| AUTOBOT JAZZ
(UTAH JAZZ REDECO)
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!"
Preamble: My ex-wife was 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 in 2002.
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.
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