Jazz (TFA)


 * Jazz is an Autobot from the Transformers Animated continuity family.



Though a member of the Cybertron Elite Guard, Jazz is a bit of an independent thinker. He's reluctant to disobey orders, but he has more of an appreciation for the finer things than his compatriots. This is evidenced in his better choice of vehicle mode disguise, a "sweet ride" drawn from Earth culture. He is also a Cyber-Ninja, like Prowl, although his training is more progressed. Instead of ninja stars, however, Jazz uses a pair of nunchaku. He seems to be the only one of the Elite Guard willing to learn, and fits in with the Earth team pretty well.

He is incredibly cool.

"Maaaan, that was some funky colored blinking lights show. What'd you call that again?"

"...Traffic lights?"

"Traffic lights. Solid."

- Jazz and Bulkhead discuss the finer points of Earth laws

Animated cartoon

 * Voice actor: Phil LaMarr (English), Jens-Uwe Bogadtke (German)



Jazz accompanied Supreme Commander Ultra Magnus and Sentinel Prime to Earth to retrieve Optimus Prime's crew and the AllSpark. When Magnus ordered Jazz to activate a force field around their ship to prevent organic contamination, Jazz expressed interest in getting a closer look at them. This caused Sentinel Prime to warn Jazz that the organics would eventually spit acidic goo that would melt through his body armor and destroy vital circuitry. Jazz was...less willing to meet the organics after that.



When Sari Sumdac managed to sneak aboard their ship, he tried to send her out without provoking her. When she realized that Jazz was afraid of her, she tried to scare him. After Bulkhead explained that Humans were harmless (and Bumblebee explained that Sentinel Prime was a jerk), Jazz accompanied the Autobots to a Sumdac manufacturing plant that was going haywire. Jazz and Prowl managed to keep the AllSpark-powered drones away from Sari and Optimus long enough for Sari to shut down the assembly line. He and Prowl traded several martial arts-centered quips throughout the battle, talking about Metallikato moves like the "Five Servos Of Doom" attack.

When Ultra Magnus started to receive reports of Decepticon uprisings at the rim of the galaxy, Jazz commented that it was probably because they'd "got wind" that Megatron was still online.



Later, Jazz noticed a spike in AllSpark energy, and Ultra Magnus took him to investigate, leaving Sentinel Prime to watch Optimus Prime. Their combined attempt to remove the "SmallSpark", which Starscream had booby-trapped, failed, and they were blown off the train in which it was embedded. Optimus and his crew, with the help of Sari and the Key, successfully and safely removed the AllSpark fragment, but Jazz could only watch as they received a dressing-down from Ultra Magnus for becoming involved. Then Starscream himself crashed to Earth, courtesy of Megatron's cannon, and knocked out Magnus. Jazz turned to Sentinel for orders, but the panicking Guardsbot was unable to think of anything. Optimus took over, directing his crew and Sari to various tasks; and himself, Jazz & Sentinel to take down Starscream—although Jazz needed to talk down the posturing pair of Primes before they could get to fighting the bad guy.

His nunchaku proved ineffective, however, and he was swiftly knocked out, leaving Optimus to save the day again. Jazz later escorted Optimus's crew in taking the stasis locked and gagged Starscream to be imprisoned in the Elite Guard's ship, before the three Guardsbots and their ship departed, leaving Optimus and his crew to deal with the remaining Decepticons on Earth.

Jazz was present as Starscream escaped the Elite Guard ship.

When Rodimus Prime requested back up, Jazz told him they were trying to hold off some other Decepticons. Later, Ultra Magnus told Jazz and Sentinel to put a team together to go after the escaped fugitive Wasp.

He tried to contact reinforcments, when he Sentinel Prime, Jetfire and Jetstorm pursued the "Decepticon spy" Wasp (who was really Bumblebee) on Earth.

He and the rest of the Autobots nearly caught Wasp but instead he, along with Prowl discovered that Sentinel Prime was trading Elite Guard weapons for Decepticon captures with a certain bounty hunter. Typical.

When Ratchet defied a direct order from Mr. Jerkface, he was ordered to track them down and bring them in. However, Jazz felt otherwise and helped them on their way. As Ratchet ran off with Ultra Magnus' hammer, Jazz volunteered to go after them. In truth however, Jazz had chosen to throw his lot in with Optimus rather than Sentinel.

Presumably, during his time on Earth, Jazz learned or perfected the art of Processor Over Matter with Prowl, in time to use it to help him gather the remaining pieces of the Allspark in an attempt to stop the booby-trapped Lugnut Supremes from destroying the city. When that amount proved to be insufficient, Prowl sacrificed his spark to make the difference, over Jazz's pleas.

With the Decepticons defeated, Jazz returned to Cybertron a hero, bearing the body of his fellow Cyber-ninja.

Animated

 * Autobot Jazz (Deluxe, 2008)
 * Accessories: 2 side-pipe "energy chucks"


 * Part of the third wave of Animated deluxes, Jazz transforms into a car that looks like a cross between his Generation 1 counterpart and a 1950s Corvette. The toy features translucent green light-piping for its visor, as well as translucent green headlights. Curiously, all the toy's vehicle mode windows are also cast from this plastic, but tinted black by paint applications. The toy's exhaust pipes can be removed from its forearms, and are connected by a short length of string to serve as nunchaku-style "energy chucks" weapons. The left "energy-chuck" has a shorter string than the right one. Hasbro claims this to be how the figure's "energy-chucks" were designed and not a design flaw.


 * Freeway Jazz (Deluxe, 2009)
 * A redeco of the figure shown above, having a silver paintjob, yellow headlights, and a normal autobot symbol instead of the Elite Guard symbol. Wierd, did he get fired?

Trivia

 * Jazz's model sheet identifies his weapons as "Laser Nunchako".


 * Jazz's "helmet" resembles a beret and wears what appears to be headphones, giving him a somewhat "hip-hop culture" style look, not to mention he's voiced by an Afro-American actor. These traits are similar to his movie counterpart. On his chin seems to be a goatee and sideburns on the sides of his face.


 * Seems Jazz finally has enough of Sentinel and leaves him to join Optimus's crew.