CLASSIFICATION: CUSTOM REDECO
BASE FIGURE: AUTOBOT JAZZ (TRANSFORMERS: GENERATION ONE COMMEMORATIVE SERIES)
MATERIALS USED: REPRODUCTION LABELS
MEDIA APPEARANCE: N/A

"He shoots, he scores!  What a star!"--Optimus Prime, "The Master Builders" (G1)

Preamble: My wife is something of an NBA fan, and a big fan of the Utah Jazz in particular, so when I started thinking about making her an anniversary gift for 2003, I made the logical connection and set about designing a set of custom stickers to give the Autobot Jazz toy a basketball-themed vehicle mode.  With Delta Star's gracious permission, I borrowed the original file for his reproduction labels and modified it to create Jazz's new look.

Construction:  In designing Jazz's new stickers, I was very clear about three things.  First, I wanted to use the official logo somewhere on the toy (I ended up using it on the doors, and again on the sides of the spoiler).  Second, I wanted to use the official color scheme for the team (I ended up changing Jazz's blue-and-red stripes to purple, sky blue, and copper, the three dominant colors that appear in the team logo).  Finally, I wanted to change Jazz's racing number to #12, which is the jersey number for John Stockton, former star player for the team who retired last year.

For the stickers above the rear wheel wells, I grabbed an online photo of Stockton's jersey, distorting the text to conform to the curve of the stickers and then grafting it in place.  I replaced the Porsche logo on the hood with Stockton's signature.  I'd thought about doing some things with the stickers for his robot mode (replacing the Autobot symbols with basketball icons, perhaps), but most of the graphics I designed for the car mode aren't visible when he's transformed, so I didn't see the point.

Comments: This is probably the most esoteric project I've ever undertaken, given that it could only possibly appeal to one person in the known universe (unless there really are other people out there who are both Utah Jazz fans and Transformers fans, but the odds of that are too astronomical to calculate).  Which is fine by me, since it was intended from the start to be a unique gift.  My wife loved it, by the way.