Bot Reviews: Transformers: Retro Starscream

You know, I’ve never actually owned a Generation One Seeker tooling of any kind before, despite the fact that Starscream and his many, many repaints and retools get reissued pretty regularly. I do have memories of one of my childhood after-school babysitters having a Generation One Thrust without any accessories in the toy box, so I did get to mess with one many moons ago, sort of, but I’ve never handled a complete one. So, when it was announced that Transformers Retro would see a version of the tooling, in animation-style colors, I partially put an order in for that reason, and also simply on the strength of how well Retro Hot Rod, one of my favorite Transformers figures ever, turned out (and like many Wal-Mart exclusives, I did have to put in an order, because I figured I’d never see it in stores).

The original Starscream figure’s one that’s garnered a reputation for being a little bit weird, and a little bit not-so-great, between its partsformer nature, and lack of articulation, and I was  a bit morbidly curious to see how it turned out in-hand. Plus, there was definitely a period in the 2000s when Starscream was my favorite Transformer, for some reason, so getting an original-ish version of one of fiction’s most well-known traitorous backstabbers had its own kind of pseudo-nostalgic appeal to me. But, anyway, let’s see what a G1 Tooling feels like in the Space Year 2023, with a special shout-out to its lavishly illustrated box, which is also surprisingly large compared to Retro Hot Rod, and is again branded as “The Transformers: The Movie,” despite his secondary role in the production.

Robot Mode

I had some initial confusion out of the box, because this figure’s packaged kind of half-transformed, with a few accessories on him, but most of them in a paper bag. The instructions start in vehicle mode, but I wound up assembling the robot mode first, so I’ll start there. It’s a simple enough figure that you can figure it out from the picture on the back of the box. And I will say “assemble,” because the legends are true, this figure is the mother of all partsformers.

What feels like 50 percent of his mass (or would feel like it if there wasn’t a slab of diecast metal in his torso) is contained in accessories, and assembling the robot mode involves pegging on six wing pieces, fists, and weapons (which will shoot their missiles on you, but more on that later).

On top of that, he’s got extra accessories in the form of a piece of landing gear, and replacement missiles that don’t stash anywhere in this mode (apparently old fans cram the landing gear into his cockpit). Between the amount of stuff he comes with, and the lack of storage for what isn’t used in this mode, I can see why a complete vintage figure is hard to come by.

Anyway, once you’ve got the whole thing assembled, you’ve got a Decepticon Jet that’s about the size of a modern Deluxe, coming in, surprisingly, shorter than Hot Rod. And you can see all the familiar Starscream details (the back wings, the chest cockpit, the shoulder pylons, and so forth), but they’re a little bit warped and distorted. Whereas Hot Rod was “the character model filtered through Super Robot Chunk,” this very much gives the vibe of “the character model in a funhouse mirror.” Obviously that’s not how it works, really, since this came before the character model decided to fudge the details, but in 2023, it invites that comparison.

Some of the odder details include back-wings that are actually attached to his hips, and come in kind of low, huge unfurled tailfins at his feet, arms that, beneath his glove-like hands, are solid unbroken slabs, and a tiny head located inside a folded-back nosecone. It’s always been interesting how the vents we associate as his ears were details on the bottom of a nosecone that the character models omitted, and aren’t originally a part of his head.

I will say, he’s got a nice super robot headsculpt, though, with big eyes and a particular kind of mouth, both of which bring the same Sentai mecha energy as Hot Rod. Also, the null-rays on his arms used to be a lot smaller, but safety standards meant the size of the projectiles in them had to be increased by a lot.

For colors, as is the mission of the Retro line, this is a complete repaint of the original figure in the name of animation accuracy, and one that doesn’t include stickers, either, so he’s mostly cast in a toon-accurate light gray, light blue, and cherry red, with tons of tiny details added (and removed) to make him as close to his animation model as possible, like gray vents on his wings, painted gray “ribs” on his chest cockpit (which is transparent orange), the particular shape of the red and white stripes on his wings, and the fact that the Decepticon symbols on his wings are upside-down. It’s not as big of a departure from his typical look as Hot Rod, but the attention to detail is admittedly pretty nice.

The face is where the money is, though. The original was unpainted black, with gold eye stickers, and white ear vents. This version slathers the whole setup in paint, giving him an accurate set of red eyes, a light gray face, and a dark gray helmet and ears, and it looks great.

In terms of his build quality, great credit goes to the designers of the early 80’s, because despite being 50 percent detachable accessories by volume, he still manages to feel really solid and stable in hand, and everything stays on nice and tight. Well, almost anything. The exception is his missiles, which shoot out of spring-loaded launchers on his arms, and those launchers are way, way too sensitive, making him fire them at the slightest jostle.

Keeping his missiles in those launchers makes him more animation-accurate, since they make the tips of his null-rays, but they can, and will, shoot you, or shoot into the wild blue yonder of your room.

Similarly, the cockpit assembly in the center of his torso doesn’t really lock in, and while its transformation joints have decent friction, it’s pretty easy to just push it forwards and out of place.

On a more positive note, the classic long-lost art of diecast construction is here on Starscream. Specifically, all of the red on his torso is cold-to-the-touch metal. I’ll admit, holding a robot that’s noticeably made of metal, I get the appeal, even if I don’t miss it in modern figures. That, and his big feet, and bigger foot-mounted wings means he’s got no problems staying standing.

Now, obviously, as a G1 figure, his articulation is basically nil, consisting mostly of two shoulder joints. Granted, they’re shoulder joints with a pretty broad range of motion, so you can aim his guns, spread his arms out, and even get him to shake his fist, but that’s about it.

More surprisingly, his back-mounted wings can pivot backwards along their attachment point at his hips, and it’s a joint that’s not needed for transformation, so it seems deliberate, meaning you can move them out of the way if anything’s in danger of colliding, or flip them entirely backwards.

For features, we’ve got those troublesome shooting missiles. I’ll admit, it’s a simple gimmick that I do miss on modern robots. On the other hand, these ones are too sensitive. Plus, their inclusion is a bit odd. For some trivia: The original Diaclone release of the soon-to-become-Starscream tooling had these spring-loaded launchers, though the missiles themselves were a lot smaller. The original 1984 Western release kept the tiny missiles, and just neutered the gimmick, removing the springs from the launchers. The 2003 Hasbro Commemorative Series reissue then reinstated the springs, but because of modern safety standards, gave him new, larger missiles. Since then, every reissue on the planet has kept the spring-loaded launchers, with the ones that come out Stateside having the larger, safe missiles, and the Japanese ones opting for the smaller originals.

This is one instance, though, where I kind of wish they’d made the figure original-Western-release-accurate, and just de-springed the launchers, so they could keep the missiles smaller, for accuracy, but mostly just keep them from shooting at every stiff breeze that comes their way.

Anywho, his other big accessory’s something special, a gun-mode Megatron, something first added for the 2002 Takara Transformers Collection reissue, and carried forward sporadically on some of his re-releases. It’s special here, because Hasbro will never be able to reissue the original accurate-to-a-real-gun Megatron in western markets, so this accessory lets him have some sort of presence in the reissue line. And as far as Gun Mode Megatrons go, this is actually a pretty nice version. It’s larger than the one that came in the Generations Selects Centurion Accessory Pack, and is also more realistically sculpted, compared to that one’s vaguely sci-fi stylings, and lack of stock at the handle.

To tab it into Starscream’s fists (which, by the way, didn’t used to have holes in them, they added those when they added Megatron), you need to detach the handle, plug the gun into the top of the fist, then squeeze the handle onto a tab on the bottom of the fist, to make it look like he’s grasping it. Unfortunately, it’s a tight fit, possibly due to layers of paint on the fist, or gun. I wound up taking the fist off of his arm, so I could squeeze the handle on a little more directly.

Still, once it’s in there, it’s a surprisingly massive, imposing weapon.

And while the stock does bump into his wing, that joint I mentioned before lets you move it back and out of the way, if you need to.

And, it turns out, you can give the gun to basically any modern Generations figure, and it’ll fit in their fists, too, though you have to leave the stock on the bottom off.

In fact, speaking of unexpectedly modern features, it turns out that all of Starscream’s accessories, and the ports they use, are compatible with the 5-millimeter weapon-mounting system first (re)introduced in Siege. So, not only can you pop his launchers off and have him hold them in his hands, but you can give them to other figures to hold, or mount onto their arms.

And that’s just the start. Remove Screamer’s accessories, and he’s got ports on his arms, hips, and ankles, as well as two more on his wing accessories, which you can add modern accessories, or Weaponizer parts to, letting you kit him up, or even give his stuff to modern figures.

I wasn’t expecting this at all, and it admittedly adds something to the whole package.

Transformation

Take a big pile of accessories off, flip up the cockpit and feet, close the arm-stubs up, and reattach that pile of accessories in a different way (including the alternate missiles and landing gear, and chucking the fists and null-rays) to build a new mode. Okay, to be fair, I discovered that you can keep most of his wings on (you’re supposed to swap his gray tailfins, unless you don’t care about the hollow sides of them facing up), and just remove the fists and weapons, replace the weapons, and add the landing gear.

And it’s a fast conversion! Still, its partsformer-heavy nature leaves a lot to be desired, and after Hot Rod’s heavenly, pleasant-feeling conversion scheme, this is a noticeable step back (specifically, by about three years).

Jet Mode

We all know and love this F-14, and not much has really changed about it over the years…except they filled the gaps. In this original rendering of the alternate mode, there’s a noticeable gap at the back between his engines, and a gap between each of his wings and his body, and visually, it’s a bit disappointing, and something I never noticed in images of this figure until now.

Those gapes mean that his wings never quite feel like they sit right, simply because they float there without having a clearly-defined locked-in position. On the upside the fact that they’re on those same pivoting joints means you can rotate them upwards, into funky positions that make him look less like a real jet, and more like some kind of Starfighter.

Another bit of visual strangeness that’s due to modern safety standards are his missiles. See, the null-ray missiles becoming larger was fine, because they still looked right. But these rocket tips are a visual mess. Originally, they were just pyramid-shaped heads for his launchers, but now those tips stick out of the launchers on a long shaft, looking almost like mushrooms, and they really don’t look great. You’re better off leaving his robot mode weapons in there instead (like basically every modern mainline update does), or even just leaving his launchers unloaded (that way they won’t fly out, at least).

I was pleasantly surprised by how big he is in this mode, though.

While the Earthrise update is still very slightly larger, this original version is as big as some smaller Voyagers.

In this form, his colors are, again, totally revised, making him brighter, but also more plain in the process. Most noticeably, his nosecone is the same light gray as his body, without even a faction symbol there, which feels wrong, but is, in fact, animation-accurate, same as his upside-down faction symbols, and the darker gray bits on his jet body.

That being said, his blue tailfins feel like they should have some red stripes on them, though it depended on the episode and individual shot. Speaking of his nosecone, it’s made of an extremely soft, safe rubber, and between that, his plastic, and the metal on his body, he really contains the entire range of Transformers Materials in terms of handfeel.

For features, he’s got those troublesome shooting missiles again. Asides from that, he rolls along on three sets of metal wheels. And, because he was originally a Diaclone toy, you can open his cockpit, and sit a small enough figure in there, if you’ve got something in the same scale as vintage Dianauts (Like, for example, Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron figurines, or vintage Action Fleet ones.)

For his last feature, the gun-mode Megatron that he comes with has a clip on its side, and you’re meant to fit it into one of the two square holes on his robot chest/jet undercarriage, in imitation of “SOS Dinobots,” when Megatron was equipped to him in this specific way (you need to remove the front landing gear first).

In practice, while the port on the left Side fits the gun well, the correct port on the right side, which makes the gunbarrel go right under his cockpit, is a scary-tight fit that leaves me worried about damaging the red paint on the diecast.

Plus, when correctly mounted, the gun doesn’t point straight anyway, it’s a little bit angled.

Still, it’s a funky little bonus, and in this mode, you can still opt to trick him out with modern accessories, and build a better jet mode, while you hand his wings off to others.

Overall

Hot Rod was a rare specimen, a G1 toy that, to me, still had a certain appeal in the modern day. Starscream’s more primitive original release doesn’t hold up the way Hot Rod does, between its partsformer-y nature, its easily-lost pile of accessories, and a million little bits of design weirdness. Plus, those overly-sensitive launchers are a pain, and their inclusion is both unnecessary for a western reissue, and leads to further design compromises in the name of safety standards. On top of that, this toon-accurate colorscheme wasn’t a redeco begging to be made the way Pink Hot Rod was, either, though I’ll admit the painted robot mode face is an extremely bright spot.

Still, this is more of a historical curiosity than something legitimately good. That being said, the figure’s modularity is unintentionally appealing thanks to the 5 millimeter compatibility, and I’d be lying if I said I’m not taken with the more quirky elements of this important forefather. I’m certainly having fun, but it’s a figure I can’t earnestly recommend to someone that isn’t either a G1 collector, or interested in the odd novelty of having a look at what would become the rough draft of many far better takes on the character.

For over 100 Bot, Non-Bot, and Retro Bot Reviews, click here to view my archive.