Dave's Storm Jet Comments

     Okay, this is the third use of this mold, I'm not going to do a full
review.  But there's a few changes that bear commenting on, hence this file.

CAPSULE

     Storm Jet: A good Beast Machines mold, with a great new color scheme.
Sadly, for some weird reason, some of the plastic was replaced with inferior
gummyplastic.  Also, this toy is total scalper bait, being only one per
case.  Recommended, but it's not really worth paying scalper prices for.
$9.99 at Meijer

"RANT"

AUTOBOT: Storm Jet
Original Mold: BMac Jetstorm
Function: Jet (um, oooookay)
Mode: Futuristic jet
Motto: "Keep your eyes on the enemy to stay ahead of him!"
       "Surveille bien l'ennemi pour t'assurer de la devancer."
       "Vigila bien al enemido para tomarle la delantera." 

Storm Jet is capable of flying at very high speed and loves to chase down
Decepticons who think they are faster than he is.  Although he has a stormy
temper, he manages to control it most of the time, but woe to the Decepticon
who pushes him beyond his patience.  He conducts reconnaissance missions,
deftly avoiding any missile attacks if he's spotted by the enemy.

STR 6  INT 9  SPD 9  END 8  RNK 8  COUR 7  FRB 8  SKL 8  Avg 7.875

     Whee, trinlingual packaging!  He seems more excited to be speaking
English.  BTW, the translated Spanish motto sounds a little less silly, with
the last bit being translatable as "to take the lead" or "to take the
advantage".

     Package notes: In the standard wide RiD Deluxe blistercard packaging,
with an Autobot symbol in the upper left corner.  He's held in with two
twist-ties and four rubber bands (or three, I forget).  A single-sided sheet
has the transformation instructions.  I don't know if all packaging is
trilingual for this one, but it probably is.
     According to reports, this is shipping one per case.

     Okay, I like this mold, as I make clear in my original Jetstorm review: 
http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/BMac/BMDelux1  And I really like the look of
the G1 Jetfire-like color scheme here: red, black and white.

     However, for some reason, they switched to a rather soft type of plastic
for a few of the pieces, and it feels like they then painted those pieces
black rather than casting them in black.  These pieces feel slightly sticky
and wobbly.  My best guess as to why they made this change is child safety,
because one of the pieces is the tip of the nose of the jet.  Mind you, even
this new softer plastic doesn't really make the nose safe, it can still put
an eye out.  However, it does cause problems.  I also have to wonder how this
plastic will react to heat once summer kicks in (although it snowed a little
today (May 20), so summer may be long in coming).
     There are four places this softer plastic is used:
     - Nose, as mentioned
     - Claws.  This makes them stick in their sockets a bit.  
     - Jet nozzles on legs for hover mode.  They stick a bit in their covers,
making it a bit harder to deploy them.
     - Upper arms between upper arm swivel and elbow.  This causes a LOT of
problems.  The sticky aspect makes them jam into their slots inside the big
forearm pieces, and they will actually bend up to 90 degrees before coming
loose.  Your best bet is to pull them out rather than trying to just bend the
arms.  

     As with the Mega 3-pack, the spark crystal has been made from opaque red
plastic, so you can't see the Vehicon symbol molded into it.  And the red
plastic they used in this recolor looks a bit cheap and cheesy, especially
the chest-cover parts.  This new plastic may be responsible for the feet not
opening completely flat, too.

     Overall, it looks great and uses a good mold, but seems to have been
done a bit cheaply.

     Dave Van Domelen, setting up a wall of Jetstorm molds....