Transformers: Legends of Cybertron Starscream is Something that Exists

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.

The 2004 Galaxy Force Starscream toy, voyager class

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.

The 2005 Cybertron Starscream toy, supreme class

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.

Transformers: Cybertron Longrack Is Something That Exists

You know what? Let's talk about another Japanese-inspired retool of questionable providence. Because what are diminishing returns? 

 

The 1999 Longrack toy

 

In 1999, TakaraTomy, although it was still just Takara then, introduced Beast Wars Neo, a small fill-in affair covering a gap between seasons of the Western-led Beast Wars franchise. Whereas the other fill-in, Beast Wars Second, was almost entirely repaints, Neo was almost entirely new stuff, some altmodes not seen before or since. There was a penguin, a bunny, a horse, a time-travelling tanuki and, of course, Longrack. Longrack was a giraffe, and a regular feature on the tie-in anime. I'm hazy on the specifics, many are due to language issues, but they had me at "giraffe", I'm usually on board for unique transformers, even though the whole Beast Saga isn't my usual thing. Advance 7ish years, and Cybertron/Galaxy-Force is in full swing. I'm calling it Cybertron/Galaxy-Force here as things got rather complicated around this time, with Hasbro and TakaraTomy not agreeing on stuff. Functionally, there's not much difference as far as the actual toys go, but there's a great potential for pedantic tangents. Cybertron is the Hasbro release, named for the Transformers homeworld, Galaxy Force is TakaraTomy's stuff, to keep it simple. Seemingly as a late addition, the decision was made to retool the Hoist/Super-Grap mould from Armada into a new version of Longrack. This wasn't an obvious choice for two big reasons though. The first and most obvious, was that Hoist didn't have a beast mode, and the second was that Hoist already looked like a completely different beastformer entirely, Dinobot. Hold that thought, we'll be back to him later. So, already this is first-rate article fodder, and we've only just started. They had an obvious route for a popular repaint, but no, they went even more obscure.

 

The 2006 Hoist Toy (With Refute)

Here's the bigger picture, Cybertron had a lot of product, and towards the end, there were increasing numbers of toys that didn't appear in the show proper. Four of these were actually retools of Armada era deluxes from two lines earlier, which were also homages to characters from other continuities. We got these initially as Japanese exclusive two packs, Buzzsaw vs Blurr and Longrack vs Runabout. Two of those are fairly well-known to western fans, with Buzzsaw being a homage to Beast era repaint, and Longrack being, well Longrack. I've got no actual evidence for this, but my gut tells me that TakaraTomy took the lead on this little project, because of this character selection, the versus format, and that these turned up on screen as crowd fillers. There's a whole bunch of reused moulds and "non-show" originals that Takara just passed on, but they released these, and they came relatively early in the life of the line, the wiki putting it at wave 3.5 of 8. So, Longrack went from giraffe to sci-fi excavator vehicle, but in one key respect, this made perfect sense. Both toys had a ridiculously big, spring-loaded arm gimmick. But then it gets even more complicated, as when an older mould was brought back, they changed it, the mini-con partner being absent in favour of a Cyber Key. While in some instances this was a simple matter of adding a mini-con port to the key itself, thus avoiding changes to the main toy, the updates to Longrack and his versus kin were somewhat more involved. Here, rather than just omitting the little partner dude, the spring-loaded mechanism was replaced/modified with one that aligned fully with the Cyber Key play pattern. Plus a new head etc. One wonders if the moulds in question were in need of some repair, and they went the extra mile. That they went as far as they did is however curious. This wasn't Combiner Wars, and substantive changes to a toy for re-release weren't a common thing at all at this stage. Or maybe they just wanted it to match better? Who knows? Longrack's character model did turn up on screen, but did F-all of note. Maybe there were plans to do something with him, I dunno. Hasbro even went on to release Longrack twice in their markets, a similarly strange action as Beast Wars Neo lacks a Western release to this day. I am unable to parse a a satisfactory reason for all the above, other than the possibility that someone important liked Beast Wars Neo, saw the beastformers Galaxy Force already had, and made it happen. And then Cybertron needed more toys for the shelves, and the rest is history.

So, what's he like as a toy? Well, the basic Hoist toy sits in a bit of an odd place relative to his kin, in that Armada tended to place gimmicks before articulation, but Hoist had it the other way around. The big punchy arm thing was its only mini-con activated feature of note, this was little more than a locking mechanism. Once you used the little dude, you could put him to one side, like a key. Or a Cyber Key. Was that the original idea? They wanted a mould that easily fit the play pattern? Of course, this re-engineering technically makes Cybertron Longrack the worst iteration of the mould, as even the best Cyber Key still ends up being worse than any functional mini-con, which is a toy in its own right. Fortunately, you can just leave it and forget its there. The retooling also has the effect of harming the look of the vehicle mode, as the new handle is not symmetrical with the other side, as the previous one was. It's easier to use, but it's clearly a later addition. The vehicle is also a bit of a marmite in general, to be fair. It's not really trying to hide the head or other robot bits, but is this really a disguise? Hold that thought. Right next to Dinobot. The robot mode is however more of a slamdunk, interestingly asymmetrical this time with a nice head, and attractive colours. He's big too, having a presence akin to a modern voyager. Articulation is, as noted, present and comprehensive. Longrack has 19 points of articulation due to his transformation, featuring toe joints and even ankle tilts a good decade before it was fashionable. The punching arm is obviously a bit of an anomaly, but this can rotate into the bargain. The mould has a lot of big industrial feeling ratchet joints, thier limitations adding character, and hold up well versus modern toys. The major quirk however is that it lacks actual hands. The right has fingers to approximate a hand, but it's limited by the mini-con post there. This can help out with the Skyboom Shield from Armada, but otherwise isn't too handy, as hands go. The overall effect is of a toy with one very strong robot mode, a fairly basic vehicle mode, and a gimmick that uses maybe a quarter of its parts count. So, I'm not going to pretend Longrack is for everyone, but its not just about the toy...

 

OK, so what is the real reason why Longrack is fascinating? Well, it's rendering of a beast era character in its pre-beast form. You see, mostly, when a Transformer took on an organic-looking beast mode, this only happened on organic worlds, not their home of Cybertron. Therefore characters like Optimus Primal and the Axalon crew would logically have vehicle modes not seen on screen. This version of Longrack personifies such a concept, he is not merely a beastformer that now has a vehicle mode, its how Longrack would have looked before Beast Wars Neo. Yes, it's just a homage with the same name, but the intent is clear. And, for all intents and purposes, this is the only mass market toy to try such a thing. True, we've had two video game tie-ins and Siege to explore Cybertronic vehicles, but beast era characters? Nope, its just Longrack here and his wavemate Buzzsaw, and arguably a third of POTP Optimus Primal. However, Botcon came to the rescue in 2006 with what was possibly their greatest single success, a set of vehicle mode Beast Wars characters. This of course featured the Longrack mould with the Hoist head as Dinobot, along with several other Cybertron series toys. Of course, it is functionally impossible to get this second hand. Cybertron Longrack would then go on to be repurposed as the Neo Longrack, and would be receive a complicated, miscommunication-inspired, double-homage in Transformers Animated.

 

The 2006 Darksyde Dinobot Toy

Do I have a point? Well, I just kinda like Longrack, and I wanted to write about a Cybertron toy, and found it was all the more complicated than it first appeared. Check him out, if you can.

A Concise Review of Transformers (2007) Clocker In 500 Words Or Less

Pricepoint/Vintage: Scout, 2007.

Modes: Robot and Car.

Transformation Style: Lay back, limbs become legs.

Play Patterns: Robot and car, key gimmick, 5mm weapons.
Points of Interest: Repaint of the identically named Cybertron toy.

 

The Good
Play value is a strength of this toy, the car exhausts being 5mm weapons which compliment his cyber key gimmick. He can technically handle six 5mm weapons at once due to clever use of fist holes, and has ten points of articulation, including a waist swivel. The car mode meanwhile is open-topped, with a tinted windscreen and seats, four 5mm ports, and looks nice. His cyber key gimmick functions as a rocket booster with flip-out guns for car mode, and as a hand weapon.

 

The Bad
Clocker's cyber key gimmick takes up a lot of space, and looks odd in robot mode, which by itself is a bit awkward. The flip-out gun barrels seem to have a moulding issue. There's also a case of Viable Head Syndrome in car mode, cavities in robot mode, and sloppy paintwork in general.

The Mediocre
Clocker is an inherently sci-fi design re-purposed for the "realistic" film series, and the colours don't really play to the strengths of the mould. The wheels and windscreen are cast in translucent plastic, but this has been has been made so dark, you can't immediately tell. Unfortunately, this has resulted in his light-piped eyes feature being rendered useless, and so painted over. The articulation is also a bit unrefined, despite being in useful places.

The Alternatives
This mould was used 5 times, notably for Botcon 2006 with Beast Wars characters, and oddly Swerve, instead of Rodimus. Small cars certainly aren't hard to find either.

The Verdict
When you get right down to it, Clocker is an uninspired repaint of an unremarkable toy. Putting aside some production flaws, there's nothing actually BAD about him, but he's so forgettable it took me months to finish this review. The alt mode is decent, open-topped cars not being that common, but the robot mode needed a little more arm articulation, while the cyber key gimmick makes for a bulky and unconvincing weapon. He's not terrible, play value being there, but he lacks anything to make him stand-out. You can do worse for a fiver, but I'd point towards a more colourful version instead.

A Concise Review of Cybertron Scrapmetal In 500 Words Or Less

Pricepoint/Vintage: Scout, 2006

Modes: Robot and Spider Tank.

Transformation Style: Lay back, limbs become legs.

Play Patterns: Robot and tank, key gimmick.
Points of Interest: Leader of some Insecticon inspired armybuilders, but known as Rumble in Japan. Noted for having more humanoid head that Hasbro rejected.

The Good
Scrap Metal is a toy that squeezes a lot of play and charm out minimalistic engineering. The robot mode is immediately attractive, with bright colours, good light piping, and a massive shoulder cannon with a universal mount. His overall poportions tend towards the blocky and traditional style Cybertron favoured when not sticking to a planet theme, but the head is insectoid, giving the toy a slightly monstrous appearance. Posability is in the goldilocks zone, having eight balljoints where they are useful, for a total of 11 joints. Play value in robot form is basically ideal, the arm kibble folding over the hands for Rumble-like hammers or spikes. He can just about do a ground-pound stance, while the key gimmick unleashes a removable blade. This guy can shoot, stab, slash AND smash you, and doesn't need to borrow accessories to do it. The transformation is very simple, but has enough going on to separate the modes. His walking tank mode retains 8 points of articulation, looks cool, and makes full use of the cannon.

The Bad

In a curious near-miss, the fists are at a 90 degree angle, so Scrapmetal is doing permanent bicep curls. There's also an unexpected gappy feel to the altmode, as there's no underside to the cockpit area, and a case of Visible Head Syndrome.

The Mediocre

Aside from wear and tear, basically, nothing. Nowt.

The Alternatives

This mould has quite heavily reused circa 2006, but hasn't been touched since. Hasbro put out a yellow version, Japan had three colour variations, and the Coby Sen'yō Rumble, whom used the mould's original head. Botcon 2006 used it for a custom toy class, becoming either G1 Rumble, or Beast Wars Inferno, under the Universe banner. Any number of insect themed transformers also come to mind, although any list of comparably fun toys of similar pricepoints is going to be short.

The Verdict

Scrapmetal is a fantastic toy, and one where buying multiple examples would not feel like a waste of money. The robot mode is almost ideal, the altmode distinctive, and its crams enough play features to shame bigger toys. Is it the most complex toy ever? No. Does it suffer for that? Not really. This mould is a true must-have, and has held its value very well on the secondary market. Take a chance.

A Concise Review of Cybertron Shortround In 500 Words Or Less

Pricepoint/Vintage: Scout, 2006

Modes: Robot and Hovercraft.

Transformation Style: Wraparound arms, elementary automorph for head.

Play Patterns: Robot and hovercraft, key gimmick.

Points of Interest: Has the (in)famous toilet fanmode. Non-show character. Toy collector.

The Good
Shortround's hovercraft form is quite convincing, both in terms of moulded detailing and paint applications. Of particular note are the fans highlighted in gold, and his windows in purple. Switching between modes is a comparatively novel and well-telegraphed process, and has a primitive but useful automorph that frees the head for robot form. Said robot mode reveals more colour and detail, and is effectively articulated with 15 points. His head is another highlight, looking like a mecha fishman. Meanwhile, the key gimmick* is well-integrated in both forms, being an unobtrusive set of decorative missiles. He also looks weird, and barely humanoid, but I consider this a plus.

The Bad
Shortround has slightly low play value for a toy of his vintage, and relies on his key gimmick and rolling wheels to compensate. He doesn't have true hands or 5mm ports, and that would have opened a whole world of options. He's also got a case of Visible Head Syndrome in hovercraft mode, and needed some more paint for the air cushion. The non-humanoid robot form is going to be a negative for many.

The Mediocre
Shortround does feature a gun, which can be used to obscure the head in vehicle mode, but its not based on a common peg system. His knee joints also want to lock into place, not move smoothly.

The Alternatives
This toy was repainted once for the bayverse, with that repaint being repackaged for Universe, and Cybertron was pretty good at this pricepoint. If you are just looking for a Cybertron scout, there's plenty of worthwhile choices, such as Scrapmetal or Armorhide. If you are merely seeking a hovercraft though, look at 2010 Sea Spray, whom is much bigger, less weird, but has flippers for whimsy.

The Verdict
I'd be lying if I said I didn't pick this fellow up just for his fan mode, because I'm like that, but he turned out to be a surprisingly competent scout. The vehicle mode is nice to look at, the robot mode delightfully weird, and switching between is fun. Unfortunately, while not lacking in play value, he needed a 5mm fist hole or two, and not everyone likes weird. Consider him the curiosity he obviously is, not a compulsory purchase, but still one I would personally recommend.

* Please note: my example lacks an Earth Key, so I borrowed one from another toy. This has no real effect on things, but I like to be honest.

Post-Auto Assembly Update

Well, Auto Assembly is over. Finished. I had a damn good time, as did everyone whom went. A thousand odd people. I also spent a lot of money on toys, here's an image of them. Consider it a preview of forthcoming review fodder.

As you can see, I went mainly for the small toys, filling in some gaps and omissions. There was a couple of holy grails, such as Meantime the Real Gear watch, and Death's Head, fulfilling a desire about as hold as my Transformers fixation. I don't actually collect action figures, so I probably won't review him.  And yes, that is a sushi roll.

Devastator, you say?

Well.

Yeah, he/they are on the review pile. And yes, he can hold that pose. The review is going to be longform, and probably will materialise in early September.