Cyber Slammers Jazz

I have a review in the works, but got lazy and didn't finish it. Today I, well my mom got me a Cyber Slammer. She didn't know that it was for kids, smaller than I, but she knows I love TFs and got me Cyber Slammers (CS) Jazz at Ross for $4.99

The vehicle mode of CS Jazz is a miniature form of the Pontiac Solstice. It's pretty squat in length and wide in width. Molded of greyish plastic, it has several paint apps, including "sparkling" blue windows, red tail lights, light "sparkling" blue and yellow head lights, black grill and side vents, and a red Pontiac emblem in the front. The back wheels are slightly larger than the front, with rubber treads around the wheel for friction. A minor problem shown in the picture and the final product is that assembly sticking up above the hood sculpt. It's mainly due to the tension in the spring, I believe...

The main gimmick and fun of the toy to kids is the automorph feature. Not called automorph though, in car mode there is a plastic white molded switch, hold the back wheels, push the switch towards the back and let it go on the ground or any flat surface. Jazz will spring up instantly or after a few inches of rolling. With the most of the plastic in the body of Jazz's semi robot mode, him springing up will cause the Solstice to do a pop up wheelie.

In his go-cart mode as I like to call it, it's basically Jazz and what happened to him when Megatron ripped him in two. The only robot parts seen are the waist up, no legs. Jazz is pretty nicely molded overall though, much leaner than the deluxe. From the front it's awesome, but because his body and feature, he pops out from the middle and along with him the roof and doors of the Solstice.

Despite being a "kiddies" TF, he does have some articulation. His ball jointed and really limited to movement. Just a few degrees to the left or right, and his head can do a slight nod. Paint is good, some bronze apps, and his Solstice paint scheme. His visor is done great, as he has purple paint apps on both sides for to signify lighting, the middle is blue, that's cool!

To transformer him back this is where Slammers come in play. First and most importantly, the switch you pushed to the back, push it forward so a hole on exposed in the switch area. I got confused the first time, and I actually had to read the instructions. From then on, slam him down. Though I pull the front and push him down, kids would slam them down either way.

At first, when my mom was like look in the back and see what I got you, I was hoping for the Final Stand Longarm, not the case. After examining it and deciding to open it or return it, I returned to my Movie Jazz collection tactics and opened him. He's quite fun, and very cute. At $4.99 I can surely recommend this. After all, my mom was about to get Robot Heroes if not for Jazz...

Transformers Movie Payload Review

Some of the first Transformers Movie figures were great, but I took interest in the characters that didn't appear in the movie, rather noes that had look a likes, or appeared on another continuity, like games or comics. My last review was that of Stockade, the "bully" of the Autobots, the one, even Ironhide couldn't punch down. Today we have Payload, the Armored Truck of the Decepticons...

Payload appears in the Transformers Video Game as drones. There were many drones in the game, either Decepticon or Autobot. The differences were the heads, with the 'Cons having one eyed Zaku/Shockwave style heads, and the 'Bots with more humanoid classic TF heads. Most drones released in toy form were Decepticon, I believe to my knowledge...

Payload is a dark blue Armored Truck as stated. He has some minor silver paint on the back and hub caps. Parts that are supposed to be silver is the front grill, and side skirts. Some orange paint apps on the top lighting, and red light in the back. There are two red and one white stripe on the front hood. The windows are a dark illegal tint translucent plastic. The emblem on the sides on the Truck are also red and white and have a purple Decepticon symbol. The insignia reads, "Armored Security Services", and coincidentally the first letter of each word spells out ASS...Overall it's a pretty cool design, though the hinges for transformation stick out like a sore thumb...Something to take notice is the front portion, or the cab-like front is paint or made of shinier plastic than the rest of the truck. Also the grill seems to come off, I fixed that with some super glue...

His transformation is pretty simple. Nothing too hard, but some issues that are being addressed below...

In robot mode, he's pretty short, and also rather awkward. He's still dark blue, still has some grey palstic, and some silver apps, but now he has some shiny "AllSpark" blue. Detail is great in these TF Movie figures, even the newer ones took a huge step forward. A lot of wiring sculpt and exhaust fans, panels, the whole deal in mechanics is sculpted here. I especially like the hands, as they have a very skeletal appearance. He has a camera eye, much like Zaku and Shockwave, which is cool, nothing too special though. He stands pretty good despite a "tower" sticking out his back.

Articulation is pretty good. Very limited swivel head, sadly, ball jointed shoulders, swivel biceps, hinged elbows, and ball jointed hands for the top half. The bottom half consists of swivel waist, ball joint hips, swivel thighs, hinges knees, hinged knee pads, and hinged ankles. He's pretty well articulated and could get into some decent poses.

The awkwardness begins here. First off, in transformation, and in robot mode, his entire head and chest piece tends to snap off, or peg off. Again I used superglue and it's on permanently now, and will now alter the transformation. His gimmick is the huge stick poking out his back. You push that and a claw comes out his stomach and eats you or something... It's a rather dull gimmick and gets in the way. Sometimes, or several times for me, the claws dangle or don't retract with the gears and it gets stuck. As with many I don't like the gimmick, but I think it's an cool gimmick if I was still a kid. Ending with that...

I think it's a pretty cool toy. Great vehicle mode, you can pretend he could carry Energon to the Decepticons for power, or whatever you'd like. His robot mode is pretty cool. The gimmick is iffy. Totalling up that, he gets a 8 out of 10. Now I know some hate this guy, for the gimmick mainly, but get past that, and he's a great detailed, well articulated figure, and a very cool design. He was a pegwarmer, so if you look him up online or ebay, he might be cheap. It's definitely something to look at...

Transformers Stockade Review

Stockade likes Gatorade! No, he doesn't, it just rhymes... Stockade is one of those vehicles in the first TF Movie line which had a similar stunt double, but didn't actually transform or was called by their figure name. Stockade is based on the vehicle used by Sector 7...

Stockade's vehicle mode is a Cadillac Escalade SUV, of course made by GM. It's not an exact replication of and Escalade, there are some minor changes like the grill. It's not a single piece, but rather it's split into three sections, also some additions and lack of other detail. Colors featured are black, silver, red, and translucent dark blue. On the grill is also a Decepticon emblem, and S7 and symbol on the driver and passenger doors. It's really a great vehicle mode overall. There is a luggage bar on the top that's just grey, nothing painted, it really sticks out though...

Nothing too hard about his transformation. It's really easy, but effective...

Now, this is where he shines. Stockade is a short, stocky robot, and has a gorilla like appearance to him. Not Optimus Primal gorilla, but his physique. He features long arms that almost reach the ground, he also has a wide chest. You can pose his with his fist impaled to the ground and his legs slightly bent for the gorilla look. What you really have to appreciate about this mold is the detail. IT'S EPIC! I can't quite explain all the detail, there is so many. There are panels, internal wiring, something the looks like disc brakes, and some vents. The head is cool with some details too. He has a Prime-like face mask, but he features bar-like details around his head. He doesn't feature a black pipe lighting in the back of his head, but rather the top of his head is like a separate piece and the dark blue light piping wraps all the way around his head. The way his top half has a ridge makes his look evil...

Now that he's unfolded into robot mode, you notice some new colors, and more of the same colors. Of course he still has the main characters of black, red, silver, and translucent blue. There is also an addition of a dark grey, "AllSpark" blue and more of the plain light grey plastic. It doesn't take away from the appearance, but I think anything that's bright or light takes away from the Decepticoness of the character.

Articulation is good, just enough to get some good poses. He features a limited ball joint head because of his bulk around the head. His shoulders are balljointed, double hinged elbows, and two hinge joints on his knuckles. His waist rotates 360 degrees, his hips are balljoints, hinge knees, and hinged ankles. It's a pretty decent set of POA, expecially the fingers.

Like most figures from the TF Movie line, it features an Automorph or now called Mech Alive gimmick. Stockade's gimmick is his luggage bars that are molded plain light grey. When you push them up, he'll gain additional arm length when his "internal" forearms slide out, giving him a wingspan of about 12 inches, more or less. He's known for punching the crap out of Autobots, or Autobots trying to punch the crap out of him. While not necessarily an Automorph gimmick as it doesn't help with transforming Stockade, it can be considered a Mech Alive Gimmick...

Overall this figure is great, the mold is great too. Looking at him now, he has a Nemesis Prime fell to him, and since I'm lacking a Nemesis Prime he looks to be a great substitute. They are releasing a Gears in this mold, but I like the original color scheme better, but you gotta pick up the mold, even if it's not in Stockade's colors. I'd have to give it a 10 out of 10. It's simply one of the best molds, and coolest character designs created.