Diem wrote:First up, the packaging. As usual, the packaging is excellent and fits in nicely with the other Alternities. The instruction sheet includes the Tech Specs and Power Plans for each character. It also includes a text-only story and information on the car mode, the Orochi.
Speaking of the Orochi it's certainly an unusual-looking car. Far less well-known than the Nissans or Suzuki, the car has a very streamlined and organic appearance. The various vents and lines make it look fairly jet-like by car standards. There are a lot of nice details like a tiny rubber radio antenna and the car's badge. Sadly, the opening parts aren't too exciting. Opening the doors reveals a steering wheel that turns and car seats but the rest of the interior is pretty obviously composed of robot parts. Even more tragically you can see through the floor of the car. Opening the bonnet reveals not even a fake engine but only the back of the robot head. Opening the boot reveals only more robot parts.
Intrestingly the figure has a second alt mode, sort of. The rear wheels can be folded up to reveal tiny wings. It's similar to G1 Tracks' flight mode but not as good. The Engrish instructions refer to this mode as "Flight From" which seems appropriate for Starscream.
The transformation from car to robot is sophisticated but not too complicated. His doors and door frames have a tendancy to fall off their ball joint and his number plate bends up to become a heel on one foot and also often falls off ( and it's annoyingly small). Other than that there are no real issues.
When it comes to Alternity Bumble I feel that his "G1-ness" was to the detrement of the figure but in this case it's impressive that Takara managed to force so much Seeker-osity into a carformer. The homage details are everywhere, whether it's the leg fins, the wings, the shoulders or the guns. The robot form is detailed, distinctive and posable, and makes a strange balance between blocky G1 designs and modern mecha aesthetics work well.
Skywarp is treated well here. His car mode is a homogenous purple but his robot mode adds some black and lilac to the mix and generally keeps his traditional colours. His head suffers from a small amount of Dull Surprise but is otherwise a nice sculpt.
Starscream however has a more unusual appearance. His pale grey has been totally replaced with white. This makes him look more like Jetfire than anything else. The other strangest point is his headsculpt which, as you've probably seen doesn't look very Starscream-y. Even a fan of originality like me thinks it's a bit too.
The robot has a couple of other flaws too. The wings look unsymmetrical, the figure when viewed from behind looks just plain ugly, the car doors end up as useless and obnoxious kibble that falls off easily, and his car mode antenna ends up on his inner leg which looks really bizarre.
That said, these figures are certainly not bad by any standards. I heartily recommend Skywarp, and Starscream is good if you can get over his non-traditional looks.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zbPVa-bnIw[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=681COq6TFyc[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMPlqB4VI1c[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFqZMnG_xWc[/youtube]
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