So here he is, the latest addition to the Bumblebee movie's Studio Series representation, Cliffy J.



Spoilers: Cliff might give you something of a 50/50 feeling.



Let's start with the bot mode!

From the front, you can see the sculpt does a very good job of capturing Cliffjumper's onscreen appearance, before he makes like a banana and splits later in the film.



The rear of the figure does have more kibble than Bumblebee, but that's a necessity due to Cliffjumper's more "whole" Cybertronian mode, as opposed to Bumblebee's stripped-down Jeep.

Everything does clean up pretty well back there though, and I've seen messier looking chunks of alt mode on much larger figures.



Anyone familiar with Jeep Bee (which is one of my absolute favourite releases from Studio Series), will be familiar with the size, articulation and basic engineering behind Cliffjumper.

I personally prefer Bumblebee, but Cliffjumper is certainly nothing to sniff at.



Though both Cliff and Bee share parts for the arms, crotch and upper legs, there's more than enough going on to distinguish the two; even going so far as to have the transformation schemes work in reverse - the feet become the rear bed of Bee's alt mode, while Cliffjumper's feet become his alt mode's front bumper.



Due to the altered engineering, there are panels on Cliff's outer calf that, as PrimeVsPrime mentioned in his video review, don't tab in to secure as they should. It looks as though this is due to how the figure is packaged, as the position of the panels are "stretched" out further than the tabs in packaging....not sure if a little heat or Dropkick could work some magic?

As is though, the structure of the legs isn't as secure as it could (and should) be, but I haven't found it to be too much trouble, since the joints are pretty tight.



Anywho, speaking of alt modes, check out that slick Cybertronian speedster. Eat your heart out, Siege!



While I do think Bumblebee has the better robot mode, Cliffjumper cuts through with the alt mode to have a far more solid and interesting look/feel.



Clip-on wheels again, but meh, they don't look anywhere near as obvious on Cliffjumper.



Studio Series has a slightly more vibrant shade of red compared to Earthrise, but there's not a huge difference.



Not too much difference in vehicle size between these two!



Though Studio Series does dominate a little bit on height in robot mode.



I've heard complaints about the size of the backpack on Studio Series, but it's actually a little bit cleaner than the one on Earthrise!



Weapon thief.



Due to the transformation joint in the head, Cliffjumper can pull off a prone position for some pernicious pew pew-ing.

While that head joint is useful here, I'm not a huge fan of the way it naturally sits flush in robot mode. Check back at the robot mode pics to see if you can spot the "jutting head syndrome" (as I like to call it).



A size comparison with a standard Deluxe figure. Hopefully we end up with a Studio Series Wheeljack (one based on the Bee movie....not a G1 edition full of bullet holes).


Overall, I'd say there's a lot to like with Cliffjumper, especially if you're collecting the Bumblebee movie releases. It's certainly not an amazing figure, due to those daft lower leg panels, jutting chin and a tendency, on my copy at least, for the clear plastic chest panels to be scary tight; mine were completely stuck out of the box, so be careful.

So in the end, he's recommended, but don't expect to have your socks blown off.



Surfboard mode. Weeeeeeeeee!
Earthrise Arcee approves.

 

Jeez that backpack. The actual robot and car look good, but there's something about that painted clear plastic that looks cheap as heck.

By the way, this is a really good review of the figure and a really good picture set. Any disappointment I have is for the figure. I'd hoped that as he's engineered from one of the best Bee's in a long time, he'd turn out better than it appears he has.

 

Will probably pick this up at some point eventually, but dang, all that kibble and clear plastic are a bummer...

 

Thanks!

Yeah, the backpack isn't great, only defence I'll give it is that the paint on it looks very washed out in the photos; in person it blends much more seamlessly with the red plastic.

It is pretty baffling how they managed to make a Cliffjumper from such a good Bumblebee, but end up with so many faults. I think the engineering just struggles too much with a full shell alt mode.

Yep, the clear plastic is thick enough to not feel fragile anywhere other than on the chest, but it still sucks that HasTak can't stay away from it on joints.

There's no doubt a Bumblebee repaint of this coming too, so you should be able to find one version of the mould at discount in future.

 

Do you have the others from that wave?

 

Afraid not. Weirdly Cliffjumper was solo packed, instead of the whole wave being available?!

 

disappointing, this just looks awful lol

 

At least on eBay, wave 10 deluxe in stock listings are noted for CJ, Top Spin, and Soundwave.

 

Looks good, for a remold. I do wish they had started with a blank piece of paper, while the backpack isn't terrible, it is inevitable when turning a adding a cybertronian roof to a jeep.

 

I'd agree that if you're not getting all of the Bee movie releases or are a fan of Cliffjumper, this is probably an easy skip. The backpack isn't much of an issue in person, but the legs (mainly those wonky tab tolerances) aren't good at all on the QC front.

Get Jeep Bumblebee instead if you don't already have it.

It could just be because I'm in the UK. Hasbro UK do some very odd things with stock availability over here.

 

Looks perfectly serviceable to me. Actually think this is pretty cool IMO. Glad he's not a partsformer, at least.

 

Hard to tell from the pics, is the ankle tilt gone?

 

No, he's still got all the same articulation as Jeep Bee.

There's a lot more forward/back range in how to position Cliffjumper's ankles due to the slimmer feet, but he doesn't seem to have quite as wide of a side tilt as Bumblebee (could be my copy though, since the ankle balljoints are super tight).

 

Great review. Sliced up real nice, cleanly cut and to the point

Seriously though, I wasn't super interested in this guy when he was first revealed, but having had Jeep Bumblebee, I wouldn't say no to another version of this mold. The back-pack doesn't look too bad IMO, only if you're looking at it from the side profile really. And I love how the transformation is flipped so that Cliffjumper's front is Bumblebee's back, and vice versa. And the vehicle mode reminds me of something from the Cybertron games

My only real grievance with this figure is the head, both the sculpt and the way it sits on his shoulders. Although the former isn't entirely Hasbro's fault. I'll shake my fist at Knight and co. for that one

 

The backpack is a bit of a bummer. I'm still going to get the figure, but I really think it would have been better if it had been a new mold, rather than a retool of an existing figure that transforms into a jeep.

The vehicle mode is the main selling point for me, though. It looks like a car from a different planet. If Cliffjumper is any indication, we might actually get figures of characters that look like they're from a different planet, and not Earth like the Siege figures.

 

So, turns out that I never got around to placing a deposit down for this guy (or Blitzwing, actually.) I've corrected that for Blitzwing, but I think I may chance Cliffjumper showing up at UK physical retail, since I want him but as a retool, I can do without him if I miss him. I have the focused experience in Jeeplebee, Cliffjumper is the compromise experience.

That, and we all know that there'll be a second shot at this in yellow.

 

There are eight in my local Smyth's right now.

 

I didn’t mind the way the head is engineered, but after looking at the head and the black neck piece it’s hinged to, it really felt like they hadn’t been properly molded to fit together. I trimmed the inside of the head in two places, and now his head can sit further down and look more natural. It’s still a very tight fit to move his head down, but at least it’s possible now. I can’t do super close macro images, so this is blurry, but hopefully you can get the point well enough if you have the toy in hand.

Areas trimmed:


Before:


After:

 

Also, if you don’t feel like dealing with the outer leg panels not wanting to peg in (due to a tiny rectangular peg going into a much wider round hole), you can just rotate the outer panel 180 degrees. Nice and tight and doesn’t affect the articulation much if any.