Earthrise Cliffjumper

Prelude: Cliffjumper, a bot who to the best of my knowledge, has never actually jumped from a cliff or even contemplated jumping from a cliff, is mostly known as the eternal red repaint of the far more popular Bumblebee. In recent years he has also become known as the bot who usually kicks it very early in the movie or TV show. In War for Cybertron, though, he not only hasn’t died (yet), but also managed to arrive on the toy shelves before Bumblebee. So let’s look at this new incarnation of the death-prone red bot. Let’s say go!

Robot Mode: Let’s get the obvious thing out of the way first: Cliffjumper is pretty small for a Deluxe-class figure. Actually he might well be the smallest Deluxe-class figure I ever held in hand. Of course some of the missing mass is made up by his humongous bazooka, but more on that later. The figure itself is really, really small for a Deluxe-class figure. That needed to be said.

Apart from its size, though, Cliffjumper is an excellent figure. The figure’s articulation is great, Cliffjumper can easily pose with the best of them. Running and kicking poses come as easily to him as lying on his stomach in a sniper position, no sweat. Look-wise the figure is clearly meant to be Cliffjumper, no doubt about that, right down to the big car-hood-feet and the boxy look. Very nicely done. The only slight downside, at least to me, is that Cliffjumper’s transformation involves a little bit of parts-forming, where the rear of the car is taken off and then placed on his back in robot mode. He can also use it as a shield on his arm, though, which looks pretty cool.

Now let’s talk about Cliffjumper’s huge bazooka weapon, adapted from the huge weapon he had in the original Transformers pilot, with which he tried (and failed) to snipe Megatron. The weapon consists of five pieces and can be taken apart into two smaller (but still pretty big) guns, a flip-open third piece that can be stored on Cliff’s back, and two extra parts that serve as the big gun’s stand. Overall it’s a pretty cool weapon, but I’m not sure it needed to be that big.

So bottom line: a very good figure, possibly the best robot mode G1 Cliffjumper we’ve seen so far. The fact that he’s small fits with the character, so no point deduction on that front from me, either. I’d have liked if Cliffjumper’s traditional glass gas gun would have somehow been included in the big gun, but that is just a minor nitpick. So thumbs up for the robot mode, nicely done.

Alternate Mode: Naturally Cliffjumper transforms into a small red sports car, just like he did in G1. The transformation is pretty straight-forward, no big surprises here, and not terribly complicated, either. The resulting car looks pretty good and not as deformed as the G1 original, either. Not really much more to write about the car itself, it’s a red sports car. You know the drill.

The big bazooka can’t really be hidden anywhere on the car, but it can be mounted on top of the car as a weapon or be disassembled and serve to kind of somewhat give Cliffjumper a third mode. The weapon turns into a pair of skids for Cliffjumper’s front wheels and a pair of thrusters for his rear wheels. This is a callback to the times the G1 Autobots modified their car modes to drive across water. It’s a fun gimmick, but probably not something I would have needed. Overall, though, a pretty good car mode.

Remarks: Cliffjumper was part of the original Ark crew in G1 and has turned up in pretty much every G1-based Transformers series ever since. As mentioned above, he tends to die a lot recently, but otherwise he’s mostly the red Bumblebee repaint (except when he’s voiced by the Rock). Cliffjumper did appear in the first season of the Netflix War for Cybertron series, but only for a pretty brief scene. But hey, at least he hasn’t died yet.

As a toy, Cliffjumper is pretty good, a very nice representation of the character, and just a good figure overall. Some people might be turned off by the fact that he’s small for a Deluxe-class figure, but that’s pretty much the only point against him. So if you like Cliffjumper, car-formers, or just good Transformers figures in general, Cliffjumper is a solid pick. And also, unlike roughly 50% of all Earthrise figures, not an exclusive of any kind. Bonus points for that.

Rating: B+

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