Studio Series #75 Jolt

It doesn't surprise me in the least that it's taken seventy four other toys - most of more prominent or popular characters from the live action movie franchise - before Hasbro finally got round to their third attempt at Jolt. The character seemed to have been hastily edited into Revenge of the Fallen, as an afterthought, in certain shots only, had barely any dialogue (none that couldn't be attributed to another character), took no active part in any battles... and yet somehow became key to preparing Optimus Prime for his final battle with The Fallen. Without fanfare, Ratchet simply called out "Jolt, electrify!" and his whole raison d'être was made clear.

And this is the problem when your whole movie franchise is built on little more than deals made with vehicle manufacturers. If they have a car they want to promote, it'll have to be shoehorned in somehow, logic and narrative coherence be damned.

Nevertheless, he was in the movie... Hasbro's previous attempts at Jolt weren't great, so let's see if it's a case of "third time's the charm", or if this is just another forgettable robot, from a forgettable film, made out of a forgettable car.

DotM Mechtech Jolt

Given that Jolt's presence in Revenge of the Fallen appeared to be more an editing error than the intention of the film-makers, and that he didn't appear at all, even briefly, in the background, in Dark of the Moon, it seems like a complete waste of plastic to release him in the DotM toyline... and even more so to find he was given an entirely new mold.

The original toy wasn't remotely accurate to the on-screen CGI, yet managed to be a decent toy all the same. Surely a second attempt will be a significant improvement..?

Revenge of the Fallen Jolt

I have a lot of complaints about the first two TransFormers movies. I mean, the third is far from perfect, but at least it has something approaching a plot. The first movie is a poorly conceived introduction to the transforming robotic lifeforms from Cybertron tacked onto a 'heartwarming' story about a boy's first car, and the second is a ridiculous jumble that jumps around the world without ever really going anywhere. Worse still, it's far too obvious that some of the characters are there only to advertise Chevrolet's latest products.

Jolt is probably the most glaring example of this. Whereas the Twins had plenty of screen time and far too much questionable dialogue (must confess, I don't see them as racist stereotypes because I saw them as hillbillies talking 'street'... nothing about them made me think they were supposed to sound 'black'... but maybe that's just me), Jolt had maybe fifteen seconds of screen time, there was maybe one line of dialogue attributed to him that's equally likely to have come from Sideswipe, and his most significant role in the film was using his electro-whips/sparky arm phalli to magically graft bits of the deceased Jetfire onto the recently resurrected Optimus Prime.

In many ways, it was surprising that Hasbro even bothered to make a toy out of him (licensing deals notwithstanding), so how does he shape up?