I know we generally stick to new figures when it comes to these reviews, but with the meteoric rise of Takara’s Masterpiece line, and with several original sculpt 3rd party figures planned to match its scale, now is a really good time to grab some compatible MP-styled offerings before the onslaught (heh) begins. Such is true of PP-03 Traitor here. He’s still available from various sources, including directly from iGear, so I don’t feel too guilty about showing him off.
iGear gets a bad rap. Some of it’s deserved, sure, but I think too often iGear gets lumped into the blatant knock-off category, and that’s not entirely fair. After getting the Specialist figures (Ratchet and Ironhide), it became obvious that they’ve come a long way since Faith Leader. Frankly, I think they should continue to evolve their product, and they’ve outgrown their need for Hasbro/Takara training wheels, but that’s another post for another time…
Traitor is a re-working based off of the original Masterpiece Seeker mold, as most of you know. As you may also know, it made some improvements and redesigns that even made their way into Takara’s own re-working, such as getting rid of the leg scabbards. What you may not know is just how good of quality this figure really is. Even the box is high quality, and you guys know me — I couldn’t give a tin crap about packaging.
Now, there are some trade offs, but depending on what you like, it’s more taste than substance. In jet mode, he is the same high-quality F-15C Eagle as the MP version. I friggin’ love this plane, always have, and even though the F-22 is one sexy beast, the Eagle feels like classic ’70s muscle, and it’s fitting for an elite Air Commander like Starscream. And even though it’s been 30 years since G1, there’s still plenty of F-15Es out there, doing the grunt work that there ain’t enough F-22s for, and will probably keep doing when the F-35s actually show up…
Sorry, little tangent there. Anyway, as you can see, the iGear jet (on right, with decals added) is a little skimpier on the details than the Hasbro Starscream’s excellent weathered paintjob. This was one area the original absolutely delivered on, but the iGear one might sneak extra points in if you prefer cartoon-styling because its clean lines and vibrant color definitely look more animated.
In bot mode, this guy really steps into his own. Everything snaps and locks together much more securely than any of the other seekers I own — his cockpit actually pegs into the torso and STAYS THERE, the intakes stay on his chest when you move his arms, and even his wings, while not pegged, stay pretty well in place on their own, especially compared to the new-mold Thundercracker; I’m actually debating replacing him with the iGear one now.
You get some cool new little touches in their redesign work. In addition to not having the scabbards, or those terrible wingpoints on the new mold, you get flip-up wrist communicators. iGear loves these things, since all the big scale figures have them, and I love ’em too. They should come standard on anything with arms.
I had intended to include some direct comparisons (not that there isn’t a ton of them out there), but my Hasbro Starscream is damn near going to pieces these days. It was hard enough trying to jam him back into jet mode, I think I’ll leave him there. I’m considerably less concerned about this guy — he actually transforms more easily than the others, thanks to less pointy bits and stuff you have to rotate away. Ironically, now I have individual molds for my three seekers — the original repaint clones.
So, where I’m concerned, this was absolutely an upgrade. I’m generally not opposed to an official release, but I have to be honest, in this instance, the “knock off” is superior to its predecessor and it’s successor. Somehow, I imagine that sneaky bastard Starscream approves.
