Ju-Jiang Jet Commander JJ-02A: Jet Concorde

 Preface: I’m super excited to talk about these figures.

This is going to be the first entry on a real exciting batch of figures, the oversized Combiner Wars Aerialbot KOs from Ju-Jiang, a (sorta) Third Party company that makes upsized knock off versions of official Hasbro Transformers. My overall knowledge of the company is very limited, but up for review here is Jet Concorde, the upsized version of Combiner Wars Voyager Silverbolt, Aerialbot commander and eventual Superion torso. But to call these KOs and leave it at that would do a massive disservice to the figures themselves, as they are so, so much more than KOs and, as we’ll see as we progress through the set, are in many facets greatly improved versions of their original inspirations.

First, the general information. Each of the Ju-Jiang Aerialbots are big figures. Big. The limb figures are roughly the size of a Masterpiece figure, somewhere between the newer (at this point in time still) current size of MPs like Sideswipe and the larger MPs like the Seekers. Jet Concorde, hereafter to be known as simply “Concorde,” is larger still, much larger than the official Voyager version, and so, so much stockier. The plastic on these figures feels a lot better than the official Hasbro plastic, despite at times looking a little bit cheap. That’s going to be a constant issue, or “issue,” for this entire set. These are Third Party figures, but they sure don’t appear that way from time to time. Each figure in the set comes with a weapon of varying value, with Concorde having the best, probably because it’s the combined forms’ weapon as well. The figures all transform the same way that the Combiner Wars originals do, which is great, since nothing comes with instructions, which is mind boggling. Each figure also makes a handful of improvements to the original molds, and for the most part, they are things that, after experiencing on these toys, you simply can. not. understand. why Hasbro didn’t work into the initial designs, because they make total, total sense, and in almost every instance make the toys better. Overall, each figure is this occasionally maddening convergence of excellent and quality and knock off that stretches the definition and boundaries of classifying these as Third Party figures.

On to Concorde. The official size class may be closest to Leader, and if you think of this figure in terms of being a Leader class Hasbro toy, it is really outstanding. The original design is a good one already, and this version has all the fumbles of the original. Whatever issues you may have with the original are going to be present here as well, but there are some simple but awesome alterations. Ankle joints, for one, built right into the lower legs, made possible thanks to a real simple pin joint. The ankles don’t flex very far, but they move enough to allow for a wide leg stance and a much improved sense of balance for the figure. The Superion chest plate still clings to the outsides of the legs, and the combiner ports are still covered by the hands and knee pads. They aren’t the most well-hidden, but they never were to begin with. Concorde is also still oddly proportioned, thanks mostly to the design of things like the chest plate folding against the sides of the legs, and the legs themselves being a lot thicker and all around larger than the arms.

Besides the ankle joints, both hands now have wrists as well, which doesn’t do a whole lot on Concorde specifically, but will be a pretty big change on the limb figures. The figure seems to be almost exclusively assembled from strong, thick ratchet joints, and manipulating it makes a horrible racket, but Concorde is sturdy as hell. He will eventually need to be in order to support the four Voyager/Masterpiece scaled limbs. Also new are sliding shoulders which move inwards towards the center of the figure in jet mode, and outwards to form the shoulders in robot mode. The wings also split into two sections, a smaller pair and a larger, which now pivot on joints behind Concorde’s back, rather than just hang there in a solid piece the way they do on the original. This is good because it solves the condition that Silverbolt/Superion have of the wings literally sticking out behind the figure. Finally, the figure has what in this mode is an upper torso swivel joint, allowing Concorde to turn his upper body just beneath the chest. This will eventually be a waist joint for the combined mode, itself an amazing thing.

The jet mode is improved as well, although most of the improvements here really benefit the transformation more than the actual alt mode. The fuselage has had some seems added, allowing the piece to fold over gradually rather than the single solid flop that is present on the Hasbro version. Into this segmented fuselage is introduced a plate that has Concorde’s head on it, eliminating the rather dopey head-folds-down-into-chest-ness of Silverbolt. Gone is the moveable nosecap, a feature of the real plane this toy is based on, but it’s hard to feel that as a loss, honestly. Jet mode is a very different look compared to the Hasbro base, as the wings have been redesigned on Concorde here to more resemble the wings of the actual aircraft, stripping away the futuristic whimsy of the original, but more closely resembling both the G1 and Real World appearance. This wing redesign is also the reason for the segmented wings, and it is now an absolute positive that the wings separate and move independent or each other part. If they didn’t, Concorde would have that awful, awful wing configuration that a number of Hasbro Seekers are beginning to exhibit, dating back to the Generations Legends class Starscream, which has the wings mounted on a hinge as a single piece that then flips up behind the back, making the wings stick up much above the head and shoulders in robot mode, looking bad.

As for the rest of the alt mode, Concorde is still an airplane with a folded up robot stuck to the bottom, the Eternal Struggle.

Overall, Concorde is a really good figure, and a real surprise. This will be explored more as we work through the remainder of the set, but the Jet Commander bots confront you with a number of feelings and thoughts right away, but reveal themselves to be better and better each time you handle them.   This entire set has a lot of good working for it, but based on the looks and occasionally the feel, many collectors will certainly pass on them. Considering the 3P trend towards larger combiner figures such as these, and specifically Aerialbots of this size, the guys are an absolute bargain, something that will become all the more clear as we tackle the other four figures in the group.