Brazil. What is it famous for? Brazilian football, Brazil nuts ("In Brazil, we just call them 'nuts'", and dodgily-coloured Transformers minibots of course. In Brazil, they never really got "The Transformers", but a company called Estrela received rights from Hasbro/Takara to produce a toyline resembling Transformers very closely and using some of the associated moulds. They ended up using only the minibot molds and Jumpstarters for whatever reason. Much like the recoloured minicars released in Argentina by Antex, Brazil's first bunch of minis were of similar design and packaging, the 'Robocar' series. Cliffjumper was known as "Carrera". It is from this first series that the gold Cliffjumper hails from. Later in Brazil, another series of repaints were done and the line developed two factions. Optimus vs Malignus. They even had faction symbols, and the TF similarities start to appear.

Anyway, back to the gold Cliffjumper. As with all the Brazilain minicars released by Estrela, this one has the copyright markings to match. Instead of being stamped Hasbro/Takara, it has Estrela/Brazil-specific markings.

Cliffjumper is a lovely mold, originally from Takara's Microman/Microchange line. So the chance to get him in a nifty gold colour scheme should not be passed up, and this toy actually worked out free for me, no chance of a complaint then.

Apart from obviously not being red or yellow and not having Autobot markings, this toy differs from the Transformers Cliffjumper in a few other ways too. The plastic quality is slightly lower and these South American minicars are extremely hard to find in undamaged, tight condition. This particular Cliffjumper was pretty loose.

Another difference is evident from the tires.

I only have a headless Mexican blue Cliffjumper to compare with, but you can see that the TF Cliffjumper (also true for US TF and Microman versions) says "Dunlop" on the tires. Bumblebee and Bumblejumper will be the same. The South American minicars, be it Argentinian, Peruvian, Chilean or Brazilian, do not say "Dunlop" on the tires as illustrated in the above scan.

As far as I know, the sticker on the back of the Brazilian gold Cliffjumper's head is also unique to the 'Robocar' first series. My particular toy is missing one of the stickers, a long thin decal that goes across his chest. The hooks that keep the head in place are also of a different mould to the US TF. Looks as if it'd be a good deal easier to cause irrepairable damage to the Brazilian version.
Gold plastic is notoriously bad too, remember. We've all heard stories of crumbling Black Zaraks. There are indeed a couple of cracks in the plastic of this Cliffjumper. The paint around the head and face isn't particularly well applied either.

All that negativity aside, this is a really cool toy. As I said before, Cliffjumper is my favourite minicar mould, the robot has a cool head, I'd never owned many minibots at the time (the two pictured Cliffjumpers were my only ones) and gold really suits him as a repaint. The overall quality is not as bad as those dreadful Antex minicars either. I transformed this thing a fair bit and didn't notice any decline in condition. If you can pick any of these babies up, don't hesitate!

In Brazil, Cliffjumper was also available in red, blue and white. In Argentina he was available in white and green. There are also pictures of a carded orange Chilean Cliffjumper, not to mention the silver Mexican Cliffjumper. Certainly a lot of choice for Cliffjumper fans.

As always, I leave my best pic for last:

All the best
Maz