And a whole new colourscheme, of course...
Vehicle Mode:
Streak - or Bluestreak as he was (originally) more commonly known - was a slightly confusing character back in Generation 1. While his appearance in the TV show, the comics and even the toy's box art was based on a mixture of Diaclone toys, the original TransFormers toy was wholly silver. A later Collectors' Edition used the TV show's colourscheme, and the Classics version followed suit, but mainstream versions tended to be purely silver, and the Binaltech version keeps to that pattern.
Looking at this car now, and particularly in the light of the more recent Masterpiece Bluestreak, I'm no longer sure I'd say the Impreza is such a good choice as the contemporary equivalent of the Nissan/Datsun Fairlady. It's a nice car, certainly, but it feels more like an executive or family car... Something you'd get as a rental while on holiday, perhaps. The Rally version worked perfectly for Smokescreen because it was an actual real-life rally car... the street version, for Streak... looks a little plain, despite the extensive coverage with silver paint. Thankfully, even Hasbro's Alternators Silverstreak was fully painted, despite Smokescreen having been molded in blue plastic to avoid the necessity for a fully body paint job.
The differences between this version of the vehicle and that used for Smokescreen are in the front bumper (uncovered lights, mounted numberplate with Autobot insignia), the bonnet (a couple of small details near the front of Smokescreen's bonnet have been removed), the roof (the radio equipment has been removed), the wing mirrors (larger and wider), the spoiler (smaller and more subtle) and the hubcaps (now five pairs of spokes each). Everything else appears to be identical, just painted silver and without all the sponsor decals.
That's not quite the case, however, as the interior has been altered. Where Smokescreen was a lefthand-drive, Streak is a righthand-drive vehicle, like British (and, apparently, Japanese) cars. There's also an application of silver paint over the central portion of the dashboard - likely representing the on-board audio system - and some paint on the seatbacks. The use of red as Streak's secondary colour means that his folded up legs are a touch more apparent in the back of the vehicle - where another set of seats should have been - but that's a small compromise. At the back of the vehicle, the WRX and Subaru badges are tampographed on and don't stand out especially well against the silver paint, while his rear numberplate is labelled 'SLV STRK', with an Autobot insignia between the two blocks of letters.
Functionally, vehicle mode is identical to Smokescreen - all the same bits open up, and to the same extent - but his gun/engine is molded in red and black plastic rather than grey and black. I still think a little more paintwork on this accessory would have improved its appearance, both as an engine part and as a handgun, but coloured parts inside engines aren't uncommon these days, so it looks OK as-is.
Robot Mode:
The funny thing about this figure was that, based on how cool Smokescreen turned out to be, I wasn't even expecting a revised head sculpt for this figure... but Streak's helmet is entirely unique, even down to the chubby face with its robo-chin-beard. He also has unique shoulders - not just different from Smokescreen's, but they're asymmetrical: only the left shoulder features an Autobot insignia, with the sculpting altered to accommodate it.
The belly, forearms, groin and legs are common to all iterations of the Subaru mold, but the silver paint on Streak's hips is squared off, where Smokescreen's has a weird curve on the bottom edge. It really is a shame that the paintwork is so uniform, as Streak ends up with very little colour variation, and precious little black visible in robot mode. I almost wish the belly had been painted black rather than silver, and the seats molded in a darker red, or even brown plastic, for greater similarity to the G1 toy... That would rather detract from the intetion of Binaltech, though... Still, a darker red overall wouldn't have hurt the figure - the plastic used really is super-vibrant, looking particularly odd on his legs.
As with Smokescreen, you'll notice some non-stock weapons attached to Streak in a few of my photos. These, again, are from TFClub's Binaltech Arming sets and, in my opinion, were an essential purchase to complete the figure... it's just a shame that (a) they didn't make any using red plastic and silver chrome and (b) there's no way to attach them to Streak's vehicle mode as they were designed primarily for Smokescreen. His stock handgun doesn't work so well in gun mode as it did in engine mode, blending a little too well with his forearms and hands. Where Smokescreen's worked well enough, this one might have worked better had it been chromed like Lambor's.
I mentioned above that Streak got a unique head sculpt and, for the most part, it doesn't disappoint. It's fairly accurate to the G1 toy in overall style, but embellised with large vent-like protrusions from the sides. The crest is essentially the same shape as Smokescreen's, but the sculpted detailing in the horns and the central block is entirely new. The face is similarly bland and a little on the puffy side, but has a large protruding mecha-goatee on the chin. What really impressed me, though, was that the helmet is painted in a slightly warm metallic colour - not quite gold, but not just silver... It's sort of similar to Mercedes' 'Smoke Silver', a small pack of which I bought years ago for repainting the original live action movie Starscream toy.
I honestly don't mind that Binaltech repainted molds as often as it did, I just wish it had released them in a different order to at least give the impression of greater variety. Streak is every bit as good as Smokescreen - and encumbered with the same flaws - but having him appear so soon after the debut of the Subaru mold was a huge mistake in my opinion. Across the Binaltech/Alternators line, thirteen different vehicles were used, most of which were used for at least two characters, while the Subaru ended up being used for more than its fair share, particularly due to odd decisions like making Prowl into a different car, the Acura RSX, but then using the Subaru for the likes of Ricochet (traditionally a Jazz repaint, so ideally the Mazda RX8), Red Alert (normally based on Sideswipe, though it's unlikely the Fire Department would use a Dodge Viper, so the Acura RSX would have sufficed), and there was even a Binaltech Bluestreak, for those who wanted a Diaclone-accurate colourscheme.
In isolation, Streak is fine - an excellent update of a G1 character and his toy. The die-cast metal gives him some heft and, while he doesn't have anything like the tech detailing of the G1 toy - because all of that was provided by stickers - the use of silver for the torso, groin and hips, and a vibrant red for the forearms and legs makes him a very striking figure in robot mode. Whether this is an improvement on Smokescreen is entirely subjective... and, honestly, I still haven't made up my mind.
I like the Subaru mold but, aside from an Alternators Smokescreen I bought with the intention of turning it into a London Metropolitan Police version of Prowl (haven't made any progress in the last 15-odd years, though), this was the last iteration of the mold I bought.
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