Birthday haul: 2009 edition/Leader Jetfire review

Ok, so I still haven't seen Leader class Jetfire on a store shelf. I ordered him, along with Blazemaster, Arcee, Thrust, and Long Haul from Hasbro Toy Store's site late in August and got the box soon after.

I've opened them all as of last Friday (although my birthday is tomorrow), and they're all pretty great.

Jetfire himself, of course, was the big chunk of cash in this set and physically the largest, too. IN fact, his SR-71 alt mode is one of the biggest aircraft transformers I own (or that exist - I don't know if even Cybertron Supreme Starscream is this long). In that regard, this toy is a great example of what can be done with the Leader size class. The robot and combined modes (with ROTF Leader Optimus, of course) are pretty great, too.

However, the toy does have a number of drawbacks. First and foremost is the glaring disparity in alt mode between robot parts and SR-71 parts; basically, the alt mode is a SR-71 with Jetfire attached to the bottom. The effect is very similar to last year's Universe Silverbolt, who also turned into a long, thin aircraft with a block of robot underneath. However, it was much more forgiveable on that toy, even if the effect of Jetfire's undercarriage kibble is somewhat mitigated by his interesting transformation. There's also parts that exist only for the combined mode that are very much in the way in both robot and jet mode, specifically the 2 grey connectors that stick out in front of his shoulders (these connect to Optimus' back) and the abdominal plate/belt for Optimus, which just hangs off of Jetfire's back and gets in the way of stowing his legs in jet mode. Jetfire's also very cheaty when it comes to his transformation. Because there are virtually no shared robot/jet parts, that means that the parts in robto mode that are supposed to come from the SR-71 are totally fake and sort of redundant. The most glaring examples of this are the canopy helmet and the ramjet thighs. I blame most of this (particularly the thighs) on the necessity of combination, as both smaller versions of Jetfire (FAB and Legends) found a way to keep the thighs and the ramjets as the same pieces. Lastly, Transformation to SR-71 mode is not very fun. The "wing" panels above the head that become the root of the plane's neck are not fun to get in place and frequently pop of their ball joints. Also, ramjet sections do not connect very well to the rear fuselage - when you've got one solidly connected, it will come undoned again when you get the other in place. Very annoying. Also, the chines (sharp edges) of the fuselage are pretty sharp for a toy and can cause a bit of pain if you're squeezing the foreward fuselage halves together.

Also, while the ramjet sections are limbs in their own right and very fun to pose (don't forget, in the movie, Optimus flipped them around to use as cannons!), but the joints are very weak and do not support the large engines very well.

Gimmick-wise, Jetfire's ok. He has the same basic Mech Alive feature as ROTF Leader Megatron - slide down a lever on his chest, and internal gears and external armor plating move around (along with the head) while he says, in his very Scottish accent, "Jetfire's my name." However, like with Megatron, this also makes his head loose and difficult to keep in one spot. Luckily, his "whiskers" are posable and just stiff enough to make him look left or right if positioned correctly. His forehead is a fake SR-71 canopy (the real one splts in halve and is part of his arm kibble) with a red light behind the windows; there's another red light inside the chest (on the interior torso block) that's left of center, possibly to represent his spark/heart. It's also red. Both light up whenever the electronics are activated. He has three sounds other than his speech: a swooping aircraft sound (made by pressing a button on the aft fusealge), a nondescrpit mechanical moving sound (next to the swoop button, but typically only accessible in combined mode when panel covering it is in gun mode) and a very nice transformation sound when you transform his torso (in either direction).

He has 3 removable weapons: his gatling gun-shaped missile launcher, his landing gear cane, and the gun formed from his rear fuselage and landing gear for combined mode with Optimus. I think I like the missile launcher the best. It's an out-and-out weapon, and as such doesn't look so obviously kibble-based as the bigger gun does. Plus, he can use it in all three modes, not just one.
The cane is somewhat difficult to keep in place either in hand or as the nose landing gear wheel.

Overall, he's pretty cool. One funny thing about him is the stark difference between his appearance and characterization: he looks just as demonic/evil as ROTF Megatron (more vampiric, really,, but evil all the same) and has no less than 4 Deception symbols, but in the movie (and on the packaging) he's an Autobot. A rather helpful and friendly, if cantankerous, one, too. While the toy might be able to go back and forth between robot and combined mode, in the film Jetfire sacrifices his own life to combine with Prime so that Optimus can have enough power to defeat the Fallen. Pretty stand-up guy, really. But don't give this toy to a little kid. He looks like the damn devil and will be a pain to transform.

It took long enough...

I FINALLY found Animated Cliffjumper yesterday. It was at a Kohl's, of all places. This also unfortunately meant that it was really expensive for what it was - 12 dollars for an 8 dollar toy. However, considering this is the only time I've ever seen this toy, it was worth it. Better than going on ebay and having to pay even more for shipping, anyway. Speaking of ebay, they had 2. I should have bought the other to sell. Oh well.

He is a cool little guy. The new head sculpt looks great, though it limits the side-to-side movement. The car mode looks a bit plain compared to Activator Bumblebee, too (not to mention either Classics or Movie Cliffjumper).




I'm REALLY getting impatient trying to find ROTF Leader Jetfire. There's a lot of other new stuf fthat's supposed to be out now too, but I only found some repaints the other day - none of the four new deluxe molds that're being released.

Human Alliance Bumblebee

I finally found Human Alliance Bumblebee yesterday afternoon.



This is one of the Transformer toys. It's amazing. This is how you celebrate the brand's 25th anniversary.

Can't wait for the other toys in this subline.

Stratosphere

Walmart has a sale on ROTF Voyagers and deluxes right now, so I decided to pick up Stratosphere. I will admit that a large part of the appeal to me for this guy is that he includes an Optimus Prime toy - a very tiny one, too, even smaller than Legends class. However, Stratosphere himself has turned out to be a pretty cool transformer on his own. Take a look:

Here he is in his aircraft mode. He's a cargo plane, although not of a particular real type. The general body shape is pretty close to a C-17 Globemaster III (the plane used in the film to airflift the autobots), but it has a tail unlike any in-service US cargo plane (more like the An-225's tail), adn the cockpit/nose is like a weird blend between the C-17 and a C-5 Galaxy. Unfortunately, unlike the C-5, the nose can't lift up, so this makes that aspect a bit more like the C-17.

As you can see, Stratosphere is quite a bit bigger than his accessory Optimus in vehicle mode:



When the hoizontal stabilizers are rotated downward, the cargo bay door opens and Optimus, in truck mode, comes rolling out. It's a pretty awesome gimmick. Also, you can move the stabilizers bake to their normal position after you've used them to trigger the door.

Here's Optimus in bot mode next to the plane:


Stratosphere is among an increasingly large number of TFs that turn into huge planes. He's a Voyager class figure, like Animated Lugnut here, who turns into a bomber:



And here he is with Cybertron Jetfire, who's another cargo plane (a heavily modified An-225). This Jetfire is also an Ultra class figure, so that's why he appears bigger. Because he is!



As for Optimus himself, he's a pretty neat little toy! Better than I expected, really. He's very tiny, as you can see in this pic with ROTF Leader class Optimus. He's pretty much the size of an actual person (maybe smaller?):



Here he is with the other two small Movie Optimus toys. ROTF Legends class Prime is on the left, and 2007 Movie 1 Legends Class Optimus is on the right. As you can see, mini-Optimus is much closer in color to the 2007 version (both the Legends class and the Leader class toys), his blue is quite dark.



And vehicle modes:


Ok, for Stratosphere's robot mode:



As you can see, he's a bit different than many of the movieverse toys in that he's doesn't have as much kibble or sharp edges. However, he's got some features that make him an unmistakable member of the "Bayformer" clan. Among these are his, as some would say, digitgrade legs (simply meaning that his birdlike "backward" knees are actually ankles, making the feet, in an anatomical sense, actually only be his toes/ball of his foot.

Some random images...

Decided to put up a few pictures I liked. First, we have most of the TFs I own that are NOT on display at the moment (along with my ham of a son):


Here's ROTF Ramjet. He's actually really nice. Skywarp seemed objectively nicer, but I've really taken to Ramjet. I think he may be more attractive to the eye than any other version of this mold. Of which I have five now, by the way.



ROTF Mixmaster is a triple changer. Mostly because he has a giant cannon that can't be correctly used in either robot or cement mixer mode. The official cannon mode is rather ungainly and unstable, so I found this much simpler cannon emplacement mode:

All you do is split the cement drum/rear wheels, flip the cannon up and over, and rotate the smoke stacks a bit forward for some tiny guns.


I have my ROTF movie review partly finished. I'll post it soon.

Revenge of the Fallen...now in theaters!

So, ROTF finally hit theaters at 12:00 AM today. Unfortunately, I'm no longer at a point in my life where I would have gone to see it locally at midnight (I even saw a ~3:00 am listing!), nor can I see it later today - I have to go to class soon, then immediately to the dentist afterword. In the afternoon, I have to help get the house cleaned because we're having a double helping of company tonight: the couple fixing up our new piano are coming around five and at seven we're hosting bible study for our church.

Not that I would really want to see it locally, anyhow. I've never been to the in-town theater since moving here nearly two years ago, and even the next closest theater - near my parents, almost an hour away, wouldn't do. No sir, because I'm going to see this sucker on the IMAX screen. Luckily for me, my aunt lives very close to the best IMAX in the state, so she's ordered tickets for me and at least two of my four cousins (the ones that belong to her, at least). The two that are definitely going range in age from 10 to 23 (the other two are in between), but we'll still have a good time. I'd like to pick up a ROTF toy (maybe a legends, scout, or deluxe) for the youngest before or after the movie (and maybe, just maybe, one for myself - Walmarts are reportedly putting out pallets with the wave 3 deluxes and wave 3 voyagers that I haven't seen yet).

However, because of my responsibilities tonight and the fact that I have to go to class tomorrow morning too, we're waiting until tomorrow night to see the movie. I'm pretty excited, and I'll post a review on here either after the movie or (more likely) Friday sometime.

Legends Class Starscream comparison

Most people probably aren't interested in this, but I was struck by how much better ROTF Legends Starscream appeared to be compared to his 2007 mold-brother. You can tell it's ROTF Starscream due to the presence of the tribal scarring deco (they're not tattoos, at least if you go by the comics). More importantly, they finally put him in some decent plastic colors. His main color is now a very pale tan that's almost silvery. It's much more believable as a fighter jet color than the out-and-out gold form the 2007 version. Also, the arms now match the body and legs (although I think they're slightly different), so Starscream is no longer wearing a wife-beater. It also makes the arms less conspicuous in jet mode.







edit: By the way, here's my review of the 2007 version from the first time around:

Saturday, October 27, 2007


Small stuff!

Ok, so it's been a little while since my last update. This is mostly due to me being busy, but part of it is due to the relative slowness of Transformer releases at the moment. The thing about the current movie line is that Hasbro wanted to get a majority of the toys available during the summer so that they would be on shelf while the movie would be receiving the most attention. What this means for TF collectors/fans is that at this point in the Movie line, which is about 5 months in, we would only now be seeing some of the toys that were released as long ago as July. So, in the case of most TF lines, we're used to seeing new toy releases spread out over periods of a few months, whereas with this line there is only a relative handull of toys left to be released.

Anyway, this current lull in normal TF toy releases means I've only been picking up a couple of small things here and there, since I've been avoiding eBay recently. Lately, Hasbro's online toy shop was kind enough to make available two of the newer Legends class Movie toys. The Legends size class, for the uninitiated, is a pricepoint/size of transformers that are relatively small, usually measuring about 3 inches in height. They are small representations of characters that have all received toys in larger size classes, and as such the Legends versions tend to be simply in detail, transformation complexity, and range of movement. Even so, they are usually still fun toys and a must for any collector who has the "completist" mentality. Without further ado, here are my reviews for Movie Legends class Starscream:

Starscream

For this year's live-action Transformers movie, Starscream was one of the characters whose design received a very significant updating. The update to his vehicle mode was not too surprising - Starscream has been changed from his Generation 1 F-15 to an F-22 before, both in toys and comics - but the visual changes to his robot mode were definitely a step in a new direction. Movie Starscream is a massive, hulking robot with a large upper body and a relatively small upper body, resulting in an exaggerated appearance that some love and many have deplored. Well, like it or not, this is the design that Legends Starscream is modeled off of and also the mode he is packaged in.



The robot mode is a pretty good representation of what Starscream looks like in the movie: avian legs, massive torso and long arms, topped off with a rather insectile face/head. Like the larger, Voyager-class ($20) toy, this Starscream has a "realistic" muted color scheme. Most of the plastic is molded in a light tan color that is a bit metallic but still close to the larger toy's main color. Why they chose this color for these toys is unclear to me, as Starscream appears grey/silver in the movie, but it does look pretty nice regardless. This tan color appears on Starscream's torso, head, waist, and legs. The arms are molded in a light gray plastic that's not very metallic at all, as are the tailfins which appear above his shoulders. Most of the torso is covered in acoat of paint - either silver or bronze depending on the area. The silver is concentrated in the center while the bronze is near the shoulder areas. The eyes are painted red and the mouth area and abdominal cockpit are yellow in color; the shins are the same silver that appears on the torso. There is extensive molding on the torso and an aperture so that you can so the aircraft's cockpit through his abdomen. The head molding is good, although pieces molded to be the jet's thrusters are on the rear of the head and make it seem to have small horns or ears that the movie design does not possess. The arms are notable for having actual hands; the larger Voyager-class toy has arms molded to be permanently deployed in a missile-launcher mode seen in the movie. As far as articulation is concerned, there's of course not a whole lot. The arms are pretty good; both shoulders and elbows are ball joints with a pretty good range of movement. The hips are ball joints, but they are limited in motion; the selection of a ball joint here seems mostly to facilitate the rotating of the legs during transformation. From the back, it's pretty obvious that Starscream is a pile of jet parts, but the vertical stabilizers projecting from the shoulders look like small wings, and the nosecone sticks up like on the Voyager class toy. Overall, Starscream is pretty good looking in robot mode with the articulation you would expect for most Legends transformers. The main detractor is probably the bland gray plastic used for the arms; they could have used the same silver paint treatment that the legs got.

Starscream's transformation is pretty unique. In some ways it mirrors the Voyager class toy's, but in other ways it is a transformation that is completely new and has never been used on an aircraft transformer. Here are the basics: upper arms fold over the top of the torso and the forearms stick out behind the thrusters. The legs rotate outward and the waist/nosecone complex rotates forward, pulling the legs up under the fuselage where they peg together. Lastly, you rotate the rear horizontal fins backward to their correct positions (although, if you leave them folded in, you end up with a sort of delta-winged F-22. Kinda neat.). However, this describes the "official" transformation found on the package. I don't like the hands sticking out behind the jet, so I tried rotating the opposite way so that they would sort of be stuffed between the legs under the fuselage. You have to unpeg the legs to do this, however, and the peg on the one leg sort of gets in the way. I decided to cut the peg off, as the leg joints are stiff enough to hold htem in place. I'm pretty satisfied with the result, as I don't have hands hanging off the back of the jet anymore.



Again, Movie Starscream's vehicle mode is a Lockheed Martin F-22 fighter plane. Fans who have the aforementioned Voyager class toy know that it is not a particularly good representation of the sleek and angular fighter. Luckily, the Legends version fares better in this regard. The jet mode here is much better proportioned than its larger counterpart, and has very little robot kibble visible from the top, even compared to the Energon series Starscream. Of course, the underside is a Robot Body Parts Nightmare©, but that is almost par for the course for aircraft transformers. My only real complaint is in regards to the color scheme: the forward fuselage, nosecone, and wings are all tan whereas the vertical & horizontal fins are light gray. It doesn't really look bad, but it's certainly weird and not a scheme you'd see on a regulation F-22. The point of the nose and the leading edges of the wings have some nice silver paint on them; there is some on the edge of the yellow canopy as well. It helps lend definition, and I added some more silver paint myself to the hollows of the intakes and the edges of the tailfins. There are some other oddities to the mold - like the shoulders' ball joints on the wingtips and the huge aperture in the middle of the fuselage, but they are not very distracting. In the end, it's one of the better F-22 modes in transformer history, and certainly better than either larger version of this same character (the $10 Fast Action Battler version or the $20 Voyager version), something that seems to be the case with another prominent movie Decepticon (read: Megatron).

In any case, this is a pretty great little transformer. I recommend him, especially for the hardcore Starscream fans, Legends class enthusiasts, and aircraft TF enthusiasts. Here's hoping that like most Starscreams he gets repainted ad infinitum.