General Information:
Release Date: Spring 2011
Price Point: $58 (with Transformers Collector's Club membership)
Retailer: Transformers Collector's Club Exclusive
Accessories: Missiles x 2, Missile launchers x 2
Back in the early 90's, Hasbro made a heroic attempt to revive the Transformers brand. While it had been wildly successful for part of the 80's, by the end of the decade the luster on the line had faded. This attempt was called "Generation 2" and featured redecos/retools of previously released figures along with new sculpts. One of the figures that had been retooled and given a new deco was Ramjet. G2 Ramjet included some new parts including different missile launchers and missiles than his G1 release as well as a sound box that attached to the back of the vehicle mode.
"Timelines" G2 Ramjet is a redeco and retool of the sculpt that was originally released as Classics Ramjet. Variations of this sculpt have appeared a lot in the Transformers toy line over the years. Not counting the Japanese versions, these releases include:
- Starscream (Classics)
- Skywarp (Target Classics exclusive)
- Dirge (Timelines)
- Thrust (Timelines)
- Thundercracker (Timelines)
- Acid Storm
- Starscream (Universe 2.0)
- Dirge (Generations)
- Thrust (Generations)
- Thundercracker (Shattered Glass)
- Bitstream (Timelines)
- Hotlink (Timelines)
- Sunstorm (Timelines)
- Nacelle (Timelines)
- G2 Starscream (Timelines)
Check out some of those reviews to get an idea of how this figure has been used over the years. You don't have to read every single one, but I'd at least start with "Classics" Starscream (the first use) and Ramjet. This review will focus on the changes made to the figure for this release.
Vehicle Mode:
There was no retooling done for this release of Ramjet, but his colors are completely different and based on the the G2 Ramjet figure. His main plastic colors are purple, teal and black. Purple and black are the most heavily used colors, with teal filling in parts like the rear thrusters and some of the robot mode parts on the underside of the jet. Great pains were taken to recreate sticker and paint details from G2 Ramjet on this new incarnation. These include:
- The air intakes that flank the nosecone have silver on top with black line details. Yellow and orange are used to fill in rectangular sections towards the front. These tampographs are based on stickers in the same area on G2 Ramjet.
- The sides of the nosecone have the word "Ramjet" printed on them. The air intakes on the sides slightly obscure the tampograph details on the nosecone, which is a deliberate callback to the G2 figure which did the same.
- In front of the rear turbines are triangular tampographs that say "Jet Intake". While these tampographs are lavender in color, they are meant to call back to red stickers in the same place on G2 Ramjet.
- The rear turbines and vertical stabilizers are painted teal, matching the teal plastic very nicely. They also have the letters "DC" on the sides with the number "002" above them. Presumably the "DC" refers to "Decepticon" and the "002" may refer to the fact that he was the second jet released after Starscream during the early days of G2.
- Each wing has a gigantic "Generation 2" style Decepticon symbol printed in lavender with a silver background. While G2 Ramjet did have large Decepticon stickers on his wings, they were in fact G1 stickers, not G2, so this was a design choice intended to emphasize the G2 homage of the overall color scheme.
Overall the deco in this mode looks fantastic. It's a solid homage to G2 Ramjet and the attention to detail is really impressive.
Ramjet includes the same weapons as the original release of the figure. The launchers are teal plastic and the missiles are black plastic. These colors match up with those of the G2 Ramjet weapons.
Transformation to Robot Mode:
- Detach Ramjet's weapons from the underside of the wings.
- Pull the rear section of the vehicle back.
- Swing the robot feet down.
- Swing the back of the robot torso back.
- Swing out the robot arms, and swing out the robot fists.
- Swing the nosecone forward a bit, then rotate it around.
- Swing the nosecone section down into the main body.
- Turn the top of the nosecone around to reveal the robot head.
- Swing the back section forward against the chest plate.
- Rotate each of the small wing sections on his back up.
- Attach the missile launchers to his arms or place them in the fists.
Robot Mode:
The vehicle mode isn't the only form with tons of awesome detailing. Ramjet's robot mode also offers a ton of homages to his G2 predecessor. Here's a rundown:
- Ramjet's eyes are painted gold, the color of the stickers that were made for the eyes on the G2 version of the figure.
- There are several silver accents painted onto the torso section which pay homage to the G2 version of the figure which had large silver stickers on the torso.
- The air intakes that flank the head have stickers inside of them featuring circles with crossed lines over them and a pattern of red and blue sticker underneath. These are inspired by similar stickers on G2 Ramjet. Presumably this area was too difficult to tampograph and thus stickers were used instead.
- The knees have an orange section painted on with a triangle and yellow rectangle on top. Underneath that are silver vents. This color and pattern combination is a homage to G2 Ramjet's knee stickers.
- The thrusters on the front of each lower leg are painted teal, matching up with the equivalent pieces on G2 Ramjet.
- Each foot has a silver sticker on it with an arrow pattern pointing forward. This is directly inspired by a similar sticker on G2 Ramjet. Presumably this section was too difficult to tampograph hence the use of stickers.
This release of the figure was made years before reuse of this sculpt kicked into high gear by both Hasbro and Fun Publications, so the joints are all still relatively tight. The missile launchers also function without a problem and they attach to his arms and fists nice and snug.
Final Thoughts:
G2 Ramjet is a textbook example of how to create a homage. This is the type of homage I love seeing in the "Transformers" toy line. He was not cheap when he was first released, and nowadays he seems to average for around the $60-75 mark so I can't say rush out and get him on impulse. However if you really like G2 homages and if you want to build up your "Generations" style Seeker army, this is a really nice piece to add to your collection.
