Toy Review - Legacy Armada Universe Starscream

Armada Starscream
Series - Generations
Sub-line - Legacy
Size/class - Voyager
New/remould/redeco - New Mold
Wave - 3
Released here - Not Yet (expected to arrive maybe Nov 2022)
Approximate Retail Price - $60
Approximate Size - 14cm
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Cybertronic jet fighter
Main Features/Gimmicks - flip out missle launchers (similar to his original Armada toy)
Main Colours - red, black, grey and yellow bits here and there
Main Accessories - Energon Sword, Star Saber

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To celebrate 20 years of Transformers Armada, we have a new toy of our favourite character from that show. No, not that one (we're getting him next wave), but rather Armada Starscream. While he is a bit shorter than the original figure, and lacking some of the features (mini-con ports and electronic lights/sounds), he makes up for it with high articulation. Unlike the original (and similar to his thrilling-30 toy), his sword is seperate to the wing, although it still resembles the original wing sword. I didn't take a picture, but it is possible to make it look like (in robot mode) his wing has become his sword.
While he (sadly) doesn't have Swindle, his mini-con powerup is still present, meaning he still has firepower. If they're too much in the way, he can put his missile launchers on his back, exactly like his Thrilling 30 toy.
Other than his sword blade, he also comes with the Star Saber from Armada. It's not the most accurate, but I guess it's meant to be in it's lighted up mode.
My only real complaint is that he lacks any mini-con ports. I get there aren't any mini-cons in the Legacy toyline, but come on even Bulkhead gets some!

Overall, if you're an Armada fan like me, then I recommend grabbing this toy. Even if you're not a fan of Armada I still recommend picking him up.

I never saw Armada, but I did pick up the Generations Armada Starscream when it came out and enjoyed the figure quite a bit.

The one thing that surprised me with Legacy Starscream is how solid he feels, there are only two obvious places with hollow area's and that is his thighs (standard for most transformers these days, and the back of his shoulders. I would argue that the shoulders one couldn't be avoided as that is necessary for transformation to allow his arms to slide over. This is also where my biggest complaint with the figure comes in, the shoulders annoy me as the arm comes loose when pushed back, and the arm is very easily pushed back. However credit where its due, when the arm is in its robot mode configuration the shoulder design does lock it from being moved side to side, its just the backwards movement that causes issue.

The second issue I have is that the sword doesn't form from his wing. The rest of the figure really looks like the cartoon version of Armada Starscream and it would have been nice to have that one feature, but at least he still comes with the sword in some form.

All that being said, those are fairly nitpicky issues I have with the figure. Legacy Starscream has a good solid feeling figure and just the right amount of heft to him, it's something that a lot of figures in recent years have been lacking in my opinion.

I think on balance I prefer the aesthetics of the T30 Deluxe figure.

The Legacy one looks more like the original directly updated, and I've never liked the original. Too much chonk.

I grabbed one of these from a JB Hifi while Christmas shopping.

Engineering wise the figure does some nice things, it's painted well and theoretically would have good play value, except that the one I got is a complete mess of quality control.

My copy has only three solid tab connections - backpack tabbing onto the back in robot mode, and the triceps tabbing to the underside of the wings in jet mode. Everything is is a floppy mess, crucially including the tab that is meant to hold the legs flat rigid in jet mode (back of hip connecting to folded up robot backpack), and whatever mechanism is meant to hold the cockpit in place. End product: grab the jet mode by the cannons and both the front and back sag with just gravity.

I got one. Is very nice. But I still prefer the original for how chunky and solid it is.