Jazz's vehicle mode is,
like most Bumper Battlers, a "chibi" version of his mainline
toy's vehicle mode. It has even more "deformed" proportions, and is
considerably wider proportionally than he is in the show/on the mainline
toy. Given Jazz's already friendly-looking vehicle mode, though, it fits
very well. As with nearly all Bumper Battlers, Jazz also has plenty of
paint detailing in vehicle mode, so he looks far from boring. (Not so much
when it comes to mold detailing, but given the target demographic the Bumper
Battlers are aimed at plus the style of Animated, that's hardly a surprise.)
In fact, Jazz is one of the most dynamic-looking Bumper Battlers of all,
give the wide red-and-blue stripes on the top of his vehicle mode, the
black windows, the silver bumpers/wheels/tailpipes, and the red/orange
headlights and taillights. You certainly won't fit any big areas of unpainted
plastic in this mode, that's for sure. As with all Bumper Battlers, Jazz
has his name imprinted in a stylized manner on his vehicle mode-- the windshield.
Also like all Bumper Battlers, pressing down on the Autobot symbol on his
hood will activate anywhere from 1-4 sequential sound effects which are
played out in a semi-randomized manner. It never ceases to amaze me how
many different ordered sound effects you can get out of the toy, and they're
never played in a manner that doesn't make any sense. Unfortunately, they
didn't get Jazz's voice actor from the show (Phil LaMarr) to do the voice
clips, but they got someone who sounds close enough where it's not much
of a stretch. Pressing in on the front bumper of his vehicle mode will
automatically transform him to robot mode and also play some of these random
sound effects. Here's a list of all the different sound effects I got out
of Bumper Battler Jazz after a couple dozen button presses (though again,
with the vast number of different random ordering of sound effects he has,
I may have missed a few):
-Transforming sound
-Tires screeching sound
-Nunchuk-flinging/smashing sound
-Engine revving sound
-Crashing sound
-Scanning sound(?)
-"Hah!" battle striking sound
-"Autobots..." (always followed by another
sound byte that makes sense)
-"Go!"
-"We'll hold them off here."
-"Let's roll."
-"They call me Jazz."
-"Hah-hah!"
-"I am stylin'."
-"Decepticons?" (always followed by another
sound byte that makes sense)
-"Bring it."
-"Stay cool."
-"We got this under control."
Like all Bumper Battlers,
just press in on Jazz's front bumper to convert him to "robot mode", with
the robot just being detailed on the underside of the now flipped-up roof.
The rest of the vehicle mode is unchanged, so he doesn't have any legs
to speak of or anything like that. There's a bit of an unsightly gap in
the middle of this mode-- where the robot half folds into the vehicle mode--
but it's an unavoidable side effect of the Bumper Battler gimmick. The
detailing on Jazz's robot mode bits are very good-- all of the necessary
details there, along with a fully detailed face, chest, and waist. His
arms could use a bit more black paint, but that's a small quibble. I also
like how he's holding one of his nunchuks in both of his hands, even though
he can't really use it-- he has no articulation whatsoever. Another downside
is that the part that pops up to show his robot mode is relatively small
compared to other Bumper Battlers, so it tends to wiggle a little on his
spring when you move Jazz around.
Bumper Battler Jazz
is the best toy overall in the subline, with a dynamite color scheme, cool
sound effects, and just a really generally eye-catching toy with plenty
of paint apps, even for a Bumper Battler. The slightly floppiness of his
robot mode piece is the only real downside (beyond the downsides of any
Bumper Battler due to the gimmick, of course).
Review by Beastbot