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Amazingly, they actually took the time to change the landing gear. It's thicker at the base, where the metal wheels meet the plastic. They also changed his robot feet, making the plastic base for the wheels thicker. Why they changed this is beyond me, but it's there, so I'm reporting it. It's also worth mentioning that his nose cone is an unusual consistency. It's still rubbery like the original version, but the surface also feels very rough, instead of the smooth texture of the G1 and G2 jets. The clips on the tops of his shoulders, along with the corresponding hole in the top of his chest designed to lock the two together, has been made slightly larger. Also, there's a new plastic pin visible through the hole in the top of his chest, presumably there to help hold the chest together better. Also, I've read a handful of reports stating that Takara's reissue had some incredibly floppy arms, but the Hasbro reissue doesn't seem to have this problem at all. The reissue is a very slightly different color from the original. The grey parts on the reissue are about half a shade darker than the original toy, and the blue parts are roughly half a shade lighter. Also, the holes inside the G1 gauntlets are square-shaped, but they're round on the reissue. (I know I have other G1 jets downstairs with round-shaped holes, though.) (Editor's Note: Don't get me started on Jet fist variants. :-) There are four types for G1, and the square ones are only the last in the line of releases: rectangle, small-circle, large-circle, and large-square.) The stickers all appear to have been redesigned, too. They're obviously based very closely on the originals, but the lines are much cleaner now. Most of the Diaclone-era stickers appear to have been hand-drawn, which results in minor flaws like the pen lines occasionally bleeding into one another (visible on the original Starscream's knee stickers). These were used as late as the G2 run, but the new stickers were obviously composed with a computer and measured properly, so things like the crosshairs inside his air intakes are perfectly symmetrical now. The quality of the stickers themselves has improved as well, since they appear to be coated with a thin layer of plastic that effectively prevents the ink from rubbing away though casual handling. Tips on weapons/parts storage: Starscream's landing gear will fit in his canopy in robot mode. You can store his fists as undercarriage parts by fitting one of them inside the center of his chest, and slipping the other in between his feet (You can also store the null rays in jet mode by wedging them in his center chest column, with the gun barrels jutting out an inch or two beneath his jet nose.) Unfortunately, the size of his wing-pegs has been changed slightly, so the large wings and rudders and guns are no longer universally interchangeable. The rudders fit too loosely on his main wing-mounts to stay in place without flopping around. (You can still re-enact the G2 commercials where Starscream's wearing his wings on his arms, though, so at least that's something.) I will just say right now that paying $35.00 for this toy is absolutely unacceptable. I only paid $19.99 for the G2 toy (in 1992 dollars, naturally), and not only did that version also have launching missiles, but it also came with an electronics package. I fail to understand how Hasbro can knock five bucks off the ticket price every time they release the Onslaught/Mega-Octane mold and not do the same with Starscream. Meanwhile, I bought the reissue because my G1 Starscream is in really poor shape, and the reissue price was still better than trying to find a minty-fresh G1 original or even a Takara reissue (once you take insane eBay shipping quotes into account). I was also very curious about the mold differences, naturally. That said, I still have perfectly serviceable versions of Skywarp and Thundercracker, and I have absolutely *no* intention of shelling out that kind of money for them just to get the cool new missiles. (I understand Skywarp is going to sell for substantially less than Thundercracker, which baffles me. So, I may *possibly* end up getting him. I guess we'll see.)
Zobovor, already tired of work again. Remind me again why I didn't like staying home and being sick? |