Hasbro’s Transformers Generations toy line has been at the forefront for over ten years now. This year in celebration of the brand’s 35th anniversary Hasbro has returned to Cybertron with the War For Cybertron toy line that will span the next three years. It’s first year’s offerings in the Siege line are battle worn Generation One warriors that make use of Target Masters, Micromasters, and Deluxe class bots that become wearable, customizable armaments fighting for the survival of their home planet.
Today we’re looking at Starscream from the second wave of Voyager class figures.
Sculpt
The Siege toys are heavily influenced by G1 designs in robot mode, while keeping a futuristic, alien aesthetic to their alternate modes. The robots are also taking heavy cues from the 1980’s Studio OX artwork with large amounts of small surface tech details. There seems to be a divide in the fandom when it comes to the amount of sculpted surface details on these toys. I for one am all for it.
This release of Starscream is finally in the correct size class to scale properly with the rest of the Decepticons. Over the course of the Generations toy lines we’ve had Deluxe class ‘Screams, Leader class ‘Screams, and last year a very poorly executed and critically panned Voyager that suffered from having to bear the weight of being a combiner robot’s torso.
Again, it should also be pointed out that since this is the beginning of a new trilogy toy line that Hasbro has adopted a new scale across the board for Siege. This was first implemented in their movie universe Studio Series where even within certain size classes you will see a drastic difference in height and mass depending on the character represented. So while you may not have a Voyager class toy in the 7″-9″ size range in this line, what you do have is a mass of heavy, quality plastic that outweighs many past Generations releases.
Paint
Probably the least favorable area on the toy for me is the paint application. Color tones are great. Hasbro is going for animation greys, reds and blues, but the battle worn aspect of the toy line also brings heavy muddy splotches on the light grey bits of the toy, silver dry brushing on red and blue areas that over all just don’t come across as well as they should. It should also be noted that the figure is released with the chin unpainted and black. This chin-strap look wasn’t something I was a fan of and I painted the figure’s face completely silver.
Articulation
Here, Starscream shines! Throughout the Siege line you’ll see pinned joints, hinged joints, mushroom pegged swivels, and in the larger size classes ratcheted joints that can accommodate the larger frames of the robots. The overall construction is great. You can clearly see where the money is going in the higher MSRP and this truly feels like a collector level toy line.
‘Scream has ball neck, butterfly as well as swivel and hinge shoulders, bicep swivel, double elbow, wrist, waist, swivel and hinge hips, thighs, knees, and ankle tilt and rocking. His wings are also on a hinge to splay out, and have an additional point of articulation to tilt up or down for much more dynamic display options.
Accessories
He comes with his two Null-Rays, which are sculpted to look mostly like beam rifles. I prefer the slim, tubular look of the G1 versions as when these are attached to the shoulders come across as a bit bulky. That’s it for accessories.
Alternate mode
His transformation is also quite simple. There’s a fair bit of folding and collapsing, but ultimately you are crunching up Starscream’s body into a wedge and the wings and nosecone layer over the wedge to conceal it. Not the most elegant design, nor quite as aerodynamic as the original Tetra Jet design from the first episode of Transformers animation, but it does have a remarkable likeness to a Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper.
Value
With a US MSRP of $29.99 the Siege Voyager class toys come with a bit of a bite to collector’s wallets. This is, without question, the best Starscream that has been released in the Generations line since 2007’s Deluxe class Classics mold. He’s a bit light on accessories, and doesn’t have the most intuitive transformation. The robot mode and all of its articulation really nails it, though. This second wave of Voyagers is two heavy hitting Decepticon fan favorites with Soundwave being the other entry. I can see either of these two being a jumping on point for many in this toy line.
Score
4.5 out of 5 Wizard’s Stars
I’m very excited about where this line is going and what we’ve seen so far has been very intriguing. NY Toy Fair saw the reveals of many long overdue and asked for G1 remakes. Hasbro has big plans for this first year of their new trilogy, and even seem to be extending releases past that with Siege. This is the best looking, best feeling main collector’s line of Transformers we’ve been offered in years. This Starscream is proof of that.
Enjoy the full gallery of Siege Voyager Class Starscream below!
