Even the hands are hollow, wow.

 

That's really damned common for larger scale Transformer figures.

 

What you're saying is what you want to have, not so much the reality. Sometimes deluxes are given better articulation because it can be done in a cost efficient way, and sometimes other classes get the gold star treatment. The leader class has been all over the board with quality in the past 10 years. I can recall off the top of my head at least 5 leaders that have lacked wrist swivel, so that's nothing new.

I DO think that the AOE leaders have shown a new level of cost cutting for the leaders, and that's unfortunate, and Jetfire is along with that.

He has faults, but Hasbro is still putting out a great looking figure here that will be, at least to me, well worth the money.

 

Can we get some comparions shots of Leader Jetfire with Classics Voyager Jetfire?

 

I posted this while I was on site and Daimchoc helped me to post it up here in TFW2005

 

Leader > Voyager

Way cooler. Way, way cooler.

 

The chrome looks absolutely awful, and the lack of wrist swivels sucks, but he looks really fantastic.

His stance and proportions are excellent and the mask is such a cool design. Im definitely gonna get him when I get the chance.

 

I'm a bit confused: doesn'this count as a fold down landing gear?





Anyway, I'm actually happy with how i turned out. Swiveling wrists would have been nice, but even an awesome Leader class figure such as HFTD Starscream lacks them, so I can live with that. The same for the hollow legs, which are pretty common in a lot of figures. What bothers me a little are the red chrome and hollow arms, but oh well...

 

I notice that the rear landing gear does not fold up. Yeah the front landing gear does.

Anyhow there are just so many cool things about the about the 2006 version. I really like how the booster pack has hidden weapons...wished designers would have added that into this new one.

To me the cockpit just hanging off on the back in bot mode just looks weird and really make no sense. Its the one design feature that makes me think Hasbro designers were like; "well if the cockpit was on his back we won't have problems from the guys who made Robotech". On top of that, as demonstrated in the pictures, a fan mode gear walk was totally hopeless. I mean voyager Whirl got an official gear walk mode and Jetfire didn't?!?!?! REALLY?!?!?!

Then there is this one aesthetic nit pic i have that really is more about logical placement...in bot mode Jetfire's main thrusters are "upside down" or pointing up to the sky. Weird design idea.

These are my first impressions and yeah these are the types of things I am particular about. But at least I am not alone when it comes to unusual nit picks...I mean what has been a common issue about this figure is to me by far the strangest complaint I have ever known; "the red chrome is terrible".

I don't get the issue over the red chrome. This to me is what actually makes the figure look really cool. There are other things like about the new Jetfire. Yeah, lateral elbow forearm movement, swivel above the knee, the mask attaches to the gun (why so is puzzling but at least the mask stores somewhere) and opening cockpit.

The jet mode looks really cool (permanently exposed rear landing gear not withstanding). The bot mode has some poor / weird design choices including reversed direction of his jets, cockpit not being a part of his chest, just hangs off his back and his mask attaches to a gun.

 

Hey TCracker- can the 2006 Jetfire booster pack be attached to the new Leader Jetfire. From your pics it looks like they have the same clips and spaced the same distance apart.

 

I missed out on the 2006 voyager figure, so a chance at such a great looking Jetfire can't be passed up.

I'm taking my chances and ordering through Beyond Mortality. Between the $15 off MSRP and the inexpensive shipping costs I'm saving quite a bit, since I'd likely end up ordering the figure anyways.

 

Ok good thank you.

 

Yeah, I am like that. As a big fan of jets/airplanes/spaceships transformers, it really hurts that the rear landing gear does not fold up. It is an small thing, but it is a crucial aspect in any jet and it is pretty ugly a flying pose with those wheels hanging there (especially without the chrome parts). It is like having a car mode with fixed/molded wheels (sadly, if Hasbro keeps cutting costs, that may happen too...). The rest (chrome, hollowness, no wrist swivels etc) is not the best, but it is ok. I would totally exchange the chrome and fancy cockpit for a simple rear landing gear able to fold up.

By the way, I can live with chrome (I guess), but I really wish this new Hasbro experiment/fetish dies very soon. I never like chrome. It gets scratches and peels off easily. It looks cheap/cheesy. It doesn't make any sense in military equipments (oh yeah, look how I am shiny while I shoot some bullets in the middle of a war!   ).

 

Awesome review and pics, TCracker. So cool to finally see him in detail. Has so much presence in bot mode, I freaking love it.

 

Thanks for that comparison pic. It looks like the new Leader class figures have been downscaled to the point where they are now roughly Ultra-Class sized; Universe Onslaught is about the same size as Jetfire and SS.

To think that five years ago we were getting figures about the size of Jetfire, with electronics, for $24.99! I know that isn't a particularly novel observation, but still; it makes it hard to view Jetfire as a good deal.

 

just from my observation Hasbro seems to be doing something a little different with the size classes this time.

just MY OPINION...

But it does seem that instead of the traditional leader figures we are used to, its more of a scale thing without electronics and gimmicks.

Now, Sans the deluxe dinos, The cars, voyagers and leaders seem to scale real well opposed from previous lines. Mabye it isn't so much as "with the leader you get a big toy with electronics" as opposed to "a bigger figure closer in scale"

although this does not hold true with voyager grimlock..but I bet that the upcoming Leader megatron Tank will scale well in tank mode.

The only thing that bugs me about the new leader size, is it just does not scale with Previous leaders. But Things have changed drastically with Hasbro's releases.

Im still trying to figure out if I like the "new" size classes. Hound and galvatron and evasion prime scale SO well with the deluxes if you ask me. It didn't work that way so well before.

 

Those hollow spaces are grotesque but overall he looks great. Seems like a good deal.

 

If Hasbro does a running change to get rid of the chrome I might pick that up. Or a chrome-free version in G2 colors. But I'm not going to baby a figure this big to protect the chromed parts from the possible hazards in my house (like a cat rubbing it or dust settling and having to clean it). And I'm just looking forward to Leader Megatron a lot more.

+-MWG-+

 

I mean, I wouldn't mind if Hasbro decided to move in this direction, although I'm not convinced that it has. Making robots to scale doesn't really square too well with a pricing system based on size classes though; inevitably you're going to get a bad deal with a figure on the small end of the size class. An Ultra-Class Jetfire at a Leader-Class price point would be an example of this. If Hasbro did go this route they should do what Takara does with the MPs; either price the figures individually, or add in extras to round out the price point (a la MP Bumblebee).