Jazz's vehicle mode is
a very realistically-proportioned Pontiac Solstice. With the exception
of a few telltale extra pins and pieces on the rear bumper, there's no
robot extras whatsoever in this mode, even if you look through the transparent
blue windows. The dashboard inside the windows is a bit oversized, but
the drivers' seats are definitely molded in there. Jazz's weapon-- an extendo-sword--
is mounted on his rear spoiler in this mode, which obviously doesn't make
him look as much "in disguise" as he otherwise would be, but it's easily
removable if you so desire anyways. The major downside to this mode, however,
is that it's very dull-looking, like the other movie-accurate iterations
of this design. The dull gray should have been painted silver, like on
the car, to make it look both more realistic and REALLY slick. All this
dull gray, combined with a "bar minimum" amount of detailing in vehicle
mode and paint apps concentrated almost entirely on the front and rear
bumpers, hardly makes Jazz stand out.
Jazz's robot mode is
okay, but it has some definite proportional problems. For one, his head
is way too far back relative to his chest. His lower arms are really flimsy,
as they're just two of the flat panels of his car mode folded together
with a claw piece flipped out. He can't even really "hold" his weapon--
it attaches to the side of one of his lower arm pieces inside. His legs,
on the other hand, are really bulky, and although they (along with the
rest of the robot mode) are excellently detailed in regards to both paint
apps and the mold itself, they look like they belong to a much larger-sized
Transformer when compared to the upper body. On the other hand, Jazz's
spoiler-shield is somewhat cool, and his head sculpt is spot-on and awesome-looking
to boot, with the light piping working very well for the visor. Jazz has
decent, but not really outstanding, articulation-- he can move at the shoulders
(at three points), elbows, head, hips, knees (at two points), and ankles.
However, his hip and knee articulation is restricted a little due to a
curved tab on the top of his lower leg piece in addition to the car doors
molded on the sides of his upper legs, which kind of get in the way of
each other a bit when posing him. Jazz's "automorph" feature is rather
tame compared to some other Transformers-- when you push down his windshield
piece onto his back, his head will fold upwards and the middle of his chest
will push out a little. You have to push in the windshield piece REALLY
hard to get it to stick, however, and Jazz's head still tends to look a
little downwards even when the automorph feature is activated.
Deluxe Movie Jazz is
a bit of an underwhelming figure, giving the very cool design he has on
the big screen. He has a dull, though well-proportioned, vehicle mode,
and an excellently detailed but pretty misproportioned robot mode. I actually
like the Fast Action Battler version better
than this toy, simpler though it is. If you're only going to spring for
one version of this mold, though, I'd wait for the G1-inspired Target Exclusive
repaint
coming out in a few months instead, as its paint job looks quite promising.
Review by Beastbot
Second Opinion by VBBN
Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Rating: 7.2 (original); 7.4 (Allspark
Power)*
Jazz's vehicle mode is
a Pontiac Solstice. At first I thought it was a Porsche when I saw the
prototype of him, but alas that is not the case. It looks pretty good,
but it seems just a bit too large when compared to other figures-- he is
a bit bigger than Bumblebee in vehicle mode, when he should be the same
or smaller. In any case, he looks realistic, and the drivers seats are
nice additions-- better than nothing. Paint apps are okay, the rim around
the ties works, but the dull gray plastic is cheap looking, like a KO.
I really dislike the extendo-sword-- with all the weapons movieformers
have, a tiny sword (it's not even a sword, more like a jousting stick)
isn't going to be very effective.
In robot mode, Jazz
isn't terrible, but he is the weaker of the Autobots. Let me start with
the problems. Firstly, his arms are pretty sad, just the hood folded up,
causing them to be flat and hollow. His legs, while they look great, also
kinda look strange with the doors on them. But the detailing is great,
head looks very G1-esque for a movieformer, and the paint detailing looks
nice as well. My last complaint is that his articulation, while there may
be plenty points of it, is very limited. This isn't helped by the fact
everything besides his head are hinges, not balljoints. His head sags down
as well, the spring doesn't seem strong ehough. As for his automorph, I'm
not too sure what Beastbot means about having to really push the windshield
hard into his back, mine fits fine. Maybe it is just a distribution thing.
His automorph is lame and takes away from the figure overall (the head,
like stated earlier, is sagging down a bit).
All in all, Jazz is
middle-of-the-line as far as movieformers go. If you don't have this guy,
I don't think I would get it if I were you. Sure, get a version of this
mold, but get the Premium Jazz, ROTF Smokescreen, or Target Exclusive G1
Jazz instead, all of their color schemes are superior to this one and help
oversee the mold flaws a bit.
Review by VBBN
Autobot Jazz (Allspark Power) Bio:
Though he was badly damaged – almost
destroyed – in the final battle Autobot Jazz is back. Thanks to the power
of the AllSpark he’s more powerful than ever.
Strength: 6.0
Intelligence: 6.0
Speed: 9.0
Endurance: 7.0
Rank: 8.0
Courage: 9.0
Fireblast: 6.0
Skill: 5.0
*In addition to the normal release, a Target-Exclusive release of Jazz in "Allspark Power" packaging, with some Allspark blue paint (but no other changes), was released. I think it looks a little nicer than the original, and spices up the color scheme a bit.