G1 Jazz

Well, I broke down and bought Meister, despite the reports of loose joints. His vehicle mode is super-slick; out of the G1 cars I have at the moment, this Porsche is my favourite. Jazz has a heft to him that Prowl doesn't. I don't see any "extra" die-cast in Jazz's construction, but he does seem heavier and less toy-like in vehicle mode compared to Prowl. It took me a bit to figure how the feet fit in vehicle mode - it's not a perfect match at first and I thought I'd break it...but, everything's okay now :)

Meister's robot mode is awesome! Even without the door "wings", the animation model is pretty toy-accurate, making the toy even cooler. Due to their transformation, Meister's arms are really articulated for G1. The way his legs transform is simple and give an excellent approximation of a "mech" - bulky yet sleek at the same time. The way his torso is formed is pretty cool - the usual flipped-over car hood is there, but there's also an abdomen piece that slides in underneath, giving Jazz a very mechanical look. Weapons are excellent - the sidearm is a great design and the flamethrower(?) has a solid look to it.

Yeah, the face looks different, but as I never had a Jazz toy before, it doesn't matter! The real "problem" with this toy is its looseness. I display my TFs for long periods of time anyway; I would say the looseness is really only a negative if one was to play with the toy, getting frustrated as it constantly flopped around :) Overall, this is a great release. It's awesome fun to have my TF leaders and their lieutenants all together!

I also picked up the previously Japan-only repaint of Jazz, called Stepper there and Ricochet here for his debut. The deco is cool, basically a reversal of Jazz's white/black paint, and the silver became gold. Ricochet is also a TargetMaster and has a slight remold on his spoiler so his TM buddy "Nightstick" can sit there in gun mode. His tech spec describes him as a sniper, which is a good career choice for someone paired up with a living gun :)