Like many of the Mexican releases of the Transformers, the Starscream has some quite significant differences from the earlier US Transformers releases. In this review I’ll try to cover as many of them as possible. The Starscream I photographed for this review was still sealed in its inner packaging so there won’t be so many detailed comparison pictures. I’ll also try not to repeat too much from previous articles like the Mex Skywarp article seeing as how all the mould differences are the same between the Mex Starscream and US Starscream as they are between the Mex and US Skywarp (and Thundercracker).

Ok, first the basics. The Mexican release of Starscream was manufactured and distributed by IGA, as opposed to Takara or Hasbro. These Mex TFs were available in some European countries as well, including the UK.

Some things that you might be able to notice just from looking at the box front pic(s) above are that instead of a Hasbro logo in the bottom left hand corner, there is an IGA logo. A lot of the descriptive text on the box is in Spanish instead of English, the purple colour is a little lighter than that of US boxes, the case assortment numbers are different, and the Starscream itself is a different colour to the other releases, but more on that later. On all the box fronts you might also be able to see some mistiness on the cellophane window where the cockpit is.

Now pics of the back of the box for Starscream and the other two Mex series 1 jets:

There are no Robot Points (promo didn’t exist in Mexico) and no Techspec bar (and therefore no techspec decoder). Text is in Spanish. Unlike the Skywarp, the Starscream’s techspec bar does not have all the sections properly separated by black lines.

One very strange feature of the Mexican Starscream is that the cardboard backing for the insert is reflective and shiny. US inserts weren’t like this. I have seen other Mexican jets with the same feature but not always, so it wasn’t a consistent feature of all Mex jets.

Other differences become clearer here as well. If you look at the accessories, the blue tailfins which have the red “F” on them are unique. On US and Diaclone releases of this toy, the red “F” was always accompanied by white lines. This is not the case on the Mex Starscream. It’s similar to the Mex Thundercracker’s main wings; normally red stripe with accompanying white stripe, but for Mex release only red stripe. This was standard IGA procedure, lower quality factory labels and lower quality production materials. The grey on the Mexican Starscream is significantly darker than the US/Diaclone releases of this toy and the blue seems sparkly and not as dark. In fact, the colour scheme isn’t that different to some of the Kingdam knockoffs of the Diaclone Starscream. The plastic bubble also has the same moulding defects as all the other series 1 Mex jets (see between the accessories and the main wing section).

Some things that you may not be able to notice from these pictures are that the nosecone on the Mex Starscream is hard plastic (a la Diaclone) instead of rubber (a la TF) and has a bobble on the end. Also, the wheels on the landing gear and toy itself are black plastic instead of die cast silver, the red die cast section is a slightly duller red than usual and the fists are not moulded very well. For more detailed pictures and explanations of the exact moulding differences, see the Mexican Skywarp article here and the Mexican Thundercracker article here. The Mex Starscream also has a block on the copyright over “JAPAN”, just as the other jets do. As with all Mex TFs, no rubsign.

These are the really striking pics where the difference in colour is most evident. Look how much darker the Mexican release is! First time I saw the Mex Starscream I was stunned, as out of all the Mexican jets, the colour difference is most pronounced on this piece. The purple nosecone of the Skywarp, the super-sparkliness of the Thundercracker, they don’t really compare to the job IGA did on this Starscream. And I actually think it looks great.

I did also own a spare loose Mexican Starscream rudder which I was able to compare closely with a US Starscream rudder. Here are the scans I made:

Mex on the left. The colour difference is there for you to see, and also the Mex rudder is closer to the Diaclone and 1984 prerub jet mould, not the “hollow” rudder mould of later jets. It wasn’t until I saw the Mex Starscream that I knew the rudder I had belonged to it. I always thought it was either G2 or KO.

It isn’t just the packaging, inserts and toys that were different, the paperwork usually varied on Mexican TFs too. Here are all 3 Mex jet Instructions:

Mostly in colour just as the 1984 US instructions were, but in Spanish. As with most of the first series Mex TFs, the instructions are translated to “Instructivo”. Later Mex TFs were translated to “Instrucciones” or other variations.

As with all IGA Mexican TF releases, the stickersheets were actually just US stickersheets, so no differences to report here.

The Mexican series 1 jets really were something special and weird at the same time. Their moulding is unique as they have Diaclone, prerub US TF, rubsign US TF and even some knockoff characteristics. The colour differences also gave a very unique feel to these releases, especially since the differences in colour usually added to the look and took nothing away. As always, with this Starscream, the only issues are the lower quality materials used in its construction. That nosecone bobble is a real shame. If you’re a Starscream fan (and I’ve known quite a few), you would absolutely love this piece. Lovely colour scheme, but unfortunately it’s really hard to locate in this condition and you’d have a nightmare trying to find the correct parts for an incomplete one.

I’m going to leave you with some nice pics of all three boxed Mexican series 1 Decepticon jets together. Sadly I don’t own any of these any more, but I’ll remember them fondly.

All the best
Maz