Cliffjumper

When the Transformers Prime cartoon premiered, I was instantly struck by how much I liked the design of Cliffjumper. Of course, he died right away, to be resurrected as a zombie, and killed again.

He was the coolest looking character of the bunch in my opinion, and he got killed right away.

Despite his short amount of screen time, he has had a few toys made of him already. The First Edition version of Cliffjumper was only available in other markets, so I had no hope of finding him at retail in the US.

That leaves the regular release Transformers Prime Cliffjumper, which is what I am reviewing here today.
Cliffjumper’s vehicle mode is that of an American muscle car – a mix of a Dodge Challenger and a modern Camaro – with Bull horns on the front. I have to admit, the horns sold this toy to me.

The car mode is pretty clean, with little detail and minor paint applications. Everything lines up well and it hides the fact that it’s a robot reasonably well. The windows are clear and you can see a mess of whatever inside it. The only time you should have transparent windows in vehicle mode is if you have some kind of interior to look at. If you are just going to show a mishmash of parts inside, then make the windows solid, or at least dark.

The horns on the front are rubber (thank you nanny state!) and there are connection points on the roof and on the passenger rear quarter panel. You can mount Cliffjumper’s weapons there, or weapons from other toys from recent series as they use a common size peg.

I’m continually impressed as to how the designers come up with unique ways to transform from vehicle to robot. This character is no exception. Watch the video for details, but suffice to say that it is very cool, and even features a geared gimmick in the chest..

Robot mode looks really sharp, and I actually like it better than the First Edition one. This has less crap hanging off of it, and at this scale, less is more.

Cliffjumper’s head is on a ball joint, and there is light-piping in the eyes but you have to get the light “just so” for it to have any effect. The horns here are rubber as well.

Each shoulder is on a ball joint with a swivel bicep, hinged elbow, and ball jointed wrist. The lower arms are made out of the door panels on the car, and the two halves are supposed to grip together via a tab, but they just don’t stay connected that well. Also, the hands have a tendency to pop off during transformation.
There is a waist joint (Yes!), ball jointed hips, hinged knees, and the ankles have both a hinge and a ball joint on each.

Overall the legs look good, but the wheel sections on the side lack a definite place to be. A tab to lock in place would have been helpful.

The included weapon is a Battle Hammer used to club the crap out of Decepticons. It can also be held as a gun if you like.

It’s a decent figure with minor transformation issues and a great look. I told myself that I would stop buying Transformers, but somehow they have pulled me back in for the time being.