Toy review - Studio Series 35 Jetfire

[Magnus]

Series - Generations
Sub-line - Studio Series
Size/class - Leader
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 2
Released here - June 2020
Approximate Retail Price - $49 (Big W Toy Mania 2020 sale price)
Approximate Size - 25cm
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode - Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird
Main Features/Gimmicks - Screen accuracy, licensed vehicle mode, combines with SS32 Optimus Prime
Main Colours - black, grey
Main Accessories - Axe; cane; chest piece for Studio Series Optimus Prime

Vehicle mode











A black Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird. Jetfire is 35.5cm long, with a wingspan just under 19cm.



Jetfire is largely unpainted black plastic, with some touches of red for the Blackbird's markings, and a white Skunk Works logo on his tail fins. The tail markings are faithful to those of the actual aircraft at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Centre in Virginia, which is a great touch. There is a random yellow dot on the left side of the forward fuselage, near the cockpit hatch, but again, this is accurate to the real plane.



As is typical of plane Transformers, Jetfire's undercarriage is full of visible robot parts. However, this time the undercarriage is neater and more cohesive than the original.







Studio Series Jetfire is substantially smaller in vehicle mode than the original toy from Revenge of the Fallen.

Transformation

Quite involved, particularly the legs, due to the way they unfold for robot mode. The entire length of the fuselage collapses down to form the torso.

A nice touch is that the Pratt and Whitney J58 engines actually form Jetfire's thighs; on the original toy, the engines on the thighs were faux parts that were separate from the plane's engine nacelles.

Robot mode









Jetfire's height really depends on the degree you bend his knees and ankles; the maximum height I've been able to get him to is 25cm to the top of his head, and 28cm to the highest point on his back; however, his legs are very long and lanky in this configuration, almost giving the impression that he's standing on stilts. A more 'natural' positioning of his legs will give him a height of 21cm to the top of the head and just under 25cm at the highest point on his back. If you want to pose him believably leaning on his cane, he'll need to go lower still.



In addition to the black plastic, there is now a lot of unpainted dark grey plastic, possibly to break up the black. In addition, Jetfire has a surprising amount of paint in this mode - the face is painted silver; his facial fins and beard have silver drybrushing; his head and neck have red markings like the ones on his vehicle mode; the shoulders and biceps have little touches of red and blue; the forearms have glossy black and silver; the hands have touches of black and dull gold; the torso has glossy black and silver; the thighs have a lot of silver; and the feet have some glossy black paint applied.

Jetfire has fairly good articulation. The head is mounted on a ball joint, so he can tilt his head up and down and to the sides, but side to side rotation is very limited due to the design of the head and neck.

The arms move back and forth, and can abduct outwards. The upper arm has a rotator right above the single elbow. The wrists have two joints that give extension, so Jetfire can angle his hands up, as well as a single rotator.

The hips rotate in two axes, giving forward and backward movement as well as abduction. The knees ratchet, as does the ankle joint right below it - this second joint is the ankle in a digitgrade animal. Finally, the foot has inversion to accommodate wider stances.





The axe and cane plug into ports on Jetfire's hands, exposing perhaps the one big weakness of this figure's robot mode: the hands were moulded open with a single hole in the palm (conveniently approximating his palm-mounted hologram projector), and a ring between his thumb and index finger, resulting in an odd look for the axe in particular. Hinged fingers would have been great, although looking at his hands, they don't seem to share a common axis for a pin.







Compared to the original figure, Studio Series Jetfire is a lot less bulky and imposing, but he makes up for this with far superior screen-accuracy. Despite being substantially smaller in vehicle mode and having far less bulk in robot mode, Studio Series Jetfire ends up at pretty much the same height as the original figure.





The backdrop is of the Egyptian ruins in the Sinai, where NEST and the Autobots fought off several Decepticons while trying to find Sam and his companions.



The final piece Jetfire comes with is a small chest piece for Studio Series Optimus Prime, presumably to allow a version besides SS-32 to combine with him.

Verdict



The original Jetfire had to do four things at once:

1. Be a licensed SR-71A Blackbird;
2. Be an articulated robot that was faithful to the concept art;
3. Combine with leader-class Optimus Prime with a minimum of detachable parts, and
4. Have an electronics pack.

When you take this into consideration, especially considering that the toy had to be ready in time for a later wave of Revenge of the Fallen's toy line, the original Jetfire is actually a pretty impressive achievement.

Meanwhile, the new Jetfire only needs to do three things:

1. Be a licensed SR-71A Blackbird;
2. Be an articulated robot faithful to the final CGI model; and
3. Combine with voyager-class Optimus Prime with some detachable parts.

With access to ILM's CGI models, no need for an electronics pack, and with Jetfire now being able to partially disassemble to combine instead of staying largely intact, it's not a surprise that Studio Series Jetfire ends up superior in some respects to the original. Jetfire's lower legs, upper torso, and the front of the fuselage detach for combination, yet Jetfire doesn't give much of a sense of being compromised for this gimmick.

Besides the open hands, the only big fault I think Jetfire has is that his head seems slightly too large for his body. It should have been a bit smaller, but it would have been nice if the rest of him was a bit bigger instead. If you can look past or ignore these issues - particularly the hands - I recommend Studio Series Jetfire.