Transformers Prime: Cliffjumper

Presenting the ill-fated Cliffjumper from the new Transformers Prime animated series who's most famous quote is "Do I ever need back-up" and who can "layeth the smack-down" on any Decepticon dumb enough to cross his path. 


"Alas poor Yorick!  I knew him." SPOILER ALERT. If you haven't seen the series yet, you might want to stop here and just look at the pretty pictures. Well come to think of it, if you read the Transformers Prime Arcee review where I didn't put a spoiler alert, then I suppose you already know that Cliffjumper died. 


Unlike his Gen 1 "Whimpy little Autobot" character who is in there to teach people that little people can do great things, Transformers Prime Cliffjumper is a bad-ass! And best of all! Also unlike his Candy-ass G1 counterpart, Transformers Prime Cliffjumper is voiced by one of the ultimate bad-asses there is! The Great One! The People's Champion! The Brahma Bull! The Most E-lectrifying Man in Sports Entertainment! Dwayne "The Rock!" Johnson! Which is probably also why they had to kill him early on because the Rock is back and busy in the WWE having just Rock-bottomed the Miz, R-Truth and John Cena. 


As with  Transformers Prime Arcee, Cliffjumper's blister card doesn't say much about him, so you have to watch the cartoons or read his wiki. Transformers Prime Cliffjumper's wiki describes him as: "Cliffjumper (Cliff to his chums) isn't your run-of-the-mill Autobot freedom fighter. Armed with six-cylinder ion cannons, a quantum-sensitive multiphase targeting system that would make Megatron jealous, and of course, the old-school technique of pummeling Decepticons with his fists, Cliffjumper prefers to liven up the day with firefights while retrieving enemy intelligence. He more than lives up to his name: He'll fearlessly leap long before he bothers looking!"


What's to like about Transformers Prime CliffJumper?

It's a Jabroni-ass-kicking Autobot! You gotta love him! Ok fine he dies within the first five minutes of the cartoon which severely traumatizes Arcee - who, ironically, later recovers one of the Brahma Bull's horns - literally.


But if you're not into that and you just want to talk about something as boring as a toy that changes between a car and a robot, let's talk about how cool Transformers Prime Cliffjumper can be if he was not voiced by the Scorpion King (Sorry, can't help it. I'm a HUGE FAN!)



Let's start with what Transformers Prime CliffJumper transforms into. Just like Bumblebee who got upgraded from a Volkswagen Beetle to a Camaro in the movies, Cliffjumper got upgraded from a stunted dwarf Porsche 924 Turbo into a muscle car - a Plymouth Barracuda merged with the front body of a Dodge Challenger with the Rock's Brahma Bull horns mounted on the front of the hood. Cliffjumper has a rather complex method of transforming but despite that, all the parts actually lock well together and his car mode is solid and streamlined. 

There are probably some issues with detailing - which seems to be a plague amongst these new Transformers Prime characters, and I would so love a richer, more metallic red paint coat, but it's still not bad. The only Autobot symbol that appears on Cliffjumper is seen here next to the driver's door. 

Transformed, Cliffjumper is quite solid as a figure and the articulation is... average. He kinda reminds me - with that solid barrel chest -  of a more agile version of Wheeljack. He's also really low and prone to scraping like Wheeljack. 

But happily he's not "fat" like Wheeljack though I am slightly disappointed by how "short" he is. If you do have him, the barrel chest and the spiked shoulder pauldrons make Cliffjumper  top heavy so much so that from afar, or when posed in certain ways, Transformers Prime Cliffjumper appears stunted:

Next up is the surprise weapons system that Transformers Prime Cliffjumper has. He actually does have fold-out tri-barrel ion cannons in both arms and the instructions to bring these out are not in the instruction panel. In fact if I was not doing my regular "Transform him back into a car without reading the instuctions" I might not have found out about it. 

 

What's not to like about Transformers Prime Cliffjumper?

Well I think I actually already mentioned everything. The color is a bit drab, the articulation is average - in comparison with say the very lovely articulation of Transformers Prime Arcee (See the bent knees? That's how far they go.) - and Cliffjumper is a bit.... top heavy stocky, like some over emasculated body-builder. But I do believe that we can over-look all of that because he does get plus points for the hidden tri-cannons. Honestly I was going to strike him because he did not have any weapons. I thought that it was kinda lame that he really did fight with just his fists till I found the hidden tri-cannons. 

Still it's a great figure - and, as I understand it, reasonably rare or fast moving because... well I do suppose dead characters are far more valuable, and it is the Tooth Fairy after all. Transformers Prime Cliffjumper was purchased from Toys R'Us Philippines at the retail price of P699.75 (Roughly US$ 16). It is unfortunately not available on Amazon as of this writing. So I guess it's really rare. Grab him while you can.