The Heroes of Cybertron line of Transformers was an assortment of non-transforming PVC plastic toys that were inexpensive and cartoon-accurate representations of some of your favorite Transformers characters. Of course, that included the most popular ‘Bots and ‘Cons, like Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, and Starscream.
But Starscream is a design that has been re-colored into more characters than possibly any other fictional character in history. As of this writing in August of 2020, I can name nearly two dozen individual characters who are just variant colors of Starscream.
This guy is one of those characters.
This orange jet Transformer was an unnamed background Decepticon in the very first episode of The Transformers from 1984. In 2003, Japanese retailer eHobby released a creamsicle-colored reissue of the original Starscream toy, and named it Sunstorm. Over the next few years, any time there was a Starscream toy released, there would be a bright-ass orange variant, including an Official Transformers Collector’s Convention-exclusive Heroes of Cybertron version in 2004. Which now goes for stupid money, considering he was a giveaway.
I did not go to OTFCC 2004, nor do I want to pay upwards of $50 for a freebie. So I took a HOC Starscream toy, and painted him up myself.
To differentiate the two, however, I tried to give the canopy part of his chest a see-thru look, so that it would better resemble the glass part of the plane’s cockpit. The original one is a solid grey.
I’m not sure I was entirely successful. But I’ll give myself props for trying.
I actually painted this guy up several years ago, and he’s been through a few moves and bedroom rearrangements. He’s held up pretty well, but could use some touching up. Maybe a project for later in the year.
Decepticons, forever!