Animated Sunstorm

Series: Animated
Allegiance: Decepticon
Categories: Voyager Store Exclusive
Year: 2009

Yet another clone of Starscream has appeared on Earth to threaten the Autobots. Sunstorm is a cackling madman, determined to destroy everything in his path. He is also a living power battery, absorbing any energy directed at him, from sunlight to high-powered lasers. Only Ratchet has the scientific know-how to develop a device capable of defeating such a powerful new enemy.
* Absorbs energy to use as powerful laser blasts.
* Can generate blinding flashes of light.
* Fastest clone of Starscream.

Remarks: Sunstorm is a repaint of the Voyager-class Animated Starscream (just like Skywarp), so I’ll only do a few remarks on the differences here. Check out the original Starscream’s review for the full lowdown.

As his name suggests, Sunstorm’s colours are bright, mostly orange and red with some white thrown in for good measure. The paint job is accurate to Sunstorm’s appearance in the Animated TV series, as well as to the look of G1 Sunstorm, who only ever appeared in comics. In my opinion the new colours look pretty good on the figure. Nothing else has changed, so Sunstorm carries the same smirk on his face that Starscream had, but it does fit his character better than Skywarp’s, that’s for sure. Overall a good new look for a solid figure.

The various Starscream clones appearing in the Animated series all represented facets of the original Starscream’s personality. Sunstorm got Starscream’s sycophant side. He’s a boot licker, a suck-up, always quick to compliment others even when he’s about to blast them into scrap. Interestingly enough his toy’s profile text sounds a whole lot more like G1 Sunstorm, seeing as it completely omits all his sycophantic tendencies and attributes him with the same powers (energy absorbing) that G1 Sunstorm had. Animated Sunstorm never showed any such powers in the TV series. Sunstorm was only available in a two-pack with Activator Ratchet.

Do you really need Sunstorm? Probably not, unless you’re like me and want to assemble the entire Animated TV cast (as much as possible given that we will probably never see an Animated Omega Supreme). I picked him up for a good price at a convention and don’t regret it, but he’s nothing more and nothing less than a straight-up Starscream repaint. Worth getting for army builders, Animated fans, and clone fanatics.

Rating: B