Transformers Studio Series Bumblebee Starscream review

I still remember the shock of a Seeker popping up in the first Bumblebee movie trailer like it was yesterday. Seeing a Starscream-like bot transform before our eyes was actually pretty neat to see until we found out that it was actually Blitzwing, and let me tell you how hypocritical fans were when they accepted that but bitched about 10 years of Transformers in the movies being nothing like in G1, despite, you know, THE REST OF THE FRANCHISE DEVIATING FROM THE SOURCE MATERIAL??? But that's okay, because Cybertron's scenes had the Geewun designs that people talked the most about more than the actual movie. And one of them was Starscream, who looked just as bad as the DeviantArt redesigns, (he looked worse than Blitzwing who I'd argue looked better overall. Does the toy manage to be as good as Optimus, Car Dropkick, Offroad Bumblebee, and Blitzwing? Let's find out.

Here is his backdrop, depicting the scene from when he and the Decepticons fought on Cybertron. It was a decent picture that Cliffjumper had, and seeing it in a more appropriate size works for our Voyager Class toy, too.

Here we have Starscream in his jet mode. It's a much more alien take of the tetra-jet that was seen in G1 and Cybertron. The design itself is pretty faithful to what the concept art looked like in the movie, but there are a few noticeable things that make it feel different, mainly the piece that holds onto the gun. I suppose the design itself is successful to what we got, or rather what was hard to see in the movie (and this is from someone that saw the movie ONCE and never saw it again since then). The nosecone of the jet mode looks like someone shaved it off which makes it look weird. In general, it's a pretty interesting and accurate design to what we saw in the movie, but I can't help but get an insect vibe from it. 

For a size comparison, here he is with B-127, who looked pretty solid in his vehicle mode. IDK how exact their scale is supposed to be, but it works well for the most part if I am being honest.

Here he is with Siege Starscream, who has more of a fighter look to his vehicle mode while Beewun Starscream looked more like he was a shuttle or an insect-like being by comparison. He may not have an entire robot folded underneath, but he still looks more abstract by comparison.

And here he is next to Blitzwing, to show you an idea of how the two jets look. The fact that Blitzwing's cockpit is the same as Starscream's does give me the impression that maybe their alternate modes are the same size and would therefore make them massive in robot mode, but the movie established that they're not that big.

Transforming Starscream is somewhat like Blitzwing's, but with new steps of his own. The legs do take inspiration from the other Decepticon, but things like the arms, wings, and chest transformation are new to this guy. And as for the robot mode itse,f, it's a mixed bag. The wings look pretty bad (and the right wing piece doesn't stay up as well for some reason), and I'm not a fan of the proportions of this guy. He looks pretty out-of-shape, from the way the torso looks to the lower legs having no real definition beyond looking like bell bottoms, and his arms look pretty flaccid on his body. I get this was what the design looked lie in the Bumblebee movie, but it feels so rushed and unrefined compared to Blitzwing, who actually looked good. For all the complaints people have about the Siegeker toy, at least it was not as messy as this.

Head sculpt looks pretty much like G1 Starscream with the Movie aesthetic. Nothing that exciting about it, though I remember seeing some samples of the figure having differently painted eyes, with the result looking like he had really big eyebrows. The sculpting could be better. His articulation is about the same as Blitzwing's, but with a few differences here and there. His head is on a ball joint yet can only look up and down when it's facing a different direction. The shoulders move front and back, in and out, the biceps swivel, the elbows bend, and the wrists can only hinge up and down but do not swivel like with Blitzwing. There is a waist swivel, hips that move front and back, in and out, thigh swivels, knee bends, and ankle rockers as well as hinges. The cannon, which looks similar to Blitzwing's, can be held on his hand but it doesn't stay on there all that well because of how short the peg is. There is also no added support for it to be securely placed. Blitzwing did that perfectly, how did you screw that up?! and before you ask, no, his null-rays can't be used because they're only good at being loose on the pegs because the ports are not deep enough to hold them. Piss-poor design choice, Hasbro.

Since a Seeker was bound to get tons of repaints, here we have Thrust. I already liked that he was based on Armada Thrust and not G1 Thrust, and I do appreciate how there is a cone hood without replicating the conehead look entirely. That being said, the fact that I'm going to revisit this figure again with the same issues that Starscream has is not something I look forward to.

And reverting back to thr Starscream tooling but with the Thrust face, this is Thundercracker. I'm surprised we haven't gotten a Skywarp in 2023 because this was the last use of the mold for now.

Oh nevermind, here he is. He's more gray than black, but that's because of the CG model.

Here he is sandwiched in-between 2 Autobots that were on the Cybertron fight scene. He's taller than Optimus Prime with his pinhead, but I think Starscream is definitely an inferior figure compared to Optimus, who has the better engineering and proportions that Starscream lacks. Seriously, people bitch about Movie Starscream for looking like a Dorito, but Beewun Starscream looks out of shape with his flappy arms, pinhead, huge wings, and pathetic bell bottom legs.

Here we have Starscream next to his Siege counterpart, who is a much more refined action figure than this sad attempt at a Moviefied-G1 Starscream. Say what you will about the shellformer nature of this guy, but Siegescream at least feels like a better-engineered action figure without any of the garbage design flaws of the Bumblebee Movie Starscream. Sure, he's taller, but he has way more flaws than Starscream did in the Siege line. And while Beewun Screamer uses more of his robot parts in the vehicle mode, it doesn't excuse how bad the robot mode looks. 

And here we have Starscream next to Blitzwing, who is pretty much the better toy of the two. His design looks much more refined, he feels unique, and he doesn't suffer from too much of that engineering flaw problem that Starscream has to deal with. His gun is better attached on his forearm, he feels more complete, and best of all, he doesn't have a garbage design that compromises him. I appreciate Hasbro wanting the make the Seekers have designs of their own rather than be straight repaints of Blitzwing, but COME ON.

Let's send off the review with Starscream getting his tailpipe handed to him by his maybe-future counterparts. Honestly, for as lackluster as the actual movie character representation of Studio Series is this year, I was honestly hoping that the figures that we would get that were not from the 1986 movie would at least be good. Think about it, because while we get 15+ figures since 2018, one would hope that the 7 live-action Transformers would be as good as the prior offerings. We already know what Grindor, B-127, ROTF Bee, and ROTF Sideswipe would be like since those figures already existed, so while Dino was a great purchase, Starscream is a major letdown due to his poor design choices and overall inferior counterpart to Blitzwing. I'd only get him if you're a completionist or are a big Starscream fan, because this figure sucks in general.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐