A couple of months ago, bereft and emotional at the seeming cancellation of Action Toys' Machine Robo line (since announced to be resuming after an eight month hiatus, with two new figures and a series of retro-tinged recolours and retools - nice!) I gave in and bought this thing, which came out about two years ago as part of the Fewture Gokin line, covering licenced characters from a handful of semi-forgotten animes. And there is not a day since it arrived that I have looked at it and hated it. It's not a problem with the stylisation; it's Blue Jet from Revenge of Cronos, not Fitor from Gobots. 
Jet was even more stylised than the rest so the aesthetic is expected. Though the face has a rather out of character dumb gormless smile. Articulation is theoretically good, though in practice the arms pop out of the sockets and can't support many poses. And instead of accessories, you can just swap out the hands, one of which has a sword. It's worth noting that the figure is about twice the height of the more recent range, and about twice the price too. thus far it's doing less than your average posable PVC figure. But can they transform? No they can't!
Sadly neither does Blue Jet. He more disassembles; think somewhere between Kreo and G1 Starscream - apart from the fact most of the parts aren't used on both modes. For once that is not bombast - the head, arms, shoulders, crotch and wings all come off so a jet nose, fake folded shoulders and arms and a compacted rear end, not to mention two new sets of wings, can slot in.
On the left the parts unique to the robot mode, on the right the parts unique to the jet mode.
The small group in the middle are the only parts on both modes.
The small group in the middle are the only parts on both modes.
Even if you can take this rather than just thinking it would make as much sense to have a doll of the robot and a model it's done badly. The tolerances are all awful - when you try to pull off the shoulders off just the arms come away and you are forced to prise the remainder away; when you pop the head off it's 50/50 whether the ball joint connector comes along or is left in place. None of this process is fun; the only moving parts involved in the transformation are the swivelling feet and jet exhausts.
It's a shocking figure. Bad concept, badly done, badly designed. Knockoffs are better made. If you don't believe me check out eBay, there's one going spare....
Yup, can't wait for Action Toys to come out with their Blue Jet and outclass this thing in every way at half the price.
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