Of all the wealth of characters in the Transformers
universe, my favorite is and always has been Starscream, the treacherous lieutenant
of Megatron and commander of the Seekers, the elite air commandos. In Transformers The Movie, the 1986
animated feature and still only watchable big screen Transformers venture,
Starscream is blasted by Galvatron and later, in Season 3 of the G1 cartoon,
comes back as a ghost and causes hijinks. This spectral Starscream winds up
being kind of a thing, appearing in an episode of Beast Wars in 1996 as well.
Every so often, Takara in Japan puts out a Starscream figure
in translucent plastic as a special Ghost of Starscream, and every year, there
is a Christmas. My wife has made a habit of getting me a Ghost of Starscream
for Christmas and, as Christmas is once again approaching, I thought I’d take
some time here on the Coffin to take a look at these interesting and fairly
unique entries in the Transformers toy catalog, compliments of my wife. About a
month ago, I won an eBay auction for the first such figure, an eHobby exclusive
G1 Starscream; but it is thanks to my wife that I have any of these, really.
The first Ghost of Starscream figure I got was the Henkei! version,
a translucent Classics Starscream. The Classics Seeker first appeared in
2007, and by now I don’t think there’s a
Transformers fan alive that hasn’t handled one. There will probably be a more
thorough write up on this general figure coming in the future, so I’m going to
keep this focused on this specific one.
This Ghost of Starscream is a really terrific figure, and is
probably my favorite of the four I own. He catches the light very nicely, and
the blue parts are particularly gorgeous, even in standard light. It’s a deeper
blue, so it looks almost like solid plastic on its own. The missile launchers
do sport the Henkei! chrome, which isn’t a big deal to me. I know some people
really disliked it during the life of the line, and while it isn’t any type of
detraction from the figure, it does look a bit strange that a ghostly
manifestation of a robot would have chrome on its weapons. Clearly I’m just
thinking about it too much.
The red on the robot chest almost looks like it was painted
on, as it’s pretty thin. Later Ghost of Starscreams do this red better, or at
least it seems like the color is more evenly included. Here it does look a
little like it was painted on a finished figure when there’s any strong light
on the toy. As for vehicle mode, the red stripes on the wings and the red of
the intakes are real standouts visually. I’ve always thought the Classics
Seeker jet was a good looking vehicle, and this version is no exception. As is
typical with translucent figures in general, various parts such as thighs and
hips are visible inside vehicle parts due to their not being clear.
This figure in jet mode has always made me think of Wonder
Woman’s Invisible Jet because of the easily visible robot thighs. You know,
like how Wonder Woman would fly the Invisible Jet around and she would be the
only thing that could be seen? There’d be the wire frame of a jet around here,
but people on the ground would only see a seated, flying woman. This figure has
always made me think of that. Like you’d have a ghostly robot change into a
ghostly jet, with the only visible parts being some leg pieces or the chrome on
the missile launchers. Would those parts not be able to move through walls?
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