You can get it to line up, but it's held up with friction so has a tendancy to slip down a couple of mm if knocked/messed with.

 

Yeah, it's literally just hanging on the end of a slider, it doesn't even peg into anything. It's one of like a million weird little things that make me think this was pushed out the door early.

Anyway. After having him for a few days and getting used to the transformation, he's ... fine? If all you want is a sturdy toon Starscream in robot mode, this is definitely a safer choice than the MP 2.0, given the various breakage issues. But the transformation is rough in a way that it really didn't need to be, and is even worse when you try to do it without scratching the incredibly fragile paint job. It's doable, but it's not fun.

Some observations:

There are basically no carve outs or divots for prying parts out, which makes things like popping out the ab fillers and the kneecaps way harder than it needs to be. It's like the designer just flat out forgot that human hands need to be able to actually move things.

Similarly, everything is super tight, which makes finer movements problematic, and increases the odds that you'll accidentally slam pieces into each other due to needing more force to move things. (I've been calling him Starsqueak, because that's literally all he does.) You will definitely want a plastic spudger to help manage that. I'm a little surprised there aren't already scratches on the side of the head, given that there's zero clearance for it in jet mode.

I'm inclined to believe the theory that the tolerances didn't take paint into account, as scraping off the top layer of paint from the pegs on the null rays makes them more manageable. That said: the mounting holes on the wings are definitely looser than the holes on the arms, which makes me think I'll need to find a way to sand out the inside of the arm holes rather than continue to sand down the pegs.

The transformation isn't hard, it's just messy because the clearances are tight or non-existent, and it takes a while to figure out the proper order of operations. A simple thing like having the base of the wing joints extend outwards before rotating would've solved 99% of the clearance issues on this figure. More evidence that he was pushed out the door early, I guess.

I don't know why the feet are die cast, nor why they don't peg into the bottom of jet mode. Seriously suspect that the additional weight will cause the whole assembly to sag off the bottom over time. This might be solvable by installing strong rare earth magnets into the leg and feet panels, but I haven't taken a close look at the legs to figure out if there's any room in there when the arms are in place (and then you'd need to keep the magnets from scratching the arms, etc).

Similarly: I have long-term doubts about the entire joint assembly that stuffs the arms into the legs, as well as the large red joint at the base of the wings which you have to force flex to get the arms into place in bot mode. Just a lot of breakage possibilities there.

The whole exposed screw sliders and dumb use of transparent plastic is something that also happened with TE-01 Prime. It's like the designer never bothered to think about how it would actually look in practice. The see-through head in jet mode is especially dumb, because they could've just molded a bit of light grey plastic underneath, and no one would've been the wiser. The fact that they literally did so for every other piece of the cockpit (real or fake) except for that is a real head scratcher. As it is, it's the only dark part of a light cockpit, which means your eye is always going to be drawn to the exposed face underneath it.

(If someone was to 3D print a bit of plastic that I could super glue into place without affecting the transformation, I would probably pay for that.)

The two transformation videos I've seen (basically the recommended vid in this thread + emgo's) have you flip/rotate the arm assembly after the back is assembled. I think it makes more sense to do it beforehand; there's way more clearance underneath the wing assembly than there is on the back (where it's close enough to scratch if you aren't paying attention). The catch is you need to fully extend the double joint in the waist, which lets you flip the top side of the jet 180 degrees, which gives you the space to move around the arms.

In any case: like I said, he's fine. I'm used to annoying transformations, and he looks great in robot mode, and good enough in jet mode (just never look at the underside). He's good enough that I would have no problem picking up recolors -- if it wasn't for the various QC issues (missing/wrong parts) that we've already seen with this guy. Hopefully they'll get their manufacturing sorted out before the recolors ship.

 

I agree with all of that above. What saves this figure is the robot mode shelf presence but it's far from the slam dunk some of you think he is.

The perfect seeker will come along one day, I'm sure of it, but for now DS ticks just enough boxes for me... He's just unlikely to spend much time in jet mode.

 

I can confirm that Black Mamba is creating them (who are behind Deformation Space), so the upgrade kit is official.

They will be, yes. The usual suspects should have the Starscream upgrade kit listed as a preorder soon.

 

The wing kit for Starscream is up at ShowZ. I know ShowZ said there would be an official kit by DS but I can't help but notice the part number prefix is SY and I would think if these were officially from DS wouldn't it be a DS part number and title read more like "Deformation Space upgrade kit (DS-??) For DS-01 Starscream". Maybe I'm just reading into it too much but my reason is I want to know the colors will match and if this can be confirmed as DS/Black Mamba for sure then I'd be more confident they will.

{[Pre-Order] SY-01 Upgrade Kit for Deformation Space DS-01 Starscream}

 

too much for something I will never actually look at tbh. If it makes others happy tho, I guess that's good

 

Printed the G1 null-rays from @Bugste81 on my resin printer. Just need to give them another coat of primer and find the right grey paint for ‘em. Much prefer them to the convertible ones he came with.
Still deciding if I want to print the shin vents or not. I don’t think I need the back covering add-ons but I may change my mind

 

They look excellent! Oh to have a resin 3D Printer.

 

They're really not that expensive these days. I spent something like $200 on my Elegoo Mars. Might be more worth it to me than to others since I do my own designs but there are a lot of things out there that you can print. Just depends on whether you think you'd get your money's worth out of it.

Speaking of my own designs, I kinda' want to do a pauldron and crown set for this guy but I don't actually want to swap out his null rays and they stick up way too far for the pauldrons to work.

 

That's the model I was looking into and I think that is very affordable to print whatever you want within the size of the tray. I think a handful of accessories and maybe selling some to other collectors is enough to consider it paid for itself!

 

I've made more than double what I paid for it in sales on my Etsy. Of course that's not including what I spent on resin or the time I put into prepping the pieces I sell, to say nothing of the time I spent designing the thing. But that's not why I do it. I do it for love of the hobby and if I make a little extra money to throw at some of my pre-orders, all the better.

 

D'oh!!
I keep forgetting: What's the handle of the bloke who made those swell replacement parts? Transformer_78 or something--?

 

Just joining the conversation. Same here I have a small old 3D PLA Printer. Eventually I’ll need to upgrade.

Speaking of designs…I’ll have other new DS-01 parts coming. Can you spot which are new? Happy Thanksgiving  

 

Just got my replacement parts in from @transformer_78 yesterday. Cockpit filler, lower canopy, & wing spikes were what I picked up. A subtle significance that is noticeable, but doesn’t look out of place. Quality through and through
 

Before:



After:

 

Nice work again, bro...I'd be in on a set of those intake screw covers!!

 

Resin printing is awesome but it’s a slippery slope. I now have three resin printers including a pretty massive one that can print about 400mm tall. I only use ‘em for for personal hobbyist stuff (one of these days I must try and make some money with them) but I just really enjoy them. Print a lot of movie collectables and memorabilia. Just printed a full size Maltese Falcon and working on the wooden mask from the Jim Carey movie The Mask.
@Snaku is right they are pretty cheap especially with the current Black Friday sales and they’re a lot of fun.
Loving the new null-rays though, really make the figure pop

 

I never graduated from FDM, but my barrier for switching to resin is mostly just around having a workspace for it.

 

My barrier was dealing with the cleanup. I still don't know what you're supposed to do with all that alcohol after you've used it to wash the uncured resin off the pieces. I prefer dealing with water washable resin - much cleaner and easier. Cleanup is still kind of a pain but not nearly as bad as it'd be with alcohol.

 

Yeah the cleaning & curing is the main extra stuff that I would want a permanent dedicated spot for.

The FDM is nice because I can basically stick it anywhere. It just doesn't have the fidelity to move on from random functional things for around the house.

 

What decals are those?

Also, if anyone is on the fence, the Chosen Prime has him $20 off for Black Friday Deformation Space DS-01 CRIMSON WINGS (RED SPIDER G1)