Review: #106
Name: Special Ops Jazz
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: Reveal the Shield
Year of Release: 2010
Size Class: Deluxe (Wave 5)
Variations: there is a United version with a brighter white plastic and more paint, repainted into United Stepper, retooled into Botcon Treadshot and Asia Generations Wheelie
VEHICLE MODE:
Jazz transforms into a white sports car with a racing stripe and the number '4' on his doors and hood. Jazz looks like a generic car but is actually based slightly on the Porsche and Pontiac Solstice.
While it looks promising with all the paint apps, the back completely falls apart, sporting no paint at all. This is a major letdown, the least they could do was paint the tail lights red, you can see all the sculpting for the exhausts, lights and windows, yet, due to cost cutting reasons, they didn't bother, creating an undefined white lump of a rear end.
He's missing silver hubcaps too, but those I can live with. He features a fairly low riding spoiler that's a bit too far in, but nevertheless still looks pretty good.
Part of the Reveal the Shield assortment, he doesn't have any visible insignia. Instead he features a rubsign, and in case you didn't know whether he's an Autobot or a Decepticon, just heat the sign up with your fingers and whola, he's an Autobot!
A decent size for a Deluxe figure, he may be a little bit more compact than you're used to when compared to previous Deluxe class toys (pre-Movie figures).
Most of the car is filled with robot bits, so the vehicle's not just simply an empty shell. The gun stores underneath the hood too, which is neat.
And the gun isn't the only thing stored, there's also speakers that can deploy, they're based off the ones he used in an episode of the G1 cartoon. Apart from the lack of paint for the rear of the car, a very nice car.
TRANSFORMATION:
A transformation that isn't as finnicky as the Movie toys. It doesn't rely of manipulating thin panels or fake kibble, it doesn't cheat. You're moving relatively large and solid parts, as a result, it's very satisfying. It's not difficult, yet not too easy either. There's two automorph features, the first in his legs, with the grey panel on a spring and automatically springing up to cover the gap as you unfold the legs. The second happens when you fold his chest down, his head pops up automatically, which is pretty cool.
ROBOT MODE:
A great robot mode, with that "Classic" aesthetic that sucked a lot of fans in. Black becomes much more prominent here, as does the lack of paint applications.
There's barely any kibble at all, the roof folds in very closely to the body and doesn't impede anything. The door wings are supposed to be there for aesthetic reasons, the closest thing to kibble here is the rear of the car sitting behind the legs, but they're so well integrated already that they don't get in the way at all.
His head sculpt has him as if he's really angry, like a "don't mess with me" look, which suits him just fine. In theory, lightpiping would be amazing, but what you get doesn't work well at all.
Jazz has his gun, which you'll have to unfold and extend to get it into the proper form when taking it out of storage.
Jazz retains his speakers, which fold out the same way. They're on enough joints such that you can position them in a way to your liking. They actually look good as weapons of some sort.
You can also detach the speakers (on C clip joints) and attach it to his gun for some sort of super gun mode. Personally, I think it looks ridiculous and not at all impressive.
For such a small car, Jazz unfolds a lot during transformation, and towers over some other Deluxe figures.
It's amazing how much they've based this off the original G1 toy, from the wheels on top of his shoulders, torso sculpting and shins, it feels like the update it should be.
However, what's Jazz's lacking most is paint apps, there are a lot of great sculpting here... but masked due to the bland plastic, such a shame.
Poseability is great, he's only lacking a waist joint. Jazz has wrist joints and hinged ankles too, which increases the range of dynamic poses he can be in.
The blockiness really sells and works in Jazz's favour, I love the robot mode more than I thought I would, it just looks so good.
OVERALL:
A much better figure than I could have anticipated. I only got the figure coz it was on clearance and boy, was I glad, Jazz is worth even full price. If you can, I would recommend the United version instead since it features all those critical extra paint applications, but RtS Jazz is much better. This is a really fun mold to transform and pose, and he has a few different weapon options. A great toy, highly recommended.
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