Posted February 1, 2012 at 10:27 pm
First of all, Prime "Robots in Disguise" deluxes are hitting Targets.  Plug your zip code into this link to see if there are any in your area.  You'll probably have to ask them to get some out of the back.  That's what Graham and I did this morning, anyway.

There's very little chance the "First Edition" Cliffjumper's gonna make his way into American stores any time soon, if ever, and there's an even remoter chance of the later-wave totally awesome zombie version, so I decided to get the "RID" version today.  I don't care that much about Cliffjumper, so I'll take the cheapest option when it comes to him.  We're talking a cool $13 instead of the $30-40 it'd cost to import him.

I was more enamored with the "First Edition" mold, which is different from this one.  FE Cliffjumper had a completely different transformation that resulted in less fake vehicle mode parts in robot mode.   The car roof on his chest actually became the car's roof.  The rear bumpers on his shoulders actually became the car's rear bumpers.  That's the sort of thing I generally prefer.  Cliffjumper, on the other hand, takes a different approach.  The car's roof folds up on Cliffjumper's back and the car's rear bumpers become his ankles.  Meanwhile, there's a fake sculpted car roof chest and fake sculpted car bumper shoulders.   There's even fake sculpted wheels on the backs of his thighs, even though his four real wheels are plainly visible.

I don't think there's any obvious car kibble in his robot mode's character model that becomes actual car parts.  There's some real car parts in robot mode, of course, since it can't aaaalll pile onto his back, but none of that stuff exists on the cartoon's character model.

That said, it's not a bad toy.  There's a lot of twists and turns, but none of them make me want to murder anyone, and it's surprisingly unfrustating and expedient to get him from robot mode back into car mode.  It's almost kind of fun, really.  That makes up for a lot.  Other than his odd elbows, he's fun to pose in robot mode, as well.

He is, however, pretty tiny by Deluxe Class standards.  Of all of the Prime deluxes I have so far, he's the shortest.  That may have to do with the large axe he comes with, I dunno.  (The axe can plug into his car roof or the side of his car as a cannon.)  It's a little unfortunate because Cliffjumper's partner was Arcee, who's the second-tallest Deluxe (after Starscream).  And so Arcee is taller than him by a large margin.  These are definitely not their relative heights on the cartoon.

To sum up, if you don't care about fake kibble or relative scale, he's a fantastic toy.  I'm pleasantly surprised by him.
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