I just got my Storm/Sunstorm in the mail from TFsource and as always, their packaging is bulletproof.

Packaging:
The packaging for Sunstorm is different than the Coneheads in that the front of the box has actual pictures on it rather than drawings and even more notable is that it has both the bot and alt modes on the front rather than bot on the front, alt on the back as with the Coneheads. Also, the back of the packaging for Sunstorm has close-ups of the details of the mold, similar to MP Starscream.

He comes with all the normal Seeker pieces and does have an included tech-spec/trading card, but is missing instructions of any kind. As someone said on another thread, they must have assumed that on the 10th release of this mold you have figured out how to transform him. He also did not come with any stickers unlike the iGear Coneheads and the Takara Seekers.






Alt mode:
He comes packaged in alt mode and looks great. The wings have red and grey stripes and the vertical tailfins are painted the same grey. The orange plastic that dominates the figure does have a little bit of flecking in it to make is shimmer a bit in the sun, although it is very slight.

Everything fits well together in the alt mode and one mine at least, none of the parts are loose or have any stress marks.










Bot mode:
In this mode he really shines (figuratively). There is much more red throughout the figure to break up all that orange, plus there is a fair amount of grey that works really well with the red and orange. The red is primarily used in the chest and hip areas to keep that color centralized. The grey is used very well in the forearms, thighs and feet, plus a little bit on that shin bump and groin. There are also numerous red and grey paint accents throughout the figure to break it up even more and keep it from looking bland.

The mold has been updated with iGear's new sliding tailfins to replace the hip kibble from the Takara versions of this mold. It looks amazing. It cleans up the figure immensely and even has the added benefit of stablizing him a bit by making him bottom heavy and less prone to tipping over backwards like the original Seekers.

Sunstorm does retain the same face-changing ability as the original MP Starscream. He has the plain face that all of the Seekers have, plus the "smirk" that came with Starscream.






Quality Control:
Overall I have no paint bleeding anywhere on my figure. Everything is where it looks like it is supposed to be, including in the small recesses for the accent colors. The head is painted a very nice glossly black with a silver face and red eyes. The chest intakes are painted the same glossly black as was used on the face. They also decided to use black to break up the all orange plastic on the null rays by painting the middle section gloss black as well.

The plastics are sturdy and seem to be of the same quality as the Coneheads and in turn as the original Takara Seekers.

I have no assembly issues with my figure. Everything looks to be where it is supposed to be and the tolerances for all the moving parts are small enough so that everything fits together well.

Overall Impression:
I was on the fence about spending another $100+ on this figure. He wasn't a character I was very familiar with and I know he is supposed to be a cool one based on his comic book appearances, but I wasn't sure I really needed him. Ultimately, I convinced myself that since he was a new character rather than a rehash of Starscream I could add him to the Decepticon ranks, plus as a TF figure he has the awesome new leg mods. Those two things make him worthwhile enough for me to add him to my collection and to proudly display him next to my other Masterpiece figures. Now all I need are some appropriate Decepticon symbols (come on Reprolabels!!!).

More pics coming shortly.

 

1. Very nice eye, I never would have noticed that. The front barrel of the null rays (in front of the painted black part) does indeed seperate from the upper part, just like Thrust.



2. The posts for the null rays are the same width as the original Seekers, but the length of the post on Sunstorm's null rays is significantly longer.

 

I'm more irritated that the Coneheads didn't get painted noses, but at least Sunstorm did. If he hadn't, that would have made a huge difference, in a bad way.

 

I kinda agree with this and disagree. The plastic is sturdy, but I transformed an extra Walmart Exclusive Skywarp after handling not-Sunstorm, and in comparing the two, it would seem not-Sunstorm feels a little less sturdy. But that's not enough to make the toy feel like its gonna fall apart on you or snap with ease.

Only problem I really had was that the windshield part of the canopy fell off. The ring where the screw goes into to secure it onto the nose broke. I would assume the screw was put on too tight?? Or something. Well....nothing a little superglue can't fix.

Overall, I like it. But if the other seekers from iGear feel this way, I pass on the coneheads. Not really a fan of the coneheads to begin with so for me, its not a huge loss if I don't have them. I don't want to pay $100 + for something I feel is kinda sub-par. I dunno, maybe I expected the plastic to have a "thicker" feel to it?

As for iGears not-TC, if Hasbro isn't ever putting one out.....I may debate on picking up iGear's TC.......maybe......

Oh and the stand is atrociously stupid in terms of how tightly the stand is mounted onto the base. I had to get a pair of plyers to remove it so I could put not-Sunstorm on it while in bot mode.

You can get it out with some pliers, a towel, and patience.........and be very careful.

 

Yeah, the WM Starscream has the thickest plastics of any of the Seekers/Coneheads, Takara, Hasbro or iGear. Comparing to the original MP SS (aka Greenscream), the plastic was much much thinner and the figure felt flimsy as hell. The Walmart version was vastly superior because of the anime accurate colors, but also because of the much stronger plastic that was used.

I personally think that Sunstorm is better than the regular Takara releases and probably about on par with the Hasbro releases, maybe just a little thinner. Sunstorm doesn't feel as flimsy to me as the Takara releases, but either way, this is a collectors piece and needs to be handled gently.