Transformers Revenge of the Fallen: Jetfire

I think most of you still remember Jetfire from the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the old robot with walking stick in the movie. Okay, to the fact that Jetfire has never been that old from G1 and throughout any Transformers cartoon series. This is the first time to see him walking with a walking stick and this does give the Transformers fan a very profound and fresh impression on his “new” look. Being previously a Decepticon, he is those few one which converted to Autobots. You can read all the details about him here.

I bought this leader class in Takara Tomy 2 years back. Being a leader class, he has the BIGGEST alternate mode amongst all my Transformers collection as well as my leader class Transformers. Apart being the biggest, there’s another point that attracts me is the ability to combine with either Optimus Prime or Buster prime to form the powered-up Optimus Prime, just like in the movie! This is my first ever leader class transformers which can be combined together and this is definitely a cool piece of collection to own!

Alternate Mode: Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
The alternate mode for Jetfire is the obsolete SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. Since small, i always fancy this Blackbird plane and fascinated on the plane pointy, lengthy and somewhat mysterious existence. Until now, it still remain a very special memory of mine and to the fact of having it as a Transformers toys, it is really a priceless experience for me. And of course, being a Transformers toy, is amazing to see how a Blackbird transformed in to robot which you really wont get to see everyday.

As mentioned, the whole alternate mode for Jetfire is BIG. The overall length of the plane is 45cm which i measured. It does take up a lot of space if you keep it in his alternate mode so i normally displayed him in robot mode all the time.

You can see a the detachable rotary missile launcher here. That’s the only main weapon for the aged Jetfire.

In my opinion, the whole alternate mode is not horizontal aligned with the stern slightly above the horizontal mark (as you can see from the picture below). In other words, the whole plane looks like a slightly dented “V” shape from the side  even though properly transformed. Not sure about others, but mine does show this alignment problem.

There are 3 landing gears for the plane so you can rest him on flat surface.
The rear of the plane shows the 2 big turbines and you can notice the limbs’ joints here as well. In my opinion, this is not a well done part it is quite awkward to see the joints here not being well concealed.

Robot Mode: The Aged Jetfire
The robot mode for the Jetfire is quite movie accurate. Besides seeing the walking stick, you can also notice the tendrils and mustache on the headpiece. The figure stood as tall as 30cm which is quite the same height as the Optimus/Buster Prime.

A point for the robot mode, you can’t make him stand straight. He has to be a bit hunchback and with the legs bend in order to stand still. Well, that’s exactly what it is like in the movie. And another point to note here is, the walking stick is just purely aesthetic and it gives very minimum support the whole inclined figure of Jetfire.  Fortunately, with the proper designed support of the feet, the whole robot isn’t that difficult to pose and position.

Here’s a closed up on how the Jetfire looks like. The red eyes of the Jetfire is actually lighted by LED with a triggering point. I will touch more on the lights and sounds gimmicks below.

Transformation Process
The transformation of the Jetfire is quite intermediate. However, i found it a bit annoyed when transforming back to robot mode as certain parts need properly aligned before they can be transformed properly. Example of this will be the 2 side wings (Step 4 reversed to Step 3) where you have to align them properly before you can snap them into the side of the ship. Believe me, i can spend some time aligning them and you have to use some force to push them into places as well to make them snapped.

Gimmicks, gimmicks, gimmicks..

Conclusion
This is quite a cool collection to have owning to the fact it uses an obsolete spy plane of my childhood day as the alternate mode. And what’s more, you can even combine him with the ROTF Optimus/Buster Prime to form a bigger robot, which increases the values of him. However, he is not a perfect piece as some of the parts like the “V” problem in alternate mode and the need to align properly during transformation to robot mode have spoiled some of the fun of him. With that, my Personal Collection Rating (PCR) for him is 7.5/10.

A very last picture of him to wrap up this backdated review on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Jetfire.

Oh ya, if you are interested in getting one, i would advise you to grab the twin pack (which comes with Buster Prime and Jetfire) from Takara Tomy as it costs a lot cheaper compared to buying them separately.

Until then, happy hunting and hauling!