I recently had the chance to finally read Marvel’s vintage Transformers: Generation 2 comics (which ran from 1993-1994), and let me tell you, those things were a fever dream. Between the exaggerated 90’s art, the self-serious, edgy storyline, and the general confusion that came from both of these things struggling to tell a story that made sense, it was certainly a trip. A fun trip, though, if you approach it with the mindset that it’s going to be ridiculous.
The whole series was like this.
One of the many funky aspects of the comic was how disinterested it was in actually promoting the Generation 2 toyline it was supposedly tied to. Sure, Megatron got rebuilt into his new G2 tank form, Sideswipe was now painted black like his re-release (and actually got to do things), and a bunch of the line’s new Rotor Force and Laser Rod characters showed up towards the end, but stuff like that often felt crammed into the margins of the story out of obligation, and the comic’s story and cast of characters mostly had nothing to do with who and what was on the shelves at the time.
He’s not here to sell toys.
The biggest example of this was how the Decepticons were made into secondary villains, with the comic’s main antagonists for most of its run being a new, toyless, created-for-the-comic faction called the Cybertronian Empire (or, sometimes, they were also called Decepticons, the comic was unclear on that, as it was with many things). This new faction was led by today’s subject: Jhiaxus.
He of the perma-scowl.
A product of a long-forgotten Transformers reproduction method called “budding,” (so, like an amoeba splitting), Jhiaxus and his followers considered themselves a more evolved form of Cybertronian life than Optimus and Megatron’s kin, and spent the Great War on the other side of the galaxy terraforming planets into new Cybertrons, until the original Transformers come into contact with them, setting up the story. Jhiaxus fancied himself a cold, rational, evolved being, “better” than the “throwbacks” of the classic cast, but from an early point, the audience could tell that he was full of it, and he’d soon descend down the same angry, punchy, shooty 90’s attitude that Optimus and Megatron were sporting.
You know, if they’d hue shifted this into yellow and white, it might have worked.
As a comic original, Jhiaxus didn’t really have a proper figure until now. There was a random orange repaint of Beast Machines Deluxe Jetstorm in 2003s Robots In Disguise line (pictured above) that was really just a name-slap, and a Deluxe in 2014’s Thrilling 30 line that was a) a Starscream retool, b) colored like the random orange Robots in Disguise jet, and c) sculpted to look like Jhiaxus’s more recent hunchbacked scientist IDW comics design, instead of the snarling grimdark G2 guy.
Famously, the answer to why he was still orange was that the previous figure was what came up on an archive search.
So, Jhiaxus has never really gotten his plastic dues, until Legacy startled everyone by making this new figure, the first Jhiaxus to have a tooling all to himself, and to be based on how he looked in the 90’s. I don’t know about you, but I’m about ready to go back to the era of Liefeld, McFarlane, holofoil covers, and an about-to-implode comic speculator market.
Robot Mode
He naturally looms.
A big guy (for you), Jhiaxus stands tall by Voyager standards, about the same height as Kingdom Cyclonus (though Cyc’s horns give him the edge). Importantly, he’s taller than both Netflix Optimus Prime and Generations Selects G2 Megatron, appropriate for the character.
This was basically how most of the G2 comic went for Optimus.
Ditto for Megs.
This is basically how they won.
So, I have to take time to properly praise this sculpt, because it’s really something else. Basically, he looks like he lept out of the Derek-Yaniger-and-Manny-Galan-drawn pages of the Marvel comic. His design was always sort of Seeker-esque but filtered through the design aesthetics of the era (well, when he was consistently drawn).
One shoulder pylon was the style in the 90s.
The barrel chest, the funky batwings on his back and ankles, the weird singular thing on his shoulder, it’s all here, and it’s all hyper-accurate. I think his chest is the only thing that’s a bit off, but to be fair, again, that 90’s art was a little loose. It gives this figure a really different, unique look, in a toyline (and, these days, franchise) that’s usually trying to imitate the Generation One cartoon. Indeed, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an official Transformer trying this hard to specifically be a vintage comics design.
Everybody and their mother has paired him with Coronation Starscream’s throne.
He’s, quite literally, a Marvel Legend. In particular, shout-out to the tangled mess of wires on both his shins, that’s basically the comic’s aesthetic in a nutshell.
He skinned his legs, and never fixed them, because he’s hardcore.
That face is exceptional, too, with its Darkseid-like proportions, and that scrunched, displeased expression, the default look of the time.
Something stinks, and it’s not him.
In terms of his build quality, Jhiaxus feels a bit light in the hands, presumably due to spreading his plastic thin to blow up his size. To their credit, he’s got no obvious hollow bits, though.
And he’s gonna pull his gun if you say he does.
Jhiaxus’s colors are one thing that’s never been done right on either of his previous figures, so seeing them well-executed here is great. He’s mainly a shiny, pearly white, with equally shiny, gold-ish yellow, bright green, and bits of red, with some silver accents. An addition that I appreciate is a little G2 Decepticon symbol on his chest (which has a translucent bubble, albeit in smoky plastic). Again, every bit of color he had in the pages of the comic seems to be present, with the caveat of “he wasn’t colored consistently, either.”
He’s got that 90’s squat down pat.
They didn’t just go nuts on this guy’s sculpt and colors, they went nuts with this guy’s articulation. Like, above and beyond a Voyager. Remember Studio Series 86 Hot Rod, Kingdom Galvatron, and Kingdom Rodimus Prime? Those were all cases of a figure scaled to one price point being released at a higher one, so they could go above and beyond in terms of, among other things, articulation. Well, this guy’s a plain-jane Voyager, and yet has the kind of extra articulation you’d expect if they’d released him as a Leader, or higher.
The poseable hands, in particular, make for some good drama.
This includes double-jointed ankles, and weirdly deep hip rotation, without the need for a “skirt,” meaning he can do a 90’s Squat really well, and is even stable enough to stay balanced. Up top, his hands not only have wrist swivels, but mitten-style jointed fingers, something I’ve never seen on a Transformer that wasn’t One Price Point Above Scale. Basically, he’s inexplicably super bendable and expressive. I’m surprised there’s no ab crunch, but he’s plenty expressive as-is. The only flaw I can find: The panels on his forearms like to pop when I pose his hands, but that’s barely an issue.
It bugs him, though,
Jhiaxus has two guns for his accessories. I’m actually not sure if they’re based on any specific Marvel designs, everyone kind of just had random guns in the Generation 2 comic, but these look like the typical weapons of the time, with their squareness, and over-designed detailing.
All they need is some superimposed, oversized sound effects.
One’s larger, and cast in red, and the smaller one’s transparent gray, painted silver. I’ll admit, given the style of the time, I wish they were bigger, and more exaggerated. But at least he can duel-wield them well.
Needs something stronger than “pew pew.’ Like a good SHAKOOM or something.
You can peg them together via a peg on the side of the red one, and a hole on the side of the grey one, and then use another peg on the grey one to stash the whole load on his back.
Maybe a Dakka Dakka.
Very importantly, unlike some other recent Legacy figures, they didn’t skimp on the Weaponizer ports on this guy. He comes with nine of them total, two on each arm, one on each leg, one on the bottom of each foot, and another on his back. This is important because, if anyone looks like they’re meant to be absolutely covered in guns, it’s this guy.
It’s a natural fit.
As a final, undocumented feature, the front half of that little sensor thing on his shoulder can pop off, exposing a secret, tenth weapons port.
A final surprise attack.
The front bit of it’s meant to plug into a port on the back of his red gun, a feature that does more in his other mode. Speaking of that…
Transformation
This is a pretty smooth transformation, and easy enough to figure out after you do it once, thanks to that lovely trick of “hmm, I see some tabs, and some holes shaped like those tabs, thus showing me where this bit goes.” He transforms kind of like the Earthrise Seeker tooling, weirdly, but with a waist twist. Basically, you’re compressing the legs, folding out the cockpit, and folding the arms away, and that’s about it.
Vehicle Mode
It makes for a pretty good vast, predatory bird.
Okay, so, straight up, this doesn’t really match Jhiaxus’s Marvel Generation 2 comic vehicle mode, which he actually changed into a fair amount.
Look familiar?
Sure, it was a space jet, but it was a more rounded thing, which looked for all the world a bit like Generation One Scourge’s vehicle mode (complete with top-mounted weapon) but with bat wings.
Chop the wings off the left one, and give them to the right one, and the shape will be correct.
But, well, he was never designed with the idea that he’d need a workable transformation, so this entirely different alternate mode doubles as something workable.
I’m not complaining. Starscream is, though.
Well, it’s not entirely different, it’s still a doofy-looking space-jet with green wings on the sides, and a similar-looking cockpit (even if they did add a funny red nose to it), and, funny enough, if you look closely, you can see his grim face peeking out of the smokey windows.
*Muffled growling noises.*
More importantly, this jet form still captures the visual vibes of the character, and the comic it came from. Those cool, Yaniger-esque wires again, in particular, complete the look, since they’re now located where his engines are.
Red hot! Well, orange hot.
Speaking of those engines, they also host the one unique bit of color this mode has: Orange paint on the insides of his rockets, like they’re red-hot from flames. It’s a really nice bonus, considering it’s a unique color, and an arguably unneeded extra.
Optimus and Megatron try a bold new strategy.
There’s a couple design issues I have with this mode, though. For one thing, his arms just kind of hang underneath the jet, with the only upshot to that being they make it easy to rest him on a table.
Functional, if clunky.
Meanwhile, his transparent cockpit’s hollow from the bottom, and I wish they’d included, like, a panel or something.
He doesn’t Weaponize as well in this mode, but Cromar’s guns do look quite good.
For features, you can mount a gun under his cockpit, there’s another mount between the rear engines, and two above the wings. The instructions say mount the smaller gun at the rear upside-down, but it doesn’t really fit due to its shape, though you can easily plug it in sideways.
You probably already noticed the upper rifle in the above photos.
So, if you remembered to detach the front of his shoulder-sensor-dealie before transforming him (otherwise you have to crack him open and fish it out), the wiki recommends attaching the sensor to the back of his red gun, and plugging it in backwards up top, to loosely imitate the Marvel vehicle mode’s top-mounted weapon. I don’t know if it makes it more accurate, but it adds visual interest, so I like it. And then I can plug the silver gun into his cockpit, to complete the look.
Overall
Cybertronian Empire tryouts.
Jhiaxus is something truly unique. A comic character that’s never had his own figure getting it, and it being hyper accurate to the art style of the era, like it came out of the page. He’s got personality and style to burn, particularly if you get a kick out of that 90’s artstyle, like I do. But on top of that, it’s just a shockingly well-engineered Voyager, huge and strangely poseable, wit a good transformation, and an altmode that’s made up, but still well-executed (and prioritizing the robot mode was definitely the right call).
“So what you’re going to do is have them call you ‘Spawn of Unicron,’ and then people are going to take that literally, and ignore that the writers said you were one of us.”
This really feels like someone on the design team was a fan of the character. That, or thought their first proper figure ever needed a red-carpet rollout. Either way, this is both unique, and a standout of Legacy so far. Even if you’re not specifically after him for Generation 2 reasons, I still recommend checking him out.
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