The first movie's sacrificial lamb, Jazz was nominally Optimus Prime's second in command on the Autobots' expedition to Earth, but he didn't really get to do a lot of second-in-commanding, with Ironhide seemingly calling the shots in Mission City. I'm fairly sure that Jazz was demoted off-screen by Prime immediately after introducing him for using the line "What's cracking, little bitches?" - something that achieves the considerable feat of surpassing a mother quizzing her teenage son about masturbation, a robot urinating on a man and that fat hacker to become the most embarrassing moment in the film.

Considering he wasn't really in the film much, Jazz did well to get a couple of toys (by which I mean actual transforming toys). The Legends figure is notable for being awful even by Movie Legends standards, thanks to having a dummy grille on the roof when even Jazz' incredible simple transformation pattern was beyond the design team. The Deluxe mould had something like four different releases - a vanilla version, a G1 homage (which, as the figure was designed for a totally different ethos, looked dire), a Premium version and a battle damaged version. Initially, I got the latter, known as Final Battle Jazz (for which the original underwhelmed review can be found here), before upgrading to the Premium version. Like most good Transformers, Jazz hasn't let death stand in his way, either, reanimating to nab a Human Alliance figure in the 2010 line.

Unlike both the regular Deluxe and the Final Battle version, Jazz's vehicle mode is rendered in gorgeous silver rather than shiny grey. The Solstice is basically covered in silver paint, and Jazz has never looked sharper. It's a thorough job, too - every little part is covered. There are, however, two drawbacks to such a slick scheme, both caused by the paint. Firstly, Jazz is mainly black plastic painted silver; this creates a high contrast, and means the join-lines show hairline glimpses of the black interior, causing them to stand out that bit more.

The painted detail is good as well, with all the vehicle lights well-rendered, black grilles filled, a stab at the Pontiac badge and silver rims on the wheels. I actually picked up a set of Reprolabels, and only ended up adding the licence plate and the rear window. The latter was originally rendered as a barely-visible bit of pale blue metallic paint; an odd decision considering the dark tint of the other windows. The dark sticker works a lot better. The Premium Jazz comes with the extending rifle accessory packed with the original Deluxe, which can be attached to the car's rear spoiler if 1) you don't mind the thing looking terrible and 2) you're eager to accelerate damage to the paint job while making the thing look terrible.

Compared to most live-action Deluxes, Jazz has a fairly simple transformation, only the splitting bonnet of the car - complete with a slick Automorph mechanism in the chest. However, unlike fellow simple 2007 Deluxe Barricade, he at least looks like part of the film line. The robot is notably bulkier than the character's CGI models, notably the upper arms (which retain the rough layout but have much thicker parts on top of the wheels), and the back, where the roof and rear end are still present largely untouched, albeit folded up double. There's a cheat on the lower legs as well, with fake wheels folding down to mimic Jazz's on-screen appearance. Sadly, his real rear wheels are still present millimetres higher on the back of the figure's legs, and it might have been neater to just leave them as is. The hands (well, claws) are also very small and lost among the forearms, but generally Jazz looks pretty good from head-on, and somewhat clumsier in profile. Articulation is surprisingly good, however, with only the lack of a waist joint really spoiling things.

The detailing remains superb, with the black parts a lot more prominent, having a certain semblance to the mechanical wires and joints in the corresponding positions on the screen version. Some well-applied gold and bronze parts further add to an interesting robot mode. The head is well-cast, though the blue visor and black and gold facial details don't look right; he also doesn't seem to have a mouth, though it's difficult to tell as the CGI model's face is covered with raised lines (successfully rendered here) and I suppose he could just have the thing closed - which would make it practically invisible at this scale. Jazz also comes with accessories - the Premium, as mentioned, comes with an extendable rifle which wasn't used in the film, and requires one or the other of the forearms to be basically opened up. It's not so good, and I've personalised the crescent-shaped launcher included with the Final Battle version, sawing the extended secondary barrel off and painting the thing silver. The rear end of the car can also be detached from the back and affixed to either of the wheels on Jazz's shoulders, but it doesn't look very good and tends to swing around a lot anyway.

Jazz is simple compared to most of the Deluxe Autobots, but there's a certain clarity in the design which is refreshing, and he does look good lined up with the rest of them. The sculpting is good and largely captures the character's essence even if it isn't as streamlined as Sideswipe or Bumblebee. The Premium version, while expensive, really accentuates the positives of the mould and is worth the extra for scale fans. However, if you're just after a really good Movie Jazz, it's been superseded by the now-cheaper Human Alliance version.

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