is not without his gimmicks and they are different from the GF version. To unlock them, he has 2 Force Chips/Planet Keys which can be stored on his back. It is nice to see the Force Chip/Planet Key port from the smaller one has not been removed even though it triggers nothing. As for the Chips/Key's, the first one is the same as that came with the GF version save for the code printed on the back. The other Chip/Key is the standard Earth Chip/Key except for the fact that it features gold paint instead of silver paint. It looks even better than the regular ones which already looked good. This too has a code onit albeit the same as the code on the other chip. The code is s5a3, in case anyone was wondering.

The first gimmick can be unlocked by pressing the button on his left shoulder. This will cause the missile racks to light up red and a shooting sound to play. I am wondering why not a clear light so it would look purple? They must have a subscription on red lights. There are 4 lights though which looks really neat. The lower two are a lot brighter so at first I thought it was just those two untill I found out there were actually 4 of them. The sound is pretty cool.

It is a bit sad that it can be triggered without a Force chip/Planet Key. Why have them if you do not need them? But you do need them for some of the other gimmicks. His right arm hides a sword, the same that the GF version has. It flicks out easily (though I had a few problems with it after taking Starscream out of the box) and looks just like the GF swords (color aside). On this version it is even more evident that they are a tad on the short side. But for a sword attached to his arm, it works well. The sword is made of soft plastic so be careful it might bend.

The left arm hides Starscream's ever present null-ray. It pops out just as easily and looks really cool. Though not looking like G1 Starscream's null-rays it does give off the same vibe. This is also Starscream's projectile launcher and pushing a button causes three black side blades to fold out in addition to the projectile launch. A small detail that does help enforce that this is a weapon of power. The projectile is completely different from the GF version in case you were wondering.

Had these been the only gimmicks, then I would have been dissapointed. The instructions do not mention them strangely enough but there are two more and now the black eyes I mention come into play again. First move the arms into a horizontal position. Then rotate his right arm upwards a bit and you will hear a sword-clashing sound while the lights flash. What is really cool is that the eyes also have lights in them which flicker as you use his left arm. The only downer is that those are yellow lights not really suitable to Starscream. Red lights would have worked better.

The left arm triggers another shooting sound and the red lights. (This does not trigger the eyes strangeoly enough.) The sound reminds me of the G1 shooting sounds though the tone and pitch are completely different. Both sounds are cool though. 3 sounds is not much but at least he beats Omega Supreme and Unicron.

Another cool feature are the cannons beside the cockpit. Whereas the GF version had them as a solid black piece, these have a grey barrel and actually move up and down. They do nothing else but they look cool pointed forward as they give Starscream even more fire power in his quest for leadership.

Sadly he loses a bit in another key area, articulation. Seeing how this is simply the GF version increased in size the hands for one are not articulated which is a shame. There are standard size holes so he could borrow (or more likely steal) someone else's weapons but most of them are so small they would look a bit silly. Still Omega Supreme did not have articulated hands either (if you could even call it hands) so it is not a "downgrade". But I bet Starscream would have liked to give Megatron "the finger".

The other articulation is ok (13 points in total if I counted correctly). The head turns and the arms rotate at the shoulders and Starscream has elbow articulation. Sadly there is no wrist movement so the fists do not even turn. A downer but as I see it there are barely any (if any) weapons big enough for him to hold so articulation there is a bit of a moot point to me. Sure it is cool to hold a sword sideways but most swords look more than a knife in Starscreams hand.

The legs have the same articulation as the GF version though all of them are needed for the transformation. The feet also move but I do not see which help for fancy poses. Well fancy, you can move the legs a bit. Still, Starscream stands nice and firm, much better than his old rival Megatron who keeps flopping over. That is a huge bonus for me as Unicron's feet make him tricky to stand and Omega Supreme's legs being a bit too wide to stand next to eachother ending up having Omega Supreme on one leg.

To compare him to his eternal rival, Starscream looka like the G1 Starscream in robot mode (which is largely due to War Within influences) unlike Megatron who looks nothing like his G1 counterpart. Not even the head matches while that would been easy to done. And not just that but also the overall design and the cooler colors make him beat Megatron..

But Starscream does not only look cooler than Megatron he also outguns him. Megatron only has one gun (or hairdryer as some dubbed it) whereas Starscream has the chest cannons as well as his null-ray. And if you want to count them, the missile racks alongside his head. And Starscreams sword beats Megatrons arm claw any day. So the victory goes to Starscream.

This mode is also cooler than the GF version simply because of the sheer size, added detail, metallic red, gimmics and crown. So I prefer Cybertron Starscream's robot mode.

Transformation:

Not going to describe it in detail but would like to say something about it. It is tricky, really tricky. Not because it is difficult but because the legs are difficult to fold into the nose and back. My GF Starscream even lost a bit of paint on his knees because they scraped against the wings. So I barely transformed the GF version and I will barely transform this version. I will just keep the first in jet mode and this one in robot mode. I barely have room to display this one in robot let alone plane mode. ;-)

Kidding aside, again the transformation is copied from the GF version with two minor differences. Part of the jet nose folds back for the robot mode and the aft wings can fold back and forward to help with the transformation. (Plus the fold away better in robot mode.) That aside, nothing is different. Not unexpected of course.

Vehicle mode:

Still a very cool mode visually, I do feel it is a tad too big. I love huge Transformers and the biggest jet I have had so far was the Ultra Size Jetstorm or perhaps Skyquake and those I considered huge. Untill now. Which is no exception as Starscream outclassed them all being 45 cm wide and 39 wide. That is 18 by 16 inches. Very impressive.

Detailwise there is just enough detail. Behind the head there is a patch of tech detail that looks cool. The rest of the jet has enough detail so the jet still looks sleek. There are vents on the side of the jet as well as what might be lasers on the sides (where the weapons pop out) of the plane. The aft thrusters look really neat too. The only downside is the rather visible head which was also an issue on the GF version but due to the size, it bothers me a lot more here.

Another downside is the lack of gimmicks. The button on the missile rack still triggers a sound but it not different sadly. The sword and the null-ray still pop out and the gun turrets point up and down but that works in the robot mode as well. The other two sounds are actually lost and most of the lights are lost as well as you can barely see them (unless it is dark). So there is little play value for the size.

The Force Chips/Planet Keys still store in the same place (fortunately) and I must say that it is nice to have a place to put them non working slot without them activating a gimmick. The crown still fits of course and it does hide the head though it looks a bit silly.

In short, this mode does not really appeal ro me me. Strangely enough the reason I liked the robot mode so much is the undoing of the vehicle mode, it is too big. That alone is not nessecarily bad but with the lack of gimmicks it is not as impressive as it could have been. The smaller GF version is better in vehicle mode simply as it is more managable.

But beating Megatron is all that Starscream wants so here goes. Allthough Starscream has just one mode, it is a bad ass jet. Of course Megatron has his car mode which is cool (not to mention different) and does not really suit and evil overlord. And again the lack of hommage (which one cannot really fault as G1 Megatron was a gun) and even more so the colors really hurt it. Megs does have his plane mode but it is more a variation on the car mode and does not really look cool, especially comparing it to Starscream.

Of course what really matters are the weapons. Megatron gains his two missile launchers in both his vehicular modes but loses the claw and "hairdryer". Still, not big a loss. However a mere double missile launcher does not work against Starscream who still got all the weapons of the robot mode allthough some are a tad awkward to use (especially the sword) in this mode. Still, Starscream outclasses Megatron once again.

Closing comments:

In all the Cybertron version is quite different from the Galaxy Force version in some aspects despite being visually the same. Some aspects are better and some are a worse. Overall this version improves on the GF version though the size can be a downside in vehicle mode. Overall it was money well spent, especially since the GF version is $40 opposed to $50 for this one. Of course one could the (miscolored) version released in Cybertron that comes with Vector Prime which is a bit more affordable but I am not really taking that one into account for this review.

If you really want the best of both worlds get both versions and display the GF one in vehicle mode and this one in robot mode behind or next to it. If you can only afford one, go for this one simply because of the size alone. As for Megatron, well if you read this review you will have realized whom I like better. ;-). I gladly nominate him as the new Decepticon leader!

Reviewer	Ferry Rudolph
Date	September 26th 2005
Score	(10 out of 10)
Reads	21897