As one of the most celebrated of the first season Autobots, Jetfire/Skyfire has never struggled in the toy department. With one of the best toys of his generation right out the gate, the bar has been set and more often than not met with some great figures. But Siege has easily been the best line Transfromers has seen since Classics, so it seems like finally the circumstances have aligned to give us something truly special with this incarnation.
Much like his G1 counterpart, Jetfire is a class all his own, at least for now, with a new Commander Class $70 price point. But you get a TON of figure for that money. The days of thin and hollow Leader class figures has passed at last, and so with over a foot of Autobot you get some big, solid build. So out of the box, first thing we gotta do is put him next to his boss.
I have to say, for the Siege line, this is about the best you could ask for. He feels huge, towering over the appropriate Voyager class Optimus. The style not only fits the Siege line overall, but pulls so heavily from his G1 cartoon presence there is almost no distinction. There is even a swapable faction symbol on his chest, in homage to his Fire in the Sky origin.
And even better than just presence, he’s got some moves to back it up. He has big heavy racheting elbows and knees, he has unlockable ankle tilts, poseable fingers (more on that in a sec), and pretty solid hips and shoulders- the latter stay pegged in pretty damn good once you get them in place.
All of this is good, but this hand/finger thing… hot damn. Somebody cracked the code. He has a 5mm peg in the middle of his hand when they are “closed,” but open those fingers and…
That is brilliant. By far the best and most effective means I’ve ever seen, AND it allows a big guy like Jetfire to make use of that fantastic universal peg size without some bizarre adapter.
And beacuse this is Siege, There are plenty of those 5mm weapons right in the box with him. Like Shockwave and Magnus, Jetfire’s weapons are more proprietary- not that you couldn’t add more weaponizers to his loadout if you wanted, but he comes with plenty that are designed with him in mind. He has his classic Macross visored helmet that clips on over his face, a chestplate, his classic double-barrelled blaster (that can break down into two), some dual forearm cannons, and 3 pairs of smaller blasters that can break down and combine as needed.
Also like Shockwave, his weaponizer parts can form a battle drone that can operate separately. The great part about these parts is you can use as many or as few as you like- I usually just use his helmet, big blaster and forearm cannons.
But you can’t really make a Jetfire without a jet mode, and our guy has a pretty good one. The transformation means he even gets a litltle bit of that variable geometry swing-wing- just not the swing they usually get- and some moveable flap surfaces. He has flip out landing gear, and a cockpit that will hold a titan or headmaster easily. The overall look is very close to the G1 vehicle mode, and even the underside, which usually lacks in Transformer jets, came out pretty good. There are also these fantastic 5mm hand-holds, so you can have a small squad of Autobots ride skid to the rescue.
The weaponizer parts naturally apply here as well, and I like a couple on the wing ports and those forearm cannons on the sides. You can also attack that drone mode to the top of his backpack, to serve as a parasite fighter kinda deal. And you get sweet blast effects! Fun in either mode.
Overall, this thing is an absolute joy to mess around with, and even though the price is a bit steep, it’s a lot of bang for your buck.
