On the flipside, the Revenge of the Fallen toyline was, by and large, one of the brightest periods in the TransFormers collecting world - an expansive line with a huge number of non-movie characters, intricate engineering and an interesting gimmick that didn't have a detrimental effect on most of the toys.
And then came Leader class Jetfire... a fun toy, certainly, but overburdened with the prerequisite 'lights and sounds' gimmicks of the time, and featuring a simplistic-yet-awkward, unenjoyable, panel-tastic transformation between inaccurate robot mode and that old favourite, the jet with a robot hanging off its undercarriage. It deserved to be better, so when the Studio Series remake was revealed, Hasbro had my attention.
Vehicle Mode:
Obviously, it helps that the SR-71 Blackbird is one of my favourite aircraft, so I'm more inclined to try to find things to appreciate in any TransFormers toy daring enough to attempt it. Of course, even this Studio Series version is a hopeless failure, technically, but it's markedly better than the now 10-year-old Revenge of the Fallen version.
While it's overall substantially smaller, the jet is sleeker and with a less prominent robot undercarriage. Since the real jet is so slim - little more than a triangular wing with a pair of engines and a long nosecone to accommodate the cockpit - naturally this toy only accurately models the upper surface, and leaves robot parts visible underneath, but they are less bulky and virtually every robot part there has been transformed in some way rather than just being tucked into the body. Of course, I say that but, yes, that's Jetfire's entire head wedged into the underside of the nose, just behind the front landing gear, with his rubber whiskers dangling down almost to the ground. Whether this particular feature genuinely consitutes an improvement over the previous - whose arms ran almost the full length of the nose section, on the underside, with his hands holding the landing gear in place - is very much up for debate, but certainly the rest of the robot ends up more compact, and features all kinds of sculpted detail, some of which could be considered to be exposed inner workings of the jet itself. Once the lower surface of the nosecone ends, the details sculpted into the inner surface of the remainder looks convincingly structural and features cabling, for example. I'm also rather more impressed with the way the rear landing gear is handled on this version - folding into the body of the engines rather than out to the sides.
In terms of sculpted detail, the jet is naturally somewhat simpler than the older, larger figure, but it nevertheless captures the important features of the Blackbird, from the grooved sections between each engine and the main body, to the zigzag pattern on the edges of the wings, to the panel lines around the cockpit. The windows are painted detail rather than translucent plastic, and they seem more accurately modelled than those of the older version, with the frontmost, triangular windows being far smaller. Paintwork is predictably simple, with the red linework on the SR-71's body more-or-less accurately reproduced, and only some of the finer details and US Air Force markings omitted. Some of the labelling around the cockpit is present, though I'm unable to tell whether there's any legible text in there, and the markings on the tailfins are only slightly more accurate than those of the older figure. There are no Decepticon insignias present, nor even concealed in the markings. One curious feature is the bold yellow dot on the lefthand side of the nose, in the area of the cockpit. Rather than being a mistake - as it initially seems - this does appear to represent a marking on some iterations of the real-life jet, though I've not been able to discern its purpose.
With the front landing gear formed out of Jetfire's walking stick, it should come as no surprise that his axe can be stashed on the vehicle mode - a couple of slots at the rear of the underside match up with the pegs on the blades, and the handle slots in neatly between his hands. Probably the most distracting feature is the two rubber cables pegged into the wingtips - which feel like a somewhat unnecessary holdover from the older model - but, like that model, they serve a purpose for SS Jetfire's combined mode with the later release of Voyager class Optimus Prime. Less apparent are the grey pieces plugged into the back ends of the wingtips, which only actually come into play for that combined mode.
Robot Mode:
To my shame, when writing about the original, Leader class Revenge of the Fallen Jetfire toy, I opined that "there was probably no way a real-world toy could ever successfully emulate the complex transformation of Jetfire from Revenge of the Fallen", concluding that it was a decent attempt. Ten years has brought a world of difference such that, while this is certainly still not perfect, it's a vastly more efficient and tidy representation of the movie CGI in plastic form. More of the jet ends up as a functional part of the robot, with the bare minimum of backpack, designed to replicate elements of the CGI, albeit in a much-simplified form. Granted, he should have a broken-up cape made of smaller slivers of jet - kind of like Blackout's rotor cape - and the jet panels hovering over his shoulders should be sightly more plentiful, further forward and at steeper angles, but the torso is a far cry from the ugly block of electronics that made up the original toy. Likewise, the legs may have a greater number of identifiable jet parts hanging off them - like the entire front of the engine sections sticking up from his calves and the wings/tailfins hanging off his thighs - but the overall look is sleeker than the original, and able to adopt a more natural digitigrade-legged stance.
The level of sculpted detail is a bit of a mixed bag around this figure. The arms are phenomenally detailed, with gears, pistons, cogs, belts and even exposed wiring on the biceps. It looks quite skeletal in places, but it's true to the CGI and all of these little details give the impression of movement even though they themselves don't actually move. His hands are better proportioned, less claw-like than those of the original and are nicely detailed, despite the insides of the fingers and the palms being quite hollow. The legs, meanwhile, actually form parts of the jet's engines, so the turbine detail on the knee, the intricately-sculpted pipes, framework and cables are, technically, part of the jet mode as opposed to being additional chunks of robot stuck to the underside of complete, non-transforming engine nacelles that then hung off the robot's back, as they were on the original. The front sections of the engines end up poking out of the backs of his calves, but they look fairly natural there and don't unduly affect his articulation. There's more sculpted gearwheel detail on the black plastic section below the turbines, which links to his knee joints and, while the shin is less intricately sculpted due to the large joints at the ankle, it does feature some exposed mechanical detail around the curved armour panels. The feet are surprisingly similar to those of the previous model, albeit flatter and more detailed... though I'm not sure of all of the detail is entirely accurate. Just in front of the ankle joint, for example, there's a part that looks as though it's supposed to represent Jetfire's landing gear actually forming part of the ankle/foot assembly... and, while I can't find any especially clear photos of Jetfire's feet online, they seem more completely armoured than this toy suggests. The chest, by contrast to all this, is surprisingly flat, relying on sculpted detail - and the robot's overall hunched posture - to give the impression of more depth than is actually present. Lots of pipework and cabling is visible, designed to look as if it goes over, around and beneath the armour panels and, while this figure actually gets Jetfire's hunching more-or-less right, there's just not a great deal of depth or shape to the chest. The small area of neck, behind the head, features more gears and things that are basically concealed by the protrusions from the sides of the head, so props to Hasbro for actually bothering with that. Meanwhile, the interlocking gears an mechanical detail within the groin area show exactly the sort of depth that the chest needed.
Paintwork is similarly patchy. Silver, gunmetal and black paint have been applied in a manner that is somehow both liberal and precise. Liberal, because glossy black paint appears on armour panels on the forearms, belly, and feet, while the metallic paints appear on mechanical detail on the forearms, thighs and groin, many of which are quite large applications. The thighs, in particular, have gunmetal paints wrapping around and following sculpted details to quite a surprising degree, while the groin area has all its internal sections painted silver. Paint applications are precise not only because they follow certain details - such as the pipes and framework on the thighs - but also because of the very fine applications of blue and red paint on the exposed wiring on Jetfire's shoulders and biceps. Below the knee, there's no paint other than on the feet but, strangely, that yellow dot from the side of the nose section appears on his right foot. There are touches of black in the spaces within the turbine-like detail on the backs of his hands, while the first section of each finger is painted with that strange metallic yellow - that is definitely not gold - which Hasbro sometimes employs. Given the extent of the sculpted detail on the chest, it's incredibly disappointing that it's virtually all unpainted and, while the neck features the red linework of the faux-jet mode parts, the winglets on his shoulders do not.
I'm not sure a walking stick counts as a weapon (though I have a feeling Jetfire may have used it as such at least once during the movie), but it's certainly an accessory that can be placed in his hands, either via the shallow ring socket molded into the first interdigital space of either hand, or the one in either palm. The latter is best for actually using it as a walking stick, while the former is better suited to using it as a bludgeon, or just for accommodating the axe accessory... though, to be honest, the former is not especially convincing because the ring socket at best gives the impression that Jetfire is holding the accessory between his thumb and forefinger, rather than fully in his hand. Even worse, the hands generally aren't effective because the fingers can't move to simulate a grip. Given the sheer size of his hands, this seems like quite a significant oversight on the engineering side, but I'm guessing the hands had to be sculpted in an open position to facilitate transformation, and articulating the hands may just have added a level of complication and fragility they just weren't happy with. It's a shame, because the axe is comparatively well-sculpted and features silver paint on both its blades. It's one of the few times in recent years that a mêlée weapon has had any significant paintwork, and it really brings the axe to life, giving the impression of well-honed blades. When not in use, the axe can be tabbed to either of Jetfire's winglets, but it looks daft, so it's probably best to just leave it aside if he's not 'holding' it. The cane is unpainted, but probably more intricately sculpted, with armour panels and mechanical detail of its own, giving the impression that the whole thing is connected to the landing gear assembly while in jet mode. One thing that bugs me is that he doesn't have the arm-mounted missile launchers he used in the movie, nor the Gatling/spring-loaded launcher packaged with the original toy. Now, granted, the SR-71 was an unarmed spyplane... but Jetfire in the movie was clearly not unarmed, so the toy should have more than just the axe and cane. I mean, honestly, it's not as if I'm asking for his flatulence parachutes...
One of the big problems with Jetfire in Revenge of the Fallen is that I don't think there was ever a truly clear shot of his head or face... It was excessively detailed and frequently poorly lit whenever it was on screen for any length of time, so it's difficult to determine how good a head sculpt this really is. It's substantially better than the original, simply by being the right sort of shape and in better proportions to the rest of the body. The side whiskers and beard are separate rubber pieces, the latter stuck over the silver/gunmetal-painted face and seemingly in more or less the right style, with sculpted panel lines and details all of its own. The areas of face that are visible are intricately sculpted, but there's something vaguely simian about the face, while that was not my impression of Jetfire in the movie. It also seems a bit weird that the eyes are sculpted to look rather squinty - as far as that's even possible when the robot's equivalent of 'eyelids' are little shards of metal that run across the eye without actually connecting to the face except at either end. The cockpit canopy sat on his forehead is actually larger than that of the vehicle mode, but features the same paint on the faux-windows and even the same markings around the cockpit. My eyes can just about discern semi-legible letter- and word-like shapes within these markings, but even a close-up shot failed to reveal anything actually readable. Overall, I like the head... but I think the paint should probably have been a darker shade, I'm not convinced the sculpt is as accurate as it could be, and I'd have preferred if the 'eyelids' were further apart, to reveal more of the red-painted eyes... However, it's such a massive improvement over the original that I'm basically happy with it as-is. Part of me wishes that the canopy helmet could be made to slip down over his eyes, to simulate his faulty transformation in the movie, but that'd have been additional icing on an already well-iced, yet ugly and craggy cake.
One of the big gripes about the original toy was that aligning the panels when transforming back to jet mode was an absolute nightmare. This version, not least because it's smaller, does have fewer completely separate panels, but some of the tabs and slots on mine are a remarkably poor fit, so getting everything to line up and sit flush can still be a chore. The way the arms transform is a little reminiscent of the Deluxe class F-22 Raptor mold (which later became the basis for the Voyager class Studio Series Starscream) in that the hands fold right back onto the forearms - never quite pegging in properly on mine - as the arms fold under the centre of the jet. Switching the legs back and forth from their engine form feels rather more complex and less precise than it should be, complicated also by the fragile feel of the wingtips and fins, and they're quite tricky to get flush with the body of the jet as the space they slot into is quite tight. What's quite fascinating is the way the body concertinas in, while simultaneously accommodating the entire folded-up nose section in robot mode, and the very back of the jet - opened out to give the figure its rather underachieving wing-cape - pegs in just behind the cockpit, making him far more compact than the original. While folding the nose up into the body seems a little wasteful of mass, it's a huge improvement on having it hanging off his forearms. The figure shares the robot parts on the end of long rubber strips with the RotF figure, but they actually get used here - pegging into the sides of the waist to bulk out the torso - rather than just hanging off the robot's back. It's not the most enjoyable transformation of a Studio Series toy, but it's not as fragile as the likes of Shatter or '76 Bumblebee.
The lack of bulky electronic lights and sounds on this figure not only makes him more trim, but also makes him vastly more stable in more dynamic poses so, while the number and locations of his joints isn't massively different, he won't keel over because his body is too heavy for his hips, knees or ankles to accommodate. Additionally, having the cane actually peg into his hand theoretically makes for a far more stable third point of contact with whatever he's standing on, allowing for ever more extreme hunching of the back and splaying of the legs... Though this is let down somewhat on mine by a rather loose left elbow, that really doesn't like being a load-bearing joint. Coupled with the rolling wheels at the tip of the cane, it's not perfectly stable, but certainly good enough for most poses. The fact that the wrists are double-jointed for transformation and can also rotate a full 360° almost makes up for the lack of finger articulation, while the rest of the arm features all the standard joints with great range. Digitigrade legs often end up less than ideal on TransFormers toys, but Jetfire's hips have the sort of range you don't often see on more standard legs - more than 180° ratcheted swing forward and back, 90° out to the sides if they're raised forward a click or two, plus a transformation joint that also provides upper thigh rotation - while the knees are ratcheted with 180° range, the 'heel' analogue has about 120° of bend with a swivel joint as it leads into the shin. The ankle can tilt forward and back slightly less than 90° and inward about 30°. The spurs on the back of the foot can bend, but are pretty much restricted to being straight, or at either 45° or 90° to the front of the foot. There's no waist articulation, but the legs are so poseable, it can be faked reasonably well. Heads where the joint is on the back of the head rather than in the more traditional neck position, below the head, are normally the bane of a TransFormers toy, but Jetfire's neck is surprisingly expressive. The rotation joint can turn a full 360°, and the head can tilt up almost a full 90°, restricted only by the clashing protrusions of the canopy and the armour over the back of the neck. Naturally, this also affects his ability to turn his head from side to side and, honestly, like most toys with back-jointed heads, it can barely turn... but all the other options for head movement are effective enough that it's not such a terrible loss here.
Amazingly, just like RotF Jetfire, the Studio Series figure is designed to combine with an Optimus Prime figure (it even comes packaged with a replacement belly plate to facilitate this on the earlier version) to create the rudimentary 'Jetpower' form Prime obtained at the end of the movie. Unlike the original, though, SS Jetfire actually separates into distinct modules that connect individually to Prime's legs and back, while a surprising amount of the robot's bulk folds back up into something approaching the central core of the jet to become the enormous gun Prime wielded when he flew off to take on The Fallen. This is where those stray grey parts on the undersides of the jet's wings come in, forming the tip of the gun's barrel, while the very tip of the jet's nose pops off and comes apart to be added to Prime's shoulder pads. Since I don't have the requisite Studio Series Optimus Prime figure - and still really don't intend to get one - I've not bothered to take any photos of Jetfire in this form... But I get the impression that it's an improvement on the original, simply because it doesn't lock Prime's legs into place... and it's a bit more streamlined.
The fun factor of the original toy was the only thing that saved it and, for a time, I considered replacing the Hasbro version with Takara Tomy's more screen-accurate version (or the rather cool-looking knockoff version from TF Dream Factory), but I'm now very glad I didn't. I'm not sure anyone ever really expected a better movie Jetfire toy to emerge - not least because transforming the super-slimling SR-71 Blackbird required all kinds of CGI cheating - but the Studio Series toy comes pretty close to making it work. Not only that, it's a super-dynamic figure in its own right, and a lot more fun to play with... Much as I like electronics in toys when they're well-applied, Studio Series Jetfire really shows how pointless - and utterly detrimental to the overall quality of the figure - they can be.
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