Transformers Prime Cliffjumper(s)

Cliffjumper.  What a sexy beast he is. Was?  Voiced by the Rock how can ya not love the guy?  I certainly do, after all it is the first Cliffjumper toy since his Minibot form of G1 who is not a recolour of Bumblebee, (sometimes with a new head, mostly not).  Not only that we get two of him for the new Prime series.  Er, well you might if you can still find the First Edition Cliffjumper.

 

I am feeling lazy, so I have popped them both together.

 

 

Hmm, due to the issue of dealing with two versions of the same character at once, I will hereby refer to normal Prime line Cliffjumper as CJ.  I refused to refer to it as RID as there already is an RID series and even though the box does have “Robots in Disguise” written on it, RID can be applied to pretty much every series since the line began.  First Edition Cliffjumper will be referred to as FECJ.

 

So packaging similarities, well I don’t really have a shot of FECJ’s pack as I had to get a friend who was on holiday to chase this little mongrel down for me, but it does come in a blister on the normal card the other FEs came on.  The artwork is really nice I will admit.

 

CJ also has a blister card and is in vehicle mode.  Since I nabbed this guy myself, I do have packet images.

 

 

His bio is on the back, well not really a bio as much as a very little story.  I miss the stats they used to put in there, like range of distance they could travel and stuff like that.  He has stats on the side of his box as well.  I am glad to see the stats carry on.  They were absent from Animated.

 

 

Toy wise they look like that.  CJ is on the left, FECJ on the right.  They appear to be about the same height, but FECJ is definitely more show accurate than CJ in robot mode.  Odd really that they don’t use the FE version in the normal line, as transformation of him from one mode is actually quite enjoyable and not frustrating, whereas CJ’s transformation is very simplistic and the resulting robot doesn’t look all that great.

 

So on that note, normal line CJ front and centre please.

 

 

Well, he has the split chest and lights belt which is integral to the look of Prime’s Cliffjumper, but the chest is a fake roof, as are the lights on the belt.  he does have nice big feet which allow for some cool posing.  Lots of one foot stances are able to be exploited here.

 

 

One thing that annoys me about this CJ though is that on his box, the artwork has him with his blaster guns out, but this toy doesn’t have any blasters.  He comes with a hammer, that can also double as a rifle if held differently.  The weapon can be mounted on the roof of the car in vehicle mode, or on his back when in robot mode.

 

 

Looking at CJ’s robot mode, it’s actually pretty good to play with.  Due to his transformation his knees can bend right back and allow him to crouch down really low, however, his fore-arms are annoying in that whenever I touch them, they come apart and the articulation has an unnatural feel and look to it.

 

Also the robot mode chest has a large gap in there.

 

 

He does have a nicely sculpted head, which pops up when you move his shoulders down, and the fake car bits for his robot mode are nice as well.  It’s a shame that a lot of his plastic is the horrid grey that Hasbro are so fond of.  What I found really odd, is the back of his thighs, he has a couple of fake wheels sculpted in there, which I could understand if all his vehicle mode wheels got hidden somewhere, but they don’t.  The wheels are in plain sight, clearly indicating that he transforms into a car of some sort.  Strange.

 

 

You can clearly see the gap in his forearms there as well.  On the plus side, his head and the light blue plastic in it make for some nice light piping.

 

 

The hammer is reasonably well detailed.  Er, in that it looks like a futuristic battle hammer.

 

 

Vehicle mode-wise it is the very similar to the FECJ.  It’s a muscle car (yay! I love muscle cars) with horns on the hood.  Nice solid red that is the same all through the vehicle mode and a few paint apps for the grill and lights.  It is a touch shorter the the FE version of bot CJ and Bumblebee, but appears to be the same as Wheeljack.

 

There is little clearance between his feet in vehicle mode and the floor, but at least it’s not his face!

 

CJ has the clear windows, while FECJ has blue windows.  One thing to be careful of though, mine has really tight shoulders and they do get a fair bit of pressure put on them during transformation, be careful with them, as after a couple of Tfings, one of the shoulders on CJ has developed some stress fracturing right in the centre where the joint goes in.

 

 

 

Ok that’s enough of the poorer cousin of Cliffjumper.  Let’s have a look see at the beautiful sexiness that comprises the First Edition version of Cliffy.

 

Just to clear things up a bit, last year (or year before?)at Botcon, Hasbro mentioned that the Prime series wouldn’t get a complete release of figures, instead they were going to release certain ones under the Universe banner, which is a motley selection of various characters from different series, it started as Universe, then came to cuddle up with Classics, Takara’s henkei henkei series, I suspect some of the Reveal The Shield toys are in there as well.  It is essentially, anything that isn’t the current ongoing series (previously the Movie lines).  So in essence the Prime toys were going to be a small filler line in a filler line.

 

That is why we have the First Edition (originally part of Universe/Classics etc.) and the normal Prime line (ongoing line). Apparently there was complaining from parents about the complexity of transformation of some of the ROTF figs and so we got the not so complex DOTM figures.  By the looks of things it would seem to me that this simplifying of the line has crept to the Prime line as well.

 

FECJ is a beautifully engineered toy. CJ is an OK toy, but it doesn’t contain as much cleverness in the engineering that FECJ does.  On the plus side for CJ he is a LOT quicker to transform, but FECJ isn’t hard and the end result is a much nicer looking figure and I find it more enjoyable to transform.

 

 

FECJ has a much neater robot mode and better proportions as well.  The back view is also a lot neater as well I think.  He looks bulkier, as his arms and legs are less hollow.  the red is also a lot nicer and as it is more crimson than CJ, I think it is a better look.

 

However it still suffers the hole in the chest of the other as well.

 

 

This guy though has a nice transformation that is not too hard and fun to do.  Best of all there are no fake parts, the chest is comprised of the roof of the car and the lights on his belt are rather cleverly moved from the front of the car to his belt.  Very impressive.  The middle of the belt is a fake section, but it is small and acceptable.

 

 

This one also has some nice light piping in the eyes and a well sculpted, not so angry face.  The light piping is slightly hindered by the darker blue that they used.  But it’s nice as you can see pupils in his eyes quite clearly.

 

 

He doesn’t have the horrid grey that CJ has, and the neck area looks a lot clearer because he lacks the gears that reveal his head during transformation.  Although I would say be careful during transformation when you get to his head.  I just pulled in the head, as the head and panel it’s connected to need to come up, but the head just popped off the ball joint.   Popping it back on is no big deal, but a very obvious stress mark appeared in the plastic.  The head joins on to the ball joint through the light piping plastic, which appears to be less open t abuse receiving.  I know I am not the only one to see this, so please be gentle.  I recommend getting a fingernail under the plate the neck is attached to and getting it up that way.

 

Now, another reason why FECJ is the superior Cliffjumper.

 

BLASTERS!!  OH YEAH!

 

He comes with blasters mounted in his arms and they just flip around and his hands hide away.  Both arms have them and it’s damn awesome!!    The Rock would be proud!

 

 

Aaaannnd individual shots.

 

 

He also has an Autobot symbol on him as well, which is something the general Prime line seems to be missing.

 

 

It is just a little one though….  Better than nothing.  Oddly enough, he has a badge section on the opposite side for another Autobot symbol, but there is no printing there.

 

I had a feeling that his smaller feet would make him less stable and they don’t have the same range of (admittedly excessive) range of movement of his counterpart, but they manage to work really well nonetheless.

 

Here are some comparison action poses!

 

 

Eerr, well one.  Whoops.

 

Vehicle mode! 

 

It looks much the same as the other one, just with blue windows, a different looking underside and it is slightly larger.

 

 

 

One thing that mine suffers from is horrible colour waves in the plastic, this is caused from the colours not mixing properly with the plastic I am informed.  Apparently mine has it to an extreme result.  It is fairly severe and not all suffer the same issue. Darn.  The wavy sections of the plastic can become weak spots and are more prone to cracking.  Might have to be careful with this guy.

 

So as it turns out, bit FECJ and CJ are both very nice toys.  But in my opinion, FECJ is by far the nicer toy.  It’s a shame they canned this one, as it is fun to transform, not too complicated and HAS BLASTERS!  Also with the different transformation, FECJ is less prone to his limbs splitting during play.  Maybe FECJ was too expensive to produce for the main line, but one wouldn’t think so.  Anyway, I much prefer the FECJ over the normal line, but have managed to come to accept CJ as part of my Prime line.

 

Although he did undergo some personality changes…

 

So if you can get your hands on the First Edition, do it.  If not, then normal is fun enough, especially if you haven’t played with the FECJ.  But once you do, you will feel that CJ is an inferior figure.  Sad but true.