| STARSCREAM
PROJECT #143
CLASSIFICATION: KITBASH
PARTS USED: STARSCREAM (FIGURE); RAMJET (FISTS); ROBO LINKS
CONSTRUCTION SET (GUNS)
MATERIALS USED: SUPER GLUE, HOBBY KNIFE, MODELING PUTTY, ENAMEL
PAINTS
FIRST APPEARANCE: "MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE" PART 1 (THE
TRANSFORMERS)
"Just a shadow of my former self, don't you
think?"
Preamble: In 1984, after Hasbro made
the final selection of which of the Diaclone and Microman toys from Japan
would be released in America under the Transformers toy line, the toys (or
more specifically, the portraits on the toy packaging) were turned over to
artists who created the animation designs for the characters. These
designs were more simple than the toys, making the characters easier to animate.
I was introduced to the character of Starscream
through the cartoon series, and got the toy for Christmas in 1985 after already
having developed a fondness for the character. When I was nine years
old, I didn't know anything about Takara or Diaclone or whether or not the
toy came before the cartoon did. All I knew was that the toy version
of Starscream was kind of stumpy and wasn't colored the same way he appeared
on TV, with an orange canopy, light blue fists and feet, and those distinctive
red-and-white wing stripes. Well, many years down the road, I decided
to do something about this, bringing the toy closer to his animated
appearance.
Construction: The first thing I did
was scrape the consumer applied stickers off the toy. I managed to
use my fingernail for most of them, but I had to use a metal hair clip to
dig into his air intakes and inside his feet. The stickers were covering
the screw holes on his chest, so I filled up the screw holes with
putty. I was just going to stop here and start painting, but after
I took him apart in preparation for this, it occurred to me that if I modified
the leg connectors, I could actually extend his legs by about a quarter of
an inch. It's a subtle difference, but one that I'm rather pleased
with. It actually gives Starscream upper legs, and makes him slightly
taller. (Check the comparison shot below to see what I'm talking
about.)
I also wanted to be able to mount Starscream's
wings higher on his back instead of on his legs. To accomplish this,
I added a second post to each wing, which would be used in robot mode. I
had to drill new holes into the sides of his body to accommodate the second
pair of posts when he's transformed, but this also aids in stability. I
shortened the original wing posts, too, so that his wings meet his body more
closely when he's in jet mode.
Starscream and the other jets were originally
released with a extra bump on the top of the cockpit, which was added to
reinforce the cockpit hinge. Even without the bump messing up the contours
of the jet mode, the cockpit seemed like it would be plenty strong to me,
so I chopped it off. While I was at it, I scored some grooves in the
cockpit to represent the segmented windows.
I disassembled the toy completely in order to
paint him (except for the jet nose, which I couldn't figure out how to safely
remove). I painted his stabilizer wings, robot fists, feet, and the
components on the front of his legs a nice sky blue color. The jet
thrusters became grey. For the panels on his knees, I considered creating
a sticker, but ended up scoring grooves into the plastic instead. This
warped the plastic just enough that a thin mixture of paint would not cross
these grooves. This became the ideal way to create the stripes for
his wings. (I consider myself a careful painter, but this helped to
avoid mistakes.)
There were parts of this toy that I would not
be painting, so I wanted to match the precise color of the original
plastic as closely as I could. I added a touch of silver to reproduce
the semi-metallic effect (produced by tiny flecks of metal mixed into the
plastic), but what really surprised me was that I had to add a bit of green
paint into the mix before it became a perfect match. I used this paint
on his waist, upper legs and wing connectors, the jet nosecone, the outsides
of his arms, and his new guns. The paint was wearing off his die-cast
metal body, so I gave it a nice, new coat of bright red. I also painted
a bit more of the side of his upper chest and pelvis, which is concealed
by the wings in jet mode.
I also used two guns from a Robo Links
construction set. I've actually been using these as Starscream's guns
for years, since I lost one of his launchers a long time ago. I think
they look much better than the thick, stocky ones that came with the toy.
The finishing touches to the toy include painting the cockpit a solid
orange (which, to me, looks better than simply swapping a cockpit from Skywarp
or Thundercracker); painting the robot face and the eyes (which were originally
consumer-applied stickers); and replacing the Decepticon symbols using a
nice set of metallic labels courtesy of
reprolabels.com.
Transformation: Starscream's
transformation from robot to jet mode is very nearly identical to how it
was before, except for the extra steps of extending his legs, and removing
his wings to reattach them higher up on his body. I remove his stabilizer
wings entirely for the robot mode, storing them on the holes on the back
of his wings. He uses the same guns in both modes, which means that
they're actually a little too long in jet mode, but that's a minor
consideration.
Click
here to download a zip file containing a movie file (824KB;
*.MOV format) demonstrating how Starscream's modified legs are capable
of retracting and extending.
Comments: It's interesting how the
official sources have a way of "borrowing" my project ideas. In 2003,
a few years after I unveiled this project, Takara released a reissue version
of the original Starscream toy in "anime" colors. Funny, that. |
(click to download movie)
 |
