I bought Jazz and Optimus + Trailer today. Managed to make Jazz only and saving Optimus at a later date.
First I wanted to inspect the quality of the plastic. Pretty good. Closest I've seen any competing building block toys have ever been but it is still a notch or two below the outstanding quality of Lego.
Second, I wanted to see how they connect. For the most part great, until you get to the longer pieces. These just don't have the strength of Lego when I tried this. The piece just wouldn't fit in and bent out and had to gently force it in. NEVER happens with Lego. Up to 3 studs wide plates are ok but the larger ones just don't quite ease itself in easily.
With those two above I can only assume that Lego's molds are much much more precisely engineered than these. Although plastic quality is almost as good.
The minifig quality were ok. They still feel a little cheap every now and then but I do like that the shoulders and legs are on ball joints allowing for the arms and legs to fan sideways a little for varied poses. The rotating waist joint is a nice touch ruined, by default, by the blocky waist. Conceptually though, Having G1 styled Minifigs will drive the sales for these sets.
With Jazz I went and built the robot mode. Nothing surprising here, just a lot of random pieces (designed for vehicle mode) piled on together and then covered up by signature panels. The ball joints have a very hard rubber coating which should help the ball joints longevity. They can be quite stiff, which is awesome in my opinion. I just hope that they don't wear out. Time will tell but for now. A big plus over Lego's plastic on plastic ball joint that eventually gets loose. The ball jointed heads are certainly going to be just as popular as the Minifigs in these sets. So completists and those wanting official TF heads for use with their Lego sets. Here they are. The majority of the bricks are carbon copies of Lego bricks with some having some minor adjustments some actually for the better. There are a few original bricks that feel well thought out, rather than just having it for the sake of originality. Then again there is a hologram sticker stating compatibility with leading brands. Obviously wants to attract soem of the LEgo fans.
Jazz's Robot mode is what I expected for the size of the kit. While it would have been nice for a few more articulation points, especially a knee bend, the resulting figure is decent. It doesn't really look like Jazz since the doors are too small and is pretty much hidden at the back and the legs are nowhere near what it's meant to look like based off any of its G1 or Classics design. The head, colours and a few signature flourishes distinguishes this as Jazz, but otherwise it could have been ANY robot if you took the head out and used another colour scheme. By the way they used a silver colour for Jazz. Would have preferred all white, it would have looked better. The robot mode has just the right proportions but the vehicle mode looks a little squashed or "cute" looking. I'll make the vehicle next time and will post what I think.
For the price... $20 (unsure what rrp actually is) I think it's pretty good. Two Minifigs and a decent amount of parts, and a nice variety of it too, with only a handful of "basic" bricks in the set with a lot of specialized bricks and plates, this is pretty good value for this set. Comparatively with Lego, minor plastic quality difference aside, this is better value than the asking price of contemporary Lego sets. MUCH better value. The designs are a heck of a lot better than the Exo Force robots from a few years ago and merges two of my favorite toys together. Who doesn't want G1 style Minifigs? Plus those robot heads are just awesome. I understand that engineering an actual transforming kit is a challenge, but here's hoping future waves will have them.
I'd say give it a shot on sale prices. The minifigs are pretty, so I'd suggest skipping the basic Optimus & Bumblebee and try out Jazz or Mirage and see what you think.
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Originally Posted by Autocon
