Starscream Combiner

This article is about a character or concept which lacks any official name or designation. For more information, see Help:Nameless.

The Starscream Combiner is a Decepticon Combiner from the Generation 1 continuity family.

"Get on with the docking sequence!"

Usually when a new Combiner is brought into the world, it's an equal meeting of the minds in the form of an awesome super robot. Not so with Starscream, whose selfishness and lust for power run so deep that other bots could drown in it. Desperate to claw every scrap of strength and control he can from every possible source, it's the ultimate tragedy that the already powerful Air Commander will learn nothing from those taken into the "Starscream Combiner", who seems to be just more of the same unsatisfiable warrior—but this is lost on him. All that matters is the power that is rightfully his.

So bottomless is his need to dominate the universe that, if allowed to, he will gobble up entirely seperate Combiners in his pursuit of fulfilment. But this is Starscream we're talking about—the ambitions that got him this far will always exceed his grasp of the situation. The more he consumes, the more likely it is that the control he imposes over everyone else inside his combination will shatter... laying bare the pain at its core.

It's not impossible for Starscream to let go of his ego and work with others, but it usually requires an even stronger will to keep him in line.

Fiction

Deviations

"My fellow arms and legs, as your new torso, I..."

In a reality wherein Optimus Prime killed Megatron in 2005, Starscream ascended to Decepticon leadership and thus was present to strike a deal with Unicron. The Chaos Bringer upgraded Starscream into Megascream in exchange for the promised destruction of the Matrix of Leadership.

Soon thereafter, when Optimus spearheaded the Autobot attack on Unicron's surface, he was met by the new Decepticon leader, who demanded that Prime turn over the Matrix so that Megascream could destroy Unicron himself. A brawl ensued; Megascream revealed the full extent of his upgrades by combining with Soundwave, Astrotrain, Dirge, and Thrust to form a gigantic warrior. The gestalt Megascream easily crushed and injured Optimus beneath his fist before seizing the Matrix. At the last moment, the stowaway Hot Rod intervened, snatching the Matrix away from the Decepticon leader and opening it. The ensuing explosion destroyed Unicron, with Megascream, his underlings, and Hot Rod all lost in the blast. Deviations

Prime Wars Trilogy cartoons

How it started.

How it's going.

Voice actor: Frank Todaro (English)

As part of a bid for power, Starscream staged an elaborate scheme that ended with Devastator, and Victorion attacking him and the other members of Cybertron's ruling council, prompting the Mistress of Flame to hand over the Enigma of Combination so he could stop them. Instead, he used the relic's power to merge himself with the two combiners, along with the already dead Menasor and Computron, becoming Ultimate Starscream. A War of Giants However, the power proved too much for him to control, and his form distorted into little more than a giant screaming ball of energy. No longer in his right mind, Ultimate Starscream began to attack the city, with the Mistress, Windblade, Optimus Prime and Megatron attempting to fend him off. Darkest Hour Ultimately, Windblade managed to awaken Metroplex to restrain Ultimate Starscream, allowing Optimus and Megatron to finish him off. Starscream's body was disintegrated by the blast, and the other combiners were revived and released from his control. Destruction's Dawn

Prime Wars Trilogy marketing material

The scheming Decepticon air commander Starscream could wield powers of the Primes by linking with Prime Masters. Power of the Primes Starscream packaging bio As "Nexus Starscream" he would wield the enigmatic power of Nexus Prime selfishly, combining with any and every warrior who could give him a leg up with his insatiable lust for power. Power of the Primes Nexus Starscream card

Toys

Power of the Primes

"Who disrupts my combination!?"

• Starscream (Voyager Class, 2017)
• 4 x compatible Deluxe Class figures

Power of the Primes Voyager Class Starscream can be linked with any four compatible Combiner Wars Deluxe Class figures to form an unnamed combiner.

As a Power of the Primes Combiner, a Prime Master, Matrix core, or Enigma can be installed within the Starscream Combiner's chest, hands, or feet, such as the "Seeker Enigma" that comes packed with Starscream.

Power of the Primes was notoriously muddy on information about "intended" layouts for Combiner teams. While the Dinobots and Terrorcons were pre-established teams who received complete coverage, no such luck exists for this selfish warrior! The following is a summary of every recorded configuration... though we'll note that while the instructions are largely arbitrary, the packaging art components are all Decepticons.

	Starscream's/Dreadwind's packaging art	Starscream's instructions
Left arm Right arm Left leg Right leg	Blackwing Dreadwind Sinnertwin Blot	Slug Jazz Swoop Dreadwind

Notes

"Tsarscream" was right there, y'all.

• The situation with the Starscream Combiner's name is a thorny one. You'd be forgiven for assuming its name is "Megascream" or "Nexus Starscream" from the write-ups above, but those are actually names given to two different upgrades that permit Starscream to dominate others by combining with them. Only "Ultimate Starscream" directly applies to the combiner itself... and that was never actually given in the Combiner Wars series itself, instead coming from an official render of the character. Considering that it's a plot point that bonding directly with the Enigma and using entire Combiners recursively makes him the "ultimate Combiner", it's sadly a little too specific (without a second use; help us, Earth Wars!) to be the name of this page.
• Similar examples of a central component taking complete control include the back-of-the-box bio for Cyclonus (while forming Galvatronus) and the e-HOBBY handling of Scourge Grand Prime stealing Menasor's limbs.
• The Combiner Wars toyline was the introduction of "pretooled" alternate heads across all figures, and Starscream was lucky enough to recieve two. One on Skydive's body was released twice by TakaraTomy, but ex-Fun Publications people attested there was also one sculpted for the Cyclonus mold. If released, the Galvatronus torso mode would have been decoed up as "King Starscream", though this ultimately never came to pass - but evidence of this design lineage is present in the head of the Power of the Primes Combiner, which is largely identical in sculpt! Other Combiner Wars tooling was later released unmodified in Power of the Primes, through Hot Spot's similarily pretooled head Inferno and the subsequent Inferno Combiner.

External links

• Clearer view of Power of the Primes packaging line art by Robby Musso on Facebook
• Full view of Power of the Primes packaging art by Amos Rachman on ArtStation