Planet X Mors is most likely named after the Roman personification, not god, of death. Sort of like the Grim Reaper. He's another fun piece from a company that exposed me to third party figures.
Jet mode is a bit of a hit and miss. It's certainly better than the official figure. There is no large gap behind the cockpit that goes clear through the fuselage; just a bunch of tiny ones. From the top, the jet has a nice silhouette, even if the fuselage seems too long compared to the wings. From the sides, it's a little less successful. From underneath, Starscream is playing peek-a-boo. I do like the translucent red plastic for the thrusters in the bottom of the feet. The canopy can open a little to reveal a decent looking cockpit. The front landing skid flips out from under the nosecone, but you have to split the underside to do it. The rear landing skids are permanently deployed. His null rays peg well to his wings.
Transformation to jet mode is actually pretty easy. The backpack probably has the most involved process. The legs are very similar to the Combiner Wars Aerialbots, in that they fold up into themselves. Lining up the pegs on the backpack and wings to the ports on the legs can be a little finicky, but it's not very difficult. Once you get the clasps on the legs to grasp the back of the elbows, you have a very solidly held together jet. As usual, going back to robot mode is a piece of cake.
The size difference aside, this figure is definitely a step up from the official Fall of Cybertron Starscream. Better paint application, more detailed sculpting, improved articulation, and a side profile that doesn't have gaping holes are a few things that immediately jump out at me. The only thing the official one does better is the placement of screw holes. The head sculpt looks really good, but the light-piping doesn't work very well. The back is also prone to detaching from it's pair of pegs.
His head is on a ball joint. His shoulders are on swivels and hinges, with a slight bit of butterfly action. The shoulder pauldrons are on their own swivels and hinges. They sometimes get in the way of the shoulder articulation. He swivels at the biceps, wrists, and thighs. His waist swivel is a little hindered by his abdomen. His thumbs are fixed and the rest of his fingers are single pinned and articulate as one unit. He has double-jointed elbows that give you a full 180 degree bend and single-jointed knees that get to 90 degrees. He also has a reverse ab crunch because of a transformation joint. His hips are on universal joints. His feet are on balljoints for rocking and tilting, and his toes are on hinges.
His accessories include two null rays, a spiked mace, and his crown. The null rays are identical. Although there is some decent line work, the very minimal purple paint application is really sloppy. They peg into his hands or arms just fine. The handles are on swivels so can be tucked away, but I couldn't figure out how to attach them so it would look like his hands transformed into weapons. The head of the mace is purple translucent plastic. The spikes aren't sharp. I'd be more worried about breakage from a drop. The handle separates from the head to slide into his fist. He can only hold it at the upper half of the handle. The crown is nicely detailed in gold paint, with cleanly applied red paint on the crest.
I love that Planet X is filling a niche no one else is exploiting and hope that they can continue. While Mors and Aesclepius have not hit the high of Vulcun, they are both great figures. I can't wait to replace most of the official Fall of Cybertron figures with this line.
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