Jetfire (Unicron Trilogy)


 * Jetfire is an Autobot in the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.



Jetfire is probably the best second-in-command Optimus Prime could conceivably have. Jetfire is more than a yes-man; he's the crucial link between Prime's role-necessitated distance and his troops. Though professional and businesslike, Jetfire infuses his interactions with a down-to-earth friendliness. And where Optimus Prime is cautious, Jetfire is more prone to tempered bursts of gusto and bravado. While Optimus Prime is your leader who's your leader, Jetfire is your leader who's your friend. Because of this, Jetfire is very popular among the Autobots.

Most importantly, Jetfire is one of the only Autobots who will tell Optimus Prime to his face when he thinks he's wrong. It is this trait that makes Jetfire indispensable.

Jetfire has a long-lost brother Overcast, and while the two are quite similar in many ways, Jetfire is far more willing and eager to jump into battle than Overcast.

He has a Decepticon alter-ego, Sky Shadow, which he affects when doing undercover missions. He found the name in history archives which referred to a Sky Shadow from the legendary Beast Wars. Nobody's really sure how that works. Maybe it's that bloody Unicron Singularity's doing.


 * Japanese Super Link name: Skyfire
 * Japanese Galaxy Force name: Dreadrock

Armada

 * Voice actor: Scott McNeil (USA), Susumu Chiba (Japan)

Jetfire was one of the reinforcements from Cybertron that Optimus Prime requested. He was quickly installed as second in command, but as everybody who had never served with him discovered, he was very different than Optimus Prime. Where Optimus was cautious and analytical, Jetfire was brash and headstrong to the point of recklessness, jumping into the unknown without considering the consequences. As a result, in his first major battle with the Decepticons, Jetfire decided to take all of their air forces on by himself, getting him into serious trouble.

Fortunately, Optimus Prime had recovered enough from his injuries to launch a surprise attack on the Decepticons and unleash his secret weapon - the ability to Powerlink with Jetfire, resulting in the powerful Jet Optimus.

Energon

 * Voice actor: Scott McNeil (USA), Nobuyuki Hiyama (Japan)

During the ten years since the defeat of Unicron, Jetfire was upgraded into a new body with the capability to powerlink with other compatible robots. At first, Jetfire was not enthused at having the inexperienced and immature Ironhide part of their unit, or be his powerlinking partner, but the wild sky commander gradually grew to accept the younger Autobot's place in Optimus's personal command.

Jetfire served as a loyal soldier throughout the series, including nearly dying and being upgraded by Primus to finish the battle with Unicron.

Cybertron

 * Voice actor: Brian Drummond (USA), Hideo Ishikawa (Japan)
 * Special Attacks: Dread Cannon-Burst Attack, Jetstream (Japan)
 * Special Attacks: Afterburner Blast, Turbine Wave (USA)

After the second defeat of Unicron, Jetfire resettled on Nebulon for an indeterminate period of time. Over time, he adopted a local accent, one that sounded very vaguely like Earth-Australian to certain humans. He returned to Cybertron, his homeworld once again facing a monumental crisis, perhaps the worst in its history.

As a backup plan, Optimus Prime ordered Jetfire to visit Earth and provide them with scans of Earthen vehicle modes for the population of Cybertron to adopt. This was done so that should their primary plan of destroying the Unicron Singularity fail, the population of Cybertron could assume disguises and relocate to the human homeworld, whose inhabitants were still largely unaware of the existence of real Transformers.

During the Cybertron's third great crisis, Jetfire would appeared to have mellowed in the past 20 years. He is considerably more cautious compared to his reckless youth, and adheres much more closely to orders and protocol. Perhaps all those brushes with death have finally knocked some sense into his head, or his head was replaced while on Nebulon.

Armada
Jetfire was initially unimpressed with Optimus Prime, feeling that Prime had abandoned the Autobots on Cybertron for affairs on Earth. He soon saw eye-to-eye with his commander once more when the stakes of Unicron's coming were revealed.

Armada

 * Jetfire with Comettor (Giga-Con, 2003)
 * Japanese ID number: MC-09



Jetfire is a futuristic space shuttle molded primarily in white and gray with red paint stripes resembling the stripes seen on the original G1 Jetfire. His Mini-Con Comettor serves as his front landing gear and forward gun in vehicle mode. When Comettor (or any other Mini-Con) connected to the Powerlinx ports on his wings, a large red missile/bomb is dropped. When connected to Jetfire's main engine, two small wings are deployed for atmospheric flight. In robot mode Jetfire's rear landing gear becomes a shield, and his main engine forms his rifle. Jetfire also combines with Optimus Prime to form Jet Optimus.

The Japanese release includes a much brighter white plastic, the removal battle wear and heat re-entry burn decos, a more detailed paint operations on throughout his body and accessories, different plastic colors, and shield.

This mold was also used to make the Transformers Collectors Club exclusive Astrotrain.


 * Powerlinx Jetfire with Comettor (Giga-Con, 2003)



The Powerlinx redeco of Jetfire replaces much of the gray and red with blue, in a color scheme very similar to the Macross/Robotech Valkyrie fighter jet flown by Maximillian Jenius/Sterling.

Energon

 * Jetfire (Mega, 2004)
 * Japanese ID number: SC-05



Jetfire transforms again into a white and red futuristic space shuttle, this time in the smaller Mega size class and with the ability to combine with most other Autobot Deluxe and Mega Energon toys. He features an electronic transforming sound effect that activates when another Autobot combines with him.

The Japanese version of this toy does not feature any of the electronics, uses red translucent plastic in place of orange, and has a sticker covering the now-absent battery compartment.

This mold was also used to make Energon Overcast.


 * Skyfire and Roadbuster
 * Japanese ID number: SS-02

This was a Japan-only two-pack of both Jetfire and Ironhide. There are no differences between the toys in this pack and the individually packed Japanese versions.


 * Skyfire Sonic (Mega, 2004)
 * Japanese ID number: SC-25

This was the Japanese release of Energon Overcast, though still portrayed as the same character of Skyfire. There are some differences in paint application, but the major difference is the inclusion of an orange Energon Spear, originally belonging Skyblast.

Cybertron

 * Jetfire (Ultra class, 2005)
 * Japanese ID number: GC-04



Jetfire was once again Ultra-sized, but this time transformed into a green cargo plane resembling a modified Antonov An-225 (oddly, with two of the engines moved to the tail section). The toy features sound effects by pressing the port side aft engine nacelle. Inserting his Cyber Planet Key into his tail assembly in either vehicle or robot mode causes a pair of translucent red cannons to extend, and the compartment they are mounted on to raise. Pressing the portside aft engine now features a different sound effect. The tail section can be swiveled up to form an attack mode somewhat resembling the "gerwalk" form of a Macross Valkyrie (appropriately).

The US version of this toy has a bar between the barrels of the translucent red tail cannons to provide structural integrity. The other differences between the US and Japanese versions are mostly cosmetic.


 * Jetfire (Legends of Cybertron, 2005)



This is a much smaller version of the Ultra-sized toy, with limited articulation and detail. In the U.S. market, LOC Jetfire was primarily sold in drug stores, though could be found in normal retailers in markets outside of the US, such as Australia.

This mold was redecoed to make Classics Fireflight


 * Jetfire (Burger King Kids' Meal toy, 2005)


 * Sky Shadow (Ultra class, 2006)



This was a tan/gold and black redeco of Cybertron Jetfire, posing as a Decepticon. It uses the same tooling as Cybertron Jetfire, so features the structurally stronger tail cannon. All other functions remain the same. This toy represents Jetfire in his cover identity as a Decepticon.

Trivia

 * Originally when the tail fin of Armada Jetfire's engine/weapon was pressed downward, it activated the original Generation 1 Autobot "laser" sound effect. Pressing the tail fin upwards (perhaps by placing the shuttle upright as if in launching mode) would activate a rather garbled blast-off countdown sequence. Much like Red Alert's 'Woo-woo-woo' sound effect, this briefly became something of an in-joke within the Transformers fan community. Both sounds are also incredibly easy to trigger.


 * Jetfire's Cybertron toy appears (in plane mode) on the screen of the Hasbro version of the Real Gear Robots toy Power Up VT6.