Name: Jazz
Series: Universe 2.0
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Porsche 935
Thanks to kup for donating Jazz, making this review possible.
PORSCHE MODE
Height: 2cm Length: 7cm Width: 3.5cm
A white Porsche 935 with a blue and red stripe running down the hood and roof, Jazz has four black tyres and metallic blue on his front and rear windows as well as the headlights. He's quite clearly a scaled down copy of the G1 toy, albeit without the racing number and some other details. There's a red Autobot logo stamped on the hood, however the paint isn't quite thick enough - the blue paint on the sides is visible underneath. The side windows are not painted, and since there's no paint on the doors either, his sides are pure white, meaning Jazz looks very underdone.
While the paint job is sorely lacking, this is a pretty good Porsche, with a spoiler at the back and a very distinct shape. Jazz's sculpt is also impressive with door seams, vents on the hood, side mirrors and door handles. There's a gap at the back revealing the black robot thighs, but it's under the spoiler so it's not an issue, really. There's no play value aside from the wheels turning, but I don't expect more at this size.
A good Porsche shape and a detailed sculpt are largely wrecked by a glaring lack of paint on the sides of the car. I can deal without paint on the doors but the unpainted side windows make Jazz look very much underdone. I would have preferred unpainted headlights, to be honest. A lost opportunity.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Pull the rear fenders out to the sides, fold the rear section over to form his legs, fold the legs down, flip up his feet and split the boots. Fold the hood down to form his chest and reveal the head, swing the fenders down to his sides to form Jazz's arms.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 7.5cm Width: 5.5cm
A white robot with black plastic on his thighs, groin and head, Jazz's stripe is now on the feet and chest, while the Autobot logo, grille and the headlights are also on his chest. The blue rear window is on his shins and the rear wheels sit on the outsides of his fists. As fits the character, the front of the car sits on his chest. The face is silver with a blue eyestrip. The boots aren't like those of the original, but the chest and head match nicely. While the boots are a departure, the colours work well enough, and the torso and head are well painted. Where Jazz falls down is the arms - his arms are all white with black tyres - these arms really need some black on them, since the black tyres overwhelm the arm detailing. As on the car mode, the unpainted sides really hurt. On that note, the (unpainted side windows) hang off the back - Jazz lacks wings this time.
Play value is okay here - his arms and hips are ball jointed while his knees and ankles are hinged. His arms sit further back than they should, the shoulders are well behind the line of his legs. Posing the arms hides this flaw but with all white details, the arms just don't look that good. On the upside, Jazz has effective heelspurs subtly tacked onto the back of his feet, making him surprisingly stable.
A reasonable robot mode with a fairly good level of detail and some well painted areas such as the chest and face, but Jazz's unpainted arms hurt. The boots aren't quite right for the character but at least they're painted so he can get away with it. The poseability is decent even if the shoulders aren't quite right.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
A fairly disappointing Legends compared to the rest of the Universe 2.0 set, and what's frustrating is that Jazz's biggest failing is an injudicious lack of paint in some areas - which would have been easy enough to avoid. Both modes are fairly well sculpted and the transformation is simple but works for the character while giving the robot mode some play value. While he's not as cheap as such of the Legends from the Cyberton line, Jazz is a weak legends toy by Universe 2.0 standards - 7/10
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