MPM-01 Movie Masterpiece Starscream

Since Transformers: Dark of the Moon is released in a few days I thought I would celebrate by posting only about the Movie Era this week. I am not a big fan of the recent Transformer movies. I was on board back in 2007 when the first one came out but ever since then my interest has been slowly waning. Of course it didn't help that "Revenge of the Fallen" was a complete stinker. To this day it is the only video media related to Transformers that I refuse to purchase. I'm not a fan of the character aesthetic and I don't find the designs visually appealing. However every once in a while a figure comes along that is so good I can't pass it up. This is why I only have a select few "Movie Era" toys. One of these figures is Movie Masterpiece Starscream.

2007 Voyager Starscream

Starscream has always been my favorite character ever since I started watching Transformers way back in 1985. Of course I was very excited to hear he would be in the movie franchise and that he would be represented by an F-22 Raptor. That was a big deal back in 2006. However once the character designs were released I was less than thrilled. But I went ahead and bought the toy anyway. Unfortunately the design was pretty bad. He looked okay in robot mode but he was way too thick in vehicle mode; too many parts on the underneath and not very aerodynamic. I grew up on vehicle modes being dead accurate so that is what I often look for in my figures. Recently it hasn't been such a large issue because Hasbro would make up vehicles for figures rather than attempt to pay for the designs. Of course that changed with Alternators and the subsequent movie figures. So in my mind, 2007 Voyager class Starscream failed big time.

When 2009 rolled around and the figures for Revenge of the Fallen were released, a new Voyager class Starscream was released, this time with a much more accurate vehicle mode. At least, the shape was a lot more accurate. To my chagrin the 2009 Starscream was released covered in Cybertronian "Tribal Tattoos". I never thought this was a good idea; the entire point of the Transformers is to be "in disguise" and hide in plain sight. How can one do that covered in weird alien tattoos?!?! Anyway I was impressed with the engineering of this figure and so I promptly sold off my 2007 Starscream (along with a lot of other 2007 movie figures). But again as time went on I found myself liking the figure less and less. He started to look like a large triangle and I really hated those tattoos. But there was hope. I had heard of a Leader class Starscream on the horizon, but probably at least a year away. It promised to be the 'Ultimate Movie Starscream".

HFTD Starscream.

Fast forward to 2010 and Hunt for the Decepticons Leader Starscream was released. And guess what; those damn tattoos were still there. Other than that one issue this looked like a great representation of movie Starscream. In the end it was TakaraTomy who came to my rescue. They released the HFTD Starscream in vehicle accurate colors as part of their Masterpiece line. Does this figure really qualify as a Masterpiece? That is up for contention and I don't really care myself. Now you may ask yourself, why would I pay nearly double the price of a figure for nothing other than a paint deco? Because I really, really hate those tattoos and that is all there is to it. I would rather spend the money and have a better representation than look at those tattoos any longer. Although now that people are finding HFTD Starscream at TJ Maxx for around $20, it does give me slight pause. But I am happy with my purchase. Sure the vehicle mode isn't perfect and is slightly kibbly on the underside, but it is leaps and bounds better than 2007 Starscream and the robot mode is just about perfect!

Confirmed by a friend of mine who works on an Air Force base: Accurate.

Significantly less kibble than the 2007 version.

A lot less triangle-y than the 2009 version.

As you can see here. (Stupid Tattoos)

With his counterpart: G1 Masterpiece Starscream.

Hopefully this will be the last Movie Starscream I have to buy. Fortunately I found him at a good price and didn't have to ship him from Japan, so I'm pretty happy with the deal. And he does look really good on the shelf. I can honestly say this was the only Movie figure I had been excited about in a really long time and I am glad to add him to my collection.

See also:

The Masterpiece Starscream Saga