Jetfire
(Legends of Cybertron)
(For a full review on the larger Jetfire toy that this is based on, check out the review here.)
Jetfire's vehicle mode
is quite good, and pretty accurate to his larger self. The colors are a
dead ringer for the bigger version, and it's also nice to see that most
of the silver paint apps made it on the Legends of Cybertron version as
well. I wish the cockpit windows were painted their familiar yellow color,
but that's a small gripe. There's also plenty of good mold detailing as
well, so no complaints there. A few minor differences are noticeable between
this and the larger version, all of them due to size and budget constraints.
For one, and probably the only annoying differences, is that the robot
hands are pretty clearly visible coming out of the outer engine turbines.
Granted, there's no way they could have collapsed the hands into the turbines
on this size of a toy and still kept the toy accurate to its larger version,
but it's still a rather obvious extra. The little side "missile launchers"
that popped out of the sides of the chest/nosecone in robot mode on the
larger version are also just molded onto the nosecone here, since no spring
gimmick could obviously be used there because of the small size. Another
slight difference is that Jetfire doesn't have any wing-mounted missile
launchers on this version, for obvious reasons. And the final difference
is that the wheels that used to be on the underside of Jetfire's vehicle
mode aren't there anymore-- instead, just four little semicircular plastic
bumps on the underside are in their place. Again, understandable, but what's
odd is that the front two bumps are noticeably larger than the back two
bumps, making Jetfire lay at a slight angle in vehicle mode. It's no biggie,
but it is rather odd.
Jetfire's robot mode,
believe it or not, is actually BETTER in some respects than the larger
version's. Yes, he's still back-heavy, and yes, he still has that noticeable
gap in his body when looking at him from a side angle, but A. His face
is silver rather than white, which looks a little better; B. The ends of
his wings curve up at the ends, which looks a bit better than just having
the splayed out straight like they have to be on the larger version; C.
His arms don't lok as chunky as they do on the Ultra-sized version; and
D. His waist connects to his chest MUCH more solidly on this version. That's
not to say that LoC Jetfire is better in all respects, of course; he has
no weapons, he has less detail than his larger version, and his articulation
is more limited-- he can only move side-to-side at the shoulders, forward
at the arms, and he can rotate a the waist, he has ball joints for the
hips, and he has slight articulation at the knees (they're on ball joints,
but their movement is restricted because of the surrounding plastic). Still,
that's more movement than your average Legends of Cybertron toy, and it's
still serviceable.
Legends of Cybertron
Jetfire is a pretty good downsized version of Ultra Cybertron Jetfire,
and although he doesn't have all the features and articulation of course,
he still actually managed to improve on his larger version in some aspects
of the robot mode. Recommended if you don't want to spend $25 on the big
version.
Review by Beastbot