As soon as I had Reveal the Shield Jazz in my hands, I knew that there’d quickly be a Reprolabels “upgrade” set for it. Since most of Jazz’s paint was used up giving him what racing deco he has (plus, uh, painting his forearms white), there wasn’t bound to be much budget left for paint elsewhere. So his rear window and taillights are unpainted. If Reprolabels didn’t exist, that’s the kind of thing I’d actually bother to try to paint myself. But they do and so I won’t!
The thing of biggest concern to me was the Rub Sign on his roof. The Reprolabels set includes new stripe stickers that complete the full length from hood to trunk, but since it’s a more intricate stripe than the one the toy has, I couldn’t just put the missing trunk stripe stickers on and call it a day. Then it wouldn’t match! But putting the roof stripe on meant potentially covering up the Rub Sign. That just wouldn’t do.
Thankfully, I was able to peel the Rub Sign off without any problem, and it was still sticky enough afterwards to plop it right back on after I’d applied the new roof stripe sticker. I was even able to center it a little better, so that’s another plus. Mission accomplished!
The set gives you an option between putting a “real” Autobot symbol on his chest/hood or leaving it blank. Since I was keeping the Rub Sign, I chose the blank option, of course. That’s not the only option on the sheet. Hell, half of his sticker sheet is a choice between four different sponsor decoes. You can either have everything say “MARTINI RACING” like on the original toy, have it say either “AUTOBOT JAZZ” or “AGENT MEISTER” like on the reissues of the original toy, or have the text left blank. Choosing between these was actually a little rough. I mean, the “MEISTER” stickers were never a real option, but the other three were all vaguely appealing. In the end, I decided to go for original toy accuracy and choose the “MARTINI” stickers. Those go on the doors, on the spoiler, and on the top of the windshield.
The last option it gives you is between two personalized license plates. You can choose between “JAZZ” or “1984.” I chose… neither! Or both, depending on how you look at it. Because Jazz’s transformation slices up the rear end of the car like a stack of party cheese, each license plate sticker is actually four stickers, each with one character on them. J-A-Z-Z or 1-9-8-4. I decided to use J-A-Z-1, because the idea of Jazz himself not being able to nab his name for his vanity license plate amused me. Plus, well, it looks more like a license plate that way.
In the end, I’m pretty damn happy. Jazz looks a little less bare, plus putting on stickers is fun. And I feel like he’s personalized. He’s mine, dammit! Nobody else’s Jazz has “JAZ1″ on their license plate! …unless you steal my idea.
*glare*
(Here’s the toy before stickers.)
Those look pretty sweet, I may finally have to make the Reprolabels order I keep talking about doing. Pity they didn’t do replacement stickers for the 4 on the hood so the stripes continue through there- or is that a G1 accuracy thing that I am not remembering?
The red and lighter blue don’t seem to go through the 4 on the original toy, no. I had thought it might be a scrape-off-during-transformation thing, but maybe it’s your suggestion instead.
It’s pretty much the one thing that bugged me about the toy after I picked it up, otherwise it’s my favorite car in a long time (this may have to do with mostly buying movie characters- the cars are kind of a pain in that line). If that’s the way it was on the original, that’s probably why.
Not only is that how it was on the original toy–but the car the toy was based on as well:
http://www.madwhips.com/upload/images/martini_porsche_935_baby_at_mt_panorama_circuit_bathurst_australia_1.jpg
The agent-meister! Agentorama!
Been thinking about this, but wanted a backup in case I screw the rubsign up. How are the replacements that Reprolabel sell? Good, bad? I kinda wanted one for my ROTF Lockdown anyway…
I’ve never tried their rub signs, so I couldn’t tell you. I can tell you that they’re the “old style,” with the silver rectangular border, and not the cool new ones that are just the shape itself. I wouldn’t be happy with the old style. It’s the new style that I enjoy.
If they’re the same as they were when I bought some a few years ago, they’re really thick, and unlike most of their stickers, they also aren’t pre-cut (and these two annoyances tend to combine and leave me, at least, with really bad-looking borders on the rubsigns). They work nicely, mind you, but they aren’t like most Reprolabels where you can’t tell them apart from normal stickers.
Also, as David mentioned, they’re the older-style rubsigns that are rectangular with a silver border, since the new ones were just introduced recently. But since you’re cutting them out yourself anyway, you could potentially “fix” that.
Thanks a bunch!
So when does the Squid version comes?
This and the Hot Rod reprolabels are gonna be the first ones I buy (I’m with you on preferring the BiS Rodimus over the Classics, but I really liked the flames on the sides of Classics’ car mode, so I feel I need to replicate those)
Huh, I hadn’t thought of dividing up the license plate options. I might have to give him “JZ84″ or something when I get around to it.
My only complaint about the Repro set is no stickers for the front of his hips. Most everything has had stickers or paint there – the toy even has the detail sculpted in.
If you rub the sub-sign does it reveal that Jazz is really a squid?
It would be really funny if someone used the stickers J – 1 – Z – Z.