CHUG Appreciation Thread

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by Scaleface, Feb 22, 2012.

  1. Scorpibrunt

    Scorpibrunt Well-Known Member

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    To anyone that has PotP and RTS Jazz, how much better is RTS over PotP? Or vice versa? I heard that RTS Jazz is the better one but I haven't opened my RTS one yet so I'm just curious.
     
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  2. Miragen

    Miragen Dinobot Warrior

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    I think it’s universally agreed that RTS is the better mold. Shortcomings include:
    -doesnt scale all that well with more recent CHUG
    -hood doesn’t firmly attach in bot mode
    -doesn’t combine
    - could use some more paint apps (I went for Henkei)
    -uses outdated clip system for weapons/ speakers (no 5mm slots for compatibility with WFC)
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2019
  3. barrelks

    barrelks Captain Funtastic

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    Night and Day for me. Maybe it doesn't scale with "modern" figures, but articulation, details on the hands, head sculpt, everything is miles better than the POTP version. The completionist in me grabbed the POTP one, but it has never been out. Have every version (sans Botcon Shockwave) of the RTS version out, and it is just a solid figure. Though I wouldn't mind a G1 looking Jazz at some point, I enjoyed the era of based on G1 classics. It may not be G1, but it is far closer for me than the POTP one.

    Strangely I love the look of the Stepper version of the POTP mold, maybe not as much as the one based on RTS, but it is a lot closer.
     
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  4. barry

    barry Well worn member

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    "No, I'm the best"
    [​IMG]
     
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  5. DocSeth81

    DocSeth81 Well-Known Member

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  6. Dachande

    Dachande MULTI-QUOTE- USE IT. Super Mod

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  7. Thatsjustkreo67

    Thatsjustkreo67 Well-Known Member

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    D4983DDA-529C-416E-92BE-037DB4AD2000.jpeg
    I mean, just look at them.
     
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  8. The13Primes

    The13Primes hot shot fanatic

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  9. Imperator

    Imperator and he drove the fastest milk-cart in the west.

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    I don't know where people are getting the idea that RTS Jazz doesn't scale well from. He's a deluxe car, and therefore a pretty standard size. Goes with everything outside of masterpiece.

    The only real downside to RTS Jazz is that the shoulders can't go all the way up thanks to the wheels in the way. It's only a small thing though and he can still manage a lot of great poses. Most importantly though his proportions are really good so he looks good just standing still, something that POTP Jazz doesn't.

    It doesn't mean that POTP Jazz is a bad toy, just that it's not AS good. As others have said, the mould works far better as Ricochet. Shame we didn't see any other redecos to be honest.
     
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  10. barry

    barry Well worn member

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  11. smiller0570

    smiller0570 Maximal

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    I love both molds but the thing I never liked on the RTS Jazz is his chest does not tab in anywhere in robot mode. I've tried countless times to figure out where it could and came up empty. Still love him though and recommend both!!
     
  12. Imperator

    Imperator and he drove the fastest milk-cart in the west.

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    There's no separate Robot Masters Appreciation thread, so I'll have to leave this here...

    Standard disclaimer: The theme of this week's reviews is the worst toys in my collection. If you enjoy these toys, great! It is not a personal attack on you or your tastes. Not everything you love has to be good, and you are not defined by the quality of the things you like. Essentially, you don't need to defend your honour on someone else's view of plastic robot men.
    [​IMG]

    Let me paint you a picture. The year is 2003. The onslaught of Armada has laid waste to the once-fertile land of Transformers collecting. The years of ball joints and delicately articulated figures from the Beast Era and Robots in Disguise have come to an end. It is the dark times. And lo! in the east there came a ray of hope, a sign that not all was lost, and it's name was Robot Masters.

    And the fandom's response to the initial reveals? Literal disbelief. As in, many of us just saw the promo shots of the toys as a hoax. G1 Convoy looked suspiciously similar to the then-recent Masterpiece Convoy. Starscream, the first G1 Starscream to even vaguely resemble the original character model, barely looked as if it could transform. The line was filled out with cheap and cheerful redecos of Beast- and Machine Wars basics. But mostly, it was a case of a gloomy fandom not daring to hope.

    It was all, in fact, entirely real. And a breath of fresh air at a time when it was not clear if Transformers would be a collector-friendly hobby again, at least in the mainstream. The two tranches of the line were essentially redecos of cheap old toys, and Autobot leaders. You had your Optimus Prime, Optimus Primal, Optimus Primalion, Optimus Primalalala, and today's bad boy of the church pews, Grand Deacon Star Saber himself.

    Oh, what a sorry sod he is. I mean, just... okay. Let's start with his outfit. There's no subtlety or nuance here, just three spots on the colour wheel liberally splattered on a white background. Plain, boring primary colours of the same kind you'd get on any preschooler's pretend telephone toy. Why? Because it worked for Gundam (note: it's still boring in Gundam, but at least we're resigned to it there). Star Saber desperately wants to be a Gundam, which just so happened to be gaining popularity in Japan even as Transformers's star was fading back in 1989. It's for this reason that his alt mode was greatly pushed into the background, and indeed, is very much subservient to the needs of the robot mode. It's almost certainly for this reason that his signature sword weapon (plus even a shield on occasion) was hyped up and turned into his name.

    [​IMG]

    And the further down the line the worse these problems become. The original 1989 toy isn't all that bad-looking, even in alt mode, thanks to a pretty serviceable smaller robot, and a gimmick which was actually huge fun. But this Robot Masters version? For starters, it tries to pay lip service to the Brainmaster ways of his forefather, but this just involves the entire head of the larger robot chomping down on the smaller head from above. So of course, the head doesn't actually turn. Similarly stymied are the hips, which move outwards but not forwards or back, as with the knees. The arms have a little bit of movement, but not very much. So from a glance he looks nicely proportioned and poseable, while in reality he's just as much of a brick as anything Armada was doing at the time.

    And no, it doesn't get better in alt mode. It's just not anything. It's a big heap of nothing. You can call it a spaceship, sure, but you can call anything a spaceship if there's a windscreen at the front and a rocket booster on the bum. The robot head just sits idly on top, face down as if pretending to be invisible. The sword blade just awkwardly wedges itself in a loose-fitting groove and inevitably falls out. The back end is just the robot legs but now ugly. You can't even take solace in the small robot being any good, since it transforms by folding out some tiny wing flaps and wearing the sword hilt as a hood.

    Robot Masters Star Saber is an achievement. It fails as a spaceship. It fails as a robot. It fails as a design. It fails as a scaled-down modern version of an old classic. It fails at any of its gimmicks. It is a failure on every possible metric, and yet... and yet this is still the only Star Saber ever released outside of Masterpiece and G1*. There's still no CHUGSaber, and I can only imagine the reason being that Hasbro have been justifiably nervous about the guy selling outside of Japan. But god almighty, if ever there's a character in need of a decent glow up, it's this lad. Give us our WFC Star Saber, and then use the same mould for Thunderwing so I can take a victory lap while shouting "VINDICATION!" and painted blue like Boudicca.

    It's the only sensible way forward.

    [​IMG]

    *Yes, GT exists. I've read TFwiki too. Well done.
     
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  13. Iruini

    Iruini Some shitposter

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    Oh shit! I remember this guy! Back when I was like 10 or whatever I found a knockoff of this guy and the robot masters victory leo. Starsaber was utter garbage since he lacked the joints for the legs to transform into the jet mode. But I loved having those weird dollar store Kos that lasted a day before they crumbled to dust. Thanks for the reminder of that strange ko man, might need to actually track down the real thing even though it seems kinda bad
     
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  14. artiepants

    artiepants Transformers '84!!!

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    RTS Jazz is one of the best deluxes ever made. PotP is hot garbage. If you can track down the Takara United version, it has one of the best paint jobs. If you can track down Stepper, he might just actually have THE BEST paint job in TF history.
     
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  15. Scorpibrunt

    Scorpibrunt Well-Known Member

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    What's bad about PotP Jazz if I may ask?
    When you said Stepper has the best paint job, did you mean just for the RTS Jazz mold or the best out of every single Transformer in existence?
     
  16. BBJazz

    BBJazz Well-Endowed Member

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    I think I'm the only person on the planet that thinks POTP is a massive improvement over RTS, and that just comes down to how solid the two figures are. My RTS Jazz has the floppiest feet imaginable and could barely stand up at times. Also, there was nowhere to lock the hood down in bot mode, and it just led to the figure being kind of a mess compared to a lot of modern deluxes. Not to mention the fact that he towers over other modern figures, and his transformation is a pain with trying to get the doors to close. POTP Jazz has a fun transformation, scales better, has about the same articulation, and most importantly, is actually solid. (No floppiness at all!) So yeah, POTP is a much better feeling figure. RTS will look pretty on a shelf, but only by himself since he's massive. POTP honestly looks pretty good too.

    On a more subjective note, I prefer my Jazz without the door wings, since I feel that kind of makes him too similar to the Datsuns anyways.

    That's not really fair to compare a figure with reprolabels and a figure without. Of course the reprolabels are gonna tip the scales.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 13, 2019
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  17. artiepants

    artiepants Transformers '84!!!

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    every on in existence. The gold paint on him is absolutely exquisite (and that is not a word i'd normally use with TFs, lol)

    also: i've heard of the floppy chest issue from enough people on the boards to know its real, but non of my 3 examples of the mold (RTS/United/United Stepper) were floppy - you can shake Stepper by the hood and his waist stays in place.
     
  18. roguesaint

    roguesaint Reconnaissance Expert

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    RTS Jazz Supieror...PTOP Jazz inferior.

    IMO
     
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  19. Iruini

    Iruini Some shitposter

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    ha sg stepper has a MUCH cooler paint job
     
  20. Scarlet knight

    Scarlet knight Emergency Food Connoisseur

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