Hasbro Transformers designer Evan Brooks has taken to his Instagram to share a behind the scenes look at the new Studio Series Gamer Edition Voyager WFC Starscream:
“Hi Transformer fans!
I hope you all have been enjoying the Studio Series 2024 wave 1 reveals over at MCM London with @bmacatron84!
Next up for our Gamer Edition line is the WFC Starscream.
The figure comes courtesy of the marvelous Tomo san over at Takara Tomy.
Starscream comes equipped with his Null Ray and Energon mace, which were his starting load out on his levels. We’ve heard you all loud and clear and are making sure that all the WFC weapons going forward will also have a standard 5mm post so they can be held traditionally as well as being swapped on the arm.
I happen to have the older DLX TT figure for comparison and wanted to make sure everyone could see how we worked from the Game CAD.
Obviously, we enlarged the jet canopy slightly as that’s where the robot head and nose cone get stored during conversion.
He’s a very fun figure to play around with and I hope you all enjoy him as well!
Last thing to note is that his collar pieces are consumer assembled, so they come in the accessory tissue pouch. Just bringing it up so hopefully there isn’t any confusion when you open the box!
Hope you all have a great weekend~
-Evan”
Nem
I am near certain the first images we saw of Starscream came from a guy getting it from that exact same store he mentioned it in his post. For whatever reason it seems like this one, random, specific store has Starscream and seemingly only Starscream early.
Bass X0
You’ve failed me yet again, Starscream!
Mistake number two.
Shin Densetsu
After looking at it more compared to the game CAD they had access too, I think the entire torso and forward fuselage should’ve been redesigned before final production. It’s not just the canopy that’s too wide, the entire forward fuselage including the nose is too big all around. It may also be why the LERXs aren’t so apparent(having them more prominent would’ve been cleaner to cover make the exposed hinges more flush; subtle change/big visual difference) compared to the game CAD design they had(see comparison in the Instagram link comparing the game CAD in hover mode next to the toy CAD). Seems like the canopy was relied on to cover the head in jet mode. However that still could’ve been done with a narrower canopy as the outer frame of it would still cover the head. This sticks out to me as more of something the designers may have thought was cool similar to a gimmick but not actually needed. This is an area done a lot better on the original figure. End result being it reminds me of an Angry Birds design in jet mode rather than WFC/FOC Starscream.
Recent in-hand shots seem to indicate that the nose is also molded in the same transparent orange plastic as the canopy, just painted red. Sad thing is to me, this seems 3/4 of the way there, could’ve been great.
meisterman
My initial hope for this line was for Bumblebee to be shorter than the Generations Optimus and to be at least on par with FOC levels of engineering so I’m not really broken up about the quality of this line, but man this is just fumble after fumble… Had the line been better I might’ve decided to upgrade from the old ones, but the miss to hit rate is so bad i don’t even want to pick up the half decent ones.
Prime135
Well shit, looks like I might be getting that new Megs sooner than expected…
gibdozer
I'm actually really happy. I got some good playable toys from Siege until now. My MP collection is at "good enough". I think I'm done with Transformers toys. I'm building a really cool display case out of an old trophy case for my MPs. I have the CHUGs to tinker with, honestly I see it as going out on a high note. The BW, UT, Prime, Rescue Bots fans can have it I'm satiated.
I think in the last 6 months I've bought 3 Transformers, all 3P MPs on the cheap. Can't remember the last Mainline figure I got, but it was before Tarn. I had him pre-ordered at Amazon and somehow it got deleted. By the time I realized that I couldn't get one for msrp so I just decided to quit. It was a great run and I appreciate all the toys I did get.
Still wouldn't take this Starscream for free though.
PrimeBot
Looks like hasbro made thicker boxes which feel more sturdy, like the legacy leader class boxes. They look different from the usual new ss boxes which are easier to rip apart.
Also this wave will probably be showing up in stores in late december most probably causing the release date on amazon to be changed. Like what happened with this last wave
Novaburnhilde
What even is that caption. Who's gonna tell 'em? D:
Starfire22
I was sold on the figure until I saw that it has a rubber piece in the cockpit. What the fuck.
Dirge121
This thing isn’t due for another 3 months and a guy on Reddit bought one at a hobby store in SC. Crazy stuff.
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Reddit – Dive into anything
Nem
Yes. The Reactivate toys were all designed sometime probably around 2019-2020, intended for a 2021 release. But the game's troubled development pushed it back. Chances are they aren't even SSGE at all, and can't be considered as such at least until they're repacked into SSGE as that's probably what Next Gen Bumblebee is. But even then they weren't designed in the same period the WFC figures have been.
Scornstream
Are you saying that the figures were designed years back? Little confused on what you mean, but I believe that's what you're saying, right?
dkr7
To be fair those reactivate figures seem to be previous designs from years back so can’t really be compared to/as recent designs.
Dirge121
Oh holy shit the cockpit is rubber? This might be unsalvageable. You’d need a whole new cockpit panel and that would require knocking out pins. What the hell happened with this thing?
Fenrys
Nope, it all got started because the design team wanted the source code to pull the models from. The rerelease talk only got started because Evan said he'd love to see the games on Game Pass, but that couldn't happen as long as Activision couldn't find the code.
Hydro
Everything else is fine to me, but that chest. Especially since it's rubber. I'm really hoping someone can make a new chest.
Sarkwave
I do not like that. No sirree.
Shadow25
I thought the 'lost source code' thing was in regards to why the games couldn't/wouldn't be re-released?
Fenrys
According to Evan, when the design team asked for the game files the person they were speaking with claimed the files were lost/couldn't be located. That caused a shit storm with the fan community and caused Activision to put out a statement saying they knew where the game files were and that they weren't lost, and then the design team said they "misspoke" or something like that. If you read between the lines, basically Activision refused to fork over the files if there wasn't any financial gain in it for them (a re-uped license or something like that) and the cad files the designers are using are actually ripped from various in game sources or from pre-production materials that the design team has been able to find.