Autobot
Jazz (Power of the Primes)
For his PotP version, Jazz's alternate mode edges away from his traditional sportscar mode and more towards a race car. He's still curvy for the most part in this mode, with a very round roof and front end, but the back end has a raised spoiler, and the general engine details on the rear portion of his middle section definitely give off a "race car" vibe. There's no robot mode extras at all here unless you count some of the hinges you can see inside the clear windows, and the proportions are pretty spot-on, overall. Jazz does come with two accessories, though. The first is a standard PotP "Prime armor" piece that can peg into the middle of the roof in this mode, though as always, the Prime armor looks odd because it's so obviously just the combined mode fist with two thumbs and a takeaway clear piece you can insert a Prime/Titan Master into instead. Jazz also has a simple silver gun, which can be stored in that center port or on similar-sized ports on the top of the side sections of this mode. (There's also four pegs near the back end for a Prime or Titan Master to stand on in this mode.) The mold detailing is a bit sparse, as you'd expect for such an aerodynamic alt mode, but there's still panel lines here and there to break things up. The front round headlights are detailed very well, along with vents on the front bumper. There's also small panels along the rear sides, including the aforementioned exhaust pipes. On the back end there's also taillights and a rear bumper, though unfortunately there's no paint back there at all. It's unfortunate as this mode does have a LOT of white--as you'd expect for a Jazz toy-- but there should have been some paint detailing on the rear spoiler or something else back there to break up all that white. However, the front two-thirds of this mode are pretty well broken-up color-wise. The dark blue stripe down the middle of the front hood and the roof looks great broken up by the four light blue lines as it is, along with a dark red stripe down the center of THAT stripe (as well as on the bottom of the front bumper). Jazz has his signature "4" number on this stripe as well as on the sides, along with some dark blue stripes along the bottom of the sides and some faux racing decals on his car doors. The headlights are also colored very nicely, with some light blue painted on the back end of the clear pieces to make for some transparent light blue lights.
To transform Jazz into robot mode, you open up the sides to become his arms, extend out the back ends to become his legs, then do some finangling with the front stripe pieces before flipping down that part over his body section to form his chest, while the middle of the roof is left behind his back. Generally this mode looks pretty good, though not quite as extraordinarily solid as his vehicle mode. For one, the roof does stick out a bit obviously from the sides of his stomach and waist, and is a minor piece of kibble. The lower arms are also merely molded into the inside of his car door pieces, which makes them look too rectangular overall and doesn't look good on a toy the size of a deluxe. The rest of his proportions are pretty nice, though- he's got fairly bulky shoulders, well-proportioned legs, a nice hood/chest, and a midsection that is bulked up a bit by the creative folding down of some pieces of his main stripe from vehicle mode below that chest, essentially serving as a "tapering back" of the main body from the front of the hood to the waist. Jazz's headsculpt is spot-on, with his characteristic blue visor, silver "normal" face, and a black multi-facted helmet with small side antennae and a fairly long sloping forehead. That said, the expression on his face is decidedly neutral, when it seems like Jazz should look happier. Smile, buddy, you're Jazz! The rest of the mold detailing on his robot mode is pretty decent, with several vents on his lower legs and some panel lines on his arms, along with some basic robotic details on his waist. His colors are also broken up much more effectively over the whole toy, with black having a much bigger presence in this mode than in vehicle mode, aloowing for a lot of contrast. Beyond the black and white, though, and some silver on his feet, the only other colors are from those on his chest and visor. For articulation, Jazz can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows, waist rotation, and movement at the hips (at two points), knees, and slightly back-and-forth at the ankles. His hips move sideways a little lower than they do on most other deluxe figures with similar articulation there, allowing him to cock a leg out to the side a bit more effectively-- he's pretty articulate and can be fairly expressive as a result. Like most other PotP deluxes, you can also plug Jazz's Prime Armor onto his chest in this mode, tabbing it at two little peg holes on the sides of his stomach. It looks pretty odd, though-- again, like on most other PotP deluxes.
