General Information: Images:
Jetfire Images:
Jetstorm Images:
*Text and Images from Hasbrotoyshop.com: Convert these two AUTOBOT characters from robot mode to vehicle mode and back again. Then, combine them to form your own SAFEGUARD figure! Then, read all about the early life of the newest AUTOBOT heroes as it’s revealed in this exclusive comic. See all the incredible details of the creation and training of the most advanced warriors ever to fight alongside the AUTOBOT Elite Guard. Learn the secret origin of JETFIRE and JETSTORM, as they discover how to use their power to combine into the mighty SAFEGUARD for the eradication of the DECEPTICON threat! Figures come with comic book.
Jetstorm and Jetfire also play off another Transformers theme introduced in G1 - the concept of Autobot "brothers". To reflect this, the two use the same basic sculpt, with some minor changes. I will first review Jetfire, then focus on changes made to the figure to create Jetstorm. After that will follow their combined forms, both vehicle and robot. The two pack includes a comic book written by series writer Marty Isenberg. The comic shows the origins of Jetfire and Jetstorm, showing them rising up from two young Autobot "twins" who were the result of a "split protoform" to their membership as part of the Autobot Elite Guard. I'll do a full review of this comic book for the comic book section soon.
Robot Mode: The distinctive features on Jetfire are the smaller details. This is important since Jetstorm is essentially a retool/redeco of this sculpt. Having the two look exactly alike (and turning into the same vehicle modes) would not make for a very exciting pair of characters, but his details manage to distinguish the two very well. First, the head sculpt definitely takes the word "fire" in the character's name literally. The top of the head is sculpted as if it is flaming. Right under that are goggle details over his forehead. His actual face has large eyes and a snarky smirk angling to the left cheek. Appropriately, he has a chin strap, enhancing the appearance of him wearing a helmet like a pilot. His chest also has a nice five sided horizontal design with details etchedinto the center. His other very distinctive details are panels of flames on his arms and legs, each with several grooves and curves representing flames (again with the "fire" part of his name being brought to the forefront). These detail elements really enhance the look of the robot and keep it from looking ultra generic. Jetfire is cast in orange, grey, translucent yellow and translucent orange plastic. The grey and orange make up most of his parts including his arms, legs and head. The colors are spread out on the figure, alternating from part to part (for instance, his foot is orange, which leads to a grey lower leg which leads to an orange upper leg). The translucent yellow is used for the panel on his chest as well as the section at the center of his body. The translucent orange plastic is used for the flame details on his head, arms and legs which looks fantastic. Paint details are done in black, brown and grey. Grey is used for detailing or smaller parts such as his face and shoulders. The brown paint is used on details towards the edges of the figure. This includes his goggles and chin strap as well as the front of his feet. Brown was a good choice to set against the brighter colors of this figure, and it harkens to thoughts of a World War II brown bomber jacket. Black is used on the upper legs and the translucent yellow section that forms his mid-body area. It's really well done. Until I turned the figure a bit I thought this part was actually cast in black. I think it would have been really easy to take this figure and make it a G1 Jetfire homage by making him red, white, silver and black, bu tin a way I'm thankful. it's nice to see Animated can put characters into distinctive color schemes all their own even if their pedigree dates back to G1 in some vague way. There are a whopping twenty three points of articulation on this figure. Much of this can be attributed to the need for lots of joints to be able to transform into his jet form and half of the Autobot Safeguard. Still, it's quite impressive and I was surprised as I counted up the points since he doesnt look that articulated at first (I figured thirteen to fourteen points or so). The section that surprised me most was the head. Most of the time the robot heads of Transformers are placed on a ball joint, allowing for a fair bit of posability. In this case the head is on a swivel and hinge, allowing the head to turn from side to side and look up and down. But thanks to the transformation scheme, you can also tilt the neck back as if he were looking at something very high up. Add to this four points of articulation in each arm and six in each leg (I'm including his flames) and this is one posable figure! Usually when a figure has one or two gimmicks, something has to get sacrificed. The same goes for Jetfire. Basically, other than transforming into a jet and becoming half of Safeguard, he has no other features. No weaponry, no action gimmicks - nothing. In my realm of expectation, this is about right. The way i see it, between the flame details on his arms and the flames that can swing out on his legs, your imagination can fill in a lot of the details as to what "powers" this Autobot has (indeed, the animated program never shows them using anything but their bodies as weapons, no guns or melee weapons). Still, I can see this being a disappointment to some who expect a bit more bang for their buck. My take on this is that its ability to act as a combiner is perhaps the biggest selling point (aside from its good sculpt, articulation and colors). Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
Vehicle Mode: The rest of Jetfire's form is a bit more unique however. The idea seems to have been to make a very sleek and compact looking jet, giving it a sense of speed even when just sitting still. The section behind the cockpit has two small fins pointed straight back while there are vents on either side of the cockpit area. His hip armor splays out to the sides a bit, looking like some type of aerodynamic braking system. The translucent orange flames from his robot mode carry over as details that angle backward in this form. The smaller flames from the arms are at the front of the vehicle and the larger flames from the legs are now on the sides. Swing them out and the result are wings that look like they're made from fire - which is a dramatic effect I like a lot. In addition to the wings swinging out, you can also open the cockpit to see the robot head inside. There are no color surprises here. Most of the vheicle form is grey with orange plastic showing most prominantly on the vents and the mid-section of the vehicle. The cockpit is translucent yellow with brown outlines. Orange paint is found on the ends of the vehicle at the nosecone and tail. On the sides of the hip armor are tampographs of the Autobot Elite Guard symbol, indicating this young bot's special status among the Autobot forces.
Jetstorm is Jetfire's twin brother, but he's not exactly identical. There are some differences between the two. Drawing upon the analogy of hot and cold, Jetfire represents hot while Jetstorm represents the cold which informs his design. At the same time, he is a homage no to a G1 Autobot or a Beast Wars Maximal, but rather a Beast Machines Vehicon!
Robot Mode: The other parts which have been redone are the "flames" on the arms and legs. Instead of flames, Jetstorm's designs look like thin sheets of ice with sharp edges and crystalline lines. No worries parents, the edges are not sharp at all, but they certainly look like it. I really like the designs on these parts as they look similar to Jetfire's, but when you put the two figures side by side, you'll see they are very different. Jetstorm's colors are (for the most part) a one to one swap of Jetfire's colors with the exception of the head. He is primarily cast in dark blue, light blue and translucent blue plastic. The dark blue makes up his chest, parts of the shoulder hinges, forearms, fists, lower legs and feet. The light blue is used on his upper arms, hip armor and upper legs. His head, the center of the body and his "ice blades" are translucent blue. Paint details are done up in dark blue, metallic silver, light blue and metallic yellow. The dark blue paint matches the dark blue plastic and is used on the head and arms. The metallic silver is used on the face portion of the head. The light blue is used on the head, where it colors the "chinstrap" piece. Metallic yellow replaces the brown paint on Jetfire, coloring much of the same parts including the lower parts of his chest and the edges of his hip armor. Black is used as well, in the same place as Jetfire. These colors are all based on Beast Machines Jetstorm, and they look fantastic. He's instantly recognizable as a homage to the Vehicon, and I appreciate the use of metallic yellow instead of a flat yellow.
Vehicle Mode: The main design changes you'll find in this mode are the ice blades on the front and sides of the vehicle. Like the flames on Jetfire, they look rather dramatic and the translucent blue color works very well against the dark blue.
Two jets combining into one vehicle is not a new concept in the Transformers universe. In G1, the two Decepticon Powermasters Dreadwind and Darkwing combined in vehicle mode to form a super vehicle. Like those two, Jetstorm and Jetfire can combine into a single vehicle as well. Transformation to Combined Vehicle Mode:
Truth be told, I consider this form a bit of a "bonus" mode in addition to a "because we say so" mode. It really does just look like two jets lying on top of each other. No additional parts are deployed or revealed, which is a bit disappointing. What you can do however is turn his legs out at angles, making his wings splay out in an X pattern, making him look like "Animated"'s answer to Star Wars' X-Wing fighter. That's about the extent of this not-so-terribly-exciting mode.
The main feature of Jetfire and Jetstorm is their ability to combine into a single entity. In his introductory episode of "Animated", Safeguard appeared but really didn't do a whole lot or say anything that distinguished him much. Still, with a different name he is clearly a totally separate entity which is cool as it introduces the whole 'combiner' feature as it was intended in G1 into the "Animated" universe. Jetfire transformation into Safeguard:
Jetstorm transformation into Safeguard:
Use the tabs and holes on each of the figures and connect the two halves together. Safeguard is one of the most unique Transformers combiners to come out in some time. Individually the colors of Jetstorm and Jetfire make perfect sense, but combined together it looks rather odd. What keeps the robot looking like something other than a weird nightmare is the fact that both his halves are symmetrical. He has a good combination of bulk and sleekness. The bulk comes from the look of his rather powerful looking fists and wide chest. The sleekness comes from the smooth lines that make up most of his parts and the way his hip and shoulder armor angle downward and upward respectively. I think it's a neat detail having Jetstorm and Jetfire's arms splaying out at angles in the back. It gives him a more dynamic appearance and they look almost like stabilizers on a flight pack mounted on his back. The two main newly revealed details are the fist details on his arms and his robot head. The head is interesting, harking back to the DC Comics villain Two Face, whose face is half "normal" and half deformed. In this case both halves of the head design are sleek, with the helmet section angling upwards and sleek, triangular eyes set in a determined look. The fists are large and each finger is sculpted with deep lines individually, with a thumb set over his four other fingers. There are no color surprises here. The halves of Safeguard's head match the colors of the respective robots, with Jetfire's half being orange with a yellow eye and brown stripe. Jetstorm's half is blue with a blue eye and yellow stripe. Both sides have mouth areas painted silver, bringing the two halves together visually. Safeguard has sixteen points of articulation in this form, not including the Jetfire and Jetstorm arms in the back. This was more than I expected, but it makes sense since each individual figure has so many points of articulation by itself. The head and waist of course have no articulation, so it's all focused in the arms and legs (four points each). You can also swing out the flame/ice pieces on the arms and legs as weapons. Safeguard is a fascinating combiner. He is very different than many others created in the Transformers line and he is far more articulated than most combiners. He also has a unique look that definitely captures the eye, and while one half of him may be a homage to a past character, his combined form is unique and fun, something that "Animated" needs to keep itself from seeming like it relies too much on G1 for design cues.
Final Thoughts: Overall, I like this set a lot but I'm a big fan of "Animated" and I appreciate how this set manages to pay homage go G1 while doing its own thing at the same time. That said, I can see how spending this much money on two sculpts that are virtually identical with no accessories may be a stretch for some people. I think if the robots had weapons or accessories of some sort (even missiles) I would have given this a higher rating. Recommended with reservations.
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"Transformers Animated" not only pays homage to many of the characters from the Transformers universe, but also many of the concepts the original series introduced such as Headmasters and (in a way) Pretenders. However, one concept that was not explored in the show's initial season was the combiner. Fans thought the introduction of he Constructicons may have kicked off this homage, but instead fans had to wait for the introduction of two new Autobots: Jetfire and Jetstorm who could combine into the larger Transformer known as Safeguard.
