Bot Reviews: Transformers: Studio Series Deluxe Cliffjumper

You know, I didn’t intend to make Bot Reviews into an all-Studio-Series-Bumblebee-figures, all-the-time blog, but it just so happens that a bunch of it reached my neck of the woods at the same time, and it’s something I’d like to go completist on. I collect other things, too! Plus, I think the line’s running out of steam when it comes to stuff from the Bumblebee movie. Case and point: This week’s subject, Cliffjumper.

This unlucky red bot was one of the many quick cameos in the Bumblebee movie’s opening Cybertron sequence, then showed up a bit later, captured by the movie’s villains, who interrogated him, before slicing him in half, just to prove to the audience that they mean business. Bummer, dude. Believe it or not, this isn’t actually a reference to the character’s nearly-identical fate in Transformers Prime, like I thought it was for a long while. Apparently, great writers and directors just think alike.

Despite his tiny little role, Cliffjumper’s still got a Studio Series figure, presumably because his design is just Bumblebee’s Cybertronian form with a different head, so this can (and will) get an easy repaint and retool in a few waves. In fact, I didn’t realize it at first, but this guy’s already an extensive retooling of the previously-reviewed Offroad Bumblebee, with almost all of his surface details (and vehicle mode) changed, and just the internal structure and engineering kept.

So, let’s see if this unlucky chap has better luck in plastic form than he did onscreen.

Robot Mode

Well, there’s one big engineering problem right out of the box that this guy has: The panels on the outer edges of his lower legs don’t want to stay pegged in.

It’s not just me, I’ve seen multiple sources note this issue. Basically, those long vertical panels of car-mode side located on the outside of each of his shins are supposed to clip into a peg up near each knee, only the peg is either too short or too thin, and doesn’t get a grip, so they just slide right out. This is a problem, because while they’re not particularly loose, these panels do tend to rotate around on the joint they’re on pretty freely, especially when you’re posing him, so it leads to some bad handfeel. Maybe I can fix it with some floor polish or glue to thicken them up, but out of the box, they absolutely do not work. It’s not a figure-killer, but it doesn’t feel great, either, and it’s not a problem Offroad Bumblebee had, since his lower legs worked completely differently.

Speaking of him, this is a pretty extensive retooling, enough to fool me at first glance. Basically, the two figures have the same arms, shoulder/collar/neck assembly, pelvis, and upper thighs, with all (or most) of the rest being entirely different bits, making him look pretty distinct.

In terms of movie-accuracy, they did a pretty good job here, too. Those pesky panels on his legs aren’t in the movie’s design, and he’s got a backpack of folded up car bits he doesn’t have onscreen, but the rest is pretty spot-on to his brief film appearances, and those bits had to go somewhere, after all. (Hey, remember when Earthrise Arcee had parts that just came off for the sake of accuracy? They could have done that here, maybe).

Like a lot of Cybertronian forms that are designed after the fact, Cliffjumper doesn’t have as distinct of a visual identity as the almost steampunk-looking Offroad Bee, trading that whole look in for vague car details on his chest, and generic robot stuff on the rest of him. But hey, that’s what he looked like in the movie.

Speaking of that, his head’s also impressively spot-on to the film’s “G1 Cliffjumper filtered through Bayverse Greebles” aesthetic, in all but one area: The mouth. Whether it’s a result of scaling the complicated design down, or the silver paint, it’s a bit lost in the details, making him almost look more like he has a ridged mouthplate instead.

For colors, there wasn’t much required for this pretty plain red-and-black design, but he does have some nice silver and blue on his face, and a bit of transparent plastic on his chest and extremities. They also color-matched the red paint and red plastic particularly well.

Articulation is all-around pretty good, coming in at the Standard Siege Level, minus wrist swivels, and even includes a bit of ankle-tilting thanks to some ball joints, but only a little bit. He’s pretty stable, too, thanks to his big, stompy feet. It’s a shame about those leg panels, again, simply because they love to move out of place as soon as I handle him.

For accessories, he comes with the same over-the-arm blaster as Offroad Bumblebee, which clips snugly over his right arm to simulate his transformed arm-cannon.

And unlike Bee, this version has some nice silver paint on it. Regrettably, like Bee again, you’re supposed to be able to cram it into his backpack, but it doesn’t want to stay in any configuration I put it in.

He can also still use the arm-mounted blade from Studio Series VW Bumblebee, which makes me glad I had a spare to give him.

Transformation

One surprising thing here is that the extensive amount of retooling on him actually changes about half of his transformation into something completely different from Offroad Bee. His torso and arms still go through the same steps, but his backpack and legs do something totally different, unfurling a bunch of panels to create his car mode. This means, regrettably, that he’s a shellformer, and it’s the annoying kind, where you have to massage a bunch of panels together, and other panels will pop out of place while you try and get those ones together, and on and on. It’s not the worst example I’ve handled, but it’s not really ideal.

Also, folding his chest in half to hide it away is a bit terrifying on this version, because the fold involves using excessive force on panels made of transparent plastic. It seems alright at the moment, but I definitely worry about breakage in the long run.

Car Mode

So, Cliffjumper didn’t transform at all in the film, but since he shares a body type with Bumblebee, who did transform, it makes sense that he’d change into the same alternate mode, but in red, which is what we’ve got here. And I’m weirdly fond of this futuristic egg-mobile. One nifty thing about this design is that it’s a clear homage to Bumblebee and Cliffjumper’s alternate modes from 2010’s Transformers: War for Cybertron video game (and tie-in Generations figures), in that it’s a rounded, Tron-like Cybertronian car, with clear lines on the top. One problem with his shellformer-y nature is that I haven’t been able to get the car’s top chunk to totally line up with the rest of the car, but this design gets to cheat a little, since it isn’t a real vehicle.

It’s actually really impressive how different he is from Offroad bee, and I wouldn’t be able to tell they have the same base tooling at a glance. He even manages to hide his robot bits a lot better than Bee did.

Cliffy’s colors are even more monochrome here than his robot mode, being almost entirely red, with black wheels, and a few other black details, with transparent headlights, and a transparent stripe uptop, with tech details sculpted into the clear plastic. But he’s a sleek, futuristic racecar, so the look kind of suits him. It’s funny, too, that his black wheels actually have red accents on them, when painting the wheels is a detail so many Earth-mode Transformers struggle with.

For features, while he’s slung really low to the ground, he can actually roll just fine, which I wasn’t expecting from a shellformer like this. Now, in the film, Bumblebee’s version of this alternate mode had a pair of machineguns that popped out, and sadly, they’re absent in this figure. That being said, his weapon does stash directly under his car’s hood, and I was able to crack his shell, and raise the hood, to create my own attack-mode, that at the same time, makes him look a bit like a giant mouth on wheels. Probably not intended, but definitely fun.

Overall

Let’s be honest. If you’re thinking about getting this guy already, you’re probably some kind of completist, like I am for this movie , so it almost doesn’t matter how good or bad he is. And if you can’t tell, I’m pretty lukewarm on him. He’s got a bad engineering problem in robot mode that spoils the whole vibe, and he’s tough to transform.

That being said, he’s not all bad. I like his alternate mode better than Offroad Bee, and aside from his one big robot mode flaw, he’s a movie-accurate, poseable, decent, if not spectacular robot. And really, that’s on-par for the kind of little cameo the character had. Another plus: He actually blends in pretty well with the Cybertronian characters from Siege, and can hide out in that toyline.

But, yeah, unless you’re trying to complete the Bumblebee cast, really like Cliffjumper, or badly want to increase your Cybertronian collection, this is one you can skip. Maybe they’ll fix his legs when they retool him back into Bumblebee. That alone would go a long way to making me more fond of him.