A $10, brand new Leader Class Lord Starscream? Something’s fishy here…

I actually got this one on sale, so he was RM20 which is $5. I did say I wanted this version of Lord Starscream earlier and was willing to shell out the full Malaysian retail price of RM80 ($20) for him. So getting him for a quarter of the original price made me very happy.

Let’s see if Lord Starscream lives up to my (somewhat low) expectations.

Packaging

Vehicle mode

No lie, Lord Starscream is pretty decent looking in jet mode. It’s nice that there’s no robot mode kibble that’s too obvious from the top and the sides of the jet mode. The bottom of the jet is a different story.

Not great but there’s nothing awful about him in jet mode. A bit more paint to bring out the surprising amount of molded details would have been appreciated I guess.

For playability, Lord Starscream has his null rays beneath his wings. There’s no landing gear here unfortunately.

Transformation

The transformation is incredibly simple for the size but there are some nice touches that make the transformation feel “complete”. I’m specifically referring to how the back transforms to cover up his hollow bits in jet mode and how his tailfins flip over for either robot or jet mode.

Those steps didn’t need to be there but Hasbro put them in. For a bare essentials figure, that’s admirable.

Robot mode

If Lord Starscream looked decent in jet mode, he looks even better in robot mode. He pulls the “stylised G1” look off very well. The surprising amount of molded detail is carried over to robot mode but there’s more paint on display here compared to jet mode.

But there are some problems…

Lord Starscream is very, very hollow. His legs, arms and head are distractingly hollow which makes Lord Starscream feel shockingly light for his size. He doesn’t feel brittle though, just very light.

Lord Starscream doesn’t have much posability unfortunately. His arms are ball-jointed at the shoulders and his legs can do the splits.

Gimmicks

Lord Starscream’s gimmick is that he’s huge, can transform and is cheap. I’ll say he pulls off all three of those exceedingly well.

Toy or collectible?

Toy.

Lord Starscream and all the other Titan Changers are designed to be simple but affordable and durable Transformers for people on a budget. Looking at him from that perspective, Lord Starscream is incredible. He’s massive for the price, he’s got two good looking modes and he doesn’t feel fragile, just very light.

Also, he’s very cheap.

That point needs emphasis.

Cheap.

Closing

The Titan Changer line aims to bring cheap and massive Transformers to the masses. Lord Starscream here achieves those aims magnificently.

He’s definitely not for everyone but for what he is and what he aims to do, he’s incredible.

6/5 stars!