[Trivial Psychic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by firmpulse

Really? That's disappointing. What did they do to screw it up?

The biggest culprit is Hasbro's persistence to wax nostalgia with this particular figure. It's nearly identical to it's Universe/Generations predecessor, and suffers from many of the issues of that old seeker mold articulation wise. While this figure stands better than the Universe Starscream, it can't strike many of the poses that the Siege Tetra Scream could, as there's no wrist or waist swivel thanks to the way it's constructed for transformation. In addition, it also has nearly the same transformation as that classic figure, with an additional step here or there, but it's largely identical. It's a nice touch in terms of the figure's legacy, but for those of us who were hoping for something slightly new, it leaves you wanting more.



While those issues are a bother, I can see past them. What really hurts the figure in my eyes is the curious placement of some of the 5mm ports, specifically the ones on his arms. Where Tetra Scream had his placed on the outside of his forearm, which allowed a very natural placement for his null rays, allowing him to point and shoot where he chooses in a very satisfying looking way, the ports on Earthrise Scream are placed on the UNDERSIDE of his forearms, meaning you have to turn his arms upside down to aim them. Since Scream has no wrist swivel, this means his arms are not only turned upside down, but he's palms upside down and out away from his body...which looks ridiculous.

Even worse than that, the holes in his hands (at least on mine) are slightly wider than 5mm, meaning he cannot hold his null rays in his hands either, as they spin when you peg them. Adding to this, even if you were to modify the hands somewhat with glue, the pegs on the null rays are too short to allow him to hold the weapons anyways, as the back of his wrists are raised, and block the weapons from being properly inserted into his hands. This means Starscream can only fire his null ray from the shoulder either directly left or right, turning them into decorations as opposed to weapons of mass destruction.



I'm sure there will be some sort of 3rd party kit or running change at some point to rectify these issues, but they really should have been caught in the design phase to begin with, as if it didn't have these issues, this figure would be a mini MP of Starscream, especially with it's excellent headsculpt (which is a directly shrunken down version of those modern MP figures...) and it's very excellent alt mode, as his jet form fits together nicely and has very little in the way of kibble.