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2004 Hasbro/Takara: Energon Starscream

P>2004 marked the 20th anniversary of the Transformers brand and in many ways the new line of that year, Transformers Energon, paid homage to the original series. Several notable characters would have robot forms and vehicle modes that were astoundingly similar to that of their predecessors. Energon Starscream paid homage to not one, but two of the character's most famous traits.

Energon Starscream bears perhaps the strongest resemblance to the original character, with the notable exception of 2006's Classics figure. His head and face had been sculpted to resemble his predecessor, his cockpit became a part of his chest and torso, his wings were positioned on his back behind his shoulders, and he had a pair of intake-like structures behind and on either side of his head, each bearing the familiar "three dot" pattern that the original possessed on his sticker sheet.

The figure did possess quite a number of differences from the G1 character. Most notable, his alt mode was now a F/A-22 Raptor instead of a F-15 Eagle, a change that mirrored real-world events. He was painted a rather funky combination of dark grey, black, burgundy, and blues in dark and light shades, with silver on his face and forearms. Some of his parts had been moulded in a shade of dark transparent green with battle damage sculpted into his right shoulder and wing, which also had bits of bilious green painted on them, possibly indicating crackling energy. Part of the reason for this was because Starscream had been resurrected after his death in Armada however the process was incomplete, so the character retained a spectre-like ability, a nod to the G1 character's return in the original episodes "Ghost in the Machine" and "Starscream's Ghost" (and possibly the Beast Wars episode "Possession").

Energon Starscream bore a pair of missile launchers, one under each wing, which doubled as shoulder launchers in his robot mode. He also came with a large rifle and a short sword, moulded in transparent green with silver sprayed along the edge of the sword blade. These could be held in his hands, attached to the "dead" Mini-con ports under his wings, fitted into holes on the wing supports (when "deployed") or be combined to form an obscenely huge hand-held sword. His chest bore a Decepticon "spark crystal" on which an energon chip from one of the basic-class figures could be mounted. The eyes and the back of the head were molded from a single piece of transparent green plastic, so that his optics "glowed" when held up to a light source. His landing gear was retractable, though only good for display purposes as the wheels were sculpted into the struts. He had incredible articulation, even more so than his Armada counterpart, though his transformation was a little more complex than other toys of his size. Of particular concern to some was the fact that the vertical stabilisers for the jet were a part of his arms, making transforming him back into his vehicular form difficult at best and cause some to become nervous about breakage.

Energon Starscream would later be repainted into a pattern and colours that more closely echoed his G1 counterpart. The sculpt itself remained basically unchanged, though the clear parts in his head were painted a solid red, effectively eliminating the "glowing" optic gimmick.

Motto: "It is my destiny to lead."

Profile: Starscream has been reborn and is still caught in his own personal battle of choosing the side of good or evil. The high dose of Energon, which brought him back to life, has also given him incredible powers that he is still learning to control. Starscream's new hyper power turns him into pure energy, allowing him to ghost from one location to the other. This phantom ability, combined with Starscream's new power sword, makes him a dangerous adversary to all that oppose him, including Megatron.

Though Energon Starscream bore many similarities to his predecessor in appearance, the same could not be said for his personality. In the cartoon series, he was depicted as little more than a loyal toady, carrying out his orders without complaint or hesitation, first from Alpha Q then from Megatron. According to the series, the process that restored his life did not do the same for his memories. The real explanation was because in Japan, where the series was called "Superlink", Starscream was actually a new character called "Nightscream." How Starscream would have been depicted in the comics will probably be never known; mid-way through their production runs, all of Dreamwave's Transformers series were cancelled in large part because the company filed for bankruptcy in 2005.

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Energon Starscream
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Energon Starscream
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Energon Starscream
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Energon Starscream Powerup
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Energon Starscream Powerup
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Energon Starscream Powerup