Starscream (Animated)

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Transformers character
Starscream-animatedvoyagertoy.jpg
Animated Voyager Starscream toy
Name Starscream
Decepticon
Series Transformers Animated
Transformers: Universe
English voice actor Tom Kenny
Japanese voice actor Jin Yamanoi
Information
Alternate modes Cybertronian Jet, Futuristic Harrier Jet (similar to the Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut)
Function Air Warrior Supreme
Gender Male
Motto "Power is its own justification."
"Conquest is made from the ashes of one's enemies."
Rank 9
Sub-group Activators, Legends, Voyagers

Starscream is a fictional character in the Transformers series. He is a high ranking Decepticon in the Transformers Animated story.

Transformers Animated

Starscream appears in the 2007 animated series. He transforms into a futuristic harrier jet, (sporting a notable similarity to the Variable Fighters of Macross fame in his transformation sequence) and resembles his Generation 1 counterpart in both design, personality, and ambitions. He flies at high speeds in both modes, and wields his trademark null-rays, though these function simply as powerful lasers. He's unintentionally comical in this incarnation displaying a degree of incompetence similar to his animated G1 counterpart. However, this incarnation displays a resolute tenacity towards his objective, shown by his flying around in a brutally-damaged Nemesis to track down the Allspark's energy signature for 50 years by himself. Unlike his G1 namesake, Starscream is far from cowardly and is an excellent warrior, since he almost single-handedly took down all of the Autobots in a battle over the Allspark. During season 2, upon being resurrected by a shard of the Allspark embedded on his forehead, Starscream displays a sense of perseverance in the series, making numerous attempts to eliminate Megatron before and after being destroyed by the Decepticon leader. He also can't tell the difference between any two humans.[1]

In the Japanese translation of Transformers: Animated, the story has been changed to make it a prequel to the 2007 Transformers film. This makes this version of Starscream an earlier version of the film character.

Animated series

In "Transform & Roll Out", Starscream didn't even believe the Allspark existed in the first place, but when there was proof of the Allspark's existence on-board the Autobot's ship (which he opted immediately to just destroy) he made it second on his priority list – right behind becoming the new leader of the Decepticons. Seeing an opportunity to realize his primary goal (and to get Megatron back for damaging his wing when he suggested getting the Allspark himself), he planted an explosive charge on Megatron's back as he, oblivious to the device, exited the ship to fly out and board the Autobot vessel containing the Allspark. The massive explosion, though, only severely damaged Megatron instead of expunging him like he had expected, leading Starscream to believe that his plan was a success. Overjoyed to the realization of his dream, he faked mourning the loss of his former leader as he immediately proclaimed himself the new leader of the Decepticons. Unfortunately, the other Decepticons abandoned ship while Starscream failed to notice the massive explosion caused by the ensuing battle that the ship was heading directly into. Starscream, along with the Nemesis, was engulfed in the explosion. It would be decades later that he ended up on Earth with what was left of the Nemesis, adapting his vehicle mode from intercepting fighter jets and blending in with an air show to ambush the Autobots, using his high speed flight abilities to fly rings around the Autobots and taking Bumblebee, Captain Fanzone, and the mayor of Detroit hostage to coerce them into giving him the Allspark. He even managed to wrench it from their possession, despite growing furious with their game of "Keep-Away," and harnessed the power of the Allspark as a devastating weapon, using it to destroy a large chunk of the city. It was his hysteria from this new-found power that led him to be caught off guard as Optimus Prime got the jump on him, and a devastating battle ensued, ending with the Allspark accidentally being unleashed in a similar fashion as the Matrix is activated in G1, only here due to its size, by Optimus and Starscream trying to pull it from each-other's grasp. The resulting blast repelled Starscream away, forcing him to wait for a better chance.

Given some time to repair, Starscream resurfaced again later after Lugnut and Blitzwing were gravely wounded in "Lost and Found", offering to repair them in return for their pledge of loyalty to him.

In "Megatron Rising Part 1", he attempted to convince them both that Megatron had fallen to the hands of the Autobots, thus making him the new leader. Lugnut, however, with his undying, almost obsessive loyalty to Megatron, could not accept this, denying it repeatedly. Just as Starscream was getting angry with Lugnut's inability to consider him a leader, Megatron contacted Lugnut's frequency exclusively, where Lugnut promptly bowed and started addressing his master respectfully. Starscream, thinking Lugnut was talking to him, smirked and said, "Well...that's better...just don't let it happen again." Lugnut revealed to him that Megatron had just issued them orders, where Starscream was quick to jump that it was a treacherous impostor trying to lead them into a trap. He instructed Blitzwing and Lugnut to retrieve the Allspark, while he himself went to intercept the "fake" Megatron transmission. Starscream intercepted it back to Professor Sumdac's lab to discover Megatron's disembodied head. Starscream toyed and mocked Megatron, enjoying his superior's standing on the situation while making a speech of Megatron's feeble condition. However, Bumblebee interfered, annoying Starscream for interrupting him during the speech before he attacked the Autobot. Megatron, who had known of Starscream's earlier attempt on his life for quite some time, manipulated the lab's machinery to throw both Starscream and Bumblebee to the roof of Sumdac Tower. During the melee, Lugnut and Blitzwing arrived on the scene, inserting Sari's stolen key into Megatron's head. The charge from the key quickly rebuilt Megatron's body, much to Starscream's dismay and disappointment.

Noticing how the tides of battle changed with Megatron reborn, Starscream weighed his options of fighting the new, super-powered Megatron to claim his place as leader, or rejoin the ranks and wait for a better opportunity to present itself. Picking the latter, Starscream approached Megatron with a charm and gleam requesting to come back as Megatron's second-in-command as Megatron had his Fusion Cannon aimed at Prime. But at the last second, Megatron faked-out and delivered a massive fatal uppercut on Starscream with the Allspark key, taking him offline.

Later, in "Mission Accomplished", Starscream returned to life in a garbage barge and found his spark strangely extinguished before following Lugnut and Blitzwing to attack Megatron head on. It was from his vain attempt and second "death" by Megatron's hands that Starscream learned that a fragment of the Allspark was embedded on his forehead, keeping him alive and making him immortal. Though invincible, his repeated attempts at Megatron resulted with him being easily defeated, though unable to die. (At one point, he even attempts to pull a Captain Jack on Megatron before being damaged by Megatron's sword and fusion cannon.) After finding another fragment of the Allspark, he planned to lure Megatron out into the open by placing the fragment on a high-speed train which he set to explode, but only the Autobot Elite Guard fell for the trick while Megatron and Blitzwing watched from above before he had Blitzwing shoot Starscream down from the sky. He regained consciousness before attacking Ultra Magnus to take back his fragment. It took stasis cuffs to finally subdue Starscream, who is then sent to Cybertron for imprisonment.

However, in "A Fistful of Energon", he escaped and made his return to Earth, with Megatron setting a bounty on him. Setting up base on the Nemesis wreck on the moon, Starscream used the protoforms to create a massive supply of "decoy Starscreams" to act in his stead, using a cowardly version that Lockdown caught with Prowl's aid and a brightly-colored "scheming" decoy that the Autobots captured while heading to Megatron and Lockdown's meeting area. When the Autobots and Decepticons learned the true nature of the Starscream decoys, Starscream activated the bombs in their spark chambers to take out both factions. But while the Decepticons escaped the warehouse to pursue Starscream, Prowl managed to launch the decoys with his newly-acquired Samurai armor into the sky where they exploded near the Decepticons without any damage done to the city. However, Starscream had already made many more clones after learning that Megatron had increased the amount of his bounty.

Starscream returned in the two-part episode "A Bridge Too Close", installing life into five of his clones with chips of the Allspark fragment in his head. The clones each represented a different side of his personality – cowardice, egomania, dishonesty and sycophancy. There was also a fifth clone, the feminine Slipstream who advises Starscream not to ask about her origin while berating every choice he makes. He led his small army to attack Megatron and had the upper hand against him and the Autobots until his head was removed by a Headmaster unit piloted by Isaac Sumdac. Seeing their creator beheaded, Slipstream and the other remaining Starscream clones quickly sided with Megatron. Later, Starscream's head was used by Megatron to reactivate the Decepticon Space Bridge, overloading the systems and resulting in both Starscream's head and Megatron being sucked into an unstable portal. The two were later seen bickering with each other in a random part of space.

Starscream returned in the season three premiere event, "TransWarped." The AllSpark fragment in his forehead gave him the power to convert his mouth into a sonic laser, which freed Megatron from the stasis cuffs. Megatron later used Starscream to override an offline Omega Supreme's circuitry, taking control of him. Starscream planned to use Omega to take over Cybertron, but his plans were derailed when Optimus Prime placed a malfunctioning Space Bridge component on Omega, causing him to go through an endless Transwarp cycle. However, Megatron was able to remove the component, picking up Lugnut and then Shockwave with Arcee, who possessed Omega's activation codes. They returned to Earth's moon, where Starscream took the opportunity to sneak over to the ruins of the Nemesis and use a protoform to build a new body for himself, before Megatron arrived and destroyed all of the decoys. Learning of Megatron's plan to create clones of Omega, Starscream attempted to download the activation codes and take control of them himself. However, Lugnut intervened, gaining and downloading the activation codes himself, and Starscream ended up in pieces from the waist down, courtesy of Megatron.

In "Endgame-Part 2," Starscream returned to be an independent and got his chance at revenge, when it is revealed that he had furtively booby-trapped the Omega Supreme clones with self-destruct devices during their construction and also inserted a program that rendered him in control of the Lugnut Supremes. He eventually reconstructed himself and headed to Earth to watch Megatron die. However, he met his own demise at the hands of Jazz and Prowl, during the reconstruction of the AllSpark. His own AllSpark fragment was pulled out of his head. Lacking the fragment, Starscream fell to the ground, offline. In a deleted scene from "Endgame- Part 2", Slipstream revived Starscream with another AllSpark fragment, but this was cut for time.

IDW Publishing

In IDW comics "The Arrival Part 2", Starscream was found unable to move by Professor Princess. The prankster villain then proceeded to put feminine makeup and a wig on him, while teasing him with her blaster. Once his systems were reset by the blaster, Starscream threatened to destroy the little girl, but she had set up a transmission of pictures of Starscream in makeup to be broadcast if she or her pony Powered Sugar were injured and Starscream agreed to leave and forget the whole affair. He never even noticed she had painted his back in rainbow colors.

Toys

  • Animated Activators Starscream (2008)
A Scout class toy with near-instant transformation at the press of a button. A special Toys-R-Us value pack of Leader Megatron comes with Animated Activators Starscream as a bonus. Also redecoed as his clones Thundercracker and Dirge.
Bundled in Japan as part of the "Super Collection Vol. 2" gift set with Activators Bumblebee, Bulkhead (Ironhide in Japan) and Grimlock.[2]
  • Animated McDonalds Starscream (2008)
Given away as a premium with Happy Meals.[3]
  • Animated Voyager Starscream (2008)
The standard-sized figure of this character. Features two transparent-orange spring-powered missiles that can be fired in either jet or robot mode. These missiles replace his classic null-ray cannons from the series, but are still mounted to his forearms. He has an Automorph feature which retracts the nose cone and swings the arms out when the legs are swung forward. His mouth, though paler than the on-screen version, has a sneaky grin, with clear orange (as opposed to the cartoon's red color) used for light-piping. His colors are exactly the same as those used on Voyager Thundercracker of the live-action movie toy line.
Voyager Starscream has been compared to the VF-1 Valkyrie and YF-19 toys of the Macross and Macross Plus series, respectively, due to similarities in transformation and design. It is possible to transform Starscream into Gerwalk mode, but with the arms swung out, the toy's Automorph feature is compromised.
This figure was later redecoed into his clones Skywarp and Sunstorm, as well as the unreleased Thundercracker.
  • Universe Animated Legends Starscream (2008)
A Micro class Starscream was sold in the Universe Legends line. This toy was also packaged as Animated Deluxe Rescue Ratchet with Legends Prowl and Starscream - A Target store exclusive contains a purple repainted Starscream bundled with a yellow redeco of Deluxe Ratchet and Legends Prowl.[4]
Unlike the Voyager version, Legends Starscream closely resembles Cyclonus in jet mode.[5]
  • Animated TA-07 Voyager Starscream (Takara Tomy) (2010)
The 2010 Japan version by Takara Tomy sports metallic blue paint on the wings and the front of the fuselage, as well as purple Decepticon emblems on the wings.[6]
Also bundled with TA-02 Deluxe Bumblebee.
  • Animated EZ Collection Translucent Starscream (Takara Tomy) (2010)
A Japan-exclusive remold of Universe Legends Starscream in clear purple plastic. Offered at JUSCO stores (except the Ryukyu branches) with the purchase of TA01 Voyager Optimus Prime or TA06 Voyager Megatron.[7]
  • Animated Mini EZ Collection Starscream (Takara Tomy) (2010)
A new mold that stands at 60 mm tall, shorter than the regular Legends/EZ Collection figures.[8]

References

  1. Character bios for Transformers Animated characters
  2. Takara Tomy - Super Collection Vol. 2
  3. The McDonald's Animated Toys You'll Be Buying Next Week
  4. http://tformers.com/transformers-first-look-at-target-exclusive-rescue-ratchet-set/10068/news.html
  5. Seibertron.com - Transformers Animated Legends Starscream
  6. TFW2005.com - Takara Tomy Animated Voyager Starscream Image Gallery
  7. TFW2005.com - Translucent EZ Collection Exclusive Versions of Animated Prowl, Bumblebee and Starscream Announced
  8. TFW2005.com - Transformers Animated Mini EZ Collection Series from Takara Tomy

External links