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Series: Reveal the Shield
Allegiance: Autobot
Categories: Deluxe
Year: 2010
Autobot Jazz falls in love with every world he visits. The tiniest hint of alien culture is enough to fascinate him for hours. His ability to immerse himself in a new civilization makes him an ideal undercover agent - he blends in with the environment, absorbing every bit of data he can, and looks for the anomaly that tells him Decepticons are present.
Robot Mode: Let’s start off by saying that this figure is clearly Jazz, no mistaking him. The head is a very nice adaption from the original cartoon character’s noggin’, the body stays true to the basic design of the G1 figure, and the overall look is a great homage. The figure even goes one step further, having basically the same transformation as the original toy, while integrating superb posability (double elbow joints!). So far, so good.
If this figure can be said to have a flaw, it’s the lack of paint applications. To be precise, the figure looks a bit boring. Some paint apps still visible on the back of the package (the prototype figure, one imagines) are missing here, such as the radiator grill on his chest now being all-white. Don’t get me wrong, Jazz does have some nice details, but a speck of paint here and there would have brought them out a lot nicer. So I have to deduct some points here, sadly.
An undocumented feature of this figure (as in, not in the instruction sheet) is the fact that he has loudspeakers hidden inside his door-wings. This feature pays homage to an ability Jazz showed in a single G1 episode, where he extended speakers from his vehicle mode (which he can do there, too, see below) and play really, really loud music. This figure can extend the speakers in both robot and vehicle mode and they serve a double purpose, as the speakers are on the same clips as the various clip-on weapons we’ve seen in the Generations and Reveal the Shield series. So Jazz can swap his speakers for other clip-on weapons, too, and the speakers can also clip onto his rifle (which looks more like the 1988 Pretender’s weapon than that of the original 1984 toy), but that looks pretty weird to me, so I didn’t photograph it. A very nice feature going back to a rather obscure G1 cartoon gimmick. Nicely done.
So all in all a very nice robot mode that pays homage to one of the most beloved G1 characters, but sadly lacks a bit in regards to bringing out the details.
Vehicle Mode: Just as in days of yore, Jazz transforms into a white sports car. Not quite a Porsche this time, but close enough to look like it without having to pay expensive licensing fees and with the headlights of the Pontiac Solstice thrown in to remind people of the Movie version. The detailing looks a bit better here than it does in robot mode, but is still a bit lacking, especially the all-white rear end. Everything folds together very well, though, with no robot bits visible. The weapon can fold together and be stored underneath, too.
As mentioned above, the loudspeaker gimmick works in vehicle mode, too. Just open the doors, unfold the speakers, and close the doors again. You now have a pimped-up Porsche with humongous loudspeakers hanging off the sides. So the bottom line is the same as in robot mode: a very nice car mode, but some more paint apps would have been great.
Remarks: Jazz was one of the most beloved characters from Generation 1 and has been a set character in many Transformers incarnations since. Which makes it all the more surprising that it took over four years (since the original Classics series began in 2007) for this character to get the CHUG-treatment (Classics, Henkei, Universe, Generations). Sure, there was an Alternators Jazz and a Universe Legends figure, but unless you got the Shattered Glass Jazz from the 2008 Botcon set, your Classics line-up was always missing a proper Deluxe Jazz. Until now. The figure is finally here.
The final verdict: A pretty good figure with just one major flaw: Too few paint applications, making for a somewhat boring look. Thankfully that is easily fixed either by taking a brush in hand yourself or buying the reprolabels sticker set which is already available. I’ve done the latter and will provide pictures once the stickers are here and applied. Straight out of the box, though, Jazz looks a bit boring. So despite being a really cool Jazz, I can only give him a B-rating.
Rating: B
Update 2011-04-08: The sticker set from Reprolables has arrived and Jazz now looks a lot better than before. See the last four pics in the gallery.
Picture Gallery:
