by No Death for Prowl » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:31 pm
Honestly, for all the hype surrounding Masterpiece Starscream, I am thoroughly unimpressed by the figure. I've been thinking about this for the past few days, especially since I received Ultimate BB for Christmas and have enjoyed playing around with him since then. Whereas the latter has taken no end of abuse for being overpriced and gimmick-happy, Masterpiece Starscream has gone unscathed since I guess he is "G1 accurate" and the "definitive Starscream".
I'll expalin:
I've heard numerous complaints on this forum about the cheap plastic feel of the entire movie line, but have not seen many similar obsevations for MP SS. Rarely do I feel like I'm going to break any of my TF toys, even with the recent influx of lighter, thinner plastic, but I felt exactly that way with this figure. In fact, after I had transformed him once into plane mode and back to robt, one of the small plastic hinges that holds the piece that hangs off his shoulders(it is part of steps 28 and 29 when transforming into plane) actually crumbled right off! I wasn't forceful with that piece when I had transformed it, it just plain broke off when I took the part off the hinge.
Whereas my DVD MP Prime is VERY sturdy, Starscream is almost ridiculously light and cheap feeling. The white paneling that make up the top portion of his plane look chintzy and the whole figure just begs NOT to be touched or transformed. I know it's a Masterpiece figure, but come on, this isn't fine china we're talking about.
Masterpiece Starscream cannot stand on his own. Sure you can try, but you'll be worrying about him tipping over with the slightest force of gravity. Why do you think the display stand is there? You need it to hold up the figure because the feet are such laughably cheap plastic that they cannot hold any weight or angle correctly to stand the figure.
The fingers on mine also are really loose to the point where I doubt they fall off just by wiggling them a little bit. The fingers are such that you cannot pose them without looking bad since you cannot really align the fingers together symmetrically.
This isn't to say that I hate MP SS. I like many aspects of it, but those that I listed are just really too bothersome for me to rate MP SS has barely average, particularly with a $50 price tag. Again, the movie line has taken a lot of guff, but a leader figure like Prime or Brawl, which is $10 cheaper, is FAR more sturdier and better to look at and fiddle with than the overall cheap quality of Starscream. And laugh all you want at Ultimate Bumblebee, but he at least has sophisticated light, sound, and movement electronics that warrant a higher price tag.
In short, I'm not telling you not to get MP SS, but unless you're willingly able to put on blinders to the shortcomings of a supposed "masterpiece" figure, prepare to be disappointed with several parts of it.