Hunt for the Decepticons Jazz (Human Alliance)

 

Robot Mode: Starting with the color scheme, Jazz is mostly gun metal gray with black limbs and gold accents. All in all this is a nice and simple color scheme that is decently accurate to his movie appearance. It’s sharp, but unlike HA Skids, there isn’t much to it.

Jazz also retains the standard superior sculpting for the Human Alliance figures. In a manner similar to the G1 toys, many of the vehicle mode parts are actually a part of his body. His hood and roof end up on the back, but parts like the doors are his limbs. All of this makes for a clean robot mode. The head sculpt is especially well done and accurate with the wings and visor. Unlike his deluxe versions, the hands appear to be actually planned this time.

This has to be the most posable figure in the Human Alliance line. His spindly arms in particular have a hinge and pin shoulder joint, bicep swivel, an in and out swivel, a hinged elbow joint, and full wrist rotation. HA Skids can get a few more dynamic poses in the legs, but Jazz makes up for it with his wrists. His legs are just a little less stellar. His feet are large and pretty stable, but they do not have any joints outside of folding them up for transformation. For whatever reason Hasbro failed to get a waist joint in on Jazz even though they got one on Skids. Still, Jazz is the dancer in the Human Alliance line.

Just like the other Human Alliance figures, Jazz has several gimmicks. Unlike some other figures they are not an eyesore when the human figure is not present. The first gimmick is that his visor can be flipped up. Press the switch on his back and you will see why he has a visor. His face is not ugly, but it isn’t as cool as the visor. His second gimmick is a shoulder mounted cannon. The instructions don’t mention it, but there is a seat made of bronze plastic for Lennox to sit. This almost looks nice, but the bicep panels interfere with Lennox’s legs. If the gun were slightly larger it would look great without Lennox. His third gimmick is the weakest. His car seats and foot wells end up as his feet, therefore Hasbro thought it would be a great idea to have flip out guns on his knees and his human allies ride on his toes. In my opinion this is more retarded than riding on the characters arms. However, these atrocities fold up so well you could forget they were there. His final gimmick is his main weapon. The motorcycle that he is packed with can fold into the “Crescent Cannon” from the movie. Despite being a folded up motorcycle, the look is clean and effective. Any human figure can ride the blaster in this mode, but they can’t peg in for stability.

Prior to HA Jazz, Skids was my absolute favorite HA figure. Jazz has taken that place with a much stronger resume. I wish there were some more paint apps (Skids has a gold tooth) and more foot joints, but he is still great. One thing I forgot to mention is this figure is huge in comparison to the other Human Alliance figures.

Vehicle Mode: As I just mentioned, HA Jazz is an enormous robot, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from his car mode. Due to some stellar space management skills and engineering, Jazz can transform into a roadster that is just a bit larger than a deluxe car-former. Barring the seating area, every inch of this car has some form of robot parts crammed in them. There is only a small amount of “stuff” hanging out from under Jazz, but it doesn’t look like anything in particular.

On to the car itself, it’s a Pontiac Solstice. It’s clean and simple with a gray paint job. Two figures can fit in it. As far as interiors go, this is the least detailed. While it has some panel seams, the final product isn’t bad, but there isn’t much to it. This is just a good clean car mode.

Partners/Add Ons: The human partner for Jazz is Captain Lennox. The fact that his rank is Captain and not Major signifies that this figure is meant to be from the first movie, before Megatron ripped Jazz in half. Lennox looks like a generic white guy with the standard posability of his size class. Nothing special.

Similar to the Twins’ Human Alliance toys, Jazz comes with a motorcycle to compensate for his small vehicle mode. Unlike the Twins though, it does not transform into a robot, but the shielded gun from the first movie. When you look at it from the front it looks great, but from the side you can plainly see it is a folded up motorcycle. There is nothing wrong with that though.

Conclusion: Throughout this review I have mentioned that HA Jazz has nothing special. In reality, it is that simplicity that makes him outstanding. He has a clean appearance that is not hampered down by gimmicks or kibble. Additionally, he is exceptionally limber and stable. There is nothing holding this figure down in any way. If you own any of the Movieverse Jazz figures or even Smokescreen, please deposit them in your nearest recycling bin. This is without doubt the best of the Jazz figures from the movies.

Grade: A+