United Stepper

Review by Laserwave13:

Prelude: Who does not know the history of G1 Stepper, the holy grail for any collection. Until the Reissue came along. Since his original toy was a redeco of G1 Jazz or Meister, it was clear that for the Classics or Henkei and United line they would also use Jazz again. And he even regains a bit of his exclusiveness, being available - once again - only in Japan and only via mail order from Million Publishing.

Packaging: Unlike most United toys he simply comes in a little box. And I do mean little. Simple black and white deco on the outside, just the two figures on the inside. No collectors card or anything like that, only instructions and even they are taken unchanged from United Jazz. So nothing special in terms of packaging.

Partner Targetmaster Nebulon: Getting the unimportant stuff out of the way first: Nebulon is – again - a redeco of Targetmaster Nightstick who had his first appearance with Henkei Cyclonus and has since seen quite a few other uses as well. He holds little to no meaning for me. But they had to include him to accommodate his G1 version, which also was a Targetmaster and came without the weapons of Meister and only with the Targetmaster. Nice extra, but nothing more.

Alternate Mode: The look and style of the vehicle itself is a matter of taste of course, but the paint job and quality are simply amazing. Compared to his G1 incarnation he comes in a matte finish and this makes the golden colours and paint apps pop out even more. The rims, the rally stripes, the gold painted spoiler, everything is painted perfectly. They even remembered the golden stripe along the windshield. Just an awesome looking vehicle mode. The speaker gimmick remains unchanged. It fits Jazz’ character a little better, but the mold has it and it works. Only downside is that the Targetmaster doesn’t have a place to be mounted or at least be stored in this mode. But I blame the useless Targetmaster for this. The car itself is a sight to behold.

Robot Mode: The ultimate in awesomeness. United Jazz was pure genius, but Stepper steps up to perfection, so to say. The pure white combined with a real metallic-looking gold paint just looks awesome. The handgun and speakers also come in white, although the speakers did receive a few golden spots at least. And just like in vehicle mode they can still be deployed in robot mode, so there is nothing new here mold-wise. Articulation for posing is great and all joints are tight. The only thing that bugged me a bit is the upper white part of his lower legs. One half is made of white plastic, the other half is painted and that shows, at least a little. But that is nothing and not worth deducting points for. Same with his visor that could have used some paint, but that is just how it is. Nonetheless this is a genius figure and like Jazz before him, wonderful to look at and to display.

Conclusion: Absolutely marvellous. To be honest, for me United Jazz was the figure of the year (2011) and Stepper is even more outstanding. The little flaws he has are hardly worth mentioning, even more so because I think the Targetmaster is somewhat unnecessary anyway. Is Stepper himself necessary? Well, no, because there is one simple point against him and that is his extremely high asking price. And I do mean high, very expensive. So, as cool as he is, he’s recommended only for those who wants certain molds or characters to be complete and fans of Japanese exclusives. For me it was worth it, if for no other reason than he shares the mold with Jazz. And that is all the reason for getting him anyway that you will ever need. Simply excellent!

Rating: A-