 Cliffjumper
He does the countdown because Casey Kasem, you see
Transformers Studio Series Deluxe Class Toy
Item No.: Asst. G0477 No. G2197
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Includes: Blaster
Action Feature: Converts from robot to car
Retail: $27.99
Availability: August 2026
Other: First Transforming Movie-Specific Cliffjumper
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To quote myself in a review of Buzzworthy Bumblebee Studio Series 86 Deluxe Cliffjumper [FOTD #2,411]: "Because this one is $23, and I have it now, and I'm feeling pretty good about the Buzzworthy Cliffjumper as the last one I'll ever need to buy." That was February 2022, and here we are with Studio Series 86 Cliffjumper, a redeco of Studio Series 86 Bumblebee from 2024 [FOTD #2,741]. Obviously, it is hard to look at three similarly sized red super-deformed cars that turn into robots with horned helmets and say "I need all of these." Each version is a little better and offers something a little more, but if you look at the list of reviews linked below? There are a lot of Cliffjumper toys and this new one isn't even the most accurate in color... but it is probably the best car mode to date.
Deluxe toys are budgeted for pieces and complexity, but not necessarily size. This guy is on the smaller side and obviously the days of $27.99 deluxes are in the rear view mirror. On its own merits, this is the toy you probably wish you had a few years ago... but you might have preferred the opaque blue Buzzworthy windows.
In some ways it's better, and in other ways you might be waiting to see if Takara-Tomy releases a Dramatic Capture Series version down the road. I think Hasbro did a very nice job with the figure but each new iteration over the past few years has generally taken a previous design and improved it. This one did, but not to the extent where you will say "this is it, we're done now.
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He might be better known for his role in the original The Transformers cartoon, but Casey Kasem showed up to do the countdown in the movie. I assume that one was for the parents in the audience, and now those kids are adults who just want the red robot with the bazooka. (This one does not have a bazooka.) Hasbro brought back that Bumblebee robot mode with a new head and car chassis, keeping the same abundance of articulation on a small robot. There are a ton of moving parts here, with swivel wrists and biceps and rocker ankles and the whole bit. The car can be contorted to fill or cover most gaps on the robot, giving you a fairly robust figure for the asking price. The only downside is that you used to be able to get a significantly simpler, similarly sized toy for $10 and some fans are having to ask "Well, should I be happy with what I have, or should I upgrade?" As you can see in the above picture, I'm having a hard time deciding. Each new version has something of value to offer, but at increased cost. This one adds a few more joints - that's good! The figure does a pretty great job translating the blocky animation design to plastic, while getting rid of the 3mm pegs on the previous mold. On the other hand, that Buzzworthy one looked great with cartoon-accurate gray legs. Does that matter to you? How about the blue windows on the chest? I think the coloration of the 2022 Buzzworthy version was better, but the car mode and robot head of this 2026 version looks nicer.
I think this is the best-looking Cliffjumper so far and I need to think about selling my two old ones. I can see how there may be a better one down the road, but I know my robots mostly stay in robot mode and I probably need to be more worried about preserving shelf space than having an entire army of Casey Kasem robots. I would recommend this to anyone that feels they could use a replacement for the Cliffjumper they currently have, or if they missed the previous versions. Buzzworthy got expensive fast, so this is a pretty good upgrade even though it loses the "car with skis" accessories and bazooka. You get a smaller blaster that looks similar to one that Mirage used, and it can store in his hand or in a nicely integrated socket in his back. The engineering is great. The robot feels good, and it's probably the best overall version you can get right now.
Conversion to car is pretty easy, but you really have to explode the robot with lots of planks and beams to get back to car mode. That's where the money went - there are a lot of rivets, and joints to get the figure just-so.
The car might be good enough - that's up to your desire for features and accuracy. The form is very good, with two Autobot symbols that look great, black windows, and silver wheel covers. The red car is mostly molded in color, with some rather obvious quibbles like the choice to make the grey bits on the car. Sometimes Takara-Tomy molds an extra sprue of parts - which fans speculate were disposed of - just to get the colors totally right, but you pay for that. Granted at $28, you're paying for it here too and it doesn't feel like you're getting more due to the small 3-inch car being similar in size to $10 toys from 2013-2018. This one is far more complex, the materials feel superior, and the deco is improved - but the grille is unpainted. The lights are left red. You can see great sculpted detail but not a lot of paint, so the sticker aftermarket crowd will probably be dressing this one up a bit.
A new version is likely to show up in the world somewhere, someday, but for now I'd say there's no clear and obvious winner. That is one of the challenges of modern collecting, as we long-haul fans are chasing some form of perfection and we're always getting tantalizingly close. But it's not perfect. If you need gray legs, this is not the robot for you. If you need a good robot that matches the current line and has a far superior car mode, though? This is the one you need to get. And if you're in the far future? I would look around to see what else got made, only because I don't think any of us believes that this character's toy evolution will end here. Of my entire "Classics" era collection, I'd say this Cliffjumper has the best car mode and probably the second-best robot mode. And a new recolor could change those rankings in a heartbeat.
--Adam Pawlus
Additional Images
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