Arms Microns Jet Vehicon

Robot Mode: It’s mostly been said about the Car Vehicon (or prefix-less Vehicon), but it goes for this one here as well: it’s amazing how a robot that’s basically a shell-former (with the actual robot body containing little to no vehicle mode parts) has so little kibble. Sure, he’s got those plates on his arms and legs and big shoulder pieces, but the largest part of his vehicle shell just folds up and vanishes inside his legs. Amazing engineering.

Speaking of the Car Vehicon (which I don’t own yet), the Jet Vehicon is basically the same robot just wing wings on his back and purple highlights. The vehicle mode (see below) is nearly all-new, but it doesn’t impact the robot mode much. Jet Vehicon is a very cool-looking and nicely detailed robot. Okay, some of the detailing is done via stickers, which you either like or don’t, but the final product still looks fabulous.

Equally great: the figure’s articulation. With very little kibble to get in the way and pretty much all the joints you need, Jet Vehicon can strike a pose with the best of them and doesn’t have any balancing issues, either. Finally there’s the weapon, a great big gun with a triangular opening that also transforms... sort of. See below. I’d have gone for two slightly smaller guns (for more screen accuracy, too), but that might just be me. The gun can fit into the holes on Jet Vehicon’s forearms or shoulders, just like most of the DOTM Mechtech weapons, btw.

Bottom line: a robot mode featuring great engineering, a very cool look, full articulation, and a weapon that’s not fully my cup of tea, but serves its purpose. In other words: pretty great!

Alternate Mode: From a figure called ‘Jet Vehicon’ you would expect that it transforms into a jet, right? Well, it does... sort of. Actually it transforms into a car where the wheels have been removed in favour of wings. Which is more or less consistent with how the Jet Vehicons are shown in the TV series. Interestingly enough it’s not simply the car Vehicon shell with less wheels and more wings, but a completely new vehicle shell that just happens to look mostly like a car. Strange, but interesting.

Not really a whole lot more I can write here. No visible robot parts, always a plus, but apart from that it’s nothing more and nothing less than a car with wings. You can mount the Arms Micron on either side of the car or on either wing to give the jet firepower (and completely ruin its aerodynamics) and... yeah, that’s pretty much it. A solid, weirdly interesting vehicle mode.

Partner / Add-On: Like all the Japanese versions of the Prime toys, Jet Vehicon comes with an Arms Micron (you could also call it a Targetmaster), a weapon that transforms into... something. Not a robot, at least not in this case. The Arms Micron is called Igu and transforms into something that is supposed to be an iguana (because you see, the name Igu is a clever play on words for, I mean, a hip shortening of... ah, forget it!). Basically it’s the gun with four tiny legs extended and something that is supposed to be some kind of head revealed. It looks... well, like a gun on legs, to be honest. Best to leave it in gun mode and forget that it can transform. It doesn’t, really. A nice-looking weapon, though. I just wonder, do all Jet Vehicons call their guns ‘Igu’ or does everyone have their own name for their gun?

Remarks: Like the Sweeps of yore and the Beast Machines Vehicons from whom they took their name, the Car and Jet Vehicons serve as the Decepticons’ red shirts in the Prime TV series. Seeing as this is supposed to be a story about an ongoing civil war, some guys need to die now and then. And since you can’t kill off the main characters (at least not too often), you need disposable victims. I’m not sure how many Vehicons have been scrapped in the two seasons of Prime so far, but I think we’re at least in the high double digits.

If there is anything bad that can be said about the Prime Vehicons, it’s that the Car Vehicons are very, very shortpacked in the Western markets, while the Jet Vehicons have yet to appear in the Hasbro line-up at all (not sure they ever will). So while these guys are earmarked for army-builders, assembling large numbers of them is, at least for the moment, both difficult and expensive. Apart from that, though: great! Minor points deduction on the Jet Vehicon for the unnecessary Arms Micron gimmick (two smaller non-transforming guns would have been better in my opinion), but otherwise: fully recommended.

Rating: A-