Here we go. Yet another pointless reissue repaint from Takara aimed at fleecing loyal fans. Yet another cheap ploy to pad out our collection with more "Limited Edition" nonsense. And of course seeing as how it's E-Hobby, the price will be hiked, and that's to say nothing about the idea of a flourescent orange Starscream. Or at least that's what I thought before I ever ACTUALLY laid eyes on the 89 Sunstorm reissue from E-Hobby in the flesh. Now that I've messed around with one, transformed it, posed it, photographed it and started reviewing it, I'm actually very fond of it, and it's surprisingly charming in the flesh! Heck of an eye-catcher too...

The story behind the newly introduced Decepticon Sunstorm is that he radiates powerful electromagnetic radiation and occasionally thinks he's something of a supernatural entity. His designation is 89 which is in keeping with Takara's new character numbering, making use of previously unused designations from the Takara Transformers line. 89 Sunstorm is not to be confused with D-89 Misfire. Looking at the box front picture, his character art is a re-colour of the original Thundercracker boxart. The packaging layout retains the previous E-Hobby jet format, pretty minimalistic but effective enough.

Looking at Sunstorm in jet mode, I got the impression that a little more thought had gone into his colour scheme than I originally gave credit for. The white sections contrast excellently with the orange, which really isn't that much of an eyesore. The Decepticon insignias are tampographs instead of stickers, as are the red stripe details on the wings and fins. The only suggestion I would have made involved making the landing gear white instead of black. Something that I find irritates a few collectors is the fact that the Decepticon insignias have been tampographed upside-down. That's something that will show up more clearly in figure mode.

Unlike many of the jets released so far using this mould, Sunstorm's diecast shoulder sections are the same colour as the rest of his body, and in my opinion it was a good decision. The wings, the missiles, the launchers and the fins all attached to the body snugly and in jet mode it exudes a real nice feeling of quality much like the original G1 jets. There didn't seem to be any inherent looseness of joints.

This was always a fantastic mould to begin with anyway, so Takara or Hasbro would really have had to go far out to mess up its looks. As I mentioned before, I thoroughly expected them to have gone too far with this particular paint job, but the longer I spent looking at Sunstorm, the more I liked it. The missile launchers are quite potent seeing as how this is a Japanese release without neutering. Looking at the above picture really makes me wish they had used a white landing gear and I'm not sure why they didn't, seeing as how his rear wheels/feet are white.

Here's a closer look at the nose section, and more importantly, the canopy. I believe the Collection #9 Anime Starscream release was the first G1 jet release to have tampographed details and those silver stripes across the canopy. Sunstorm shares the canopy stripe feature, and not at all to its detriment either.

Having seen this in the flesh, I think this deserves a "wow". Yes he's mostly orange, but the black and white in figure mode contrast sharply with the aforementioned orange, and I love the effect. I'm not sure what the general opinion is on Sunstorm though. Curt tells me that it sells really well but is that down to completist collectors and G1 jet lovers, or that people saw the colour and had to own such a striking toy? Whichever it may be, I consider myself added to the ranks of Sunstorm fans, and I'm a big fan of his figure mode. I've ALWAYS been a G1 jet lover and the figure mode, although admittedly limited in posability, is something I dig.

Notice the upside-down Decepticon insignias. It doesn't look so strange in figure mode seeing as how in the cartoon, the Decepticon jets usually had upside-down insignias on their wings. Personally I would have preferred the tampographs to have been the other way around, or at least have been given the choice with a set of stickers instead. That's not my biggest gripe with the figure though. What did bother and surprise me were the fists. They didn't click on to the arms as they do with the other jets I've seen and had, they sort of hover on the border of clinging on to the arm, or falling off. However much I tried, I couldn't get them to click into place. As a result, when you come to transform Sunstorm back to a jet, instead of pulling the fists off, you end up peeling them off lightly. A negative mark on an otherwise impressive toy.

As with all Japanese reissue Transformers, Sunstorm has a fetching and nifty collector's card:

The red eyes are a nice touch. Here you get some idea of what Sunstorm would look like with all his stickers applied to him. I'm definitely in favour of the red eyes, but the rest of the stickers don't appear to add much to the overall look of the toy. Some may consider him plain without them, but I think the tampographs are more than adequate. Other than the eyes of course! Do you notice anything strange about the photo of Sunstorm on his card back? His fists have holes in them. The photos appear to be re-colours of the Anime Starscream stock photos seeing as how Sunstorm clearly doesn't have holes in his fist for a mini-Megatron. Also you might notice that in those same pictures, his Decepticon insignias are the right way up! I'm not sure about his character art to be honest, I only see Thundercracker when I see that particular pose. A figure this nice deserved exclusive art, but then it is just a re-colour.

Speaking of the fists and the stickers...

The stickers have a good deal more orange content on them compared to a regular Starscream stickersheet as you can clearly see, however I'm not entirely sure why we've been graced with those three Decepticon insignias seeing as how Takara took the liberty of tampographing the wings and nosecone...

That pretty much brings things to a close for Sunstorm. It is a shame about the fists, but my lasting impression of the toy is a positive one and I won't forget how surprised I was by its real life appearance compared to online pictures I had seen. I did know what to expect, I just didn't expect to like it, and like it this much. It's a lovely colour scheme and I do feel that some thought has gone into it. However I can't help but feel there was an element of rushing involved considering the extra Decepticon stickers and the stock photo showing holes in the fists, but then Takara and Hasbro are famous for making those kind of 'mistakes' so it's not really something that's unique to Sunstorm. Did I mention that I quite like his name too?

...actually, maybe 'Tangerine Scream' would have suited him better ;)

All the best
Maz

You can order your very own 89 Sunstorm from the TFSource Reissue shop here: Reissue Transformers