RotF Jetfire Review
The grumpy old scottish coot from RotF gets a Leader Class treatment. Touting the SR-71 Blackbird alt mode, a keeling over old robot look and the combining feature with Leader Optimus for Prime's Powered Up version. Let's see if it delivers.
ROBOT MODE:
Jetfire's bot mode mimic's the movie version quite well with a few exceptions. The head is smaller than the movie render but that's due to conversion purposes. His torso is perhaps a little too squarish and thick to accomodate for the soundbox and mech alive gimmick. Further accentuating the smaller head. He has alt kibble all along his back and arms. Coupled with the large torso, it is often hard to pose him as he tends to be top heavy and his chicken walker leg joints (ratcheted) often buckles unless you pose him properly. His knees show turbines but unfortunately this is fake kibble. He does have great looking feet although tend to "split" (for conversion purposes) as there's no pegs to hold them together.
The sculpt detail is excellent as should be expected from a Leader mold. His head in particular has a clear "cockpit" as the forehead. Although he doesn't have light piping for the eyes, which is just painted. Paint apps are scarce, which seem to be a feature of this line, but there are nice silver paint apps. The use of hasbro grey plastic is present on the biceps, shoulder joints and the unruly panels on his cheat near his arm pits, which is there to accomodate for the combining feature. He has a lever on his chest that when pulled down will make him say "Jetfire's my name" along with his forehead lighting up and one light on his chest. Plus all the mech alive moving gears inside his torso will move but is hard to see really.
Overall a nice looking bot mode with decent proportions but I personally wanted a larger head.
Conversion is a little tricky as there are a few panels that needs to be aligned and linked together. Getting the arms in place can prove tricky. Otherwise it's just a simple process of putting all the alt mode bits together and the bot mode bits underneath. Yes, ala Universe Silverbolt but conversion is a lot more involved that folding the jet in half on his back. It's what you would expect from a Leader figure but not too complicated. Included is a transformation sound triggered in a particular conversion point.
ALT MODE:
...is of a SR-71 Blackbird. the first thing you will notice is how huge his alt mode is. Here's a comparison picture with Leader Optimus and deluxe Bumblebee:
Quite huge and looks striking. It has some great details painted on. The red stripe, the "JTFR" letters and the insignia's and signs on the back wings and fins. Looks very good... when viewed from atop. Look side on or below and this is what you get:
Major disappointment in that regards, although they did do their best to conceal it by being as thin as possible. But seeing his fists quite clearly under the cockpit is a major downer. Also his thighs are not part of the conversion and the turbines, as said earlier are just fake kibble hiding under the wings.
There's not much gimmicks. There's a button near the rear fins to produce a jet sound. There's retractable back wheels, although they bend both ways which means they would sometimes retract/fold as there's no "lock position. His walking stick doubles as the front landing wheels.
Overall the alt mode while strikingly huge and beautiful, is severly ugly underneath. Think Universe Silverbolt's appearance but made worse here by the arms under the nose cone.
"You youngins have no idea how easy you have it these days..."
COMBINING FEATURE:
One of the most talked about feature is the combining feature with Leader Optimus Prime. there's parts and pegs on jetfire clearly there for the sole reason of combining. The most noticeable is the "rubber belt" that is quite difficult to hide in robot mode as they did not design for it to hook or peg onto something and kinda hangs a little bit on the underside of the alt mode.
It isn't too diffcult to combine the two (just 7 pegs and looping the belt around Prime) but I would suggest to leave the part that pegs to his crotch alone as it will just make combining them together harder.
The finished mode can get tricky to stand up as you really need to play with the legs to get him standing properly, otherwise you will get him leaning forward at an uncomfortable looking, unnatural angle. The was the leg combines with Jetfire negates almost any sort of posing or movements on the legs. So you get left with a brick with only his arms and head articulating. You can position the turbines on his back to a few particular angles and the wings over his shoulders can be bent in halves to curve around his shoulder (I just like them horizontal personally for the picture).
One of the jet panels on Jetfire comes off and combines with his walking stick makes a blaster for Prime and the missile launcher attaches to the pin on Primes left arm.
This combined mode is not entirely movie accurate but comes close. It is bulky and quite heavy seeing as this is two Leaders together. The "rubber belt" keeps the combined mode secure together outside of the pegs and also makes Prime slightly taller due to the way the legs combine. Overall though it's not too bad but low on playability and strictly a display piece in this mode.
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Maybe I won't get him after all... unless he's on sale.
Originally Posted by Robzy
