Since Fast Action Battlers are aimed at a younger audience than the "normal" Transformers, their alt modes tend to be a bit more rounded and "kiddy-looking" than the mainline Transformers, but Jetfire here is an example of this principle taken waaaay too far. Forget slightly younger audience, this looks positively Go-Bots-ish or Power-Bots-ish. It's waaaay superdeformed, with everything super rounded, the nosecone waaay too short and fat, and the main body of the plane too small. Still, if this was all that was wrong with Jetfire's Blackbird SR-71 alt form, it would be somewhat forgiveable. But in spite of these superdeformed proportions, he's got some major robot parts hanging off his bottom side-- his entire robot arms and face, namely. Having "boosters" formed from the tips of the arms in one way or another helps to offset it slightly since it makes them look a little like exhaust fumes (even if they're gray and coming from the wrong places), but they're still incredibly obvious and ruins and remaining sleekness the toy may have had. The robot face also looks RIGHT AT YOU from rear view, which is rather disorienting. On the plus side, there are quite a lot of mold details on Jetfire, including myriad panel detaling in this mode and the requisite robot pistons/robotic detailing in robot mode. The red line detailing also looks quite good against the black, and the metallic blue used for the cockpit is a nice color. The otherwise all-black-and-dark-gray color scheme is accurate, but rather boring, though.
    As many problems as I have with Jetfire's vehicle mode, his robot mode is even worse. The proportions are just abhorrent, even allowing for the simpler transformation of a Fast Action Battler. His hips stick out waaaay too far from his main body, and his upper thighs are way too large in proportion to his lower legs, which bend backwards a bit TOO far in their "chicken leg" configuration. In comparison, Jetfire's arms are too small and a little on the skinny side, not to mention the shoulders are attached too close to the chest-- they aren't broad enough. The face detailing, while... okay... is off overall, with his "beard" and "ear hair" not sticking out nearly enough to make it obviously Jetfire. It looks more like he just has a ridged faceplate on instead. The added metallic copper coloring in this mode makes the color scheme pop a bit more, though, and the chest detailing and pelvis detailing is great. The vehicle mode bits flip up behind Jetfire's main body pretty well without getting in the way of what articulation he does have. (He can move up-and-down at the head, as well as at the shoulders (at two points), hips (at two points), knees, and ankles. Even most of these limited points are rather restricted, though, and given Jetfire's odd proportions on top of that, he's not very posable at all, even for a Fast Action Battler. Each one of Jetfire's arms has its own gimmick-- the right arm has a spring-loaded missile launcher attached, while his left arm has his trademark cane that can flip out and provide him with some extra balance.
    Photon Missile Jetfire is a pretty bad figure all around, from his superdeformed and extra-laden vehicle mode to his horribly-proportioned and badly-articulated robot mode. If you want a Jetfire figure but don't want the super-complicated Leader class version, get the cheaper Legends figure instead. I really can't recommend this figure to any kind of audience.

Review by Beastbot

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