Cliffjumper may as well be the badass wildcard of the Autobots! Brash, hotheaded and brawlingly ambitious, there isn’t anyone or any thing Cliff won’t take on and I’m sure he’d take on Scorpinok barehandedly if he could! Cliffjumper really has had an amazing career of bustin’ Deceptichops starting from the first time he brought a bazooka on a surveillance mission and had Megatron in his viewfinder to blast him! I mean…come on!! Who brings a bazooka to a spy mission? Cliffjumper does and when Cliffjumper punches in, he is on clock to take down as many Decepticons as he can, and he’s ready to work double overtime! … Mostly unsuccessfully… but I love this dude’s plucky attitude!
For realz! I seriously want to know why??
With that being said, I think Cliffjumper, with the most to heart to fight the good fight and the sheer belief that he has the benevolent Autobot cause to fight for being on the side of right should have its advantages, but poor Cliff has been in the crosshairs of more writers and more writers lately ready to march our Crimson Commando to his untimely demise! I mean… c’mon guys; JUST because Cliffuumper’s red doesn’t mean he’s wearing the “red shirt”. Pleeeease stop killing the dude!
Cliffjumper then
Back in the good olden days, Cliff was sort of a Pennyracer version of the Porsche 924! This was as one of my dream cars when I was younger, and even now I really would love all of this 80’s goodness!
(Image from Spencer1984.com)
This car, as well as the Lamborghini Countach and the Datsun Fairlady Z were some of my favorites growing up but Porsche always set the standards for sexy auto, and it was always fun to have this smaller version. If I couldn’t own that car as a kid in real life, at least I had a Porsche that I could take out of my pockets till I had one!
(Cliffjumper Generation-1 Anime – Marvel and Sunbow Productions)
Cliffjumper Then
(Toy Photos from Transformers Wiki)
Cliffs aesthetic design was always perfectly cool! Since this was a rebranding of the old Takara Microchange figures, it set the stage for for such a badass of a character to be developed and with the color changes I really think they hit the mark! Red and revving to go, even though he had that portly visage with the car’s windscreen and all the windows making his chest and stomach area, to me, he still looked like he was as fast a bot as Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, always willing to bring himself past redline to vanquish all villains!
Cliffjumper now
(PrimeVsPrime-YouTube)
What an amazing looking little dude!! I’ll be totally lying if I didn’t think this guy made a remarkable robot!  Hasbro and Takara took what was amazing about Cliffjumper and updated things while having Cliff look as though he stepped out of the anime! He brings all that goodness to us with multifaceted articulation as well as weaponry that, in this writer’s opinion, brings most Cliffjumpers and Cliffjumper alikes to shame! That Bazooka that turns into two pistols is just amazing! The thought that you can use all of this and turn them into hydrofoil equipment… just outSTANDING!
The auto mode reminds me of a Chevy Camaro, so I’m sure we’re going to get the Bay inspired eventual Bumblebee from this mould, but I’m really not disappointed by his decision! This is all just very cool!
Oh No! Parts Forming??
I think we can say that with the way things work on Cliffjumper, the worst thing we can say for sure is that his trunk comes off so you can convert him from car to bot mode and then reattach the part to his back.
I know. I know. Boooo… hisss, right? I wouldn’t call this doom and gloom and this really isn’t the worst thing about this figure by a long shot. I too was almost thinking Cliff was a hinge or an arm away from creating a “perfect” transformation, but in a way, I can see why they did it. I’m feeling that this may become a shield or form some other purpose we haven’t thought of yet, but I also think that if another hinge or arm were introduced to this particular figure, the trunk just may not have been able to align as well as it does now. I get that other companies were able to do it in Masterpiece scaled figures and I wonder if it were a parts count thing or a “method to madness” kinda thing or if I’m right thinking from an engineering stance.
(PrimeVsPrime YouTube)
Conclusion
So, I’m really excited about Earthrise Cliffjumper, and I mean stupidly excited! He totally replaces my older classics figure and I’ll tell you, when I finally see him, he will he bought on sight! He’s a small deluxe and I dig him! My only issue about this little guy, if anything is that I feel that his chest looks a little bare without a tempographed Autobot sigil on him, and wonder if a secondary emblem couldn’t have been printed on his hood/chest or if it would have been too many emblems? I don’t know but this guy looks like he’s so much fun! I know I’m going to have a blast with him, and I’m sure you will too!
Good Hunting everyone! 🙂
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