Originally written May 2019.
Let me tell you a bit about the first episode of the original Transformers cartoon. The opening third of it was set on Cybertron, before the Transformers came to Earth, so the entire cast instead changed into non-Earthly Cybertronian vehicles. However, because of the time and budget involved in designing new character models, while we saw several characters change into alien vehicles, their robot modes used the same designs as the rest of the series. This meant, for example, Bumblebee had Volkswagon Beetle parts on his feet and chest, but actually transformed into a round hovercar. This also meant that the Seekers, the identical-looking but different-colored Decepticon air troops, all had F-15 fighter jet wings on their backs, and cockpits on their chests, but actually changed into pyramid-shaped spaceships the fans nicknamed “Tetrajets.”
The Transformers: Siege line is themed after this episode of the show, with the designers calling it “the last day on Cybertron.” Thus, most of the characters are updates of their classic cartoon design, but with vehicles that, to varying degrees, look like high-tech Cybertronian vehicle forms. Most of the figures in the line thusfar are of characters that didn’t actually transform in the episode, until we arrived at Wave 2, and Starscream.
We all know who Starscream is, as he’s one of the A-listers of the franchise. The screechy-voiced second-in-command of the Decepticons, who always tried to steal the top spot from Megatron, despite being hilariously unqualified, and who commands that army of identical-looking-but-different colored aerial troops, the Seekers. He’s also one of the first figures in Siege to try and replicate an actual onscreen transforming character from that first episode, with all of the absurdity of trying to imitate the cartoon’s cost-cutting robot-mode design reuse. The fact that he’s a robot with F-15 parts that changes into a totally different vehicle via a shellforming transformation has bothered some fans on a basic conceptual level, but let’s see how it worked out.
Robot Mode
This version of Starscream is a pretty faithful rendition of his original cartoon design, with few liberties here. If you’ve seen anything G1 Transformers-themed, you know the design: Shoulder wings, lasers on his arms, weird towers by his head, cockpit on his chest. Of course, considering the trick he has to pull, it’s pretty remarkable that his robot mode looks like it does. His silhouette and shape is perfect. The cockpit on his chest, for example, isn’t his actual vehicle cockpit, it’s just there to resemble the design we already know. His back half definitely spoils a bit of the F-15 illusion, though, in that he’s got spacejet parts hanging off of him.
However, it’s a surprisingly compact backpack, and even includes extra joints to have his jet-mode thrusters pointing straight out of the back, making it look like he’s being propelled forwards.
His face looks far more tough and intense than we know his character to be, particularly when you hold it up to the light, which makes his eye glow nicely (if you don’t know, this little gimmick is called “lightpiping”). I do wish he had a snarky smile on his face, though, instead of such a serious expression. Still, he’s got a lot of personality. I feel like I need to state this every Siege review, but here we go again: Yes, he’s got an unusually excessive amount of sculpted tech detailing all across his body. No, it doesn’t look bad in person, compared to the stock photos.
Colorwise, he’s cast in light grey, bright red, and cool blue, the typical Starscream colors, mixed with silver and black accents. He’s also got a lot of silver-colored damage and grime on him, like most Siege figures, and I suspect this’ll be a sticking point for collectors, especially since he’s got a bit more of it than most figures in the line. These spackles are present on his lower legs, lower arms, chest, and the back of his wings (in black). I think it looks good in person, and adds visual interest, but your mileage may vary, and there’s a lot of it on him.
Starscream’s got the same wonderful poseability as the rest of the Siege Voyagers. Wrist tilts, ankle tilts, a waist joint, the works. He’s very expressive, especially since, as other reviewers have pointed out, he can cross his arms in a way that’s really appropriate for the character.
My favorite bit of articulation, though is his wings. They can move both outwards and backwards, and feel almost bat-like. They really add to his look. It also keeps his arms from bumping them, like some previous Starscreams, while also giving him an additional point of expressive articulation.
Siege continues its tradition of slightly oddly-placed waist joint sculpting, in that it cuts his cockpit in an odd place. His feet also aren’t as big as I’d like, so he’s fallen over in a few of the more extreme poses I’ve put him in, but he’s stable enough.
Accessory-wise, he has his two arm-mounted null-rays, which my brain tends to not register as accessories, since they’re supposed to go on his arms as part of his shape. But you can also detach them and have them hold them in his hands, if you want. When it comes to other mounting points, he’s got two on each of his arms, one on each of his legs, and one on each of his wings.
Transformation
Here’s where the cheating happens. None of the F-15 parts on his body actually form his vehicle mode. Instead, Starscream is a pretty pure “shellformer,” in that, basically, his robot mode just wads up, and a vehicle shell gets slapped around it. But it does it in a clever way, since shellformers tend to have huge backpacks or be a nightmare of tiny clicking panels, and this guy has neither, due to some very good engineering. There’s a few clever steps to it, like how the two little towers next to his head fold down and create his alternate mode’s nose. According to other reviews, his robot mode chest, which needs to fold up and away, has a tendency to pop off, but later batches of the figure fixed it. I’m not sure which version I have, but the chest can pop off if I’m not careful, but also stays on if I move it gently. And if it comes off, it can pop back on really easily. The only part that gave me trouble was his robot arms, which kind of awkwardly fit sideways into his undercarriage, in a way that wasn’t obvious from the instructions. Once you get it, though, it’s a pretty simple, quick transformation, which, once again, is the polar opposite of what it’s usually like to transform a shellformer.
Vehicle Mode
Aside from the robot bits visible at the bottom, this is a pretty solid update of the Tetrajet design from that first episode. People keep comparing this vehicle mode to ships from Battlestar Galactica, but honestly, between the shape, colors, paint, and burn damage, this looks like a lost Original-Trilogy era Star Wars ship to me. That is to say that it’s a really cool-looking design, and it begs to be picked up by the hand and swooped around with a nyooom sound.
Of course, the big issue is that he’s got a whole bunch of wadded up robot underneath him. It could have been better, but it’s not as bad as it could be. The weirdest bit is his back end, where the robot mode chest (with its fake jet cockpit) just kinda hangs out, though, in a somewhat clever repurposing, the odd round chest details he has are now meant to evoke thrusters, along with the actual thrusters above them.
One advantage of his shellforming transformation, though is that he has a detailed, unbroken vehicle mode sculpt, covered in all kinds of little panels. It helps that the whole vehicle mode holds together really solidly, another rarity amongst shellformers.
The colors are the same, and he has a new transparent orange cockpit. As I said before, the damage splotches that cover his shell are now dark grey, and give it that used-future Star Wars vibe of damage burns. It also holds together really solidly.
This is a pretty plain vehicle mode gimmick-wise, with his only weapon mounting points being on the underside of his wings, which are meant to be taken up by his null lasers. He’s got three mounting points on each side, thanks to his folded-up arms, but they’re all close enough to each other that functionally, you can only really mount two weapons at a time.
Overall
Some people aren’t going to be down with what they’re doing with this figure. The way he looks like he changes into one thing but changes into another in order to replicate a cost-cutting design decision from an old cartoon has bothered some fans on a basic conceptual level, but they pulled it off well, and I like the end result. If the basic concept bothers you, this might not be for you.
But aside from that, he’s really sturdy, expressive, poseable, and solid, and he does the crazy design gimmick he was designed around really well, when they couldn’t have pulled this off years ago. Importantly, he looks good next to Megatron for replicating that classic Cartoon Bad Guy dynamic.
This is an excellent representation of the character, design quirk or not, and currently the best representation of Starscream on the market.
2021 Notes: Well, since then, there was a totally new Voyager Starscream tooling released in Earthrise that replicated his usual fighter jet Earth mode, so if you just want a standard G1 Starscream, that may have invalidated this guy. However, its really apples-and-oranges which of the two is better, and frankly, this is still an excellent tooling, worth owning in some form. It helps that it’s been repainted a lot since then, as basically every non-conehead Seeker under the sun, plus a lot of original ideas. So, I’d say, if you don’t need this guy as a Starscream, check it out in some other form, maybe as a Sparkless Seeker, or a Shattered Glass Starscream, or something else.
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