TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:
Alternate Mode:
Box Art:
Technical Specifications:
STR
INT
SPD
END
RNK
CRG
FPR
SKL

Wildfire's review of: Jetfire

Generation: Armada
First cartoon appearance: Tactician
"You can fall alone or you can fall together"

Jetfire adopted the form of earth's most advanced and adventurous craft - the Space Shuttle. He is Optimus Prime's executive officer, second in command and has the honorable and rare task of being able to combine with him - redefining the term teamwork. He exemplifies all of the special qualities found in Autobot commanders: courageous, tactically skilled, and a natural leader. Taking the time to know each Autobot, Jetfire understands their individual strengths and weaknesses - in battle he knows exactly where each soldier will excel. While relaxed with the troops he becomes all business when it's time for action. He is heroic in battle caring not about size or number of enemies; with a take on all comers' mentality. Equally efficient and effective on the ground and in the air, he is air mobile and ground capable.

Vehicle Mode: Though his shuttle mode is a far cry from the original Jetfire’s jet mode, the designers obviously wanted to invoke his memory. Jetfire is slightly futuristic space shuttle painted primarily red, white, black and gray. He has some gold details and brown scortch marks (which are a wonderful touch) on his nosecone, his cockpit windows are a dark metallic flecked blue, and a nice big red Autobot symbol is molded on the roof of the cockpit. He has red and black stripes running along his wing and cargo bay doors, translucent red engines in back, and orange molded in guns on his wings. Jetfire has three Powerlinx points in this mode, all of them gimmicked. One is on top of his central black engine housing, and when a Minicon is placed on it, wings pop up from the gray engines on either side. These wings are pointed forward rather than back and look somewhat odd, but are really meant for the robot mode so I’ll look the other way. The other two points on his wings both trigger the orange missiles he comes with to “fire” and by fire I mean fall off, thankfully there are slots next to the launchers on the undersides of the wings to store the missiles in. Pushing down on his tail fin makes a blaster noise (pushing down on it while a minicon is attached to the black engine point triggers a deeper blaster noise too.) Pulling up on the tail fin triggers a voice to count down from five to one followed by engine noises and periodic beeps. Both these sound effects are complemented by the central engine flashing a red light as well. Jetfire’s cargo bay opens and has room enough for two or three Minicons and one of the doors has an elaborate star chart etched onto it. There is also a way to deploy the landing gear. The white shield Jetfire comes with has a black panel that when pulled forward, flips around to reveal four wheels. After flipping out that panel, you’ll notice pegs and tabs on the shield’s other side that correspond with holes on the underside of the shuttle, just in front of the rockets. Snap the pegs and tabs into the holes and slots and you have Jetfire’s rear landing gear, the front gear is a little more tricky. Take Jetfire’s Minicon, Comettor, and pull back on the orange part with the radar panels to free it from the main body, now, pull out ever so slightly on the last two sets of wheels to free them from the main body. Now, pull up on the struts the wheels are attached to and slide them up until the star shaped cutout in between the struts fits around Comettor’s weapon array thingie in the front. Fold the wheel sections straight and reattach the radar panel piece and Comettor should be able to now clip to the Powerlinx point underneath Jetfire’s “chin.” Now Jetfire has both rear and front landing gear and can roll freely.

Robot Mode: First, remove both the shield and Comettor if they are attached. Pull on Jetfire’s wings so that they are free from the main shuttle body and rotate them up towards the cockpit, then fold them up over the cargo bay doors. Now flip the shuttle so it’s underside is facing you and pull the gray engines out to the sides to free the main black engine, place it aside for now. Pull down on the gray engines to reveal the white leg sections, then fold the panels the red engines are attached to down and the fold the engines themselves down to form the feet. Near the back of the knees you’ll notice orange buttons, push these to pop out the leg wings. Pull the two gray boxy sections underneath the cargo bay out to the sides then pull down on them to form the robot arms. Pull down on the cockpit until it fits into the space where the cargo bay is, pull the small white flaps at the rear of the cockpit out to the sides. Pull forward on the gray piece above the Autobot symbol, push the robot head up, then slide the section of the cockpit with the windows on it up and fold the gray piece above the Autobot symbol down again, place the black engine ( now his gun) in his right hand, attach the shield to the peg on his left forearm, and Jetfire is ready for battle. In robot mode a lot more gold and red is revealed. The armor protecting his shoulders has red and gold patterns them, there are gold launchers next to that armor, his shins have red grids with gold stripes down, he has black knee pads, and his face is red, white and black with gold eyes. Jetfire has roughly 21 points of articulation, not too shabby. My only complaint is that his legs can’t bend at the waist and if his cargo doors open in robot mode, his torso flops apart. Jetfire looks very impressive in this mode, especially with his verge large gun (rivaling super base Prime’s in size) the only unfortunate thing is Jetfire’s lack of Minicon interaction. Looking at Megatron, another figure at the same price point, Jetfire’s three active Powerlinx points and their abilities are weak, it would have been nice if he had more features.

JetConvoy: Jetfire has another surprise in store, he can combine with super base Optimus Prime to form Jetconvoy, the ultimate Autobot. To begin the transformation, return Jetfire to shuttle mode. Now, separate the black engine/gun as normal, and transform Jetfire's feet, but leave his wings where they are. Separate his arms and fold them up inside the cargo bay, you may have to fiddle with them a bit to achieve this. Turn the shuttle's underside to face you and pull on the right half of the cockpit's side to separate it from the left side, fold this piece down to the side so that it is alongside the orange wing gun. Fold the black flap with Powerlinx point to the side on the left cockpit section and fold that side down next the left orange wing gun. Push down on the section of the cockpit with the windows and you're ready to attach Prime. Transform Super base Prime's cab as though you were going to attach him to his "pants" but instead snap the tabs on Jetfire into Prime's slots. Attach Jetfire's shield over Prime's chest as the Jetconvoy chest plate and place Jetfire's gun in Prime's hand. Jetconvoy is definitely cool, adding height over Prime's normal combination, but nothing special. There is no added articulation on Jetfire's behalf and no new features. Jetconvoy looks good, but doesn't do much, Overload's added shoulder cannons will improve the look even more though and add missiles.

Minicon: Jetfire’s Minicon is Comettor, a moon rover type vehicle. He is primary red and blue with a blue weapon array in the front, red radar panels in the back and six gray, chunky wheels. Personally I think Comettor has one of the cooler vehicle modes yet. To transform him to robot mode, pull back on the radar panel section, pull the last two wheel sections up and forward, sliding them all the way past the weapon array this time, fold the wheels flat, turn the piece the radar and weapon is attached to left, and rotate the radar array down and Comettor is ready to go. Certainly one of the more unique Minicons, Comettor has only two real points of articulation (ball jointed shoulders) but is very cool looking. He has mechanical details molded everywhere, rolls around on four wheels, and has a well detailed face with a silver visor. Lots of people dislike Comettor, but I think he’s pretty cool.

Transformation: 5 – Sort of a annoying the first few times, and even when you have it down pat it still feels tedious.
Durability: 10 - Haven’t had him lose anything yet.
Fun: 8–He loses points for having lackluster gimmicks, but gains points for combining with Prime, but loses points for not looking that good combined. Still comes out with a solid eight though.
Price: 6 – Sharing the $25 price point with Megatron and Galvatron, he’s not cheap. He is a nice figure though and the G1 homage is worth it even if you think the figure’s not.
Overall: 8– A good second in command for the Autobots, but he could be better.