Back in the mid 2000s, the Unicron Trilogy had just finished and Hasbro was gearing up to release what would become a fairly successful line of figures eventually known as C.H.U.G. - Classics, Henkei, United, Generations - which basically started the current trend of taking older classic characters and reinventing them for modern collectors. Designs were definitely not as ambitious back in the day, but neither was the price point, and I think overall the series sold pretty well.
Now, in a weird twist, because usually Takara Tomy did their thing first, the Classics line up came out for Hasbro years before the Henkei line was launched. This was also during a time when eCommerce via the Internet wasn't really a thing, so I never actually got any of those releases, though to be fair the Hasbro versions weren't horrible, not like their earlier stuff with Armada, Energon, and Cybertron. Actually, if I'm being completely honest, some of the changes that Takara Tomy made to the colours were just.. gaudy, as they also introduced chrome to the designs as a tribute to the original G1 toys,
One of the most exciting releases of the Classics/Henkei line was Jetfire/Skyfire, who hadn't really seen a mainline release since the 80s, The return wasn't that giant Leader sized figure back in the day, but it was nice to have a figure that resembled the animation model. I remember driving out to Ajax, ON and buying mine from a Zellers store there back in '06, and because distribution was even worse back in the day, I don't think I ever saw another one again.
So a mere 17 years later, I happened to notice someone was selling their Henkei version for cheap, which is great as I sold my Classics version. I figured this would also go great with my Legends Jetfire.
I don't remember exact numbers, but if the Hasbro version was like $30 CAD back at the time, the Takara Tomy version would have been like $40 - $50 CAD. The aesthetic changes basically brought the figure more in line with the animation model, which mainly involved repainting the front end of the jet mode/robot chest, while the rest of the figure was recoloured to more resemble the G1 toy, including giving the Battle Helmet a red visor. Additional changes were chrome thrusters on the back pack and for whatever reason, transparent plastic missiles rather than blue, though I suspect that has to do the use of the painted red visor because canopy is still a subtle blue colour.
Takara Tomy or more accurately, Japanese figures, generally have nicer packaging than their American counterparts. It's actually quite funny how bad some of the Hasbro stuff is, most likely due to budget cutting wherever possible.
The shape of the box was completely different, with the Hasbro box being this weird inverted trapezoidal shape.
The contents of the set were unchanged from the Hasbro set, which honestly wasn't really a thing until the Legends version of the Titans Return line up.
- 1 x Main Figure
- 1 x Battle Helmet/Mask
- 1 x Rifle
- 2 x Forearm Launchers w/Missiles
- 1 x Booster Pack
The rifle splits into two halves that allow for Jetfire to dual wield.
So first thing first - it's nice to see that unlike so many other figures, the white plastic hasn't gone yellow on this piece. Otherwise, you'll probably notice that aesthetically the figure would probably fit right in modern day line ups, though not so much the engineering.
Decent head sculpt though the big news is more that even Takara Tomy can release a figure with questionable paint application quality.
So in case it wasn't obvious, Jetfire has some pretty limited articulation options, though I think it was pretty much standard back then for figures not to have bicep swivels. There's also no waist joint, or ankles. On the plus side, a simpler design did make for a better assembled figured, and while there are usually differences between the the Hasbro and Takara Tomy versions in terms of Build Quality, I didn't notice anything when handling the figure, though mind you this could be because Hasbro had first kick at the can. All the clips were well designed and not fragile.
There were only two bits of play wear/QC I could find was that on the tail fins it seemed that the fit was a bit loose, which allows the fin to pop out relatively easily. The other thing I noticed was that the ears on the Battle Helmet didn't seem like they were mounted on quite perfectly, resulting in some misaignment that is more noticable in jet mode. This I remember being an issue even on the Hasbro one.
Applying the various pieces of battle gear and you end up with a much different looking bot, definitely not one you'd associate with "Autobot Scientist". This figure doesn't have the leg armour of the original toy, but does feature the entire booster/armour part as a complete removable piece. The boosters also have built in guns that can be folded and deployed in both modes.
Vehicle mode is one of their.. less stellar efforts when it comes to hiding robot kibble., though fortunately applying the various weapon pieces helps with that immensely.
So there you have it. It's an older figure, but when you're me it's a nice old, not antique old, and bridged the gap between the true 80s releases and lines like Legacy. At this point, you're getting this because you've got an interest in that era, not so much to get what is new and great. As far as being a good toy, it's a bit dated, and yellowing aside the other big concern would be how well the ratcheting joints have held up over the years. This era of figures will forever be fondly remembered by many collectors, like myself. With offerings like Jetfire, it not hard to see why.
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