The last Segment of the Unicron Trilogy, Cybertron aka Galaxy Force, was a high point in the history of the Transformers brand. Its conceit of Transformers that had adapted to different worlds allowed for much variety in design and a return of beast modes. The ratio of articulation to gimmick had largely reversed from what is was during Armada, thus pleasing collectors, but minicons were back too. Lots of good stuff; I think there's only one bad toy in all of it, and he's just an interesting idea that didn't come together. Cybertron's weakness however was probably the underwhelming Cyber Key gimmick, which could easily have been replaced with a button, and mainly featured pop-out guns. The Cybertron toys would be much reused and redecoed, but the key business didn't catch on. What did catch on? The pocket money, stocking filler items called Legends of Cybertron, with offered inexpensive and simplified versions of larger toys. This pricepoint ran in some form or another from 2005-18, with this size of toy seemingly being phased out by Hasbro the year prior to the pandemic. Maybe it's gonna be back for Rise of the Beasts? Regardless, Legends of Cybertron normalised the idea of a character having several toys in different size classes, as well as creating a whole sub-market of tiny toys. It wasn't the first Transformers line to do something like that, but twelve years and change is a hell of a run.
OK, so that was a big whack of context where I talked about the origins of a play pattern. Shouldn't I be talking about the character? Well, this is Starscream. Odds are if you are reading this, you know who the fuck he is. The second-in-command of the Decepticons, with eyes on the top job, whom is also a jet? Chronic back stabbing disorder? Yes, that Starscream. Cybertron put its own spin on the archetype of course, but that's the gist. The reason why size classes are do important to this article, besides padding the word count, is that Starscream ended up in three of them, and with not all versions initially being available everywhere. The original version, for a time a Japanese exclusive until repaints happened, was a voyager, whereas the Western version was enlarged to the supreme class in a manner like those upscale knock-offs you occasionally see in Facebook posts. Yes, you too could have a Starscream you could hug like a toddler, because… nobody seems to know. Starscream did grow really really big in the cartoon, but that was towards the tail end of things.
Actually, given the number of women buying them off the Toy-Fu stall, Hasbro may have been onto something. I just wanted to mention that...
Anyway. So, the basic design went up and down the size classes in way that I don't think any other Transformer ever had before. Granted later and modern do this sort of thing a lot more often, but not with such major regional differences. The Legends mould obviously omits stuff, but it's come out much better than most of its stable-mates. How much of this is a reflection of the design teams efforts versus the simplicity of the original? " I 'll let you decide.
Let's start with the jet mode. As befitted the cosmopolitan design philosophy Cybertron had, this toy was, well, cybertronian, but inspired by the War Within comics series of a few years earlier. This makes it in effect one of the earliest toys to attempt a “pre-earth" mode based on G1 concepts, although not the last. The overall shape is inspired by the tetrajet, but its a more feasible in that somebody, maybe Don "awesome" Figueroa, gave some thought as to how it would work in plastic. As such, you've got a sci-fi plane that looks like a greebled arrowhead. And it's perfectly nice for what it is, I dodn't feel that we'd lost much during the micron process, which has its upsides and downsides. On the pros, its got a very clean undercarriage, but on the cons, we've still got the exposed head, plus the shoulder joints break up the lines in this form.
Transformation follows the same beats as the larger versions, the main difference being how the nosecone and tail-fins are simplified. Again, fidelity to the source is both a strength and weakness. The basic design in all its forms suffers in that it has concealed weapons in the upper arms which hurt proportions and articulation. This legends toy was seemingly too small to attempt all of the articulation that was there, and so omits all joints below the shoulder. Not unexpected by the standards of such things, but as the shoulders are balljointed now, along with the legs, a case could be made that this tiny version does better with basic posing than the others. Now, that's a bold, almost contrarian take, I know, but look at those first two images again. Do an image search or check out a video review or something. They aren’t really that agile, are they? This legends mould is making the best of a very top-heavy design. This is a lot bulkier than Starscream usually is, looking like someone whom could match Megatron for strength rather than just back tab, and because so much is invested in those shoulders, these toys suffer for articulation. This legends mould, seemingly through a quirk of price point, ends up that little bit more dynamic and above average in its class. However you feel about that, this Starscream also retains his swing-out sword and blaster, such things being in no way guaranteed at the time. He’s good.
My point? Only that Legends of Cybertron Starscream is something that exists. Its a low cost toy that does basically all you'd want such a thing to do, and it got repainted a lot, so if this one isn't your thing, there are alternatives. I'm faintly bewildered at how well this turned out.
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