Originally written August 2019. My opinion on this one shifted over time, so stay tuned till the end.
Like I said in my review of G2 Arkose, one of my biggest niche collecting pleasures is Transformers figures that call back to Generation 2, the early 90’s iteration of the franchise, where many classic characters were re-released in new, gaudy, 90’s colors, with missile launchers, sound boxes, and all kinds of gimmicks. It’s a line that’s been referenced here and there in more recent Transformers stuff, with both Masterpiece and mainline Transformers figures of characters that had G2 iterations often getting exclusive repaints in those 90’s color schemes. And when there’s gaps in the official line, unofficial third-party companies fill in the gaps. I’m going to go ahead and assume you’re all familiar with Starscream, the Decepticon’s traitorous, scheming second-in-command jet transformer. For Generation 2, his original classic Transformers toy was re-released in a new color scheme, with extra missile launchers and a sound box. Compared to a lot of Generation 2 stuff, this color scheme was positively reserved, save for the splashes of purple.
While there’s been a couple of official Masterpiece Starscreams, none of them have been done up in G2 colors (not surprising, it’s a niche enough thing that only the smaller Masterpieces have seen it done), so that’s where Maketoys comes in. Their Remastered line aims to create Masterpiece-style figures that fit in with the mainline, as well as taking second passes at official Masterpieces. In fact, they’re responsible for another neo-G2 exclusive I’m quite fond of, Maestro, their take on a G2 Masterpiece Jazz. Now, they’ve done their own version of Starscream, called Meteor, and it’s seen release in a few different color schemes, including this G2 one. It was an exclusive to TFCon Los Angeles, sold through Chosen Prime, but they still had some stock at the Toronto TFCon, and will probably have more available in the future. It’s a $190 Canadian price tag, which is competitively priced for a large Masterpiece. I’ve never handled the official Masterpiece Starscream, so let’s see how this facsimile, in its lovely G2 colors holds up on its own merits.
A note on the packaging
Just like Maestro, Screamer’s packaging (seen in a display here) is designed to look like the vintage Generation 2 clamshell packaging the original came in, down to graphics, fonts and callouts. It’s a good-looking presentation, but there’s some practical issues with it. For one thing, this is a big Masterpiece jet, which means this clamshell packaging is huge. So huge, in fact, that it’s kind of hard to store and transport. Also, it has a tendency to pop open on its own, thanks to the design not really being meant to scale up this much, so you’ll need to be careful when transporting it, or if you’re getting it shipped from somewhere. Good idea, practical issues. (2022 edit: Storing this packaging was a thorn in my side for a long time. It didn’t fit anywhere!)
Vehicle Mode
As is traditional for the character, Screamer changes into an F-15 fighter jet, and an extremely detailed one, too. It’s covered in tiny lines and details, and generally looks model-kit quality from most angles. Of course, you can see the robot torso on the bottom if you flip it over, but hey, it has to transform somehow. It’s also in-scale with the larger Masterpiece figures, so it takes up a lot of shelf space.
Despite being held together with a lot of tiny tabs, Screamer makes for a stable, solid jet. I was initially concerned since some of his tabs had popped out in the box, but once I got them into place, there was no problem.
Enough with the sculpt, colors are where it’s at. Like with Maestro, Screamer’s colors are a near-flawless replica of the old G2 toy. Screamer’s mainly a few different shades of light gray, the brightest being off-white. It’s accented with a bright red-orange in a few places, and some black. His wings have grey and white camouflage on them, with “TAC” written on them, and most importantly, bits of metallic purple on the cockpit and end of his weapons that pop nicely. It’s not as gaudy as a lot of G2 colorschemes were, and just looks good.
I say it’s almost accurate because Screamer doesn’t include any kind of facsimile of the red gun-turret-like sound box that clipped onto the top of the G2 figure. It seems like it was going to come with it at some point, especially because there’s an empty space in the box, so having it missing’s a bit disappointing. Aside from looking good, the jet doesn’t really do much. The cockpit opens in two places, though the interior doesn’t really look like much of anything (and shows an extra bit of fake cockpit for the transformation.)
The other odd gimmick is that the weapons are mounted on movable arms, though I’m not sure why. They’re not used for transformation or anything.
Another extra it has that I didn’t notice until I researched the figure is that it comes with “wing fillers” pre-installed on the bottom. Apparently when this mold was originally released, the bottom of the wings had a lot of empty, gappy space, so Maketoys later sold plastic pieces you could snap in to fill the gaps. This one comes with this pieces already popped into place, which is a plus for collectors of this particular figure’s many different versions.
Transformation
This is long, involved transformation, mostly because it’s a Masterpiece-scale figure with an Masterpiece-level transformation. To its credit, there isn’t a lot of small, fiddly bits, or difficult steps, and nothing feels like it’s going to break. There’s just…a lot of steps, enough that I’m going to need the instructions each time I transform him. Speaking of that, unfortunately, the instructions show you how to go from Robot to Jet, and not Jet to Robot, like he’s packaged, which makes things kind of difficult, forcing you to read the steps backwards.
Another issue the transformation exposes is that Screamer’s got a lot of really loose joints, especially the wings, waist and pelvic plate, all of which flop around pretty freely once they’re untabbed. I don’t know if the figure was always like this, or this is a result of degradation, but it doesn’t feel very good in-hand. (2022 edit: I definitely understated this. This floppiness was a huge, annoying problem.)
There’s one small bit of partsforming, as you take his weapons off his wings, put them on his arms, and swap the ends of the weapons out. Beware, though. The end of one of my weapons got stuck in the weapon, and took a lot of twisting to get out. It seems to have been a one-time thing, though, once it was out.
Robot Mode
This is a tall, bigger-than-Leader-class figure, in-scale with most Masterpieces. It’s an excellent sculpt, replicating Starscream’s G1 cartoon appearance in every detail, and manages to give off a sense of his snarky personality. This mode also exposes a bit of diecast metal on his upper legs, which helps give him heft.
Of course, once again, his colors are unapproachable in their faithfulness, showing off a bit more red, but mostly sticking to the same ideas. Curiously, a couple of details on the inside of the towers beside his head are actually foil stickers, odd considering he’s got details on the other side that are painted tampos. It’s once again very faithful to the G2 original, save for the decision to paint his face more like his cartoon colors instead of toy colors (which would have been a black face and white helmet), but I think it was the right call, visually, and his eyes are toy-yellow anyway.
He’s very poseable, but that comes with a catch, which I’ll get into. He’s got articulated hands with a single pointing finger, ankle tilts, a ball-jointed head, a waist twist and ab crunch, and all the rest of the expected poseability. However, he doesn’t hold together particularly well (2022 edit: He doesn’t hold together, like, at all). When posing him, his waist and pelvic plate often just come undone and flop open, like below:
The problem is that from what I can tell, neither his waist or the red plates in front of it tab or lock in or anything, so when posing him, they tend to come apart easily. It’s the kind of issue that could have been solved with some more tabs, and it brings the whole figure down, as it’s bound to happen at least once every time you interact with him. Additionally, while they’re better at staying tabbed in, if his wings come undone, they’ll also loosely flop backwards, and his knees have been known to buckle under his weight. Overall, he just feels distressingly loose and floppy in-hand. He looks nice when posed, it’s just getting him there that’s a problem.
In terms of gimmicks, he’s got a whole range of swappable faces. It’s a really odd method of face-swapping, though, in that it requires you to actually pop the head off of the ball joint it’s on, which doesn’t feel very secure. His different faces actually add a lot of personality to his look, though. He’s got a sort of sad-looking expression, an open-mouthed, cocky smirk, and a fearful yell, all very character-appropriate.
He’s also got another near-identical fearful yell that doesn’t fit, on his head, but apparently goes with Maketoys’ Megatron homage as an accessory. The only issue I have with these faces, aside from the dicey-feeling method of swapping them, is that he doesn’t really have a neutral expression, it’s either sad, scared or cocky.
Overall
I wanted to like this guy really badly, but I have to face the fact that he’s a bit disappointing (2022 edit: Not to mice words: Outright bad). On one hand, he really looks nice in both modes. The sculpt is great, he’s full of personality, and the lovely G2 colors are dead on. On top of that, he’s also got a solid jet mode. But his floppiness means he’s not fun to handle in robot mode or during transformation, especially the way his waist keeps coming undone, and it brings the whole figure down. He’s good-looking, but doesn’t feel as good in-hand. So, while I think he’s a good display piece, and a good G2 Starscream, I don’t really think he’s worth the price tag, especially with the issues he has. If they released a revised version that tightened his joints, and made his whole waist and pelvic area lock down, my opinion would be higher. Right now, it’s basically this: He’s okay, he looks great, he has problems, and he’s overpriced because of them. Take that as you will.
(One last 2022 edit: If you can’t tell, I liked this guy less and less as time went on. Like it or not, his floppiness and instability meant that I stopped picking him up and handling him, and he just became a display piece at the back of my G2 shelf. Eventually, I just sold him. It’s a shame, because he looks really good, both in sculpting and colors, he’s just got atrocious tolerances, and engineering that didn’t account for that possibility. What I’d really like is for an official figure to get released in these colors. Right now, the only one outside of the G2 original is an old Collector’s Club Classics Seeker repaint, and that costs mad money on the aftermarket. Rumors suggest the Earthrise Seeker tooling’s done getting repainted, but I hope at some point they stick these colors on it, as that’ll hit the spot just right.)
