When the first images of Alternity Bumblebee and Cliffjumper were released, I was skeptical about them with the initial thoughts of the figures just being awful looking. My classics collection started with Classics Cliffjumper so the Bumblebee head was mostly ok with me. As time went on Bumblebee joined my classics collection and suddenly it was clear this Cliffjumper wouldn't do. As a character I've always been a fan of a head swap was in order. I contacted resident radicon here (Thanks Valkfan!) and got a new head for my Cliffjumper which has gone a long way to making the classics Cliffjumper more unique. But still there was a pull in my brain that was never quite happy that Cliffjumper and Bumblebee were the same car. Suddenly.. Alternity Cliffjumper was becoming more appealing. With my first ever purchase from Tempting Toys (which shipped very quickly I might add!) I purchased my Alternity Cliffjumper. I'll give it a go.. Why not. I pulled him out of the box and needless to say I was mostly impressed! The first thing to note. The realism and detail on the car are striking! In fact as you'll see blow it is probably TOO realistic for a stand in classics. But I can put that aside. For the most part the lines of the car and transformation points are relatively smooth, and generally convey the feeling that Cliffjumper is indeed a real car (or at least a nicely scaled model of one. However, at certain angles the panels don't QUITE fit together as well as I'd like. I don't know if this is just an issue with my particular Cliffjumper, a common mold problem or just something not lined up correctly upon being transformed into car mode. Regardless Cliffjumper still looks pretty impressive from just about all angles! Now If you're like me and considering putting him in as part of your “classics” collection you'll probably want to know where he stacks up. In his alt mode he seems relatively in scale with Bumblebee as a “tuner” car. However as I mentioned the realistic depth of his vehicle becomes a lot more noticeable when compared to a non customized Bumblebee (So Radicons get to work!) The overall length and width of the car are pretty well in scale.. I've got no real complaints there. Heck even the height seems to be within a nice feeling scale to each other (with Cliffjumper being a tad bit taller, but not much!). Overall even with the poor paint apps on Bumblebee they Cliffjumper and Bumblebee make a pretty decent looking duo, which in my opinion puts Cliffjumper in good standing as part of my “classics” collection. The transformation to bot mode was definitely no walk in the park! I found a lot of joints a bit stiff to transform and worried a little about a piece snapping off in a manner in which it should not. However I'm thinking that this problem will be alleviated as the figure's joints wear a tiny bit. The complexity itself is not too high it really was the stiffness of the joints that had me worried. The Biggest complaint I end up having with the Botmode was not the chest section as I had initially assumed I would. It was the legs that actually seem a bit small which make the top portion look a bit out of proportion. But overall the bot mode is rather impressive looking. Some people dislike the shoulder pads, I on the other hand like it and feel like it is kind of a modernization of the boxy black shoulders that the sunbow G1 Cliffjumper had, so that doesn't really bug. The head sculpt is spot on to me. The head's overall size does feel a tiny bit small, but I've seen worse, however it does not help with the feeling of his torso being a bit “thick” which is a fairly common complaint. Though the face does have a sculpt with a bit of arrogance and determination.. Which I like... a lot.. On a side view the body does stick out a bit, but doesn't feel as out of proportion as I was imagining it to be from the preview pictures. And ultimately when compared to his G1 counterpart seem very fitting. Again going back to the Sunbow animation picture of G1 Cliffjumper the fact that the roof of the car makes up his chest and the doors are making up the sides of his chest (although in g1 they magically shrunk down for better looking proportions) the modeling of the Alternity Cliffjumper really feels like a nice homage to the G1 counterpart. There is a fair amount of back kibble but nothing that feels over the top, shell formery (yay new words!), or unbelievable (as if a giant sentient robot is right??). Again thinking of classics in mind, the overall size compared to Bumblebee was relatively important to me. Transformed per the instructions Cliffjumper does have a fairly decent amount of height vs. Classics Bumblebee. However with a little leg mistransformation magic I was able to roughly halve the height difference, which put them at a reasonable scale to each other. I may or may not be correct in my assumptions but I always got the feeling that Bumblebee was supposed to be the smallest of the core autobots, so Cliffjumper being a tad taller doesn't bother me. In case you wonder how I transformed the legs here's a picture of it. Basically I rotated the “feet” a complete 180 degrees (putting the grill on the outside as opposed to the inside, and curved the legs back into each other (with a slight curve of the knee). Posability with this mistransformation isn't too horrible, however in the brief amount of time I spent taking pictures I couldn't find a particular pose that I felt really looked good. I'm sure it's there.. But since I've got better things to be doing than posing him all day I decided to not post a picture of my awkward poses, and simply settled for a slight “dodging” look. When compared to his Classics counterpart (wearing the “jetpack” and a sweet head created by radicon Valkfan!) the scale seems to look pretty decent and helps more put Alternity Cliffjumper in a better scale with the classics. I've included this photo with Cliffjumper in a few incarnations, which ends up making a pretty neat looking collection aside from the way G1 Cliffjumper's yellow jumps out from the picture.. Of course this is more of a complaint about the fact that I got a yellow G1 Cliffjumper (which I still love and very much appreciate!) vs. a red one than anything else. Side views of the boys show that their scale thickness seems to be pretty well in proportion, as well as shows that the overall height of Classics CJ and the mistransformed alternity isn't too drastic. The G1 bot sports quite a bit of front bulge in a very similar manner to the Alternity version. The classics version trades the front bulge for a pretty prominent looking back bulge. So you really have to decide, do I like the front bulge (which again is similar to the G1 bot) or the back bulge (which is a homage to Quasimodo??) But overall.. I find myself rather impressed with this guy which was something that on first glance I was not. I do wish he was packed with a large gun (the little pistol isn't Cliffjumper enough for me!) even if it was just a side accessory that risked getting lost. Perhaps some 3rd party will craft one for me to purchase someday! Or I can find something and use my dremel and make it work! I also feel relatively good about displaying it with my classics line even though he'll be a bit more highly detailed then them. But it's not bad. Should you get it? If you like a complex challenge, a great looking realistic vehicle mode, and the bot mode appeals to you.. Definitely. If you're a parent thinking of buying this for your kid.. Don't bother. Because if your kids are anything like I was when I was younger then the transformation is far too complex (with far too stiff joints at least at start) which means you'll be spending a majority of time transforming the toy for them. Which while that could be fun the first two or three times will get old during multiple play sessions, and will leave you with a kid wondering why in the TV show it takes a transformer 2 seconds to transform, but you take 10 minutes to figure it out. But it is a satisfying piece. My biggest gripe actually is that I like it so much that I want to pick up Megatron and Prime now. I don't care about Bumblebee since he's just a repaint of Cliffjumper (HAHA take that BB, I'm making YOU the repaint now!!), but the other two (Megatron and Prime) I like (since they are 2 different cars!). Which means my wallet doesn't particularly like what Cliffjumper is making me feel. Finally before ending this.. To any of those Radicons out there that love customizing everything.. There's still a fair amount that could be customized for Cliffjumper. I probably will not customize mine for my hand is not steady enough. But the overall realism could be accented with some panel lines. The rims would appear more realistic with some black detail between the spokes. And while not much of the bot mode leaves itself open to customization, there is still some details that colors could be added to bring more contrast to components. So thank you for reading.. I hope you enjoyed the review and potentially influenced your thoughts on Alternity Cliffjumper!
Cool what you did with the legs to make him shorter for the classics-verse. I'm personally going to put him with my Alternators thoudh. Nice review and pics. I can't wait for this guy and BB. They should be delivered tomorrow.
Not a bad figure. I like it better than BB and the paint job is sweet. But, the price and yukky feet remind of why I steer clear.
Hmm. I think I like the way the legs look better with your mistransformation. I'll have to try that when mine gets here. Thanks!
Thanks for all the positive feedback guys! Yeah the first thing that jumped out at me was those legs, the chest area is the most bulky area on the body.. How the legs were transformed made him feel too tall and with little skinny legs that wouldn't support that body. I'm glad everyone digs the mistransformation..
In terms of alternators it doesn't really work. The size difference is too great. I wanted alternity convoy/megatron until I realized that alternity was significantly smaller than alts. Ultimately it feels like you get MORE from the alternators (due to their size) but the alternity line definitely IS very detailed. I had no interest in convoy and megatron.. Then I got Cliffy.. And now I want them too.. Though I'm having trouble figuring out if I want silver or black convoy. I've already placed an order for diamond black megatron. I don't care much about red convoy as I still plan to toss these guys in with my classics. So silver convoy looks enough not like optimus to be good for me, megatron doesn't look like megatron at all to me. And Nemesis convoy looks like he'd be a fun car counterpart to the shadow commander that's chillin in my display.
To me Alternity Cliffjumper and Bumblebee fill the gap left in Alternators, by there never being a Alternators Cliffjumper or Bumblebee. Since they are 6 inches tall in robot mode, I think they fit in perfectly with the alts as long as you have them displayed in robot mode. Personally, anyother Alternity I get will be going with the classics-verse, but not Bumble and Cliff. On a side note, I wasn't planning on ever getting Alternity Convoy or Alternity Megatron. I did however, finally decide I wanted Nemesis Convoy A01 Super Black. So I picked him up and it made me even more excited for Bumble and Cliff. I wonder who we will get next.
In bot mode I can agree tehy fit in with the alternators (for size wise). But at least in regard to alternators, the fact that the cars are nowhere in scale bugs the heck out of me.
I caved and have arranged with someone here to pick up both Silver convoy and black convoy. My little delusional mind will put them in my classics collection with diamond black megs as "other" transformers than who they are intended to be. I mean.. I can't look at a megatron with no huge gun, and personally the face doesn't say megatron to me.. Oh how I wish he were bludgeon with those two swords!
I recieved mine from Kapow today. I do like the quality of the build (though sadly some paint chipping occured during his initial transformation, and there was already some paint flaked away from his foot which sucks). That said, I have no problem with the proportions now I have it in hand, and he does have a very nice classic G1/movie style going on. If only they'd stuck to something more like this for the Bay-verse I might have actually given a toss about it. The price is quite steep for what you get, but I don't like my TF's too big. As much as I liked Binaltech, the figures were a bit too big and chunky for my liking - Binaltech Hound isn't nearly as charming as his classics counterpart, and they had far more to work with, so in some ways I think the small size just emphasises the detail. Good weight to him too. Some more bulk to the legs would have made the torso seem a little less chunky, but overall I'm happy with him. Great pics by the way ^.^
I got Cliff and Bumble in yesterday. They display great with the alternators in robot mode, although I have to agree not scale wise in car mode...but that was expected as these are 1/32 and Alt/Binaltechs were 1/24'' scale. I'm definately enjoying them. I have to say though, I haven't had a transformer give me this much grief transformation-wise in a long long time. Even after transforming Mp-05 once through, I pretty much had it down. It really isn't that complex, but I feel like i'm about to break the thing when I shift his hood/windshield and legs around. It takes a bit of force, and it definately makes ya worry about breaking it. Anyways, the biggest problem I am having is getting his legs back correctly for the front of the car. I think it has something to do with the knee caps but I cannot get the front flush against the cabin in car mode...and the hood doesn't close to well because of it. Anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions? Well after posting this I finally figured out what was going wrong with the leg transformation back into Alt mode. All the damn hinge joints in their thighs are really tight, and I realized I didn't have the second hinge in the correct position.
Yes!!! Moving that blasted hood/windshield thing was worrying me too. I stopped pushing on the windshield and started pusing from the back side (by CJ's head) which eventually worked out. I'm hoping after it's been done a few times it'll work out. I haven't tried transforming mine back, but I know exactly what you're talking about with the knee area. I did partially transform him trying to follow the instructions, and when I couldn't figure out the next step I put him back and couldn't get the legs to line up right. It took me a while to figure out where the joints need to be so the legs fold back ontop of itself and over again and such (with those super tight joints!) before it fits good. I like it though.. I just hope he loosens up a little and not break..
weird. i was gonna pass on this two, but now that im playing with them, i actually like them better than alternity convoy and megatron. never trust pictures ever again.
here's a crappy pic of alternity cj and bee with bt bluestreak. perfect fit with alts and bts in robot mode
