The Energon Pub

After hearing good things for so many years, i finally five in and look at Reveal the Shield Jazz - a mold I have never before had in hand. Of course, I am left now with a quandary; who do I choose? FoC? POTP? Or, RTS? I compare all three herein too!

I too really love the Reveal the Shield/Transformers United mold of Jazz. It was a very well done figure in its time, and it's still a fantastic figure to this day. I have the Takara version, which adds in a lot of the finer paint details you wished were on the Hasbro version, like a painted front grill and tail lights. That version probably goes for a very hefty price on the secondary market now. It's hard to beat getting the RtS version for just $1.00!

With how the Generations line has been evolving in the past several years, though, mostly because of the downscaling of each size class overall, I'm retiring my United Jazz from my display collection. He's just too big now. Power of the Primes Jazz has taken his place, and I'm honestly pleased with the results, although the PotP figure does indeed have some flaws.

I wish PotP Jazz had a bit more paint detail (isn't that always the case, though?), like painted rims for the wheels, the white/light blue highlights on the pelvis, black hands, gray/silver abdomin, etc. I can understand why some of these finer details have been overlooked, though, because so much paint already covers this figure, thanks to the entire front end and top of the car being transparent clear plastic. By the way, like you, I've not had any breakage or stress issues with either of my copies of the figure (I have a second one as a dedicated combiner limb for "Firestormer"). Also like you, I appreciate that the PotP version of Jazz gives us the cartoon silhouette without the door wings and without the front tires atop the shoulders. I like having more cartoon accurate details in my figures, and again, as a whole, the Generations line seems to be moving in the direction anyway.

The extra paint details you added to your copy of PotP Jazz look fantastic, I must say, but I usually don't go for that myself. I like to keep my figures as true to their retail release as possible. If I do make modifications, they're usually reversible, like adding stickers that can later be removed, or swapping parts that can easily be swapped back if needed. It helps preserve potential "resale value" in my mind. Speaking of figure mods, if the rumors of a "Power of the Primes Select" Ricochet/Stepper prove true, and such a figure comes with gang molded black fists, I'll probably swap them with the white plastic fists from my display PotP Jazz. Another mod I'm considering is swapping the square component of the combiner peg on Jazz with another Combiner Wars/Power of the Primes compatible Deluxe figure with that piece cast in gray plastic instead of Jazz's white, to get that proper Jazz gray abdomen detailing. Alternately, I have an idea to paint the back of that blue and red striped piece from the middle of the car hood. Instead of folding it up and transforming it as intended for the robot mode, I found you can easily just lay it back against the combiner peg, with the stripes facing inward, hiding them. You can then just paint that exposed back/underside of that assembly gray or silver to get that same animation and toy accurate gray abdominal color. I know I just said I usually don't like to take paints to my figures, but in this case, the paint wouldn't show up in alternate mode and you can still hide the extra paint by transforming that piece the original intended way in robot mode. It's a move I wish Hasbro and Takara had thought of themselves, but then again, maybe they really couldn't spare any more paint with this figure as it was.

As better representations of characters are released over the years, I usually, like you, sell off the "less optimal" versions to conserve space (and money). I don't think I'm ready to part with my United Jazz, though. I had an idea to slip United Jazz into my Masterpiece collection for now, so I could still hold on to it and display it somehow, but unfortunately, he's just a little undersized for the role. RtS Jazz is too big for current Generations figures and not big enough for Masterpiece figures. It's a shame, because aesthetically, he fits in pretty well (especially with some of the earlier, less "cartoon sculpted" figures). Poor RtS/United Jazz is just kinda stuck in "No Bot's Land" for the time being.

That reply was a really interesting read. Unique combiner name you have there. I assume Inferno is the torso? Also, you not some great customizing options, some more invasive maybe than others but that hood flap was a very interesting idea. Sounds like you vote potp but with an eta soft spot lol.

GotBot wrote:Unique combiner name you have there. I assume Inferno is the torso?

You would be correct. I can't take credit for the name "Firestormer," though. It was the proposed name for an Inferno-based combiner (with a different limb configuration) from the "Masters of Mayhem" story by the late Transformers Collectors Club (A.K.A., Fun Publications).

Ole fun pub, always good for a few creative oddities lol.