Found myself a Human Alliance Jazz today. Awesome figure, hands down the best of the Human Alliance series, and the only one that doesn't look out of place alongside Buster Optimus Prime. The silver finish of the vehicle body is very nice, and the clear headlamps and foglights doesn't hurt either (the foglights are actually hollowed through so light can pass through from behind him in robot mode. The flip-down transparent-blue visor is an awesome little feature, but his oddly-painted face will have you leaving it down all the time.
The leg transformation is quite unique (to my knowledge), and the use of the cardoors as more than just kibble in robot mode is also impressive. The transformation of his weird little claw hands is quite clever as well. His accessory is arguably the most well-conceived of the series; Lennox (the included crappy figurine) actually road a motorcycle in the film, and Jazz actually had a shield. The fact that the motorcycle doubles as the shield is quite convenient. Unfortunately, the transformation to shield leaves much to be desired, as it looks like Jazz is holding a rolled up motorcycle. And in the case of at least my figure, he doesn't hold it well at all; it hangs limp in his hand because the joint on the handle isn't stiff enough, leaving the shield and missile pointing at the ground. I spent an hour trying to find a better way for him to hold it and came up with nothing. So if you get this figure, be prepared for his gun/shield to be completely unusable.
I miss the rubber tires and chrome accents of the Alternator series; at $10 more a pop than those figures cost, Hasbro should be able to throw in those two premium features and metallic bodypaint for
every Human Alliance figure. With each of the Human Alliance figures I own, with close inspection its easy to see where the bean counters stepped in and drew a line. Back kibble continues to be a disappointment, although admittedly much less so with Jazz; every figure has had their windshield, hood and roof piled on their back. Knowing that every figure is going to have these panels of kibble, it would be great if they could engineer them to bury inside the torso, instead of hanging on the back of it.
There's no foot articulation, which makes posing him a bit of a challenge. It's unfortunate the thigh panels didn't have a fold in them so that they could better wrap around his leg, as they're too wide as-is and just accentuate his tiny little knees. It would have been nice if his rear tires collapsed into the back of his legs, as it would be more movie accurate and also fill the black hollow void that are his ankles. A lot of these little things add up to a figure that looks great from the front, and downright ugly from the back. I'd like there to come a day where a Transformer toy looks good from all sides.
It's a shame Hasbro feels compelled to use candy-colored plastic for the windows of the car (Takara's version is clear), and that god-awful light brown plastic they're in love with (I'm guessing they get a huge discount on turd-brown plastics). If all of the turd-brown parts were replaced with a deep-grey, he'd look considerably more premium that he already does. And at $30 for such a small figure, looking premium is very important.
I apologize for the poor lighting; I can really only take decent photos by sunlight, but wanted to try and take some this evening.
Ah well, the new figures look pretty good, though not as good as the panel reporters made them seem (and there is some major mistransformation going on, poor Lugnut).
