TFA/Animated Comments thread

[STL]

Thanks to Stompy for tipping me and GPS boy about Jetstorm/Jetfire. Thanks heaps, mate!

Played w/ Jetfire and Jetstorm today and I'm still mulling over it. Don't have them b/c I broke played with Jaydisc's. Another ambitious toy. My initial impressions are Energon/Powerlinx but the link mechanism operating vertically rather than horizontally.

Jet mode:
They're identical but the legs kind of just sit there. You can get them very snug BUT the two hip pads that give it the sleek jet mode fall off way too easily. According to Jaydisc, Peaugh has said this is a commonplace problem so not easy to avoid. Thinking about it I suspect it might be possible to get it right once you acquaint yourself with the mold much like Classics 2.0 Prowl. I've yet to decide if I can be bothered opening in it. I like the cockpit, it can be opened and the lightpiping in the head comes out nicely in the cockpit. The wings aren't too flash. They're pretty short. Not perfect but okay.

Robot Mode
Very nice. I like the articulation and the sculpts. Very nice. No hip articulation but it didn't bother me.

Combined Robot Mode
If you agree with Golden Phoenix (or Anorexia personified if u prefer) that Marvel Crossovers Venom is ugly from behind, this Safeguard is an absolute mess. Really destroys the figure for me. It adds balance problems to the toy which can be navigated by bringing them closer to spider-like arms. But the spider-like arms at the back don't make sense given this is a jetmode/elemental type bot. I particularly like the concealing of the heads in going from individual robot mode to combined robot mode. Very nice. The head has no articulation which was disappointing as it takes displayability out a lot. There's also a very lovely extra height gimmick in one leg of each robot to give the combiner an extra cm or so.

Combined Jet Mode
Why did they even bother? Nuff said.

Overall
I liked it. I'm uhmming and ahhing over it I guess b/c the primary gimmick of this set (the combining) doesn't execute as well as I would've liked. A lot of originality here in the design though and I guess that makes it a win in my book. It's much like Energon I suspect. The first few powerlinx figures were cool b/c the concept was new but if Hasbro persist with this level of combining again, it'd become tiresome and downright uninteresting.

[jaydisc]

My thoughts:

Packaging
I, and a few others apparently (, ), are big fans of some of some recent packaging, specifically the fact that the items can be displayed sideways and still be display worthy by showing off artwork. This goes for Animated and Universe. Unfortunately, the packaging here, similar to The Battle Begins 2-pack, disappoints in this area. Like Battle Begins, the drawing are on the top of the box, meaning that if you want to maintain the "sideways motif", you need to display this one face down, possibly on a couple columns of Voyagers or under some Deluxes/Activators.

Comic Book
It's quite short but gives a quick story about how J+J=S came into existence. WTF is with Transformer brothers/twins? "Apparently the result of a split protoform"? Puh-lease.

*** <SPOILERS> ***
I think the timing of the release of the pics of Wheeljack and Perceptor is intentionally synced with the release of this toy and comic. There is also mention of Ultra Magnus referring to the "autobot spy, Waspinator"... further evidence of the transition from Wasp to Waspinator.
*** </SPOILERS> ***

Individual Alt Modes
The two individual alt modes for lack of a better phrase, look great from the waist down, and by that I mean from the middle section towards the nosecone. In a nice touch, the cockpits actually open and close and thus, are a separate translucent piece of plastic so they're not plagued by many modern paint matching issues. The tan color on Jetfire is a large notch above the Hasbro Gray(tm) we've become so used to seeing. The two biggest flaws here are the lack of proper wings and the large gap in the back of the fuselage. With better wings, and possibly some tail fins on the back, these could have been greatly improved.

Much to my great pleasure, this Animated Jetfire is the first toy incarnation ever that has properly had the inverted nosecone like Skyfire of the G1 cartoon. Many close to me will know this is something I harp on and some others might have seen my mention of it as well. To me, it's the one thing holding Classics Jetfire from being perfect. On Classics Jetfire, the nosecone is angled downward. I've always thought of modifying it, but fear it will look bad when in robot mode. On Animated Jetfire, the nosecone is perfectly angled upward, more akin to his Skyfire lineage.

Individual Robot Modes
They both shine in this mode... fantastic articulation and balance. The articulation is most likely so thorough because the legs of this form form the arms of the robot mode and different points of articulation are required which come in handy in this mode. There are some shoulder clips that hold the shoulders in and the second shoulder joint fits snuggly to also keep it in place in this mode. Lastly, the arm and leg rotator cuffs are all in the right place... ABOVE the elbow and knee (unlike Classics Jetfire)

I really like the head molds, but this is an area where non-Animated fans will surely be unhappy. The two faces are more kiddy than most, but Jetstorm reminds me of JRX and I like the goggles-on-the-forehead look of Jetfire.

Combined Jet Mode
Ridiculous. Not even worth commenting about. The instructions sum it up with the one illustrated step... stick the two jets together. Peaugh's video review shows the afterwards angling of the legs to create more of an X-Wing configuration which is a slight improvement, but the legs don't clip into place and due to the lack of landing gear, you couldn't put it down like that.

Combined Robot Mode aka Safeguard.
This is the most ambitious part of this set. The two robots can combine together to form Safeguard! I'm quite impressed with the engineering here and the final bot as it's extremely well articulated and not as badly balanced as I initially thought/feared. Each individual bots legs form one arm and one leg of Safeguard each, leaving the indiviaul arms to flutter about on Safeguard's back, almost making him look like the perfect mate for Blackarachnia. If positioned correctly, they can aide or hinder the balance. You can do some neat, Samurai-style-looking positions for the arms and the translucent flames on the arms can also be positioned nicely to be in view.

Summary
This figure/set is pretty ambitious and while I think it accomplishes two of the four modes well (individual and combined bots), it's a half fail on the third (individual alt modes) and a total fail on the fourth (combined alt modes). The colors and head molds will most likely suit only the most rampant Animated fans (of which I'm admittedly one) and the G1 tribute is quite scarce (although in my favorite possible way). In my case, the price was right (A$30 for two deluxes) and it's nice to have more Elite Guard.

Addendum 1 (light piping)
The individual light piping on each bot is fantastic. On Jetfire, the clear plastic forms flames out of the top-back of his head which also nicely illuminate if positioned properly.

On Safeguard, each eye is light-piped a different color also producing a nice effect.

[GoktimusPrime]

From what I'm reading and from pics I've seen the combined jet mode sounds like two whales going for it. :/

The first few powerlinx figures were cool b/c the concept was new but if Hasbro persist with this level of combining again, it'd become tiresome and downright uninteresting.

Actually, the concept wasn't new - it existed in G1 (1989) and IMO executed a lot better for its time compared to Super Link/Energon Powerlinx.

WTF is with Transformer brothers/twins? "Apparently the result of a split protoform"? Puh-lease.

Beats, "because they both happen to transform into Lamborghinis" or "they're all repaints of the same mould" (which appears to be the premise behind Rumble and Frenzy being brothers and for fans who think of the first year Seekers as brothers (-_-)).

I wonder if Dinobot II counts as a "brother" of Rampage. Hrmmm...

I prefer the kinda of brotherhood that Carnivac and Catilla had - based more on close friendship; i.e.: more like sword brothers... both would take a bullet for each other... an emotional/psychological fraternity rather than a "biological" one.

[Golden Phoenix]

I am pretty pleased with Jetfire and Jetstorm. They are pretty decent figures.
Not the best by far, but still very good.
One thing I think that lets them down is their short torso. It seems a little stunted, just enough to make it look a tiny bit odd.
I agree with jaydisc on most of what he said, with the exception of the individual vehicle modes.
I think they are alright. The gap between the 2 thrusters makes them look kind of alien, while still being practical. It also reminded me of Star Saber.
I think the arrow head jet mode is good over all.
I just wish that the fins/wings on the sides were supposed to tilt up and not have to miss-transform them to do so.

Spoilers (high light if you wish)
Oh, and they are supposed to be kiddy, or at least adolescent. They appear to be really young in the comics, so I think this is them a little bit later, like a year or so. So it would fit in well with Animated Season 3

[FFN]

Actually, the concept wasn't new - it existed in G1 (1989) and IMO executed a lot better for its time compared to Super Link/Energon Powerlinx.

But those toys were terrible.

[GoktimusPrime]

Would you say they were terrible by 1989 standards, compared to say Super Link/Energon Powerlinx by 2004 standards?

Quality-wise those toys weren't much worse than most other Transformers released in that year. They're not as bad as say, Monstructor (that's a seriously underwhelming toy). The gimmick works well - each Multi Forcer can link with another member. And they're better than Super Link in terms of:

1/ Their combined modes have different heads and a different combined persona. For example, when Wing forms the top half, the combined head (e.g.: Wingwaver's head) is different from Wing's head. When Energon Hot Shot Powerlinxes with Energon Inferno with Hot Shot as the upper half, Hot Shot's head is still the same and the persona of the combined character is pretty much Hot Shot's persona as opposed to new gestalt persona.

2/ Multi-Forcers can merge into a gestalt robot (Landcross). Super Link TFs cannot. There are gestalts in Super Link/Energon - Constructicon Maximus, Superion and Bruticus, but the members of those gestalt teams cannot Super Link/Powerlinx like the Multi-Forcers can (they're a different sub-group fom the Powerlinxers).

Now considering that Multi Force pre-dates Energon/Superlink by 15 years, I think they managed to accomplish more in those little figures. They were also sold either in sets of two (e.g. Wing and Waver) or as a gift set (Landcross). The two-packs were sold for 980JPY and the gift set for 2900JPY - which means that you basically paid about 283-290JPY per toy. That's less than three dollars by Japanese standards. The Powerlinxers ranged from Deluxe (e.g.: Hot Shot) to Mega (e.g.: Ironhide) which meant that we paid approx. $25-45 per toy.

[Paulbot]

Please try to keep discussion of Victory and Eneron/SuperLink combiners out of the Animated toys discussion thread. Maybe you'd like me to move this to a Combiners discussion thread.

[GoktimusPrime]

Maybe you'd like me to move this to a Combiners discussion thread.

Nah I'm good to end it here unless FFN wants to discuss it any further.