Dave's Titanium Series Rant: 6" Wave 5 Starscream (WW) Optimus Prime (RiD) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/6Ti5 (decided to shorten the name). Rodimus Prime also seems to be shipping with these guys. Starcream is just a recolor of Thundercracker, so I didn't buy it. I did, however, copy down the box info. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/6Titanium2 has the Thundercracker review. CAPSULES Starscream: A decent recolor of Thundercracker, which was itself a good mold. Recommended if you don't already have Thundercracker, neutral otherwise. $15.88 at Wal-Mart. Optimus Prime: This is the Robots in Disguise Super Optimus Prime, but like the Spychanger version, goes directly from vehicle to supermode, with no smaller robot mode. It has weaknesses, but is easily one of the best of this class, to risk damning it with faint praise. Recommended. $15.88 at Wal-Mart. RANTS Packaging: Same as wave 1. Comes with the wave 2 catalog and the usual barbed wire twist-ties. DECEPTICON: STARSCREAM Unique Feature: Null-Ray cannons disrupt all electrical systems. One of the first warriors recruited to the DECEPTICON cause, STARSCREAM is a vicious warrior, and a gleeful killer. Most DECEPTICONS keep score of how many AUTOBOTS they take out, but STARSCREAM carves himself little trophies out of their pelvic gimbals. As leader of the elite Seeker squadron assigned by MEGATRON to launch high-speed, surprise assaults on AUTOBOT strongholds, and one of the old guard among the DECEPTICON leadership, he enjoys more freedom of opinion than many other DECEPTICONS. MEGATRON is tolerant of his sarcasm and belligerent ambition only because STARSCREAM is simply too efficient an engine of destruction to do without. It is not only his skill as a fighter that gives his AUTOBOT victims pause. Before the war, he was an explorer and scientist, with many friends among the AUTOBOTS - JETFIRE and GRIMLOCK among them. Even then he was a bully and a manipulator, but few who knew him suspected he could be capable of the atrocites now attributed to him. STR 7 INT 7 SPD 9 END 7 RNK 5 COUR 8 FRB 7 SKL 7 Avg 7.125 Yes, these are the G1 stats initially intended for Skywarp, hence the low rank. Anyone else find Starscream's little trophy collection a new level of creepy, even for Decepticons? Anyway, this is a mainly white recolor of War Within Thundercracker, with gray head and medium blue forearms and paint details, plus some red. I'm thinking the hands may be painted, since on TC the head and hands were the same mold sprue. The robot torso is red on the sides, but most of this is covered in vehicle mode. [Later note: someone who has Starscream tells me the hands are molded in blue. Perhaps they mold each rubbery piece separately, rather than gang- molding them all at once, giving them flexibility to change colors.] AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME (Robots in Disguise) Unique Feature: Combines with his brother ULTRA MAGNUS to form OMEGA PRIME. Chosen by the Matrix to lead the AUTOBOTS on their mission to Earth, OPTIMUS PRIME is the very embodiment of all that every AUTOBOT strives to be. He is the soul of honor and compassion, dedicated to the preservation of life and freedom for all creatures. His affection for those he protects is matched only by his ferocity in battle. He has faced them many times, and knows that there can be no surrender and no compromise with the treacherous PREDACONS. In addition to being an ideal leader, he is a war machine of incredible power. Nearly unbeatable in single combat, his enemies have resorted to an endless string of dirty tricks ot lay him low, only to see him rebound every time, stronger than ever before. His strength and confidence, however, hide a deeply reflective spirit. During solitary moments, he has been known to doubt his skill as a leader, for his deep compassion has - a times - clouded his judgment. Thankfully, his brilliant mind and the dedication of his compatriots have always managed to snatch victory from the evil claws of the PREDACONS. STR 10 INT 10 SPD 10 END 10 RNK 10 COUR 10 FRB 10 SKL 10 Avg 10 Yay, mister stat inflation! Six ties total, two going through to the cardboard back. The ties aren't snipped off like usual, though, so they an actually be removed with human fingers. He's packaged with his ladder at an angle across his back, rather than in the position the original toy stowed it. The instructions don't show the forearm panels that are popped out in package. Also, the ladder barrels are deployed in-package, while the instructions have them stowed for robot mode. The instructions also don't show how to make the ladder into a weapon in robot mode. In other words, packaged incorrectly transformed, and the instructions are quite lacking. Main Weakness: Aside from the instructions? Well, the boots are a bit weakly held together, grabbing them without care will result in some collapsing. Robot Mode: 5.75" (14.5cm) tall at the head, 7.75 oz (218g). The torso snd shoulders are metal, but the boots are entirely hollow plastic, hence the slightly lower weight than you'd expect for a relatively husky robot. The pelvis is plastic, but completely painted...I'm guessing it's the same dark gray (666666, no UV glow) plastic as the backpack base. The pop-up panels on the forearms are also either dark gray or maybe black with a full paint job (the lack of paint in the panel lines looks good). The wheels are black plastic. The thighs and wrists are a rigid white plastic that glows strongly under UV. The fists are a softer, less glowy white plastic. The head, shoulder joints, elbow joints, hip joints and lower legs are a soft-ish red (FF0000) plastic with a moderate UV clow. The upper arms, forearms and details on the sides of the ladder base are a more rigid red plastic that glows fiercely under UV, but otherwise looks the same under normal light. The ladder is a silvery gray (999999) plastic. The torso and shoulders are mostly painted red, with silver and black details on the shoulders. The torso has a silver grille, gray trim and the orange "sash" RiD Prime has. The Matrix crystal in the chest is painted red with an Autobot symbol printed on it (slightly off-center on mine). The eyes are yellow, and there's extensive silver paint on the head. The forearm panels are painted red with silver deckplating. The pelvis is painted light (CCCCCC), medium (999999) and dark (666666) gray. The shins are molded with the various kibble details appropriate to the form, pwinted in silver, black, metallic blue and two grays. The feet are painted almost entirely black, with silver bits on the toes. Unless I specify otherwise, all ratcheting joints on this toy are "8 point" ratchets, turning 45 degrees per click. The head turns smoothly, while the waist turns on a ratchet. The shoulders are universal joints, ratcheting forward and back (and are actually just octagonal pegs, you can pop the arms off fairly easily) but smooth out to the sides. They can also shrug up on 12 point transformation ratchets (30 degrees per click). The elbows are smooth hinges, and there's a ratchet swivel just below the elbow. The wrists turn smoothly. The hips are universal joints that ratchet in both directions, but the out-to-the-sides ratcheting is 16 point (22.5 degrees per click). They can only go forward one click before hitting the armor skirt. There's a ratcheting thigh swivel. The knees bend smoothly, but can only bend about 45 degrees before hitting vehicle kibble. The ankles aren't supposed to be jointed, but the transformation folds in the boots allow some toe-pointing. I'll talk more about the ladder joints under the vehicle mode. Now for some undocumented features. The backpack swivels on a ratchet, and part of it can swing out to let the ladder point as an over the shoulder weapon. The forearm panels can pop up and snap into place (you have to pull kinda hard to get them to do this, and at least on mine, they were not firmly snapped up in-package). Inside are gun barrels, giving him wrist blasters not found in the original toy. [Clarification: the original toy has wrist blasters, but not pop-up hidden wrist blasters. :) ] I'll note that while they don't attempt to go with the armor-up transformation of the original toy, neither does the front end of the fire truck simply pull down to become legs as seen in the Spychanger version. The boots look like boots, with minimal vehicle kibblage. Transformation: The arms swing up over the head and peg together in the Hero Optimus Prime style. The waist extends and the backpack slides up to make room for the feet to unfold and invert (reminiscent of RiD Omega Prime's fists) to become the front end of the vehicle mode. The whole thing tabs together reasonably well. Vehicle Mode: The main body is 6" (15cm) long, and the ladder itself is 6.5" (17cm) with the barrels deployed. The ladder does not extend, but the base swivels smoothly around and elevates on a ratchet. The tip of the ladder is on a smooth hinge, and the nozzles can be deployed manually. No spring-loaded gimmicks in this version, though. :) It rolls on six wheels (two in front, four in back). The windows are metallic blue, with silver windshield wipers. There's Autobot symbols printed on the sides just below the frontmost windows. There's no paint on the emeregency lights or the grille, though. Overall, it compares favorably with the original in terms of the level of robot kibble visible in this mode. Overall: While not without its flaws (the boots as already mentioned, plus the dark gray ladder-holding chunk is a little obtrustive), this is one of the few actually good 6" Titaniums. If only it were average for the line, rather than the upper end of the scale. Dave Van Domelen, now needs to make space somewhere to display Prime.