Review: Masterpiece Sunstreaker

I passed on Sunstreaker when he first came out. There were two reasons for this: the first, that, despite being a fairly major G1 character, I've never had any particular love for him; secondly, that this is the figure in which Takara - for no other reason than 'because they can' - hit the Masterpiece toyline with a massive price hike (a price hike which hits ridiculous levels with the current Dinobot release - but that's a rant for another time).

I went to TFNation last weekend hoping for some kind of discount on Sunstreaker so I could finally add him to my collection. There was a discount, however there was still a very clear difference in price between him and all the other, similar sized, cars in the line.

Anyway, I forked over the money and now I have him. Was he worth it?

Skipping to the end: not really. As I've said, I'm not really enamored with the character; I'm sure Sunstreaker fans are likely to be far more positive. He looks good - don't get me wrong - as both a car and a robot, and is highly poseable. The transformation process, as you'd expect from a Masterpiece, is highly involved and quite clever, but I didn't find sitting there and fiddling with him particularly fun...and fun is the main reason I buy Transformers.

At no point have I thought, 'This is well worth the 80 quid I paid out for him.'

Yes, it's nice to fill a gap in the G1 team, but should the house begin to burn, he'll be the last thing I run to save. Sorry, Sunstreaker, I'm just don't like you very much.