Undoubtedly the biggest shock in Dark of the Moon was the non-appearance of Jolt the Volt after his integral role in Revenge of the Fallen. Sadly, at an early stage director Michael Bay realised that the film would lack suspense as there would be little stopping Jolt from taking down Sentinel Prime around the hour mark. Instead, Jolt was absent from the movie entirely, and - unlike Skids and Mudflap - never seems to have featured in the script (hence even a tin-pot company like IDW being allowed to kill him off in their dire prequel comics).

Despite being put on a bus, Jolt still got an all-new Deluxe figure for the range - possibly due to Hasbro making the best of still having the Chevrolet licence. Despite being fairly happy with the Revenge of the Fallen version, I thought I'd show my loyalty to the character by buying him.

Jolt's Dark of the Moon figure features an all-new colour scheme. Well, not exactly - it's new to Jolt, but it's pretty clearly lifted from Bluestreak's original animation model (and since reused on 2007 shelfwarmer Camshaft). It's been adorned by a few random lines in the aqua colour used for the Allspark Power figures from the first movie's toyline. It's not the most inspiring scheme to be honest - whereas the first Jolt Deluxe had clarity and realism, the remake is bland and unconvincing. Oh, and the frame around the rear window is painted silver, apart from the middle of the 'spoiler'. Good work, Hasbro.

The first version's biggest problem in car mode was the join line down the middle of the passenger section, and here it's even worse - not only are the same join lines present on the new version, but there are now even more. Basically, aside from the head window and the rear bumper, there's what amounts to a join line right down the middle of the vehicle. There are additional panels on the rear doors as well. One nice touch, however, is the carbon fibre-type pattern on the black sections. Even this is compromised, sadly, by the grey MechTech points on the roof - a sad contrast with the superb job done of hiding them on, say, Roadbuster. Needless to say, Jolt's MechTech weapon is hideous too.

The more radical physical changes really set in with the transformation and robot mode. The Dark of the Moon version is almost totally different to the Revenge of the Fallen figure in both of these respects. Jolt's simplicity, while not exactly unwelcome, was somewhat incongruous in the 2009 line. Here the trend is reversed - many of the Dark of the Moon figures are simpler, Jolt is the opposite. His transformation isn't quite on the level of Skids and Mudflap, it's one of the more complex Deluxes yet released - working out exactly the right stage to move the car roof pieces around can be quite tricky. However, it feels more like a fully-fledged live action figure as a result of this, and the design of the robot is fantastic to look at. Just about every part of Jolt's alternate mode moves or deforms in some way, really invoking the feel of the film's complex CGI transformations (not that Jolt ever transformed on screen, but still).

However, while the layout is superb, the robot mode is also victim of the dull colour scheme. Apart from the odd dash of black or aqua, Jolt is entirely grey, a real shame considering the hard work that's gone into making the figure look so much more accurate to its' film appearances. I can begrudgingly accept the decision to move away from the original's blue scheme to make him appeal more to kids, but was this really the best they could come up with? The head, arms, legs and parts of the chest are in a slightly less blue shade of grey, but that's actually more irritating - they had a choice of two different basic colours, and went with grey and a slightly different grey. With decent articulation and minimal kibble (the car side/roof parts projecting off his back are present on the CGI model) Jolt is a terrific mould, one of the best Deluxes of the whole live action series, but he's hamstrung by the mediocre colour scheme.

Jolt is a real blown opportunity. Despite the fractured car mode, the mould is a quantum improvement on the Revenge of the Fallen version, but the grey - especially contrasted to the original - almost completely undermines the good points, flattening the detail and just generally looking bland. As such, I'm not sure I'd heartily recommend him as an upgrade. If someone has the smarts to recolour it in blue and sling it out as filler in a later line, however, it would be an essential purchase.

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