Review #95:
Old & New Jazz (Reveal the Shield & Power of the Primes)
Today we're again looking at multiple Classics style updates of the same character. It's funny, once upon a time I was happy having just one of any character (a few exceptions, such as Optimus Prime, aside). But I guess as soon as they started making new versions who were also randomly Combiners now, all that went out the window, and I was suddenly shouting aloud, for all to hear, "GIMMIE!!!!"
So, which character is getting the treatment of, "I'm a combiner limb now!" today? That, dear readers, would be none other then Jazz. |
So, who are the two Jazz we are looking at, specifically? The older one is 2011's Reveal the Shield Special Ops Jazz. ("Special Ops, likely, due to difficulty in tradmarking the name Jazz without any additional modifiers.) The newer one is 2017's Power of the Primes Autobot Jazz (because they finally realized that adding the faction to the name was all they needed to do for that pesky trademark).
The 2011 figure's vehicle mode, aside from the spoiler not being freaking huge, is a pretty good match for G1 Jazz. The 2017 figure's vehicle mode, on the other hand, does have a larger spoiler, but otherwise looks like a completely different type of car put into a Jazz-type livery. That being said, it doesn't make it a bad Jazz, just a somewhat reimagined Jazz.
If Reveal the Shield Jazz looks like he has a premium deco, alas we can't thank Hasbro for that. Reprolabels came to the rescue with a lovely sticker set! One notable thing this did was give Jazz his Martini sponsorship. (Although I question if it is hypocritical of Reprolabels to avoid stickers advocating cigarettes on toys, yet having no similar issues with alcohol.) They also did wonders for Jazz's back end. There were two options for the licence plate: JAZZ or 1984. Since, due to the plate's placement, it was four seperate stickers, that allowed me to switch things up by making it say J4ZZ.
|
For weapon storage, RTS Jazz came from that lovely era of Transformers when the designers were making the weapons store away completely hidden. Man, I miss those days! There is one other pair of accessories which normally can be hidden away in vehicle mode, but which can also be deployed: a pair of speakers! This is based on something Jazz could do in the G1 cartoon.
As seen in the photos above, Power of the Primes Jazz's weapon storage is a bit less elegant, just plugging the weapon into a peg hole on the vehicle. Of course, being a figure in the Power of the Primes toyline, this Jazz also has the Prime Armor. If you store the gun off on the side, the Prime Armor can plug into the center peg hole.
If one wants to be charitable, I suppose one could consider this some sort of super-charged engine. If one wanted to be charitable. Or we could just say, "It's a toy!" and enjoy it for what it is.
And, of course, if one wants to truly enjoy the Powers of the Prime play pattern, you could take one of the Prime Master figures and plug him in, powering Jazz up! To the right, you can see Vector Prime plugged into Jazz's Prime Armor. Vector Prime bestows time-based powers, and so with his power, Jazz "travels through time to experience all music." Perhaps not the most effective power-up in combat situations, but it definitely suit's Jazz's character! |
There is, unfortunately, an elephant in the room that must be addressed with Power of the Primes Jazz. Rather a literal elephant, if you know your political party mascots! In photos of the figure above, did you see the detail on his sides? To the left, we have a closer look. Notice four little squiggles directly below the Autobot logo? These squiggles correspond with letters in a substitution cypher Cybertronian alphabet.
|
It is not completely unusual for Transformers figures to have little Easter Eggs in their decos. A recent Seaspray figure has the name of a woman Seaspray was in love with molded right into the figure using these letters! So, what four letters are plastered on Jazz's sides?
MAGA. As in President Trump's slogan of, "Make America Great Again." I don't want to get into politics here. This is just a website dedicated to talking about toys. But support or oppose Trump, I think we can all agree that this doesn't belong on a toy! I'll keep politics off my toy website if Hasbro can keep them off of the toys! Hasbro did release a statement disavowing this themselves. For more information, you can read this article on IGN where this story first broke. There's also this article from the person who's photos first brought this to the world's attention. |
I don't have it yet, alas, but there is a really good looking Reprolabels set for Power of the Primes Jazz. This set will cover up his doors, removing the MAGA from the toy. I look forward to getting the sticker set for him one of these days if for no other reason than it looks really good! But I won't deny that it might have a nice bonus effect, as well.
Reveal the Shield Jazz is a great modern update of the G1 toy. Aside from lacking a giant shoulder missile, he really looks like you took the original toy and said, "Okay, let's do this again, but with modern standards!"
Power of the Primes Jazz is definitely something different. In Combiner Wars we saw many figures, such as Prowl or Hound, who are traditionally supposed to have their car's hoods as their chests. These figures don't look bad, but definitely cheated the chests! "It's how it has to be with the combiner peg engineered in there," we all thought. Then Jazz came along and said, "Challenge excepted!" |
The Reveal the Shield figure's eye visor is done in blue light piping that, unfortunately, just gets completely washed out in my photos just blending in with the black plastic above it. So in photos, the Power of the Prime figure's eye visor definitely stands out more! But in person, both are equally good.
The Power of the Primes Jazz does lack the door wings that some see as an iconic part of the character, and that the earlier Reveal the Shield version is sporting. But that detail is actually only a part of the G1 toy. As far as how the character looks in the cartoon, the Power of the Primes figure is actually the more accurate of the two!
|
Let's talk articulation. First up, Reveal the Shield Jazz. He has a ball joint in his neck. His shoulders are ball joints. He has upper arm swivels, gloriously double jointed elbows, and wrist swivels! His waist rotates. His hips are on ball joints. There's upper leg swivels. And finally, his knees have double joints.
Power of the Primes Jazz also has his head on a ball joint. His shoulders are on an odd pair of joints that provide a decent range of articulation. His elbows are ball joints, which also provide a simulated arm swivel. His waist rotates. His hips are on ball joints. He has upper leg swivels. His knees have a decent bend to him. Overall, not quite as great as the older Jazz, but still pretty good! |
One odd note about Power of the Prime Jazz's articulation: His fists are separate pieces attached to his arms via mushroom pegs, which theoretically should allow for a wrist swivel, but any articulation there is prevented by the kibble on the back of his arm. Why Hasbro would want to add to Jazz's part count in this way for no apparent purpose, rather than just molding his lower arms and fists all as one piece, is anyone's guess. One can only speculate that it is to make some future reuse of the mold easier.
Reveal the Shield Jazz can still deploy his speakers in robot mode. They sit over his shoulders quite dynamically. They can also be removed and attached to his gun to make it larger, or (if you reorient them) to make it into a sonic weapon.
Reveal the Shield Jazz can still deploy his speakers in robot mode. They sit over his shoulders quite dynamically. They can also be removed and attached to his gun to make it larger, or (if you reorient them) to make it into a sonic weapon.
Power of the Primes Jazz, or course, has his Prime Armor, which in previous robot mode photos was just pegged onto his back for storage. Other options include a nifty clawed arm gauntlet, like we saw with Dreadwind. Or, it can attach to his chest, but not quite as nicely as Dreadwind's did. Jazz lacks any 5mm ports on his chest, and instead has a small indentation on either side of his chest that the Prime Armor will (rather loosely) grip on to. And it kind of ends up hanging below his chest, making it more a belly armor. Beer belly Jazz!
Finally, Power of the Primes Jazz can become either an arm or a leg, but since he kind of doesn't have a specific combiner yet, I'll at least show off his arm mode here. No leg mode, alas, as the Prime Armor only does hands, and I've yet to acquire any of the Power of the Primes Voyager Class figures, which is where the feet are provided. Jazz's limb modes would be compatible with any Combiner Wars or Power of the Primes torso, although of course if making a leg for a Combiner Wars gestalt, he'd have to borrow a foot from someone else.
Finally, Power of the Primes Jazz can become either an arm or a leg, but since he kind of doesn't have a specific combiner yet, I'll at least show off his arm mode here. No leg mode, alas, as the Prime Armor only does hands, and I've yet to acquire any of the Power of the Primes Voyager Class figures, which is where the feet are provided. Jazz's limb modes would be compatible with any Combiner Wars or Power of the Primes torso, although of course if making a leg for a Combiner Wars gestalt, he'd have to borrow a foot from someone else.
I don't own any other figures using either of these molds. The Reveal the Shield one did get a number of reuses, but all of them seemed to be various exclusives. The two most notable were a Japanese mail-away offer for Ricochet (sold under his Japanese name of Stepper), who makes sense as G1 Ricochet was similarly a reuse of the G1 Jazz mold, and for some reason Wheelie, who was originally intended to be exclusive to Hasbro Asia markets, but eventually got a release at (the soon to be late and lamented) Toys Я Us stores in the US. G1 Ricochet was a Targetmaster, and his reuse using this mold added a Targetmaster partner. Unfortunately, Takara didn't remold the larger figure at all to add anyplace for it to peg into Ricochet's vehicle mode, so the Targetmaster could only be wielded by Ricochet in robot mode. Wheelie, meanwhile, got a new head and a nifty sling shot that really suited his character. He was a decent looking Wheelie, but at the time I was happy with the Legends class one I owned, and since then an even better Legends class one has been released.
The Power of the Primes Jazz mold has not had any reuses yet as of this writing. But it is a fairly new mold, and it would be unusual for it to never get at least a second use, so I look forward to seeing what else might be done with it.
Size comparison time! Here's both Jazzes standing with a standard sized DVD case. I once had the opportunity to get Spike Spencer's autograph, and he decided to make his character look like his character's daddy. Pity I didn't have this yet when I reviewed Wreck-Gar, and (digitally) gave Sailor Moon a similar make-over! Ha ha.
So, which Jazz is better? They're both good (ignoring any political controversies), so a lot of it comes down to preference. My preference is for the Reveal the Shield Jazz. If I could only have one, it would be him. But if you want a more cartoon accurate look over a toy accurate one, or if you're a newer collector not wanting to track down an older toy, the Power of the Primes version could do right by you! |
Finally, in closing, a look at where the Jazzes live in my collection. Reveal the Shield Jazz, of course, lives on my "Classics 1984 Autobot" shelf:
While Power of the Primes Jazz... Well, alas, he doesn't really have anyone to hang out with. So here he is being sad and alone on a random other shelf:
One little personal note on how I feel things are going here. For a bit, I was a little bummed that it looked like I might only get two reviews up this month. I really feel I haven't been up to my own personal goal of an average of four reviews a month. But then it occured to me that a lot of my reviews recently have been covering multiple figures at once. So, even ignoring ones like Ricochet and Wheelie who I am only giving cursory, "Oh yeah, these guys exist, too!" mentions to, I've actually looked at five figures this month! And you know what? That, I can be happy with.
So long for now, dear readers, and I'll see you in April!
Review added 27 March 2018 by Yotsuya. Comments are welcomed!
So long for now, dear readers, and I'll see you in April!
Review added 27 March 2018 by Yotsuya. Comments are welcomed!