This is such a big mistake on Takara/Tomys part. My lord its Starscream one of the most looked at characters in the TF story lines. What is so hard about painting him his TRUE colors. MP-01 Prime was Designed, Built, and PAINTED just like he should have been and what happend he Sold Out everywhere. Do we think the same thing would have happend if they had painted Prime Purple and Green? I think a few people out there will buy this newly colored Starscream but only a few. Takara/Tomy will see their mistake after that.

 

I just saved $100 by passing up on this guy because of the colors now. Good mold, bad colors.

 

The more I look at it the more I realise that the paint was decided on by the guys that decided the paint for G2. Thanks for saving me more Money and Space Takara! I can't wait for the meeting that insues when this ugly piece of shit bombs and warms shelves.

 

what a piece of crap

no thanks

 

Disgusting, and a complete waste.

 

Wow what an ugly piece of crap they turned what could have been the best G1 Starscream ever, into.

Ok, the original design was OK, not brillient but OK...the redesign made the undercarriage of the jet look better and in root mode, Starscream looked more how one could expect a jet to look transformed. The hip kibble was questionable though and the redesign made his legs so weak it gave him a top heavy unbalanced look. A Seekers legs are the most powerful and important part of their form and it was just fogetten about in the second design....one sign whoever is doing this has no clue on how F15s are designed for real. But still it was /acceptable/. By this point I could see this Masterpiece was going to be far from it but I tried to have a positive outlook and hope for the best. But this paint scheme? Who was smoking what to think of it and who was shooting up what to approve it? Its disgusting. Theres no other way to put it...it looks disgusting.

I mean if they were trying to make the jet look more accurate fine, but that dark? That is not right. The stripes on the wings have been redone more realistic for test prototypes. Thats fine and acceptable but the test markings were also put on the tailfins and the air intakes and I didn't see anything like that in the pic. Actually test prototypes of the F15 were a very pale gray, almost white and had red accents very much like starscreams original paint scheme. So now they make the stripes on the wings more accurate and toss the rest in the crapper? WTF???

And whats with all the white outline marks everywhere? This thing looks more like Thundercracker then anything else -- and a bad TC at that.

I am considered one of /THE/ G1 Starscreams fans out there and I DO have the most extensive G1 Starscream collection there is. (trust me I do) but its going to be a real test of my fanness to follow through with my preorder for this piece of junk now. I have 3 of these on preorder...1 is for someone else and they still want it so thats a must. The other 2 were mine and I really needed one more... Wow, at this point I think Im dropping one. I have no desire to have one for each mode and one MISB at this point. I have no desire to take the one out of its box now so the MSIB one remains. *shiver* this is so sad.

And can someone please fill me in on the club exclusive MP SS? where do I go to check it out?

 

I'm still cautiously optimistic. Even Takara/Tomy can't be THIS far out to lunch.

Or can they?

The Kiss series: Rumors of all plastic (were those rumors ever disproved?). Obviously sexualized advertising. Still I thought, "Well, I could still get some cool 'bots outta' this."

Roller and Anime Starscream: Club exclusives? They've GOTTA' be kidding, right? Wait, MP-4 DOESN'T come with Roller? Hoo boy.

MP-3 Starscream: My first ever pre-order, because I thought, they CAN'T screw THIS up, can they? I mean, I liked the first version of the mould better, but I was still stoked about the second version. But honestly, if they stick with this color scheme, I'm going to cancel it.

I wonder how all of the on-line retailers feel about this?

Masterpiece Convoy is STILL my favorite TF to date. The Binaltech line is the line I'm most passionate about when it comes to TFs. And yet I'm thinking that, if this keeps up, it may be time for Hasbro to end it's relationship with Takara/Tomy.

Ah well, it happens. Maybe we're all just gettin' worked up over something that won't come to pass. It's happened before, after all  

Have fun, gang!!!

 

Wouldn't be that bad if they hadn't used that glowing nuclear white.

 

Just like to point out that the v.stabs are painted 100% like current US Air Force F-15's. And with a custom "SS" tailcode. Still, the overall effect is very "F-15Eesque" when even with the conformal tanks, that's not an F-15E. Either do or don't make it an F-15E, don't make a F-15J with CFT's and paint it like an E, and say you're trying to do "realism".

Also, that grey is like no grey used on current military planes I can think of. If anything it's closest (IMHO) to 35237, the darkest, blue-green grey used on the upper surface of F-14's. It is NOT F-15E gunship grey---which has no blue or green whatsoever---the same color used on stealth bombers and B-52's---it is simply grey, with no hue/color in it.

Sigh---I look back at the first fan recolors of the first version of the mold, and think how "perfect" they were, both color-wise and robot-mode-wise.

 

That's the thing though: we aren't getting a MP SS, at least in my oh so humble opinion.

If it were painted in Starscream's colors, I can see it as Starscream even with the hip kibble and the shoulder things.

But in another deco, it ceases to be Starscream.

Just imagine if Takara/Tomy went a different route and painted it black, but still called it Starscream. The outcry - IT'S SKYWARP, NOT SS - would be heard so far as Jupiter!

But bottom line, for me at least, is this: it is still a cool looking, high-end, F-15-jet-to-robot Transformer, and I'll get it just for that.

I think I'll just have to do the ol' name switcheroo.... how does Airfox sounds?  

-airfox

 

Glad I didn't pre-order after all...I think I'll wait to see what Hasbro do with it. Unless, of course, TT pull something right out of the hat to correct matters, because that colour scheme is pure 150% wrongness.

And to those (few) of you saying that it's not that bad - my scarred retinas would like a word.

 

this is not meant to defed any wack decisions on T-Ts part, but just a reminder this is likely a photoshop mock up of the colours over prototype photos and as such may look fairly different in hue and saturation if not placement...

 

Looks more like Dirge  

 

This is exactly why I NEVER pre-order anything.
 

 

A few pages back, someone posted wondering what fan reaction was on the other side of the ocean. Your guess might be as good as mine, but one thing I DO know is that the designer is Shoji Kawamori, who is basically like George Lucas over in Japan. Everything he does, people fawn over, simply because he does it. He had some hits in the 70s, a GREAT hit with Macross Plus in the 90s, and (in my opinion), everything he has done after that was crap, and he's never been paid higher money. He's THAT famous.

In Japan, the G1 (EG, the classic 80s designs) cartoon is simply "just another dubbed anime." Think of the dubbed anime here in the USA, back in the 80s. How "seriously" did you take it? That's about how seriously people took G1 in the 80s. Their dubs were just as "good" (EG, bad) as ours were 20 years ago.

Now imagine a famous American designer--let's say Jim Lee--took those designs from a 20-year-old dubbed anime (let's say, Ultraman) and changed a lot of stuff to make it conform to the Jim Lee style. Let's say the changes are as extensive as those made to the X Men's costumes. What would we think? We'd think, "Hmm. I don't even remember that anime. It's foreign, it's from Japan, it's 20 years old, and I don't care. WOW. JIM LEE HAS GIVEN US A COOL DESIGN!" You might not even know what the old design looks like, but you'll love it, because everyone likes Jim Lee, and Jim Lee did it.

Maybe in Japan, people would be going bat**** insane over Jim Lee's changes to Ultraman, but here in America, all we care is that Jim Lee gave us another great design.

Now, Jim Lee isn't nearly as famous as Kawamori is in Japan, but I picked him because I couldn't think of a super-recognizable famous American designer, but I hope my point comes across.

In Japan, all they care about is that the beloved Shoji Kawamori is bringing over some obscure American character (yes, I know G1 Starscream was designed by Japanese toy designers, but it's the Americans that love Starscream--the character--as he appears and acts in the show). Since they care about the old design about as much as we care about the old Ultraman designs (EG, not at all), all they care about is that Kawamori took some obscure character and made it more Kawamori-like.

Since they like Kawamori's work, the more Starscream resembles HIS designs, the more they'll eat it up.

From his track record, Kawamori LOVES airplanes. He LOVES skirt armor. He often cares so much about plane mode, that 'bot mode might look beautiful, but it might suffer a bit. My 1/60 Yamato VF-1 toy is awesome-LOOKING in both modes, but the robot mode is proportioned in such a way that moving his legs means he can't stand, and his chest is so big that his shoulders have about 10 degrees of movement.

I went onto Google Images and found this picture of some Macross 7 toys, and these guys' color schemes should give you a bit of the Starscream color vibe. These are Kawamori designs. These guys are the "good guy" planes. The "bad guy" planes are pink, purple, and green. You're happier not seeing them. EG, judging by his past work, I wouldn't doubt that those were his color choices.

http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/collections/macross7dxtoys.jpg

I feel the need to repeat what I said earlier in the post: YOUR GUESSES ARE AS GOOD AS MINE. I don't live in Japan, I don't get Japanese publications, and your guesses are as good as mine as to how people over there are reacting over Starscream. What I DO know is, I know a lot about Kawamori and how he is universally loved, and the preceding was just a GUESS as to how Japan might be responding to his work, based on his track record.

 

I think it's bad lighting for the photo or bad scanning of the pic, there's a real blue tint going on there, i loaded into photoshop and changed the colour levels:



I hope that's closer to the real thing...

 

YES YES!!! This is what Im trying to get through in another forum right now about this 'color scheme'. Thank you for the intelligent and knowledgeable post!!!!!

Are you familiar with one of the F15 Prototypes that was almost white with the red accents on it? Now, if they had that paint scheme it would work. Clearly accurate (as the prototypes go) and enough red with a light enough base coat to be easily pegged as /Starscream/. Would you know of the F15 Im talking about where there might be a pic of it online somewhere? I have it in some books but no scanner or Id just scan it and upload it.

And again, can anyone tell me anything about this club exclusive and there the club is and how to join???????

 

still doesn't look like him, just "resembles" him.

damnit.

 

there's nothing to tell at this time. they've merely mentioned it. there's no pictures, or information other than what you've already heard (what little that was)

 

well i can pass on him now.. Looks more Like Thundercracker than Starscream. Way to screw it up Takara