Dave's Transformers Classics Rant: Wave 3 Cliffjumper Ramjet Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Classic/Deluxe3 This is the final (as far as I know) Deluxe wave for Classics, which is wrapping up in the spring to make room for the bewildering array of movie toys (seriously...I've seen pictures of transforming plush, auto-transforming toys aimed at the Go-Bots level, and the regular toys, and that's assuming we don't get stuff like the transforming Nike shoes). Neither is completely new, with the original molds both appearing in wave 1 (see http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Classic/Deluxe1 for the reviews of the originals), but Ramjet is at least a significant remold. I didn't plan to buy Cliffjumper, but a friend overseas wanted one, and he said I could open it to review it before sending it over. :) CAPSULES Cliffjumper: Original mold was Strongly Recommended. This is just as good, but I really would have preferred a head remold. Recommended if you have the original mold Bumblebee, mildly recommended if you have the running change fixed roof vent Bumblebee, strongly recommended if you don't have any version. $9.89 at Target. Ramjet: Original mold was Recommended, but this remold fixes pretty much all of Starscream's kibble issues. I'm going to call this one strongly recommended even if you do have Starscream. $9.89 at Target. RANTS Packaging: Standard Classic Deluxe packaging. AUTOBOT: CLIFFJUMPER Altmode: Cruiser Function: Brawler Accessory: Jetpack Motto: "Let's bend some tailpipes!" Don't be fooled by his small size: CLIFFJUMPER is as tough as they come. Always spoiling for a fight, just hearing the word DECEPTICON is enough to get him riled up. He carries a unique gas-pistol that fires a cloud of nano-robots capable of making DECEPTICON armor as brittle as glass, but he'd almost always rather just toss his weapons aside and start swinging. More than on DECEPTICON warrior has ended up with a busted grill from underestimating CLIFFJUMPER. He may not be very strong, but no one is more determined. STR 4 INT 5 SPD 7 END 4 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 7 SKL 5 Avg 6.875 I guess he tossed the pistol aside before getting packaged. :) Cliffjumper, terror of the backyard barbecue. His only callout is the same one as Bumblebee has, "Wave Crusher and trailer convert to jet pack!" A single twist-tie through the windows holds the car in the blister, plus a rubber band around the front end. The Wave Crusher is held in by one tie. Mold Changes: None, sort of. This uses the running change in Bumblebee that widened the roof vent so that the rubsign fits better. Color Swaps: The light gray plastic on Bumblebee was replaced by bright red (FF0000) with little UV glow. The yellow plastic was also replaced by bright red. The black plastic used on Bumblebee's wheels, thighs, shins, seats, trailer hitch and inside torso is still black on Cliffjumper. The black from Bumblebee's upper arms, shoulders, knee joints, pelvis and the struts of his jetpack are light gray (CCCCCC) on Cliffjumper (decent UV glow). The clear light blue plastic is replaced by smoky clear plastic. Paint Apps: Most of the paints on this toy are silver. Flame patterns on the hood and sides of the car, the top of the Wave Crusher, the robot face and the hubcaps are silver. The roof/chest and car seats are painted red, a good match for the plastic. Note, the head itself is unpainted, unlike with Bumblebee, since the base plastic is the right color in this case. The robot eyes and the headlights are painted over in a pearly light blue (the taillights are left unpainted), which is also used on the Wave Crusher seat and an accent on the front. Other Comments: All the joints are nicely stiff. Overall: I'm disappointed that he didn't at least get a head swap. But at least he incorporates the roof vent fix. If you didn't get Bumblebee and for some odd reasons can't find one, this is a good toy. If you have Bumblebee and own the tools needed to remove the horns from the head so it looks a little more Cliffjumpery, go ahead and get this one too. :) [Correction: Yes, Cliffjumper has horns. They're generally shown with a different shape, though. A Dremel or fine file could reshape the horns to be a little closer to Cliffjumper's.] DECEPTICON: RAMJET Altmode: Fighter Jet Function: Warrior Accessory: Twin laser cannons Motto: "There ain't nothin' around harder than my head." The DECEPTICONS are known for fielding their craziest warriors in the skies, but RAMJET really outclasses them all. He's a born flier who loves nothing more than crashing. Sure, he's got a whole rack of concussion missiles and argon lasers strong enough to vaporize a DINOBOT, but he'd rather skip all that nonsense and just smash head first into his targets - and anything else that gets in his way. He's just as likely to smash his allies out of the way as he is to destroy any AUTOBOTS in his path, but watching him plow through a battlefield is so fun MEGATRON keeps him around anyway. STR 8 INT 5 SPD 9 END 9 RNK 5 COUR 8 FRB 7 SKL 6 Avg 7.125 Callouts are "Twin laser cannons with firing projectiles!" and "Flip down landing gear!" Two ties hold the jet mode in the package, and one each on the two missiles. Mold Changes: Pretty extensive, in keeping with the G1 Ramjet's changes from the original trio. Others have already worked out that every piece changed is on the same sprue, suggesting that the designers planned this from the beginning rather than making a change of opportunity when the line sold well enough to support a few more molds. The missiles, nosecone, wing and tail pieces are all new. The jointing from the tail section is retained, but not used in robot mode. In jet mode, it's 6.25" (16cm) long in a deeply swept delta wing 4.5" (11.5cm) wide at the very back. The wings have some slight jagged bits on the leading edge, and hypercritical winglets at the very tips that are also bent down a little (reminding me of paper airplane designs). The new missiles are exactly as long as the originals, but thicker overall so they tend to look bigger at first glance. Overall, it's not any real jet, being essentially an F-15 with the wings and tail hacked off and replaced by something else, and it lacks the canards that most delta designs lately seem to come with (also, most delta wing fighters are single engine). The little sawtooth bit on the wings reminds me of the Saab Gripen, and the two-legged Eagle Eye from G2 may have been a slight influence (G1 Ramjet doesn't have the sawtooth). ISTR some mention that all three coneheads were based on speculative F-15 redesigns that never made it off the drawing board, but I don't put a whole lot of faith in that. :) In robot mode, 5.75" (14.5cm) tall at the top of the cone. Most of the wing mass is on the boots, and while it's not clear in the instructions, they can fold back about 60 degrees to largely get out of the way. There's only teeny little winglet bits attached to the torso now, and the "get out of the way" jointing on them is more than enough to, well, get them out of the way. Unlike on Starscream. The package photo shows the bits rotated 180 degrees to have the red parts facing forward, but they do tend to get in the way if you do that. Color Swaps: The new pieces are all dark gray (333333). The remaining light gray parts from Starscream are now white, the blue pieces (including the launchers, which are painted over on Starscream) have been changed to dark gray, and the clear yellow plastic is now smoky clear. The white plastic glows moderately under UV, and the dark gray plastic glows greenish. Paint Apps: Dark gray (no UV glow) on the upper torso and boots, silver on the forehead and pelvis, and gold accents on the air intakes, shoulders, launcher vents, abdomen, pelvis and kneecaps. The wings have dark red (CC0000) chevron-like stripes along them and a gold triangle at the rear of the delta wing. Other Comments: One of the biggest complaints people have had about the Starscream mold is that the wings block the arms in robot mode, so you have to choose between poseability and tilting the wings back oddly. But the new wings on Ramjet eliminate that problem. While the hanging nosecone is gone thanks to Ramjet being a conehead, the oval cross-section of the head and the tight fit between the air intakes means there's no more range of motion for Ramjet than Starscream. It does look better, though. The rubsign isn't on the wings, instead it's on the left "shoulderblade" area in robot mode, on the fuselage behind the cockpit and a bit to the left. Overall: They took a good mold and made it a very good one. And, frankly, if you're going to do a remold of Starscream, this is a lot better than the tweak we got in Armada. You want this conehead. Dave Van Domelen, now to poke at the Ultra Magnus/Skywarp pack, on the topic of Starscream recolors.