Maketoys Galaxy Meteor - Starscream

It didn't bother me much when Maketoys cancelled Galaxy Meteor. This was not an incarnation of Starscream that I was all that familiar with, and all I had to pair him with was a $2 thrift store find of Armada Megatron. Now that he's finally arrived, I'm glad that Maketoys was able to produce him after all.

Spaceship mode has an interesting look. It's not my favorite design, but I can see how it is more or less true to the source. The paint application is fantastic, as is all the molded detail. The guns next to his cockpit are on their own swivels. He rolls along just fine on non-retractable landing gears. The front and back of the craft could be held together a bit more tightly. The pegs have a tendency to come undone, but it's not as if he will come apart. Ratchets for his null rays would have been much appreciated because they are constantly swiveling out of alignment. His rifle attaches to his nosecone.

Transformation back and forth is pretty simple, but still fun. There are a couple of buttons to release spring-loaded panels, like the blades and the back of his calves. Nothing was hard to maneuver nor required much finagling to get into place.

This is probably one of Maketoys best painted figures. He is covered, head to toe, in very cleanly applied paint accents. Different colored plastic is used judiciously to break up large sections of grey. The line work is plentiful and I especially like the working pistons in his back that correlate with his ab crunch. The translucent purple on his cockpit and fold-out blades look wonderful.

His head is on a ball joint that gives him a very wide range of motion. He can raise his ratcheted shoulders straight out to his sides. His shoulder pylons are on separate hinges. His null rays are on their own swivels and double-jointed hinges. He swivels at his biceps, wrists, waist, and ratcheted thighs. His single-jointed elbows can curl past 90 degrees. His thumbs and pointing fingers are on separate ball joints. The rest of his fingers are fused onto a single ball joint. Except for his thumbs, his fingers have a single articulating knuckle. The cannons on his torso can swivel forward to make room for his waist swivel and ratcheted ab crunch. His hips are on ratcheted universals that allow him to perform full front and side splits. He has ratcheted, single-jointed knees that can perform full curls. The back of his calves have collapsing panels that make this possible. His ankles are on tilts and ratcheted rockers.

His accessories include his rifle, two alternate faces, and a key. His rifle is gray plastic with no paint. It slots very securely into his hands with a mechanism that I wished would replace Masterpiece-styled tabs. Besides his neutral face, we also get a smirk face and a laughing face. The face-swapping mechanic is simple and does not require messing with screws. The key has a translucent purple piece. He can hold it in his hands. It can also slot into a space behind his thrusters/head.

I'll display Galaxy Meteor on my Maketoys shelf. This is an awesome figure that I'm glad survived its initial cancellation. I hope Maketoys will continue filling out the cast from the Armada/Energon/Cybertron. Their G1 version of Starscream can't arrive soon enough.