Toy Review - Studio Series 72 - Bumblebee Movie Starscream

[SharkyMcShark]

STARSCREAM
Series - Studio Series
Sub-line - Bumblebee Movie
Size/class - Voyager
New/remould/redeco - New (looks like, but shares nothing with, SS Blitzwing)
Wave - 12
Released here - April 2021
Approximate Retail Price - $50
Approximate Size - 17cm (to head) 18 cm (to intakes) 21cm (to wing tips) (GOK I FINALLY BOUGHT A RULER!)
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Cybertronian fighter jet
Main Features/Gimmicks - Sort of gun hand thing that doesn't really sit flush?
Main Colours - It's Starscream. Red, Grey, Blue.
Main Accessories - One big gunhand thing, two wing cannons.

So right off the bat, this clearly looks like Studio Series Blitzwing, but it doesn't share a single part with that figure. It's based off the Cybertronian starfighter design seen in brief during that Highmoon game cutscene of an intro sequence for Bumblebee. It's kind of nifty.

Vehicle Mode

• Overall, a good mode. Solid, stable, on character - nothing particularly egregious to complain about. Definitely an example of the lesser spotted non-token Cybertronian mode. Regardless of what you think about the rest of it, this is clearly more than a robot just sitting down or curling up.
• The wings do a decent job of locking in place - they don't flap about at all (which I always worry about with figures that have wings sitting on joints).
• The only downside is that the lower chunk of the jet is a bit thick, being that its comprised of the robot mode torso and arms. The concept art has this being a wing/fin, but its thicker than that in plastic form. Doesn't ruin the mode by any means. To be honest I prefer this solution to having a fat alt-mode which then has a wing sticking out the bottom.

Transformation

• Entirely different to Blitzwing, and with a few really nifty bits. I love the extra bits of folding work along the legs to help fill out the fuselage of the jet mode.
• I've found getting the right shoulder on my figure unclipped from the chest to be frightening, when going back to jet mode. The connection is tight, and I've had to use a shim each time to lever the connection free (instead of just yanking on the shoulder joint itself, which feels like it might break before the transformation joint comes free).

Robot Mode

• Imposing, large, well articulated - this is what you want from a robot mode.
• Aside from the wings at the back, relatively kibble free. Everything collapses into the chest or into the calves, which is pretty cool.
• I think the biggest let down for me with this figure is the accessories. An opportunity was missed to have the two black wing cannons peg into the forearms or shoulders of the figure for some G1 esque nullray action. As it stands your options are to have them on their two wing mounts, or to have the figure hold them as handguns. Not great. The bigger gun mimics the classic TF movie forearm turns into gun look, but without sitting flush (like for example SS Blitzwing's version), so it just sort of looks like the figure is holding a gun with a giant cover hanging off the back. These are minor complaints in the grand scheme of things.

Closing Thoughts
This is well worth a buy.

It made me retrospectively upset at myself for buying WFCSiege Starscream, because that is a lazy, low effort design of a figure for the same basic goal - a Cybertron pre Earth Seeker.

This is probably the best representation of a Cybertronian Starscream design we're getting.