Name: Stormjet
Series: Robots in Disguise
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Autobot Jet (no kidding!)
Alternate Mode: Jet Plane
Thanks to Goktimus Prime for loaning me his Stormjet for this review (mine is sealed).
JET MODE
Height: 5cm Length: 18cm Width: 13.5cm
A white, red and black jet fighter in the Jetstorm mould, Stormjet clearly takes the inspiration for his colour scheme from Jetfire of G1. White is the main colour in this mode, he has a lot of random red details, including a red nose & canopy section, as well as a few black bits. He sports transparent red missiles in launchers on either side of the plane and his cockpit is a very very dark transparent red (you have to hold him to a light to see through it). This is clearly not a real plane model, mind you. It looks to me like it should be a space cruiser of some sort.
The reason I call this a space cruiser is that he has very small wings - I doubt he'd generate enough lift to stay airborne. That's not to say this is a bad mode, it's just not one that would beat gravity. It actually looks pretty cool, the overall shape is a fairly pointy arrowhead, with the small wings at the back. He has retractable black landing gear, one wheel under the nose and wheels under the wings. The wheels are solid cast, and do not roll, but I like the fact they retract - it would have been easy for Hasbro to not bother with them at all.
The plastics used on Stormjet look fairly cheap, especially the red. Luckily for the plane mode, most of it's red is actually red paint, which works quite well, but there is a hint of the red plastic in the form of two panels just in front of the tailfins.
Stormjet has fairly good play value for a deluxe. There's a black button behind the cockpit, which causes the cockpit to pop forward about 2cm on a black "neck". The "head" is jointed, so it can look from side to side and downwards, which is pretty nifty. I'm not sure if this is meant to resemble a bird's head, but it does. While Jetstorm and Sonic Attack Jet had spark crystals, Stormjet does not, so the hatch on his fuselage opens to reveal what looks like a solid red marble. Considering how useless this is, it's a step backwards for the mould. As mentioned, he has missile launchers, they're built into the toy, not detachable - they're basically the bases of the wings. Anyway, they're also activated by black buttons, and will send the missiles about a foot. They're less likely to randomly fly out than Jetstorm's are, but travel about the same distance.
Those who know me know I'm not a fan of Jetfire at all, but I'm not averse to this set of colours. Having said that, the cheap plastics used on Stormjet mean that while this mode looks ok, it's nothing special. The loss of the spark crystal gimmick is minor, but if you're weighing him up against the other versions of this mould, it counts against him. Still his launchers are more stable than Jetstorm's.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Quite complex for a deluxe. Fold up the landing gear, first off. I'd recommend removing the missiles. Unclip the sides and pull them out, to become the arms. Fold the legs down from underneath, swing the hips out, swing the pelvic plate down underneath the nose of the jet to form his groin. The torso folds and swivels around and comes together quite well with chestplates locking it all together. While this is elegant, it's hard to describe so I'm not going to try. In transforming his torso, the head will be revealed and snaps into place on his shoulders. Rotate the legs, fold up the feet and heelspurs. Position the arms and fold up the wristguards to reveal the claw-hands.
It's a tricky transformation until you get the hang of things, largely due to all the interlocking and rotating that the fuselage undergoes in becoming the torso. As I said, it's complex, but it's not hard once you get the hang of it - in fact it's nice having a deluxe with such an elegant and satisfyingly clever transformation.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 14cm Width: 17cm
exact width will depend on the pose
The white that dominated the plane mode is now largely on his back and arms, and the red plastic now domes into it's own - which isn't really a good thing. His arms and waist are white, his groin, chest, thighs and feet are red, while his shoulders, shins and claw-hands are black. The red head has a white painted face, and when I look at the pure white of this paint and compare it to the slightly milky look of the white plastic, I see just how cool this toy could have been with better plastic. Anyway, the eyes are transparent red, he has a very effective lightpipe, and his antennae (the tailfins) are white.
The face is moulded like the breathing mask that jet pilots wear, which is a nice touch, and as mentioned it looks good in pure white paint. His forehead is painted black, which helps the lightpipe effect. The eyes on mine are glowing at the moment, and I've got him standing in front of the control panel on my monitor - not directly in front of a light source. There's a big red section of the back of his head allowing this lightpipe to work so well.
The missile launchers are now on the outsides of his arms, and can still shoot in this mode. The transparent red looks strange with the abundance of solid red on this mode. There's another gimmick in this mode, which is a relic from Jetstorm. If you rotate his legs outwards and fold down his feet and heelspurs, you can attach the legs together, forming a large triangle around the groin. Lift the shins out to reveal black painted hover engines. This is the hover mode featured in the Beast Machine cartoon. While it can't stand up, it's great play value. Again, the black paint on the hover jets looks better than the black plastic on Stormjet.
One thing that is great about this mode is the poseability. The head turns, although the tailwings get in the way of the large antennae formed from the tailfins. His shoulders rotate, and also lift out to the sides. His elbows bend inwards, and there are swivels just above the elbows. His claws can rotate with some difficultly, and are made of soft plastic so he can potentially grasp stuff. His hips are ball joints, with swivels directly below them, while his knees, feet and heelspurs are all hinged. The end result of all this is an incredibly poseable robot that can be made to stand in almost any pose.
The colour scheme is a great idea, but the cheap plastics work against it, and there's too much red in this mode - as I said, the red plastic really looks cheap. Had they applied more white and used better plastic, this could have been a great recolour. As it is, while the mould is a very good one, Stormjet's robot mode isn't much to look at.
VARIATIONS
None as such, but he's a repaint as mentioned.
OVERALL
Oh, the difference colours can make. Sonic Attack Jet looks great, Jetstorm is also strong, but the choice of colours and plastics (which affect the colours) mean that Stormjet's a very average recolour. If you don't own any toys of this mould, I will recommend him, since it's a great mould, but if you can grab the a Beast Machine version or Jhiaxus instead, I'd do that - 5/10
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