http://shortpacked.livejournal.com/522492.html

He's a monster!

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My heart is saddened that he is a monster. My wallet is gleeful, for I can skip him.

Was expecting that photo...

Thanks for the review!

I'm really sad to hear about Jetfire. He was the only new character in the movie that I really liked, and I thought his design was cool.

I don't like the look of the toy's robot mode. The colors are way off, and I can't stand that fake canopy on his head. Also, aren't his legs supposed to be the jet engines? He carries those on his back. It looks like his entire robot mode is seperate from the vehicle parts with fake vehicle parts sculpted into the robot parts. I hate that.

Yeah, I'm sure it was impossible to engineer the toy to combine with Prime without going this route, but I would've gladly dropped the combining gimmick (which I never like anyways). But I guess that would defeat one of Hasbro's selling points on this toy (which is more crucial to them than what some random fanboy thinks of the vehicle kibble). Logically, I guess, there was no way Hasbro could make a Jetfire toy I'd like that would be viable as a marketable product. I'm not angry at Hasbro for their design decision (which is sensible), it's just produced a toy I don't want to buy.

I'm extremely impressed by that picture of the jet mode next to Prime's truck mode. That is one huge jet! I'd almost buy Jetfire just for that, but hearing about the pain to transform coupled by the apparent instability of it all makes me cry. :-(

Oh well, I need to save some money.

I personally think Jetfire is really great. Sure he's frustrating to transform to jet mode, but I love everything else about him. His stature, his colors, his sculpt. I think he's fun, and a lot better than Leader Megatron. He's definitely on my second favorite figure from this line (Optimus is my first, and they're followed closely behind by the twins).

Randy

Given that I'll be looking at him in a combined mode with Prime more than toying with him anyway, your review actually encourages me. Very cool pictures. The more pics I see of leader Jetfire, the more impressed I am with the legends version. It's really amazing how well engineered and detailed the latest legends figures have been, with the detail, articulation, and extra step of transformation that they would have skipped on earlier legends figures(his lower legs don't need to fold out and extend from the thigh to be a leg, but they do!)

Loved the one comment at the bottom of your review of someone saying that Jetfire's belt is his colostomy bag.

But at $90 for the entire set, who other than the fanboys are going to drop coin for this monstrosity?

Parents at Christmas?

CORRECTION:

I just picked up Jetfire today- his eyes aren't painted over. Sorry, Walky you got a botched paint job. I'm sure this alone puts Jetfire into the undisputed win column. Light-up eyes make everything perfect!

I also just picked up Jetfire this evening and his eyes are in between. They're definitely not totally clear and light-up, but the light from his head definitely lights up his eyes enough anyway when they light up the fake canopy.

Jetfire is amazing. He's so huge in jet mode and far far more stable than I was expecting...seriously, if you do manage to get everything clipped together right, he does hold together tightly. That's the trick though, it is really hard to get it all to clip together.

Robot mode he looks awesome and really like the character in the film, from what I recall (at least, he's no more different than any other toy), and the jet mode is one of the better ones we've gotten.

I'm so totally impressed with Jetfire, money well spent!

Haven't tried to combine him with Prime yet, but that isn't really a huge selling point for me.

One question though: just what the hell ARE you supposed to do with his seatbelt halves in robot mode? Are they really supposed to just loosely hang behind his back? Or are they supposed to clip in someplace in the middle of the torso somehow?

I've wondered the same thing as they just hang there (since I don't know what to do with them).

Randy

Given that they did something similar with Devastator, I wonder if they could've done a non-combining Jetfire toy, while re-packaging Leader Prime with "movie accurate" armor pieces that do not transform into Jetfire - they are just that, add-on parts. I think I would've preferred that.

I don't have him yet, but I don't think I would have minded a Jetfire toy that was a bit better and/or simpler on its own, but you had to pop him apart and maybe not even use every bit of the Jetfire toy to combine with Prime.

And I'm sure Jetfire and Prime for $90 is better than Devastator for $100, either way.

Really?

I think the better solution is just to make a Voyager class Jetfire toy. Preferably non-combining. If they made a new voyager optimus mold for him to combine with (in a different combo process than the leader molds), though, I'd take that, too.

edit: Or J Gargoyle's suggestion. A RiD Omega Prime style combination - with Jetfire breaking into separate armor pieces - would have workede better and been movie-accurate.

Which makes me wonder, ever think we'll see a retail exclusive leader-class Jetfire/Prime set with deluxe Jolt thrown in for good measure?

A Human Alliance Jetfire would be nice, but he'd also be monstrously large at that "about 1:24-ish" scale.

Finally found him tonight, and I'll say the vehicle mode is difficult, but not completely anger-inducing. I find it's easier if you peg the legs into the bottom of the jet last, and get the wings and engines into place before that. That was one of my main problem areas. I guess it kind of annoys me that the legs basically just hold the "belt" kibble in place in vehicle mode, it holds well enough but I'm not sure why some kind of a peg would have been out of the question. I find that the legs have a little bit of a tendency to be finicky about how much they'll hold him up in robot mode.

It strikes me that Jetfire is kind of like Universe Silverbolt in his transformation, but without the fun of simplicity and quickness. Not sure if everyone will agree with me on that.

Haven't tried combining him with Optimus yet, since even though I didn't find the vehicle mode transformation horrible, like Walky said it did take a little while and I'm ready to go to bed. I still don't see what would have been bad about Jetfire coming apart, being able to clip the relevant pieces onto Optimus, and not worrying about the rest. Why making him a "Partsformer" would have been a negative, when it might have actually worked more smoothly and been more accurate, is beyond me. Only benefit I see to the current configuration is that I guess all the joints are doubled up, to be able to hold more weight.

I'd be down for a Voyager Jetfire, as long as it was cool in different ways to the larger toy like the RoTF Megatrons are. No combining gimmick, slightly different design and colors, could be neat.

I picked up Jetfire a few days ago. I wasn't planning on getting him, but when I saw him on the shelf, my mind and wallet immediately said GIMME! Not nearly as bad as I thought he would be. The transformation to jet can be finicky to get panels lined up, but to me no more finicky than Leader Class Prime's transformation.
After seeing peaugh's update video on a better combined form, I have to say it made me like Powered Up Prime a lot better.
All in all I'm happy I made this impulse purchase.

How many lights are in his chest? Every single one at the store has one, but the box implies two.

That's the way it's supposed to be.

I feel that someone at Hasbro should really go over the promotional photography and blurbs and make sure that the toy sold corresponds physically to the toy promoted or pictured. FROWNY FACE.

(another example would be how Alternator Sunstreaker's box bills him as a convertible, I think. )

Thread resurrection!

I finally found one, behind a bunch of Megatrons and a couple of Optimus's. It was a damaged box too, but the figure was fine. I had been saving my Transformers Toys R'Us $10 gift card for this guy, and it was about to expire at the end of this month. I'm glad I finally got to use it because the deluxe shelves were full of nothing but Wheelies.

Everything Walky said in his review is true. My first transformation to jet mode took about 15 minutes. This part from Walky's review needs to be repeated:



The panels are maddening, but you *can* work through them and feel a sense of progress. It's those @&^%#@&^ engines that really drove me insane. There's only ONE connection piece for them to connect to the plane, and it's a lousy connection. Not only that, but your traditional way of transformation thinking will be to make the engines as flush to the plane as possible. This does not work, and will reset your progress time and time again. They have to be offset just slightly from the "arm" that rests inside them otherwise they're impossible to connect to the plane. However, even when properly connected, it doesn't take much to disconnect them.

From the top, the alt mode is gorgeous. From every other angle, there's problems, with some angles being far worse than others. We all knew that though, but I can't help but be dissappointed that they didn't at least paint one side of each arm black so it at least would blend in at a quick glance. With the underparts being blue for the most part, they really stick out. I'm particularly annoyed by the knee thrusters in bot mode that should have become actual additional thrusters in alt mode. They're just hanging at a diagonal angle at the rear of the jet, and don't look at all functional. I'm not fluent on the blackbird though, but it still just looks like something that would work against it taking flight.

Bot mode is pretty nice. Really no complaints except that the legs seem a little finnicky.

Next step is the primary reason I purchased him, combination with Optimus.....

I like how this thread is old but to this day I've still only seen one friggin Jetfire in my town, which I bought, like a month and some change ago. That's just....fantastic.

Anyhow, I never have commented on my feelings for this guy, so might as well now.

Jetfire's a pain in ways. The first time you start trying to make him turn into something, it is not a fun thing. It's not quite Vader panely, but parts of it are close to it. You soon have something that looks like it might once have been a plane. Fitting for the old guy.

You keep working, wondering if his rubbery face flaps will be permanently warped by transforming him, wondering who thought the panels between the cockpit and the main body were a good idea, wondering where the heck those rubber belt thingies fit in.

You cheat a bit, sneaking a look at the instructions because you have most of a plane assembled but there's still robot legs hanging out everywhere. Finally you get it all crammed underneath, and you have this huge jet. As long as you ignore the bottom(practically a prerequisite with half of the franchise's planes,) it's pretty cool. Subsequent transformations are no where near as crazy because you now actually have seen with your own eyes that yes, it will work.

The robot mode is all sorts of junky and clattery looking. Loose belt peices and massive panels all hang in a heap on the back. There are crazy rubbery face flaps everywhere. His legs are creaky and prone to collapsing. He's the most thematically accurate transformer ever. He feels like he's an old tottering pile. In a good way. The cane only adds to the awesome.

Combined mode with poor Prime is rough....but interesting. Feels more like a Jetfire powerwalker suit than the broken up scavenged parts from the movie, but hey, whatever. It's a leader to leader combination, and it friggin stands. Good nuff.

Overall I was looking forward to this guy even knowing his faults, and I was more pleased with him than I figured I would be. He's a loveable old rusty pile of scrap. Buy him.

I think I spent just as much time combining him with Prime as I did opening him and transforming. It's not that its hard, it's just that there's so many parts to twist and move around that don't lock in that you have a LOT of leeway in how you want the combined mode to appear. So until I learned what could twist where and how, I had spent quite a lot of time adjusting Jet Prime to my liking. I've honestly spent my entire evening transforming Jetfire and Jet Prime. No kidding. Fortunately, I think I'm finally done, or at least towards the end. I had to re-earth an "old" thread here that had pics of different allsparkers combining them differently. I remembered really liking one or two of them. I've settled on this so far:



I found I prefer the default mode leg configuration. I like that it locks in at two points. Some of the fan modes only seem to use one lock point, and with a figure who feels like he needs more for the combined mode, I'm wanting all the firm connections I can get. There doesn't seem to be any leg articulation with it, but it stands and it displays well despite it.

I really like the football shoulder pads that shumworld posted in that previous thread. And it's funny that it took me a bit until I could figure out how to twist and swing things around to get that look! I kind of like Jetfire's beard sides shooting straight upwards. From a distance, it looks a bit like an extension of Prime's own antenna.

I'm still a little frustrated with the jet thrusters. Currently I have them retracted. One of the joints can't hold the weight so I can't keep them fully extended without using Prime's fuel tank to support it. And that's the real frustrating part. There's pegs and holes on the fuel tank and thrusters, but NOTHING to firmly attach one to the other. It's so obvious that its needed too. I think I've found a support configuration I like that's somewhat firm, but I'm not a fan of friction holding such heavy parts in place.

I'm pretty happy with the combined mode and Jetfire, but I still feel some issues could have easily been resolved. Namely some black paint on the sides of the robot arms and legs would have really helped the illusion of the jet mode, and a real connection peg for the aforementioned combined mode thrusters.

Actually, it's just that the tolerances on this assembly are really fine. I'd suggest slotting the fuselage into the engines at the very end, after everything else is locked together. Then you can attempt to lock the engines in place. All of the panels that make up the fuselage will slot very neatly into the socket in the engines, but it takes a good amount of coaxing and massaging.

Once done, though, the connection is seamless and very solid.