So FYI the jet tabbing thing might be me doing it wrong. I was messing with the figure this morning and just ended up applying a lot of pressure to the back end until I heard a click and now the legs are securely together and the back end is only slightly out of alignment with the wings.



So it does peg together a little better now, I just wish I knew what was causing the tabbing issues.

 

Yeah, the jet is a pain to tab in properly and when it does it’s still not pretty, partially because it’s got some of the most horrid stickers ever. Robot and torso modes however are good. I don’t mind the proportions much because this does represent IDW Starscream who has previously used the bulky stompy WFC design. All in all worth picking up, as long as you realise you’re picking up the weakest figure of the wave.

 

My copy has a bum chest. It won't hold closed. It keeps springing open. I also cant flip the small head into the space where the combiner head goes. I pushed hard. It won' clear the lip.

 

I like how heroic his robot mode looks. The jet is decent apart from the stickers and tabbing issues. He could use some better null rays, though. I'll probably end up taking the stickers off at some point.

 

For some reason one combiner foot pegs in very solidly and the other is so loose it falls out.

 

Honestly same with mine, annoying isn't it

 

it takes the figure from sort of cartoony interpretation to a gritty realistic take on Screamer with just that paint detail.. which lets me see the sculpt in a new light and changes my perspective on the toy

... I can totally see this now...

This sums up where I am about to come from with this...

So I had previously planned on skipping this JUST due to the fact that I LOVE LOVE LOVE my CW Seekers, they Nail everything I have ever wanted in them and are THE highlight of my entire collection. On the other hand I am a total ho for Combiner Wars and mix and matching combiners in my playtime adventures so I sort of had a " Maybe on Clearence or if the right situation arises" stance on this toy.
Caveat on all of my observations I am messing around with him in my office and have not taken the Combiner feet or enigma out of the package ... which is cool and the first Voyager POTP I am opening. The new window on top of the box is nice and will serve packaged collectors nicely if they display him in package with lighting from above and it appears to be on the Grimlock and at least Optimus Leader figures so far. There is more cluttered information on the back than CW or TR had and a much more minimnal bio write up with only how will this character use the power of the primes as the tag line...

I had packaged up some of my sons and my more troublesome/ aka crappy movie figures and was planning on returning them for store credit when POTP became plentiful in order to soften the blow on the pocketbook. When I found StarScream, Grimlok and Optimus prime today on brickseek I rounded up the returns and took them to the nearest Target. Upon seeing the three in person two things connected for me

1 was the fact that I was getting Grimlok for my 6yo and would like to bring the other son a gift as well so that he wouldn't be trying to play with Grimlok or Prime while the other son was getting them out and learning tham and since Star Scream has sort of a Cartoony/ playschool or fisherprice look to him I thought he would be appropriate for the 2yo. Also we wont be trashing a sacred rare sought after relic if he destroys him in 4 minutes like he is capable of doing. This extremely divisive and polarizing figure would be perfect to hand to the wildest of my boys!
2 Was the mentioned above desire to try him out as a combiner

Here are some good points. He stands up GREAT as in you almost cant knock him down due to the big feet which honestly aren't as intrusive In person as pics led me to think, same for the popeye arms. In fact in bot mode everything works out ok ...like I will always say nothing compares to the proportions and that leader class one so he can inhabit the wide space underneath its glory. The colors are nice, it looks like the character. He makes a real nice "superman" flying robot pose which is something I always have done with seekers and flying jetbots in general. In fact everything about the Robot mode is pretty nice especially if you want a voyager of this guy it seems in pics I am going to raally like him with the TR Triple changers, Megatron, Cyclonus and the CW torsos like MotorMaster and Onslaught. I do like Voyagers a Lot in general so he will scale and add to that theme very nicely. He seems sturdy and tough enough to throw to the 2yo this evening without to much worry of immediate breakage, I have a recept if I am wrong. The only real drawback for me so far of the 'bot are the guns, there is just no way to make them look "cool" or "neat" in either bot or plane mode.

Plane mode is just alright, like Emgo when I am being nice and enthusiastic about a new toy ( I mean what's better than getting new toys, if you cant be happy then, then uuughgh when can you be ...right?) like Emgo ill say its "ok" or just " alright" part of my perspective comes from working around aviation when operating a lot so things like the Fisher price thrusters look get to me, the fact it isn't really ANY plane role we know of although it can sort of pass as an Old Northrop Valkery copy from certain angles or a generic multirole bomber a mission profile we don't really have in any recent plane Transformers. The tabbing together isn't there yet for me but I take it easy ( no forcing stuff) with new toys at first and fiddle with them a lot before judging and I can usually get those sort of things sorted out before too many sessions.. Honestly this feels like it will get straight before its over with. However I am not feeling the way the feet serve as rear landing gears cantilevering the body length down to the front landing gear. I feel like I am doing something wrong here but I haunt even been through the instructions yet so I don't know for sure. I like the sticker colors on the wings, like I said above there is no way to get the guns to look good or even stay well put. Both options fall off easily due to dimensional tolerances with other parts or just shallow 5mm ports.

That all being said it does have a nice size and mass to it for wooshing and vrooming around and is a fun plane to play with as long as you don't expect it to be a model plane. Being A Voyager will make it a menacing foil to Aerilbots for example without being completely out of scale with the CW and TR toys the way the CW Leader seekers can be ( CW Carbots look perfect with the Leaders however scale wise) meaning if all else fails I may leave tyhis guy as a plane and pretend CW Leader Starscream transform into THSI plane when I want him to go against my Autobot Air forces ...the greatest Transformer toy I own, T30 Leader Jetfire notwithstanding of course.

I will save the combined mode for its OWN thing once the 2yo gets over the newness and I Inherit the toy back into the collection which I am curator of. this is how I satisfy both the toys are for kids angle and my own adult collecting on one budget and with putting my kids first and still growing a collection for me to keep. Also the 6yo is a combiner fan so he will like that aspect of it as well, I KNOW that will be fun and worth it as all Hasbro combiners are if for no other reason they draw on the succsess of toys we do already love, Starscream will just add to that assortment when we play with it!

I don't mind stickers, I love shiny metallic stuff on G1 Transformer characters so with the panel lining trick with the toothpick mentioned above I will certainly be cool with them. my only bitch there is there are some I really like that I worry will peel around the edges but I had the same concern with my TR triple Changers and they are still all ok so I bet it be aight.

Overall, at a minimum, for money I had already spent on toys that were WAY worse (TLK Nitro and Hound) ... and that I DIDNT like... this will more than suffice to toss to the 2yo as a distraction while the 6yo and I play with Grimlok and Leader Prime. Once the 2yo tires of it in a few hours it will make a fun stand along with my Decepticon voyagers and once I explore the Combiner mode the value will only increase. or if it falls apart in a hopeless disaster or sticker peel all over the poor boys hands I will take it back with the receipt when I find Rodimus finally and will use the store credit to try him out!

If you are like me or are in any way in a similar place in life I hope this review helped.
This is the War in the floor signing off with another transformer toy review!

 

Can the big King Starscream head from POTP starscream replace the Galvatronus head on CW Cyclonus with an easy swap?

 

De-Stickered Starscream



And from the top of the page:

 

... man, screamer sans stickers looks REALLY good. I'm not sure I want to that particular plunge, though. I'm hoping Reprolabels does something special with this guy.

 

It looks so much better XD, It's weird. Those shiny stickers just look so cheap, ad as much as I love Broadside (Because I'm strange, I guess?) those stickers drive me mad.

 

Yeah an update on the pegging issue...


Just CRANK DOWN ON HIM.. he ( probably) wont break and it makes him fall together correctly. I did it last night on a whim and every transformation after that went real well... its sort of like the TR Blutswing. Megatron thigh Transformation in that its HARD HARD to do the first time or two but if you just put some ass behind it a couple good times it seems to loosen up and " do right".

The combined mode is stable solid pose-able and if you put the extra prime armor hands on the back of the feet ( or front I also spun em around for a different look) ... I mean they will look like skis lol but in a weird analogue of the Voyager figure itself it makes the combined form stand up in almost ANY pose, hes almost hard to knock over.. And this was on a soft couch WHILE sitting there watching TV, massaging the SO... "wallering" around and he never fell.

 

Just curious are there any actual jets IRL that have the landing gear so far towards the front, with the entire front of the plane angled downward?

 

Ugh, for the life of me, I can't get the panel his regular head sits on to fold into the body cavity for torso mode. It very much feels like it shouldn't go, on my copy. I don't want to force it, because after considerable force it still won't go. Any thoughts? I'm no newb to this stuff...

 

That panel is definitely a tight squeeze to slip inside.

 

I actually had trouble with it too at first. The trick, I've found, is to push down on the very edge of the panel. Once you get that into the gap, the rest of it won't be a problem.

 

You Usually want it situated about or near the CoG of the cockpit or crew area for structural rigidity/ safety factor multiplier, airframe stiffness/ cantilever about the actual fuselage CoG which is always going to be between the "hot sections" of your engine array. And putting it there ... under your butt... will pass vibration and resonance up through your control interfaces giving you a "feel" when landing especially if it is not an all fly by wire bird or if there is a difference in your VFR VS your IFR feedback but that's mostly on older weapons systems as its all FBW anymore and defacto IFR anyway.

http://acepilots.com/MMM2.jpg
The old f-86 Saber has it where it is at least a little fore of the pilot like Old Screamer here has his

But you did say Jets which ties my hands for examples, if you open it up to Turboprops or straight up prop pushers there seems to be some examples.

As for Starscream it cannot be a good idea to lever that much weight ( A multirole bomber laden with fuel and munitions is gonna be hefty) out into so little airframe structure especially if you end up sitting her down hard... but what do we know Cybertronian alloys may just be that hot shit.

 

This toy, is so bad, it's actually kind of cool. I feel like it fulfills a kind of McDonald's toy-shaped hole in my collection I didn't know I had.

Even though I kind of like it, and bought it, the QC issues are terrible,
and I have to say it's discouraging if not offensive that Hasbro thinks this passes for a voyager nowadays.

Everyone's already pointed them all out, but I can't stand how the arms/jet wings/legs all can't tab in together.
The most stable configuration I've found has been to give up on tabbing in the arms to his calves and the underside of his wings,
and just let them float there whilst tabbing his legs and the wing bits securely together. Anything else causes the wings to warp out,
and I'm sure it'll break over time if I keep that up...

4/10 for me.

 

There is a fixed retool out now that tabs together correctly with out work. The retooled one has slots on the red post on the back while the original has a solid red post. My original's box was stamped 72921 and the new one's was stamped 73101.

Old


New

 

mind showing me the Tabs?