Transformers Alternity: Orochi Starscream

A stingray sport car? And a bugged eye Starscream? Well, both description fits in nicely with my recent Transformer Alternity collection: the Mistuoka Orochi Starscream. The looks of the car does look appealing and unique and it does look like a snake or stingray to me although the name Orochi is meant by the 8 headed dragon in Japanese myth.

This is definitely not your everyday sport car as you cant really see it here in Malaysia. And it is quite hard to relate the car with Starscream itself as both having different characteristic in my opinion. Anyhow, if you are really interested in knowing more about this car, you can read further in wiki.

Overall
This is the latest model in TF Alternity from Takara Tomy. It comes with 3 colours being the blue colored one (call Thundercracker) is the latest one, purple color (skywrap) and pearl white color (Starscream). All 3 are of the same mould and the only different is the color. What i have here is the pearl white Starscream version.

The following is the box shot:

The logo is cool with the Orochi written in a “snaky” way.

Mistuoka Orochi
The alt mode for the Starscream is this Stingray-snake eyed sport car. The pearl white color isn’t really metallic though and it does get discoloured easily due to the white nature as what you can see below. You can compare the actual sport car and the transformer version itself. Oh, when i speak of pearl white here is actually a yellowish white ( just like a pearl color  and not the full white metallic color in the pciture)

The front of the car has quite a few details like the “nostril”, the grill and the snake eye. You can also notice the translucent headlight of the car.

You can see the 2 different shades of white at the door part of the vehicle. I believe when time passes, the white color will discolour even more. And in the meantime, small details like the radio antenna also is noticeable in the vehicle mode. The rim itself is painted in metallic silver while having the hard plastic tire around it.

The rear of the car has translucent backlight and the name Mistuoka Orochi engraved onto the car itself.
More nostrils you can see from the top.

More details on the vehicle…
The vehicle itself is like those non-transformable car model whereby you can see the interior details and play with the door, bonnets and boot.

Nothing much you can see inside the boot though, only to reveal the Decepticon insignia resides inside. This is actually the leg area of the robot.
This is the engine bay and is actually where the head of the robot resides. You can see clearly the light piping mechanism (red colored plastic) here. Disappointed with the detail here as they can actually improve to give more silver color part to represent the engine or whatsoever.

What is a car if without the driver seat and dashboard? For sure you will see the small details in this orochi as well and the cool thing is, the steering itself is turn-able (BUT, the wheel wont be turning with the steering of course!)

Mistuoka Orochi (Flight Form)
What if the Orochi can fly as fast as what Starscream suppose to do? How does it looks like in vehicle mode? The designer of this toy does think of this question to relate it more with the Starscream fellow. They implemented a flight form for the Mistuoka Orochi which of course is a fiction part of being the reality car. Basically just flip the wheel up to reveal the wing and the 2 afterburner and you are all set to fly this baby. Guess it wasn’t hard after all for being able to fly 🙂

Starscream
Jeng jeng jeng.. meet the bug eye Starscream! There is a reason why i keep on calling him the bug-eyed Starscream. His eye is actually made up of 4 eyes which is like a bug. He has a quadruple vision which is quite RARE in the case of Starscream. It is really hard to relate how he can has quadruple vision and a bug like body in this line of transformer. Anyhow, he is still cool being the all mighty Sting-ray, snake/bug eyed starscream in my collection. Unique indeed.

Despite being the fact that this is a Takara Tomy production, i am quite disappointed with the joints this round. The joints for the hands are exceptionally loose which this is the first time ever i experienced with a Takara Tomy toy in my collection. Guess i am having the defect Starscream here? Anyhow, the Starscream has standard articulation which you can pose around with ease.

Transformation Process
The transformation process is quite difficult. It takes a lot of twisting and turning especially the arm part. It actually took me 45 minutes for the 1st transformation and being the fact that certain parts are easily detachable make it even more annoying to transform.

It does seem SIMPLE to transform from the above picture, but in reality, it takes some time and some skills to master it well. Believe me.

Gimmicks, gimmicks, gimmicks…
Well, most of the gimmicks i have already covered above, there’s another gimmick which i will elaborate more is the Quadruple light-piped vision Starscream has. The light pipe works extraordinary well here. This might due to the fact that the size of the quad-eyes are noticeable big. Seem like a ruby red eye to me. 🙂

Conclusion

Well, what i can make of this toy? An equation to be exact: (which i keep on repeatedly mention it out here in the blog) Stingray + Snake eye + Bug eye + Orochi + Starscream = Orochi Starscream! It is a very unique sport car and starscream to be collected. Despite there are some loose joints of the toy, it is still quite enjoyable to play and pose him with.

Oh ya, one more thing i wanna stress out here is, if you are looking for a more realistic collection of this baby, try to get the purple or blue color version as they are having the metallic color instead of the pearl white color. PROVIDED you are okay of having different name (thundercracker or skywrap) for the same model. The white color is nice to see but when time advances, the color will be discolored easily and you might end up having an even more yellowish white colored orochi starscream in the end.

My personal rating for this would be 7/10 which has lower point in the color and the loose joint.

Any thoughts on this, you can share it out in my comment below. All are welcome to give input 🙂