With his friendly, hip nature, good taste in music,
and cool vehicle mode, it's no wonder Jazz is one of
the all-time favorite Autobots from G1. A pity Hasbro
lost the trademark to his name, thus resulting in
"Autobot Jazz," but it definitely beats giving him a
totally different name.
Packaging: Autobot Jazz's box is the same size and
design of Silverstreak's. The character art on the
front is by Pat Lee, whose work I'm not a huge fan of.
On the inside of the velcro flap are photos of
Commemorative Series I and II. The back of the box
features a grainy image of the now familiar Autobot
group scene by Lee, and it's kind of ironic that
neither AJ nor Silverstreak is featured in it.
AJ's tech spec is as follows:
Function: AUTOBOT Special Operations Expert
"Do it with style or don't bother doing it."
AUTOBOT JAZZ has a quick mind and a strong thirst for
knowledge. In terrestrial operations his insider
understanding of Earth culture makes him the right
hand man of OPTIMUS PRIME. Takes the riskiest missions
and completes them with confidence and flair. Equipped
with a photon rifle, flame-thrower, full-spectrum
beacon and 180db stereo speakers, he dazzles and
disorients with spectacular sound and light displays.
Clever, cool, and extremely adaptable, but prone to
distraction.
Car Mode: AJ is a Porsche 935 Turbo. About 12 cm(4.7")
long including spoiler, he's snow white with blue and
red racing stripes, blue head lights, chrome hub caps,
and clear wind shields. Rolls pretty smoothly on most
surfaces. The doors open and the canopy raises to
reveal a rather bland and uncomfortable-looking
interior. The number 4 is featured prominently on AJ.s
hood and doors. His rub symbol is on the left side of
his hood. Although the box photos show the toy with
stickers labeled "Martinii Porsche," the stickers
that actually come with it all read "Meister" or
"Agent Meister," which is Takara.s name for the
character. Makes some sense, since Hasbro would have
to pay the Porsche company in order to use its name,
but it.s a shame they didn't spring for stickers that
read "Autobot Jazz."
This is probably one of the best alt modes of the 1984
G1 line. Just keep in mind that it.s nowhere near as
durable as an Armada or RID car.
Transformation: Similar, but not identical to
Silverstreak's. The rear of the Porsche extends,
swings down, and splits apart, arms unfold from
beneath the hood, the hood swings down to form the
chest, and the canopy slides back and folds down,
revealing the head. And since this is a G1-era toy,
remember to be careful and gentle.
Robot Mode: AJ stands about 10.5 cm(4") tall in robot
mode. His main colours are white, black, and chrome,
with colourful stickers on his hips and legs and a
metallic silver face. Whereas the original Jazz toy
had a prominent chin, AJ does not. Also, AJ has a
funny-looking smirk, which can be interpreted as neat
or bad depending on your personal taste. He.s
articulated at the wrists, elbows, upper arms, and
shoulders. Looks pretty nice and fairly recognizable
as the character from the TV show, but rather also
floppy, since the chest section doesn.t lock in place.
As with all the Commemorative Series toys, AJ.s
weapons have undergone a makeover. His photon rifle
and three missiles are flat black instead of chrome.
Moreover, his missiles are positively huge: 6 cm(3.)
long. His back-mounted launcher is black with a white
trigger and a couple of chrome pieces, and unlike the
original Jazz.s, is designed to separate into two
parts so as to prevent breakage. The peg is on the
back piece, meaning AJ can.t hold the launcher in his
fist. Also, the launcher has a long shaft on the end
of it for some reason, which not only looks silly, but
also has the potential to poke out an eye. When
loaded, the launcher is a whopping 15 cm(6.) long,
longer than AJ himself! To top it all off, it doesn.t
connect very well to him, and I prefer to leave it off
anyway since it was never featured on the show, IIRC.
On the positive side, it has a range of well over a
meter.
Overall, Susp Sez: Although I was fond of the Jazz
character as a child, I never owned the toy, so I was
therefore willing to buy it now in spite of the hefty
$39.99 Canadian/$29.99 US price tag. Both the Porsche
and robot mode are neat and fun in spite of the
latter.s relative fragility and lack of poseability,
and will almost certainly please any G1 fan. For
younger fans, however, I would much sooner recommend
an Armada or Playskool toy. 8.5/10
Susp
"Next up, how .bout number one on the Bottom 40?" -Jazzie
Reviewer | Suspsy |
Date | April 15th 2003 |
Score | (8 out of 10) |
Reads | 9643 |
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