Jhiaxus
(Generations)
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Generations Armada Starscream. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Generations Armada Starscream here.)
Jhiaxus is a pretty substantial
remold of Generations Armada Starscream. For starters, all four of his
wings have been completely re-done; all are now wider and have little points
coming of the back ends, making him look slightly less sleek than Armada
Starscream, but still plenty aerodynamic. (The bulkier rear wings make
it so that they don't fold into the lower legs partially in robot mode
anymore, though.) The nosecone has also been remolded, with a longer, skinnier
look and some rather intricate detailing on the windows. This more bird-like
nosecone doesn't look as good against so wide a body for the jet mode,
and just doesn't fit the rest of him, unfortunately. In keeping with the
aerodynamic look of most of the rest of the toy, the top of the chest has
also been remolded to be more rounded. Of course, Jhiaxus also has a new
headsculpt, which is very well-detailed and SPOT-ON to his previous fiction
appearances, complete with the rather unique pipes coming out of his cheeks
to meet below his chin. Finally, the weapons underneath the wings have
also been changed; instead of swords, they're now hand-held (non-firing)
guns. I think this change is definitely for the positive, as they can function
in both modes this way.
Jhiaxus' color scheme,
on the other hand, is pretty way-off from what the initial plan was. There
seems to have been a miscommunication somewhere along the line; the "old"
design team left after designing this remold but before designing the color
layout, and the "new" design team-- who, at the time, weren't as knowledgeable
about Transformers-- searched for an image of previous Jhiaxus toys-- of
which there was only one, who was a sort of
"Jhiaxus in name only" toy, not bearing any resemblance to the character
beyond having an aerial alt mode. Unfortunately they designed this Jhiaxus'
paint scheme based upon the earlier Beast Machines Jetstorm redeco, which
is FAR inferior to the rather nice green/yellow/red scheme that Jhiaxus
has traditionally had in the comics. The fluorescent orange is DARNED bright--
too bright for a color this dominant overall. There's also a fair amount
of gray-- both of the lighter brownish variety and of the darker, more
straightforward gray variety. I don't mind the darker gray-- mostly used
only for some of Jhiaxus' robot bits-- but the more prevalent light brownish
gray is just another ugly color that's too light to adequately contrast
with the bright orange. Thankfully there's a little of black-- notably
on the rear wings and nosecone-- but it's not nearly enough to help darken
the color scheme against all these bright, ugly colors. There's also a
titch of appropriate light metallic silvery blue paint for the cockpit--
which is a nice shade, but again, only an accent that doesn't contribute
much to the overall scheme-- same with the light yellow robot optics, bone
white face, and clear plastic on the back of the missile launchers. There
are some gray stripes along the wings and front section to at least break
up all that orange a little more, but it's all just not enough-- Jhiaxus
has one ugly color scheme.
Most of Jhiaxus' mold
changes from Armada Starscream's are improvements, with more interesting-looking
wings, better weapons that can be used in both modes, and a really nice
facesculpt. His nosecone is too tiny and long, but that's about the only
mold change I dislike. However, the incredibly loud, generally bright color
scheme is just awful, with not nearly enough dull/dark colors to offset
all that fluorescent orange and brownish gray. I really, REALLY hope this
mold is redecoed one of these days in his traditional colors as originally
intended... as it is, I can't recommend this unless you're such a huge
Jhiaxus fan you can stand him having a completely inaccurate color scheme.
Review by Beastbot