Review: #73
Name: Jazz
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: Autobot Alliance
Year of Release: 2010
Size Class: Human Alliance (Wave 1)
Variations: none
VEHICLE MODE:
Jazz transforms into a snazzy Pontiac Solstice, and unlike Hasbro's later efforts with other figures, the entire car is painted in silver. This makes a huge different and Jazz feels more premium. This is, quite simply, an awesome vehicle mode, the silver paint used here is fairly dark.
There are a lot of molded detailing, the front grill and headlights are particularly well done. The major panel break happens to be on the doors, otherwise, it's fairly clean. The clearance underneath the vehicle can be a bit tight, making it scrap along the surface so it doesn't roll very well.
I don't know if it's just me, but it feels Jazz's proportions could be a bit off. He's supposed to be a sleek sports car, but to me, he feels just a tad too stubby. This isn't major, but it is there.
The underside doesn't give too much away about the transformation (this could mean that it's actually something other than your standard affair?!) and it's quite jam packed.
Jazz is a bit on the small size for a Voyager classed-ish figure, certainly not as big as some previous Human Alliance figures. However, he has the mass, being deceptively heavy.
I'm sick of saying this, but being in the Human Alliance subline, he features opening doors, looks quite snazzy.
The doors form the arms in robot mode, so it's understandable that they are thicker than they should be, and obviously have claws lodged in them.
The interior is a bit dodgy to be honest. I don't mind this, since it's a compromise for the robot mode, but Jazz doesn't feature any proper seats, the robot feet are the seats. He has a steering wheel and that's it.
Lennox fits snugly into the seat, and you can have another human on the passenger side. It can be somewhat hard to position his limbs so that they look natural due to the tight space.
An excellent excellent vehicle mode, and one of the best there is, and I'm not being biased. In terms of realism, this has struck a high note, admittedly, it's not on the level of Binaltechs, but this is just superb.
TRANSFORMATION:
It's not hard, and it's surprisingly quite innovative, well, as innovative as you can get from a Transformer who has the front of the vehicle as his chest and the back forming the arms. However, I was surprised at the transformation, it's not something you'd expect or see immediately and it works really well. The way the chest formed was really nice, and I liked the little things to make the robot mode more accurate, without making them too fiddly. Only thing to note is that at one point in the transformation, the clear plastic windshield is the only thing connecting the top half of the robot with the bottom half, so it can easily stress and snap if you're not careful and put pressure in the wrong places. The legs compact really well into the back of the car, and I like how they compressed the hollow space, just a really well thought out transformation, very solid, very fun.
MOTORBIKE:
Interlude!!!!! Going to break it up a bit by focusing on the motorcycle that comes with this yet. To be honest, I don't think this motorcycle is based on anything that we've seen in the movie. It is fairly small and compact, a bit smaller than Chromia and Arcee from other Human Alliance sets.
Despite being only painted in one area (the cowlings with silver), it looks detailed and not bland at all. There are quite a lot of molded details. The only flaw is that the missile is 'stored' on the motorcycle, by plugging it on the side. At least with this, it's very stable on the table (and you don't even need to use the kick stand).
There's some gaps in the body, due to the jointing. At times, you get the thought that the motorcycle was more of an afterthought, due to how it's clumsily designed. There connection point for Jazz to hold in robot mode is folded up weirdly. Obviously, the bike rolls.
Lennox can ride the bike, but he doesn't attach or anything. He just rests there, still, it's a pretty cool bike.
CAPTAIN LENNOX:
Second interlude, we now focus on the human partner in the set, Captain Lennox. He's smaller and simpler than previous human figurines, omitting waist and wrist joints, not that it makes much of a difference in my opinion.
His footprint is small making it annoying to stand at times.
The head sculpt is weird, and I hate how they have just painted the whole eyes black, it makes him look freaky. Anyway, for a side attraction, it's passable.
ROBOT MODE:
And now to the meat of the review. In robot mode, Jazz is equally stunning. It's impressive of the engineering such that almost all of the silver paint here is carried over from the vehicle mode (only the head and shins are robot specific silver parts).
It is a clean robot mode, the only back kibble he has is the three panels on his back. I have to admit that in the pictures, the configuration for his arms in this mode are not official, but I like this more this way, since it's better proportioned and shows the silver.
Unlike Skids or Mudflap, he doesn't feel like he has a hollow body. Sure, the torso is still basically just a spine, but he feels really solid.
The head is a really really nice sculpt, painted in silver like the rest of the body, he has a clear blue visor.
The head also contains a gimmick (like all the other Human Alliance toys), via a switch at the back of his head, you can flip the visor up or down. When it's up, you can see that he has some (freaky) eyes.
Another gimmick involves the motorbike. You can transform it into the shield gun that Jazz used in the first movie. You have to retract the hand and then plug the gun in, so he's not really holding it (such a shame), but it still looks great.
From the side, the gun doesn't look as great, simply because it's so 'long' and the wheels are really obvious. The missile can fire via an awkwardly placed button.
And the final gimmicks involves the titular human. There are three official placements. The first one, and this is a bit weird, but you can place Lennox on either feet and there are flip out guns that he can handle.
Next is that Lennox can sit on Jazz's shoulders, and you can flip out a grey gun, that is especially there for this gimmick (and kinda annoying in vehicle mode), it doesn't look that impressive and Lennox isn't locked in or anything.
Lastly, you can place him on the shield gun, but why he is in such a dangerous place, I do not know. So none of the human interactions make much sense.
Personally, I would rather just use the gun in itself. Anyway, I love the look of the feet, they are big and stable (and have flip out heelspurs that are easily missed), the metallic bronze painted used looks really nice.
His articulation is not to be laughed at either. Nothing hinders anything and he can achieve a wide variety of poses, it's amazing. I think you can tell that I love this robot mode, and in my opinion, the best looking robot mode from Human Alliance yet.
OVERALL:
This is one brilliant toy and one that I would not hesitant to tell you that you should go and fork out the money for him now. I am not kidding that he is the best Human Alliance toy out there (even including the later DOTM figures). Two amazing modes, and a really fun transformation. He is well painted, well sculpted, I just cannot express enough how good a figure this it, get it!!
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