Between the writers' strike seriously messing up pre-production on Revenge of the Fallen and General Motors' belated diktat to include their new Chevrolet Volt in the film, Jolt ended up as basically an extra, only drawing any attention when he was called upon to help Ratchet by welding Jetfire's parts to Optimus Prime. Or at least that's what the snarktards and fanboys want you to think - I see him more as being like the notice board in The Usual Suspects, always there in the background and seemingly unimportant before the real purpose is revealed near the end. It doesn't stand up to any sort of analysis, so it's probably just best to say I tend to adopt the unloved members of any ensemble cast (like Bento from Space Runaway Ideon, or the way I don't really like any of the regulars from Challenge of the Gobots).

Jolt was released in Legends (which doesn't actually look too bad), Fast Action Battler (which doesn't look too good) and Deluxe forms, not bad for someone who had no lines in the film.

The Volt is something of a generic car mode, but is quite harmless as a result. The shape isn't displeasing, just a little vanilla. However, the lush blue colour scheme, with dark blue windows and a black roof, works rather nicely. It's swish without being spectacular. What really helps is that Hasbro have actually put a few bits of detailing on it, with the silver hubs and grille, plus the lights, badge and black sections on the back, really break up the blue.

Where Jolt suffers in this mode is join lines, especially right down the middle of the whole windscreen, roof and rear. They're only really noticeable on the clear plastic, but the front windscreen has a habit of folding in the middle under light pressure, meaning you have to transform him to robot mode just to sort it out. Pleasingly he has none of the underside kibble problems that have affected the other Revenge of the Fallen cars, and despite the windscreen is one of the more stable ones to boot.

The transformation is rather good, avoiding some of the fiddliness of others in the line. There are a few optional bits to the robot mode, due to the stock photos contradicting the instructions, and very few clear shots of Jolt in the film. I go for putting the feet sideways, which gives him a little more height. However, the hook for connecting the back end together makes one foot a few millimetres higher that the other, though the leg articulation compensates nicely enough. The other bit are the two long panels from the lower half of the car doors, which the instructions and stock pictures show hanging loose behind the arms. This can be made more film accurate (and a little less obvious) by being folded behind Jolt into an inverted 'V' on the figure's back.

Once you've fiddled him into a pleasing configuration, Jolt really does have an excellent robot mode. It's nice and uncluttered (the stock photos do him a great injustice by making the read windows on his legs look like an apron, but this really is just a bad angle). The deep blue primary colour again works well, and while paint applications are sparse, there's enough to break it up. The articulation is excellent - the (excellently sculpted) head might be more or less solid, but the arms and legs (thanks to the dynamic feet) have a good range, and - unusually for the line - he actually has a waist joint too. His weaponry consists of two electro-whips that fold out of his arms thanks to a pair or dials inside his wrists, and they look good, even if they perhaps could have been longer (retractable, even) and transparent plastic might have worked better. Overall, though, the mode is a success.

In short, Jolt is a highly recommended figure. He keeps things simple and conventional without being boring, and is a good one to try if you've previously been tentative about the live action lines. I bought the guy initially out of pity and completism, and was pleasantly surprised by how good a figure he actually was. It's a shame Hasbro's cutbacks robbed the robot mode of detail similar to the level on the car mode, but Jolt's so well done it seems like nitpicking to complain about this.

DESIGN
ENGINEERING
FEATURES
DURABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
OVERALL