Dave's Ultra Transformers Cybertron Rant: Jetfire Scourge CAPSULES Jetfire: Good vehicle mode, some clever transformation bits, okay gimmicks, somewhat lacking robot mode. At the low end of Recommended. $26.47 at Wal-Mart. Scourge: There's a few things I'd change were I designing this, but it's generally a fun toy. Transformation's a bit simple for something this size, though. Recommended. $26.47 at Wal-Mart. RANTS Packaging: Same basic shape as the Voyager packaging, with the same Autobot/Decepticon mirroring. 12" (31cm) wide at the top, 10" (25cm) wide at the bottom, 10" (25cm) tall, and 4.5" (11.5cm) deep at the middle. Jetfire's co-sells on the bottom are Optimus Prime, Megatron, Vector Prime and Scourge. Scourge's co-sells are the two leaders, Jetfire and Starscream. Jetfire is packaged in vehicle mode, with no bits removed or bent oddly. Scourge is in hydra mode (Key gimmick deployed) but with his tail detached and twist-tied to the inner tray behind him. Both are listed as Skill Level 4. Jetfire has the same Earth Planet script as I've already listed in another review, but Scourge has the first Jungle Planet script of the toys I've reviewed. --- JUNGLE PLANET There is one law on the Jungle Planet: might makes right. The Transformers sent there by Optimus Prime and Megatron in search of one of the lost Planet Keys find a brutal world full of bestial robots, each devoted to hoarding as much power as they can. Unfortunately for the Autobots, this power-mad world is a ready-made Decepticon stronghold in which the evil robots feel right at home. With the Jungle Planet and its Key firmly in the grip of the dangerous beast-bot Scourge, and time running out for a damaged Cybertron, Overhaul and the other Autobots sent there have their work cut out for them. --- Jetfire's inner tray has four folded rectangular posts at the corners to keep the box from being smooshed, a wise move. Four ties hold the jet onto the inner tray's blister, and some rubber hands hold other bits together. His hand weapons are in a baggie that's twist-tied to the side of the blister (requiring cutting or removing the blister) AND taped to it, while his missiles are just twist-tied to the blister. His Key is held down by a tie, but it reaches all the way through the back of the tray, so it can be removed normally. Jetfire has a battery-blocking tab that is not visible in packaging and not accessible at all until he's been removed. Batteries are included. A bag with instructions and poster is simply loose behind the tray. Scourge is secured to his similarly reinforced tray by six twist-ties, another three hold his tail in, and a tie holds his Key in the blister. This last one requires either pulling the blister away from the cardboard, or cutting the tie. There's a pull tab on the main neck keeping the batteries (which are included) from making contact, and it's REALLY in there stiffly. I couldn't pull it out until after removing the toy from the tray. Instructions and poster as per Jetfire. AUTOBOT: JETFIRE Planet: Earth Altmode: Cargo Jet Key Code: uk97 This steadfast AUTOBOT is often annoyed by his hyperactive partner SCATTORSHOT, but he nonetheless takes his duties very seriously, and will follow through on his orders no matter what. JETFIRE has been assigned by OPTIMUS PRIME the difficult tasks of protecting Earth while keeping the AUTOBOT presence a secret and searching for the Earth Planet Key. JETFIRE would much rather be fighting in the front lines alongside his leader, but his strategic genius and status as the upstanding, honorable second-in- command of the AUTOBOTS make him an invaluable asset at the AUTOBOT base. STR 9 INT 10 SPD 8 END 8 RNK 9 COUR 10 FRB 8.5 SKL 9 Avg 8.94 Key Code Info: Before the beginning of the Cybertron saga and the end of the Energon story, Jetfire decided that he wanted to take some time to rest and recuperate after the final battle with Unicron. He traveled to the far-off planet of Nebulon where he lived among the natives for some time. That explains why he's come back to the Autobots with an accent. (Also shows a screencap of Jetfire in vehicle mode. Heh, Nebulons are Australian, apparently.) Vehicle Mode: Still can't find the real world model for Jetfire, it's the same as Gunbarrel. I think it's a Russian cargo jet, but it's not any of the Antonovs or Ilyushins I've looked at, and they're the main heavy lifter manufacturers. It has bent-up wingtips and an oddball sort of tail assembly of the same sort as Sky Atlas/MW Starscream, with two additional jet engines in the tail on top of the four on the wings. 11" (28cm) long, with a wingspan of 10.5" (27cm) and a tailspan of 6.5" (17cm). The fuselage is mostly a sort of light olive green, the wings and tail tips are dark olive green, and the main engines are light gray. The intakes of all six engines are black, as are the two sextents of tiny wheels on the underside. There's a light gray piece on top of the cockpit area with a molded Autobot symbol. The underwing guns are dark olive, and the missiles light gray. There's clear red plastic on the rear engine nozzles and the rear guns, and some patches of dark olive on the nose, plus dark olive plastic on the rear gun mount. There's extensive silver paint on the front fuselage and the tops of the wings, as well as in the tail area. Red paint rings the intakes on the main four engines, and the rear section of each main engine is bright red as well (I think it's just a very thorough paint job, not red plastic). The Autobot symbol is painted red, and there's yellow paint on the cockpit windows and some technogreebling on the panel that partly covers the robot head. Only partly, though, as the back of the head (located on the top behind the fuselage) is still pretty clearly a back of a head. In what I expect is an homage to the previous Jetfires, there's interlocking cargo doors molded into the top of the mid-fuselage, a feature more real cargo jets lack. There's no belly claws, though. The jet rumbles along a little wobbily on its two sets of wheels. Pressing on the intake of either rear engine triggers a hideous sound that I think is supposed to be screaming jet engines, while the rear thrusters flash red four times. The hand weapons mount under each wing and fire missiles a reasonable range. Flipping the tail up and folding it 180 degrees so it rests atop the fuselage creates the attack mode. This releases a button next to the battery cover, so that the sound changes. Now, when you press the intake, you get a laser firing sound that lasts as long as you hold the intake, with the LED flashing on and off about twice per second. The Key slot is more visible in this configuration as well. Inserting the Key makes the gun mount on the tail pop up and the barrels extend. It now makes a different firing sound, with the LEDs flashing twice. Keeping the intake held down does not cause the sound to repeat. Removing the Key lets the sound revert to the repeating blast, the Key is what causes the change, not the popped out guns. There is no way to store the Key in non-attack mode, it'll drag on the table. Planet Key: Standard blue and silver Earth Key. Transformation: The belly splits and unfolds to become the legs in a rather clever way, and you can turn either end forward, as the legs are more or less symmetrical. A "classic" Gerwalk mode is easy, even down to the folded tail, although it's a bit hollow in the fuselage. Straightening the arms is supposed to make the fists come out, but they only come out part way and are kinda hard to bring out the rest of the way without using tools or teeth (yes, I gnaw on my TFs sometimes). The main flaw, though, is the way you have to clip the torso together, which isn't very strong and requires some fumbling about. This clipping does have a nice side effect, though, popping out hip rocket launchers from the sides of the fuselage nose. Robot Mode: 7.5" (19cm) tall, with the same wingspan as jet mode, but now as massive shoulderpads. He has a huge backpack formed by the tail and the middle of the top fuselage. The only areas really revealed in this mode are the dark olive hip-launchers and the light gray pelvis and upper legs. The feet are dark olive panels that fold down. The head is dark olive plastic with a silver-painted faceplate. The crest is painted white and silver, with yellow paint on the cheek pieces. The visor is a piece of clear red plastic over the faceplate. The overall color balance is decent, if a tad dull. It looks pretty bad from the side or back, but good from the front. The head is on a restricted ball joint, the waist can turn smoothly but stiffly...but turning it a bit too much makes the torso pop apart. The shoulders are kinda weird. They raise to the sides as part of the transformation joint, and the entire wing can rotate on a hinge, but this tends to look odd and get in the way of the backpack. For safety reasons, the entire wing can pop off on two pegs, and may well do so during transformation. The elbows bend 90 degrees, although the thruster nozzles hanging off the back get in the way a bit. Once the fists are all the way out, they can be rotated, although I'm not sure this is supposed to happen, given how the whole forearm just spreads at the seam when you turn the fist. The fist has a standard 5mm peghole, and the guns have rounded-end 5mm pegs. The hips are ratcheting universal joints (1/16 of a circle per click in both axes). There's hip swivels and ratcheting knees (1/16 per click, but only three clicks forward or back). The toes and heel spurs can swing to pointing straight down, a big help in keeping him stable in dynamic poses. The gun backpack and Key gimmick don't really work in this mode. Even the instructions kind of give up and just show him leaning over to use it. The flashing thrusters look kinda like Patlabor police flashers. Overall: If the waist connection for the front end was more secure and the shoulder joint a little less dicey, I'd be confident in recommending this. But the waist connection is a big problem, affecting a lot of things, so it lowers my overall opinion of the toy. DECEPTICON: SCOURGE Planet: Jungle (ruler) Altmode: Dragon Key Code: u2m8 SCOURGE is the brutal and awesomely powerful ruler of the Jungle Planet. He views any display of kindness, compassion or generosity as weakness, and he hates weakness. Cold, distant, and prone to violent rage against those he views as lesser creatures, he holds most of the planet firmly in his transmetal claw. Those defying him are likely to experience the searing heat of his stellar plasma breath, or the bite of his axe as their final sensation before their spark is extinguished. OVERHAUL, SNARL and the Jungle Planet rebels will find him to be the most powerful foe they have ever faced. STR 9 INT 8.5 SPD 7 END 8 RNK 8.5 COUR 10 FRB 9 SKL 7.5 Avg 8.44 (Ooh, he's officially a Transmetal.) Key code info: In Japan, all the planet leaders have a similar name. The Japanese leader Transformers all have the same "last name" and that name is "Convoy". So, Optimus prime in Japan is called Galaxy Convoy! Pretty cool, right? Well, Scourge, since he's a dragon is named Flame Convoy. (Also shows a scan of the back of Flame Convoy's box. And the smartquotes in the info totally screw up cut and paste for me, bleh. Had to hand-copy it.) Beast Mode: A quadrupedal dragon reminiscent of some of the designs from Dragonheart (Connery/Quaid, 1996) when the extra heads are hidden. Has some Kaiser Ghidorah (Godzilla Final Wars, 2005) echos in "Hydra Mode", although the wings are too small and the necks too short to truly do Kaiser Ghidorah justice. About 15" (38cm) long from snout to tail tip. Note: the panel that covers up a gap in the chest isn't locked down, so will likely drift out of position during shipment. The wings are more like an assortment of spines than actual wings, and the head has four horns (two to a side) that curve back like sickles. A definite flame motif to the colors. Most of the plastic is charcoal gray, with some orange (foreleg shoulder hinges, extra heads, a little more than half of the plastic in the rear legs) and yellow (upper head, claws, some chest-sealing panels, rump crest, wings, the rest of the plastic in the rear legs). There's transparent reddish purple plastic on the forehead, eyes and a window inside the main mouth. The main plastic colors are also represented in paint applications in various places, plus metallic purple airbrushed on the wings and rump, and red airbrushed on the head and legs. There's a few silver accents on the forehead, claws, chest and shoulders, plus on the extra heads. There is no visible Decepticon symbol in regular mode, but the extra heads each have one tampographed on its forehead. The head can move up and down a little, and the jaw opens fairly wide, with a joint stiff enough that Scourge can carry his key in his mouth. The neck can bend down, but that's more meant as a transformation joint, not a posing joint. The front shoulders ratchet (1/12 of a circle per click), but on mine the right shoulder only clicks in one direction. There is a swivel just above each "elbow", and the elbows ratchet (1/12 per click). The front claws can move down a bit, but this is more of a transformation motion. The rear shoulders are universal ratchets (1/12 of a circle per click in both directions, but the "out to the side" direction is only able to move two clicks out and one click in). The rear knees ratchet (1/16) and have a range of 6 clicks total. The rear ankles are a combination of a 1/12 ratchet forward and back with a smooth swivel. There is a joint halfway down the tail that swivels and ratchet-bends (1/16), although there are a half dozen or so more faux-joints molded into the tail. They look a bit Zoid-ish. The tail can bend 90 degrees either way. Pressing a yellow button between his front shoulderblades activates the first sound and light gimmick. An LED inside his head flashes 4-5 times (the yellow plastic of the head glows pretty well even in the opaque parts surrounding the clear purple plastic eyes, forehead and throat) while Scourge emits a classic Kaiju roar. (Aside: a Kaiju, or Daikaiju to be proper, is a giant monster in the style of Godzilla or, well, Kaiser Ghidorah.) Inserting the Planet Key into a slot just ahead of the rump causes the two extra heads to flip forward with a classic transforming sound. The head LED flashes during the sound. The extra heads are completely made of orange plastic, with silver crests and charcoal eyes. Their chin spurs give them a sort of Beavis underbite, and I can't help but mentally hear them saying, "Fire! Fire! This rules!" in Beavis's voice. I suppose that makes the main head Butthead or something, although that ill-befits a planetary leader. I can just see Scourge being reluctant to use his Cyber Key Power, because it means letting out the Beavises. Heheheh. While the key is in, pressing the yellow button creates a sort of laser zap sound accompanied by two flashes of the head. Holding the button down does not result in continuous fire. Kaiju laser breath, dude. Each head has a mouth that can be closed, but springs back open when released. There is one joint in mid-neck that can be bent upwards, but springs back down when released. Also, the neck joint can be bend downward along a ratchet (3 clicks for 90 degrees). The base of the neck is another spring-loaded joint and will only stay up if held. To put the heads back in stowed position, you need to bend the heads up at the neck joint before swinging them back. Home-Made Ghidorah mode: http://www.dvandom.com/images/ghidscourge.JPG Just fold the arms behind the wings, move all three heads down and extende the legs. This is the regular Ghidorah, not the four-legged Kaiser Ghidorah. Planet Key: The Jungle Key has a sort of stylized paw/claw in the center, picked out in chrome. The outer edge looks like a Predator-style (as in, Alien vs. Predator) set of jaws chewing on a stone-patterned bone. Scourge is the leader of Jungle, so his Key has gold paint and gold chrome, instead of the usual silver (which makes Starscream the King of Earth, I suppose). Transformation: The advantage of a quadrupedal beast mode is that both modes are generally poseable. The disadvantage is that the transformation is often pretty simplistic, and that's the case here. Forelegs become arms, hindlegs become bipedal legs, beast head folds down to become the chest... pretty much the basic four-legger Beast Wars transform, down to the "tail comes off to become a weapon" bit. The instructions have the spike of the tail-axe pointing along the axis of the haft, but it looks better bent at a 90 degree angle to be a backswing-spike. Robot Mode: 7.75" (19.5cm) tall at the head, with a wingspan a little over 9" (24cm). The axe is 7.5" (19cm) long the way I transform it, and would look better if it could be held closer to its center, rather than pegged into the fist at its very end. The head reminds me of BW Dinobot, and REALLY needs more paint. It's charcoal plastic with green eyes and purple face (which doesn't really show up), and mostly looks like a single dark lump. I'll probably add some paint myself, a silver helmet crest would help pick out the face. The head turns and can tilt forward and back on the transformation joint. The arms have the same jointing as the beast moed forelegs, although the transformation joint in the shoulder can be used to pose the arms differently. The legs have the beast moed rear leg joints. There is no waist. The fists have some wiggle room on their transformation joint, but don't turn, which is a problem. Why? Because they're fixed in a pose that makes it look like he's ready to do some curls with dumbbells. The upper arm swivel lets you bring the fist around to hold a weapon properly, but then you lose the elbow hinge's use. The axe cannot be left on as a tail, and there's no other way to store it on the figure. A fold-out peg on the shaft would have helped a lot, letting the axe be held less like Bam-Bam's club, and also potentially pegging onto the back. All the sound and light gimmicks work the same in this mode, and the ratchet joints on the Beavises let them face forward, although they default to looking straight up after springing out. And you have to stuff the key up Scourge's bum to deploy the Beavises. Overall: A fun toy. I have issues with the axe and the fists, but these aren't insurmountable problems. Better than Jetfire, and a must-buy for Kaiju fans. Dave Van Domelen, Scourge is *a* kiryu (machine dragon), but not *the* Kiryu. Rar.