I had a choice today between Jetfire and Scourge. Scourge in box didn't impress me that much ... looked kinda cheap and the transformation looked a bit simple. Jetfire, on the other hand, had a KILLER looking alt-mode.

I went with Jetfire. I now regret that.

The alt mode is basically flawless. Yeah, you can see the head on top (an issue with many GF/Cybertron figs), but the paint apps obscure it enough that it's irrelevant. It's a bad-ass looking bomber jet; end of story.

The Cyber Planet Key gimmick in vehicle mode involves folding the tail fins up and swinging the whole thing forward, then inserting the Key to pop up a missile turret. Trouble is, mine rarely pops up; I have to physically pry it out. Pushing it back is a problem too; you have to hold the missile cannon in while pushing down to get it to lock into place.

So the Key activates a gimmick that doesn't work, thereby making its existence pointless, right? Well, almost. Popping the turret out is considerably more difficult without the Key than with it. That's right -- the Key actually DOES unlock something. It just doesn't do anything else.

You can sort of store the Key in its activation slot, but it butts up against the bottom of the plane, and the turret keeps popping out. There are no other obvious places to store the Key.

Transformation seems straightforward enough. Fold the tail on top of the plane, fold the bottom legs out ... ooh, look, they're sideways, and there's an extra plate! Drop the leg assembly down and rotate the waist ... gee I bet the nose folds down, the engines are the arms, and that giant tail cannon will pop over his head. Cool! Hmm, fold the nose down, pop the head out ...

Wait a minute. The chest parts aren't "flattening" together, and the nose doesn't seem to latch to anything. Hmm, no wait, there's a tab here -- NO.

No, no, no. You're got to be KIDDING.

See, instead of taking the tried and true, obvious route, Hastak decided to pull up short. Not only do none of the parts actually fold up flush with each other, but the nose cone hooks into a tiny tab that barely holds it in place. The end result is a hollowed out body with panels at a bunch of odd angles, and a giant tail cannon that can't do ANYTHING but sit on his back and make him fall backwards from the weight.

Thinking there must've been a mistake, I took another look at the packaging. Holy crap, it's INTENTIONAL. They have Jetfire BENDING FORWARD in bot mode to shoot his useless back cannon.

Holy crap. I didn't know it was POSSIBLE to fuck up a figure this simple, but there you are.

I'm not going to bother going into posability, because it's hard to pose something that can barely stand. Yeah, you can drop the tail to balance him, but that makes him look worse.

And yeah, I guess if I'd looked more closely at the packaging, I could've seen this coming. Doh.

Final grade: D. Only thing saving it from an F is that beautiful Alt. mode.

-XCN-

 

and the truth about this series is coming to light. it's easy to praise it when you're just looking at pictures online, but as I said months ago, they're flawed and boring in person.

 

The chest piece on yours barely snaps in place??? My Dreadrock's chestpiece snaps in firmly as hell... But yeah, the Force Chip gimmick definitely falls short...

 

One figure does not a series make. (Or break ... unless it's Prime.)

-XCN-

 

Wow...I'm actually really surprised that Cybertron is inferior to Energon. I mean, looking at pictures online, it looks as though Jetfire, if none else, is a step up in terms of design, sculpting, and articulation...but design is useless if it doesn't stay together or function as it should...!

EDIT: Just checked Remy's photoshoot of Dreadrock, and man, that is a really nasty hollowed out body and back. At least other figures, like Stormjet and Mirage, had a hollowed out body that didn't look too bad, but C-Jetfire's just looks so damn awkward.

Sad to ask, but...is Energon Jetfire superior to this guy, Xcandescent?

 

It really depends... I for one love Galaxy Force over Energon...  

 

Indeed ... and that's when it lines up at ALL (which is rarely).

I should've gotten Scourge or Megs.

-XCN-

 

I agree that some of the figures are way better (upcoming GF-Vanguard Team, I am looking RIGHT at you!), but others just don't appeal to me at ALL (Liger Jack, Jackshot, Backpack, most of the Animatros guys, etc). At least, with Energon, the Decepticons were incredibly well sculpted, and all the Autobots (sans Omnicons, but I loved their gimmick) had the incentive of 4 different modes, so if one, or even three, of the modes sucked, there was always that last one that would save it and make it look GOOD. Cybertron/Galaxy Force doesn't have that, sadly.

 

I was hesitant at the Animatros guys at first but now that I have them, I'm glad I gave them a second chance...

 

What mode does E. Jetfire have that actually makes him look better than just OK? Alt mode, OK but not my favorite space jet design. Robot mode, OK, but I don't like the head design (and it can't turn). Top half mode, looks like a conehead unless you bend the nosepiece back a little. Again, OK but not great. Bottom half mode, blech. He can't stand underneath any of the other Mega Autobots without his feet folding up and the figure toppling.

And I think E. Storm Jet is essentially a piece of crap. I felt burned by Superion Maximus, who is IMHO the single worst toy in the whole Energon line, because he won't fit together. But look at how many good toys there are in the line.

I'm not going to judge Cybertron by the figures I don't like. I judge each toy on its own.

 

Well said... You are my hero of the day...  

 

w00t!  

 

I passed on Jetfire in favor of Scourge, and I'm even happier I did after reading this. Nevermind the cost, he seems like he's just too big and from what you said too crappy to bother with. I may grab him in 6 months when he's clogging shelves like E-Ironhide did, but probably not before.

 

Methinks you have to be a big Japanese mecha fan to really enjoy the design, since he seems to be influenced by the Brave/Yuusha toys. I for one love the mold (even though I picked up Master Megs instead of Dreadrock), but I can easily see someone else hating him.

 

To everyone his own. I recently got a Jetfire, and I absolutely love it. Great alt mode, decent posability, pretty good looking robot mode. kinda useless Force Chip gimmick, btu I didn't buy it for that. All in all, I felt it was a great buy. If you had gotten Scourge instead, you know you would have been here minutes later talking about cruddy paint apps and massively lacking posability.

 

I know but he is cool in both forms!

 

OK posability in the arms ... none in the legs. Even if you ignore the "fall on his back" problem, those stubby, brick-like legs don't allow for a hell of a lot of anything, besides standing in place. Any poses they could hold are killed by that weight distribution problem on his back.

Maybe. I'll admit to not being impressed by the paint apps in package, and thinking the transformation and posability might be lacking. But at least he wouldn't look like a hollowed-out, unbalanced stack of panels.

Perhaps I should just get Megs and skip to Wave 2.

-XCN-

 

My Jetfire is cool as hell.

 

That wouldn't be cause its made by Takara would it?  

Andy

 

I just bought Jetfire yesterday, and though he's not one of my favorite incarnations of the Air Guardian, I do really like him. I haven't run into stability issues with mine, and the "backpack" sits pretty tightly. His nose clips tightly to the torso, although the hollowness is a little weird. His jet mode is one of the coolest Jetfires since the original. I don't think he'd be able to outfly Starscream as the bio suggests, but I don't think it matters, cause he seems to have plenty of firepower to knock him out of the sky. The little missile launchers that pop out just below his cockpit are a really nice touch, too. The force chip gimmick is a bit cheesy, but at least he has a decent place to store his in robot mode.