Jazz (Transformers)

Jazz (Meister in Japan) is a fictional character in the Transformers Universe. He is considered by some one of the "coolest" of the first season Autobots, as used hip language of the day and enjoyed loud music. He transformed into a Martini Porsche 935 Turbo racing car. Four of these were built between 1978 and 1981; Jazz is based on the 1981 car, number 4.

Related Topics:
Transformers Universe - Autobot - Martini - Porsche 935

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Jazz's official 'job' was Special Operations/Saboteur. He is described as an Autobot of exceptional skill and daring, and one who would always try and dazzle with style rather than do something the simple way. He also has a great love of Earth culture, which enabled him to integrate better with the human world than most Transformers; in particular, he is a big fan of rock music and, as his name suggests, jazz.

Related Topics:
Rock music - Jazz

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In the G1 cartoon, Jazz - voiced by Scatman Crothers - was second-in-command of the Autobots, at least jointly; Prowl (Transformers) was also part of the command structure, and there has been much dispute as to which was directly second to Optimus Prime. One one hand, Jazz was seen giving orders to Prowl in the very first episode, More Than Meets The Eye; however, the Transformers G1 comic - and subsequent Dreamwave continuity - it was explicitly stated that Jazz was subordinate to Prowl and only third-in-command. Some fans have theorised that there is a difference between being directly second-in-command (which is perhaps what Prowl was) and being Prime's right-hand robot (which is perhaps a more fitting description of Jazz). What is certainly true is that Prowl, being a staid, logical military tactician, was by far a duller character, and so he was used much less in the cartoon than Jazz anyway. The debate was eventually ended decisively when Prowl was killed, along with most of his G1 contemporaries, in .

Related Topics:
Scatman Crothers - Autobot - Prowl (Transformers) - Optimus Prime - More Than Meets The Eye - Dreamwave

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In contrast, Jazz was one of only three of the first G1 Autobots to survive the Movie; along with Bumblebee and Cliffjumper he could be seen escaping the exploding Unicron in the final scenes. He could also be seen in a race in the third season episode Five Faces of Darkness which directly followed the movie. However, in the time between the movie's release and the start of Series Three of the TV show, his voice artist Crothers died, and so his character was quietly dropped.

Related Topics:
Bumblebee - Cliffjumper - Unicron

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Jazz remained, however, one of the most consistently popular characters amongst fans, and in various ways his toy, or one based on it, was re-released. Two years after his time in the cartoon ended, he cropped up as a Classic Pretender, along with Grimlock, Bumblebee and Starscream. He then was re-issued as a Classic Transformer in 1990, and three years later was amongst the first releases in the G2 line. He was also the first release when Takara began reissuing the G1 line in 2002.

Related Topics:
Pretender - Grimlock - Bumblebee - Starscream - G2 - Takara

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Finally, in 2004, Jazz got a new body - a Mazda RX-8 - as part of the Binaltech/Alternators line. Nothing was really added to his backstory, however, as much of his story card was taken up explaining why he had been issued with an identical red clone named Zoom Zoom. What is clear, however, is that Jazz remains a brilliant Special Operations agent.

Related Topics:
Mazda RX-8 - Binaltech - Alternators - Zoom Zoom

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