Toy Review - ACE Tumbler (3P Masterpiece Transformers Cliffjumper)
I have a mixed relationship with third party toys; my collecting is very much on a budget so I've largely cut my cloth to match with the (recent, decent) Masterpiece line as a collection hub, with the line's staggered release schedule and popularity with Chinese bootleggers keep a steady drip of affordable largely good (only serious miss to date is Tracks) figures coming my way that display well together and have the same ethos. I'd love a Masterpiece Skids and Hound and Trailbreaker and Jazz but I'm in no race, and beyond the 1984-1985 originals there are few who pique my interest that aren't Throttlebots. Don't get me wrong, most of the best Transformers fiction comes post-1985 but the majority of the non-Throttlebot designs are repulsive; Scorponok was a great character but he was a green and purple monstrosity with claws for hands who transformed by lying on his back and flailing his limbs around. No thanks. So I largely stick to the official releases (or versions thereof) and have no interest in either racing through to complete the set or in pushing on to many later characters; if/when Takara-Tomy complete the line-up of cars from the first two years, garnish with Throttlebots some of the less lurid Decepticons and hopefully a squad of Dinobots I'll probably have filled the space I have and it will naturally all tail off. However, there are - to date - four non-Throttlebot exceptions I've made to this policy and Cliffjumper is one of them.
There was some discussion among fans during the early stages of the post- MP-10 "Good Masterpiece" releases as to what T-T would do with the Minibots. These characters naturally formed a decent part of the cast of the show, with Bumblebee notably one of the series leads. They were portrayed as about 10-12 feet tall, partly to allow some simple interaction with the humans who formed a key part of the series and with Takara being obsessed with the cartoon this was carried on to Bumblebee when he got a release in Masterpiece, being just over waist-height to the regular cars like Prowl and Sideswipe - somewhere between the size of a regular line Scout and Deluxe figure. This is a bit small for me; I'd prefer the group to be closer in height to the regular ones if a bit shorter, say the difference between someone who's 5' 3" to someone who's 6' 4". This change exploded any illusion the alternate modes were in anything like scale (but then who displays these things in car mode anyway?) and also set a template for any 3P Minibots. Engineering-wise however Bumblebee was decent and as it's likely to stick for any future releases I went along. However, the Minibots have another problem - the original toys, and thus the animation models, were based on "superdeformed" cutesfied versions of vehicles, and the last time I bothered looking at the festering drabble of the fandom three of these hadn't even been identified. This jives a little with the realistic licenced ethos of Masterpiece; Bumblebee was an easy one to work around as even superdeformed the VW Beetle was highly recognisable and when they get to him Windcharger's Trans-Am muscle car alt mode can probably be utilised without drastically changing the look (as it as for the 2010 Classics-style toy).
Cliffjumper however poses a greater challenge. His original was based on a heavily squashed Porsche 924 sportscar; between the vehicle itself not being particularly iconic and the whole shape being changed for the toy and animation model this knowledge is basically the preserve of the fandom's lunatic element. The 924 sneaked into a couple of early comic frames but otherwise simply doesn't look much like Cliffjumper at all - so the question for the cartoon-obsessed Takara is whether to produce a figure with a licenced accurate 924 mode (with the resulting carry over to the robot mode) or something that actually looks like Cliffjumper's car mode in the cartoon. The former is probably more likely (though Takara seem to be answering it, and the question of what the Hell they're going to do with Gears, Huffer and Brawn, by ignoring it and just releasing everything else first. For their third party effort Tumbler, ACE have also gone for the former but availability at around £25 meant this was worth a go for me for hedging my bets - I'm not sure which approach I'll ultimately prefer but I figure if Takara go for the "squashed up" car mode Tumbler will be older and rarer, and if they go for the realistic mode I can just check them against each other and pick a favourite. Incidentally, ACE also retooled the design as Hiccups, based on Hubcap, despite the latter having an allegedly different vehicle mode. Of course, the big problem is Hubcap is a 1986 Minibot, which now means he's an irritating woobie thanks to the cancer the assortment has been infected with by IDW.
So, Tumbler (who I will be referring to as Tumbler and Cliffjumper as I rarely recheck anything I write) uses a realistic Porsche 924 as an alternate mode. Unlicensed of course, but then the 3P ethos revolves around outright theft - they aren't going to worry about stealing someone else's car design when they're stealing someone else's robot, are they? The only tell is the lack of a Porsche badge but I suspect there are special labels out there that can help with this. Aside from that the mode is excellent in bright red; the toy features diecast components but the colour matching is decent. There are painted headlights on the front, though as part of the design the rear ones are dark blue - perhaps some paint in a darker red could have been used. Join lines are respectable and while robot mode parts can be seen through the windscreen, doors etc. this again is par for the line. Structurally it's very sound and goes back together nicely, though you have to get a lot of the robot mode parts folded away just right to keep them above the line of the wheels (again, not like you'll be whizzing him along the floor). The only oddity is the large gap between the front wheels, which looks like it's going to be a bit of Binaltech-style weapon storage but doesn't actually seem to be for anything. The vehicle mode also features rubber tyres, which is nice - while it's not a killer issue with the Masterpiece releases it is one I'm not keen on, so it being rectified on this release does it no harm in my eyes.
The transformation pattern closely apes that of Bumblebee's, fittingly considering Cliffjumper's original toy was basically the same. It will likely to the same route Takara will take too as it gets everything in the right place. It's not quite as neat and flowing as the official version, however, with some of the clearances and tolerances slightly less forgiving than a Takara design but overall it works well for the most part - though the plastic section of the bonnet that folds away under the 'cab' of the car is a tight, fragile-feeling piece. One small but nice improvement is that there aren't the two little bits of bodywork left on the arms. The use of diecast around the legs isn't great, though - these parts are relatively floppy between modes and the paint is likely to chip and mark from the pegging in required. It's hard to see why the metal parts are even used, to be honest.
In robot form the figure us a decent facsimile of Cliffjumper through the Masterpiece lens, and he had many of the same strengths and weaknesses as Bumblebee. The most notably is that he looks best from the front; as with his team-mate the sides of the torso are made up of the inside of the car's rear wings, wheels and arches rather than truly solid, which is a shame considering some of the work done on larger figures to hide this sort of thing but generally the toy is three-dimensional, with a good compact torso - and I do like the way they managed to get the spoiler on the front of the chest there, hidden under the real car roof (like Bumblebee it features a 'dummy' rear window with the actual part ending up on the back). The decision to render the limbs in "animation model" grey as opposed to "toy" black is one I'm torn on; it's likely to again be replicated by Takara and it does add some visual variety compared to Bumblebee but I'd have preferred black.
The feet are the only real drawback; they just seem huge (they're basically the same length as the arms) and perhaps some way could have been found to compact them down without losing the solid look, though I can't work out a satisfactory solution myself so maybe I should shut the fuck up. They do help led the figure an excellent balance at least and the full range of joints are present and correct, with unhindered waist and neck joints meaning the character is capable of a decent range of poses, though most of them require either both feet to be flat on the ground or one to be "on point" - the downside to diecast feet of this size is Cliffjumper can't hold any poses requiring one leg to be off the ground without overbalancing.
Three different heads are provided; these need unscrewing to change in theory but in practice friction holds them in place just as well, which is great as the actual panel supporting them is thin and seems like it might stress or even crack if you were to turn a screw a turn or so too far. One of them is very squashed up with the red 'helmet' all but joining at the bottom, the other very fat, both of which I seem to recall was an occasional thing from the animation model, especially if the animation was done by a crap studio. So I've no real desire to switch these in but they do no harm and for all I know make some "City of Steel" fanboy's day.
Accessories-wise he inevitably includes the gigantic rifle seen when the character attempts to stop the whole war by assassinating Megatron in the first episode. This can actually take batteries and light up (though I've not bothered) and the figure actually has the flexibility to use it properly. It's a Hell of an emphasis thrown on one five-second shot in a single episode but then it is a famous moment for the character and is also exactly the thing Takara would - and will - do for an official figure. Thankfully he also includes a more practical blaster. Less essentially the package also contains a very well-made display case, while the box bears a slightly deranged bio for "Tumbler".
Overall the figure is a solid like; not entirely unqualified and there's little reason to think the eventual Takara release will be far off the quality of this offering, dependent on what route they take with the design quandary over whether to try and make a quasi-realistic figure or one that follows the cartoon series. It looks good in both modes overall, has a decent transformation and some interesting extras; if you can get it for the price I did (which seems about the baseline on eBay and AliExpress), which is about the same as a bog-standard ugly mainline Voyager would cost at UK retail, he's recommended, with the caveat that an official version is likely to eliminate at least the fragility and pointless metal parts.
There was some discussion among fans during the early stages of the post- MP-10 "Good Masterpiece" releases as to what T-T would do with the Minibots. These characters naturally formed a decent part of the cast of the show, with Bumblebee notably one of the series leads. They were portrayed as about 10-12 feet tall, partly to allow some simple interaction with the humans who formed a key part of the series and with Takara being obsessed with the cartoon this was carried on to Bumblebee when he got a release in Masterpiece, being just over waist-height to the regular cars like Prowl and Sideswipe - somewhere between the size of a regular line Scout and Deluxe figure. This is a bit small for me; I'd prefer the group to be closer in height to the regular ones if a bit shorter, say the difference between someone who's 5' 3" to someone who's 6' 4". This change exploded any illusion the alternate modes were in anything like scale (but then who displays these things in car mode anyway?) and also set a template for any 3P Minibots. Engineering-wise however Bumblebee was decent and as it's likely to stick for any future releases I went along. However, the Minibots have another problem - the original toys, and thus the animation models, were based on "superdeformed" cutesfied versions of vehicles, and the last time I bothered looking at the festering drabble of the fandom three of these hadn't even been identified. This jives a little with the realistic licenced ethos of Masterpiece; Bumblebee was an easy one to work around as even superdeformed the VW Beetle was highly recognisable and when they get to him Windcharger's Trans-Am muscle car alt mode can probably be utilised without drastically changing the look (as it as for the 2010 Classics-style toy). 
Cliffjumper however poses a greater challenge. His original was based on a heavily squashed Porsche 924 sportscar; between the vehicle itself not being particularly iconic and the whole shape being changed for the toy and animation model this knowledge is basically the preserve of the fandom's lunatic element. The 924 sneaked into a couple of early comic frames but otherwise simply doesn't look much like Cliffjumper at all - so the question for the cartoon-obsessed Takara is whether to produce a figure with a licenced accurate 924 mode (with the resulting carry over to the robot mode) or something that actually looks like Cliffjumper's car mode in the cartoon. The former is probably more likely (though Takara seem to be answering it, and the question of what the Hell they're going to do with Gears, Huffer and Brawn, by ignoring it and just releasing everything else first. For their third party effort Tumbler, ACE have also gone for the former but availability at around £25 meant this was worth a go for me for hedging my bets - I'm not sure which approach I'll ultimately prefer but I figure if Takara go for the "squashed up" car mode Tumbler will be older and rarer, and if they go for the realistic mode I can just check them against each other and pick a favourite. Incidentally, ACE also retooled the design as Hiccups, based on Hubcap, despite the latter having an allegedly different vehicle mode. Of course, the big problem is Hubcap is a 1986 Minibot, which now means he's an irritating woobie thanks to the cancer the assortment has been infected with by IDW.
So, Tumbler (who I will be referring to as Tumbler and Cliffjumper as I rarely recheck anything I write) uses a realistic Porsche 924 as an alternate mode. Unlicensed of course, but then the 3P ethos revolves around outright theft - they aren't going to worry about stealing someone else's car design when they're stealing someone else's robot, are they? The only tell is the lack of a Porsche badge but I suspect there are special labels out there that can help with this. Aside from that the mode is excellent in bright red; the toy features diecast components but the colour matching is decent. There are painted headlights on the front, though as part of the design the rear ones are dark blue - perhaps some paint in a darker red could have been used. Join lines are respectable and while robot mode parts can be seen through the windscreen, doors etc. this again is par for the line. Structurally it's very sound and goes back together nicely, though you have to get a lot of the robot mode parts folded away just right to keep them above the line of the wheels (again, not like you'll be whizzing him along the floor). The only oddity is the large gap between the front wheels, which looks like it's going to be a bit of Binaltech-style weapon storage but doesn't actually seem to be for anything. The vehicle mode also features rubber tyres, which is nice - while it's not a killer issue with the Masterpiece releases it is one I'm not keen on, so it being rectified on this release does it no harm in my eyes.
The transformation pattern closely apes that of Bumblebee's, fittingly considering Cliffjumper's original toy was basically the same. It will likely to the same route Takara will take too as it gets everything in the right place. It's not quite as neat and flowing as the official version, however, with some of the clearances and tolerances slightly less forgiving than a Takara design but overall it works well for the most part - though the plastic section of the bonnet that folds away under the 'cab' of the car is a tight, fragile-feeling piece. One small but nice improvement is that there aren't the two little bits of bodywork left on the arms. The use of diecast around the legs isn't great, though - these parts are relatively floppy between modes and the paint is likely to chip and mark from the pegging in required. It's hard to see why the metal parts are even used, to be honest.
Three different heads are provided; these need unscrewing to change in theory but in practice friction holds them in place just as well, which is great as the actual panel supporting them is thin and seems like it might stress or even crack if you were to turn a screw a turn or so too far. One of them is very squashed up with the red 'helmet' all but joining at the bottom, the other very fat, both of which I seem to recall was an occasional thing from the animation model, especially if the animation was done by a crap studio. So I've no real desire to switch these in but they do no harm and for all I know make some "City of Steel" fanboy's day. 
Accessories-wise he inevitably includes the gigantic rifle seen when the character attempts to stop the whole war by assassinating Megatron in the first episode. This can actually take batteries and light up (though I've not bothered) and the figure actually has the flexibility to use it properly. It's a Hell of an emphasis thrown on one five-second shot in a single episode but then it is a famous moment for the character and is also exactly the thing Takara would - and will - do for an official figure. Thankfully he also includes a more practical blaster. Less essentially the package also contains a very well-made display case, while the box bears a slightly deranged bio for "Tumbler".
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