The more I play around with Cliffjumper, the thing that really surprises me is that he is not as small as I'd though he'd be. He's a good sized figured and scales very well.

 

I got one of these in the mail the other day and while my first impressions were decent he’s actually grown on me a lot. I don’t care about partsforming when it’s one part and when it’s the only one in the line (bases excluded) that does it.

I would have liked a hinge in the wrists so he can hold the launcher in a way that doesn’t look so awkward but I’m not sure if he would survive the drop test at this size with hinge wrists. Not a big deal, I just hate the ‘holding arms completely straight’ approach to launchers with action figures.

It’s hard to describe but Cliffjumper really feels like a premium product no doubt due to being covered in really nicely applied paint apps.
If he came out pre-unification then I’d expect him to be all molded red plastic and probably a lot lighter shade of red. This feels like the takara version I had to pay $30 to get with all the bonus paint apps. But I didn’t pay $30, I paid $20. He’s pretty great for that.

Oh and he is small if you’re bothered about that sort of thing.

 

Ok final thoughts on Cliffy now I’ve sat with him a while.

The altmode is aces. Just well done.

The robot mode is pretty good. The lack of Autobot insignia makes him feel like a third party figure.

I still find the transformation a bit awkward and frustrating. I don’t think any amount of practicing and fiddling will change that.

While I was fiddling with him it hit me that there was a way for him NOT to partsform. His back half would have had to split and gone with his arms, probably attached to the underside of his arms between the elbows and fist. It would have ended up very very kibbly. Other transformers have had major chunks of the car hanging off the arms and it never looks great. Given how small Cliffy’s arms are, it would have looked horrendous.

You maybe could have redesigned the rear of the car and his arms to mitigate that somewhat, but I really think any design along those lines would have produced awkward arms. The irony here being that when that has been the solution in the past, people have actively modded the character to be a parts former.

I think there really was no way to avoid the parts forming and get the clean alt mode and robot mode we got in the tiny package of the final product.

 

I actually like the backpack. It gives him a little more bulk. It fits his hotheaded personality.

 

I think Cliffjumper is fantastic. The articulation is up to par, the paint-job is lovely, and he looks good in both modes. Would it be cool if he was a centimeter or two taller? Sure, but he’s still a ton of fun at the size he is, and scales pretty well with my other figures.

 

Would his head fit on Classics Cliffjumper?

 

Highly doubtful. I have classics bumblebee and even if the ball joints were compatible, you would have a comicaly small-headed Cliffjumper.

 

Does anyone else have the problem with the back piece being loose when connecting the peg? It falls right out of the hole when connecting it to CJs car mode.

 

Seems like that may be a problem with your copy. Mine fits in snugly enough without being hard to remove or insert.

 

Same here. Mine is a smooth peg in and out.

 

Going into robot mode or car mode? If car mode, the back piece on mine wouldn't connect right - and then someone on this forum let me know that some copies have too much paint where the back piece slides into the little groove on the top of the car and it was necessary to force it into place the first couple of transformations. It worked, but it took so much force I was sure I was going to break it.

If you're talking about the black peg you flip out to put into his back in robot mode, then no - my copy's fine, and yours is the only one I've heard of having that issue.

 

I have to say that despite his diminutive size, this guy is really growing on me.

The robot mode is really good. Quality is nice. Posability is great.

But where this guy really shines for me is, the transformation and especially the car mode.

The transformation is fun and the partsforming doesn't bother me at all. The result is a really beautiful, sleek, sexy, car mode that seriously looks great and feels solid in hand.

 

He looks great posed to just about anyone.

 

I hate to say it, but I'm not really loving this guy. I'm continuing to go through my recent orders, opening one figure a day to keep things interesting, and today was Cliffjumpers day.

I had used the original WFC Cliffjumper for a while as my Cliffjumper, then the Prime First Edition, which I think is quite a good figure, all things considered. Unfortunately, mine seems to be disintegrating, with the clear plastics cracking and falling off, already his horns/bumper/butt has cracked and is now a separate piece, and that's just the biggest problem right now. For whatever reason, the mini/micro version that's a redeco of Bumblebee from a few years back was never acquired, so with this new Cliffjumper, I was pleased that I'd have a new, nice figure.

I didn't really care about the size. Or the partsforming. Or even the really big gun and the hydroplane thing you could do with it, I just wanted a nice Cliffjumper figure. While it is that, and the car mode is fine, for me, it's the transformation and some minor details on that execution that I don't like. In a nutshell, I don't find him fun to Transform, at all. Perhaps it's just mine, but he's got really, really tight joints, so there were several times on the first transformation that I was certain I was going to break it, rather than change forms, from getting the shoulders to tab in, getting the waist to twist, etc. But the "Deal breaker" has come with those doors. I spent, no kidding, 22 minutes trying to finesse the doors into the thighs and the rear fender on the first transformation. Since then, it's gotten a bit easier (and my current trick is to leave the windshield/roof piece up to better manipulate them, but even so, it's just so annoying and difficult to finesse into place, that it's not that much fun. Then you add in the tightness of the hood parts coming together and then the almost obscenely tight lock in for the trunk piece, and there's no fun for me, just work and worry that something is going to snap. I had to use a tool to pry the peg that slots the rear of the car into his back out from where it gets folded into for alt mode as that joint is so tight. It's loosened up enough on repeat transformations that I can do it without it, but it's still a lot of force and finagling.

I also found in hand, the big gun isn't that much fun either. Currently, I just broke it into two guns, with the ski's as clips and then the long piece like a barrel for one of them, but it just feels clunky in hand. At some point I'm sure I'm going to put an Autobot sticker on the hood/belly.

Against the other figures I opened this week, it's lacking the character that Hoist has or the "G1ness" of Starscream. I'm glad others can really enjoy him, but I'm afraid this is more of a check to the checklist figure.

 

Just got one, and mine has the same issue. It doesn't quite want to peg in like it's supposed to.

I took my X-Acto knife, and ever-so-slightly shaved a little off of the black part the hatchback part is supposed to latch into. Works fine now  

 

So I finally got myself a Cliffjumper.

And goodness is he a smol boi!

Other than the size for the price point and that daft partsforming chunk'o'junk, he's a very good modern figure.

The articulation, sculpt and paint are all fantastic (though the painted shoulders were a stupid idea, considering the scraping of the tabs every time you transform him).

Definitely the best G1 Cliffjumper we've ever had, and I really appreciate the non-G1 accurate alt mode, which is a vast improvement over the out of place deformed design of the original...things like that should stay in the past *glares at MP Bee V2*.

For those wondering what to do with that blob of black plastic from the end of the bazooka, you can attach it to the vehicle kibble to make a separate cannon:



Or you can store it on his back, folded around the kibble. It perfectly sits in the space between the vehicle junk and his back without pushing anything out of place:



This doesn't affect his appearance at all from the front:

 

He’s found his way into my nightstand drawer. I wish he was more impressive.

 

UPDATE: I found another CJ at Target today and grabbed it. After opening it, I can say that my first copy was weird and had that loose fit to the backpack and black hole on his back. This new copy is perfect no looseness or issues that I can see. Now I can finally enjoy CJ

 

What's fascinating is so many design cues from the first Masterpiece Bumble[bee].

 

Cliffy is immense. Maybe my favorite WFC toy, period.