Jetfire (G1)


 * Jetfire is an Autobot from the Generation 1 series. In the animated continuity he was known as Skyfire.



Jetfire is a bot of science, literally. Not only is his mind dedicated towards scientific pursuits, but his body is a testament to the technology he studies so intensely. (Some would say "religiously," but not in his presence.) Every inch of his chassis is cutting-edge and kept up-to-date. However, he does not have the trust of his teammates; it was not so long ago that he was a Decepticon. Jetfire is compassionate, so some Autobots feel that he could be soft on their enemies or, even worse, he may turn on them after realizing his "cold calculations" swing the other way.

Jetfire would find their misconceptions about science appalling. After all, is not science just the pursuit of truth? And truth, he maintains, walks hand-in-hand with liberty.

Italian name: Aquila ''French-Canadian name: Bolide

Animated continuity

 * Voice actor: Gregg Berger (US), Osamu Saka (Japan)



(In the Generation 1 animated series, Jetfire went by the name Skyfire. His character model was significantly altered from the toy, as was his appearance in nearly all media. See Why "Skyfire"?, below.)

Millions of years ago on Cybertron, before the war, Skyfire and Starscream were good friends and fellow scientists. On a mission of exploration to prehistoric Earth, Skyfire was lost in a storm. Starscream searched, but there was no sign of his comrade. He returned home.

Millions of years later, after the Autobots and Decepticons had crashed and awoken on Earth, the Decepticons found and revived Skyfire, encased in a block of Arctic ice. Skyfire joined them due to his past friendship with Starscream, though he expressed discomfort with their methods. When Skyfire's compassion for humans led to his disobeying orders, Starscream, who had changed much in the intervening millennia, turned on his friend. Skyfire left the Decepticons and joined the Autobots, sacrificing himself to be buried beneath the ice again to stop the Decepticons' plans. The Autobots held a memorial service in his memory at the location of his involuntary burial.

The Autobots returned later to dig him up when they needed a ride down to South America. Megatron and his Decepticons were in Brazil seeking the Crystal of Power, which was kept in an Aztec temple. After battling the Decepticons, Skyfire arrived at the temple to find Thundercracker guarding it and the crystal inside. Thundercracker was angry at Starscream, and was willing to let Skyfire past him to destroy the crystal so long as Starscream got in trouble. Starscream overheard this and shot Skyfire in the back, knocking him out.

At one point, Optimus Prime actually pats Skyfire on his jet mode's nosecone, like a dog. Sucks to be Skyfire.

Marvel Comics continuity


Early in the war on Earth, Shockwave held the head of Optimus Prime captive, hoping to use the Creation Matrix he possessed to create a new army of Decepticons. Optimus Prime had secretly passed the energies of the Matrix onto the teenaged human, Buster Witwicky, so Shockwave was stopped short of giving Jetfire's constructed body life. Shockwave soon learned of the human's involvement, so he sent Jetfire after the human anyway, though the lifeless robot could do nothing more than follow orders. When Jetfire found Buster, he was accompanied by the Autobots Bluestreak and Bumblebee for his protection, but it was Buster's Creation Matrix powers that ultimately disassembled Jetfire before their eyes. Buster reassembled Jetfire, and with Bumblebee's help, changes were made to allow Buster to directly control him.

However, Jetfire's programming reasserted itself, and maneuvered so wildly that Buster, riding in the cockpit, blacked out. Buster woke up inside Shockwave's base (a former Blackrock Industries plant), strapped to a machine ready to drill the Creation Matrix out of him. In the meantime, knowing that the Autobots were eavesdropping on him, Shockwave sent Jetfire to drop a fake Optimus Prime head at a disclosed location for the Autobots to find. The fake head attached itself to Optimus Prime's body and began attacking the Autobots, causing many injuries. At the last moment, Buster was able to control Jetfire once again, knocking out Shockwave, and delivering the true Optimus Prime head to the Autobots, allowing for them a costly victory.



With Optimus Prime fully restored, Jetfire was quickly given life and joined the Autobots, the Rite of the Autobrand marking him as one of their rank. When Bumblebee, depressed, had left the Autobots and gotten himself attacked by the Decepticons, Jetfire eagerly came to his rescue. Later, Jetfire helped the Autobots approach the Decepticon base to steal information that would allow them to build their own combiners. He also accompanied Donny Finkleberg to the spot where Finkleberg claimed seven Autobots had crossed over from Cybertron, though they found nothing but traces of oil.

After the death of Optimus Prime, Jetfire voted for the Dinobot Grimlock to take command. He later seemed to regret this decision, offering to help Blaster usurp him, and when the rivalry ended in a duel staged on Earth's moon, he was among the Autobots who watched. When the Autobots were ambushed by the entire Decepticon army, he was blasted out of the sky by both Vortex and Laserbeak.

Jetfire was destroyed along with the Aerialbots and countless others in New York when Starscream absorbed the power of the Underbase.

See & Read Video
He went on a lot of suicide missions.

Generation 2 mini-comics
(While in the US continuity, G2 Jetfire was the same character as G1 Jetfire/Skyfire, the same would not appear to be the case in Japan. In Japan, the G1 character was called "Skyfire" in the cartoon, which was the only Japanese media he appeared in, as his toy was never released in Japan.  The "Jetfire" that appears in the G2 manga probably would have originally been a different character, though Robot Masters backstory seemed to consolidate the two retroactively.)

At one point, Megatron kidnapped the Autobot Laser Rod, Electro. While Megatron attempted to persuade Electro into joining the Decepticons, Jetfire infiltrated the headquarters. Busting-in at full-force, Jetfire took the Decepticons by surprise and managed to successfully rescue his fellow Autobot.

Dreamwave comics continuity


Before the war, the scientist Jetfire and Starscream were friends. But when Starscream joined the Decepticons in their assault on outlying city-states, Jetfire was torn. If he followed his beliefs and upheld justice and life, he would end up facing his dearest friend on the battlefield. Jetfire did end up with the Autobots, but not before a barrior of distrust had been built between them due to his inaction and his past loyalties.

These loyalties came to a head during a period when Optimus Prime and Megatron were presumed lost forever, the two factions splintered into five. Events conspired behind the scenes, building up to an unknown crescendo, and Jetfire was suspicious. Putting his already-shakey trustworthiness on the line, he met up with Shockwave in secret to discuss the looming front of darkness. However, the source of these machinations, the Fallen, had leaked their correspondence to Grimlock, who held a grudge against the scientist.

Grimlock assaulted Jetfire at his intended meeting place, but both were overwhelmed by the Fallen and dragged far inside Cybertron and strapped to a four-paneled contraption in the Well of All Sparks. Jetfire, Grimlock, Hot Spot, and Blitzwing were the "Angles of Dissolution," four "unique sparks" which could catalyze the breach of the Seal of Primus. Combined forces from several factions penetrated the Fallen's operation, but despite Jetfire and Grimlock's teamwork, the Fallen was destroyed only by his own scheme -- the hand of Primus reached out, awaken, from his slumber, and smote the enigmatic being to pieces. Jetfire, a skeptic towards things supernatural, began to wonder if there might be something bigger than them going on, something no one could comprehend.



Long after, Jetfire and Omega Supreme were sent out into space to search for the missing Ark. When they arrived on Earth, though, they were attacked by Scourge. Jetfire disabled him with their ship's EMP, but when he went outside to identify his assailant he was caught in an avalanche and buried in ice.

Millions of years later he was found by Starscream and stored aboard the Nemesis, still encased in a block of ice. When the zealot Sunstorm arrived on Earth, Starscream freed Jetfire from his icy prison to stop him. An uneasy alliance between Jetfire, Starscream, and Bumblebee's team of Autobots as they tried to come up with a plan to stop the unbelievably powerful Seeker, but Sunstorm was unstoppable. Jetfire started to consider that Sunstorm may be supernatural, despite his natural skepticism. During their encounter, Jetfire realized that Sunstorm's internal fusion reactor was about to go critical, and flew him up into space where he could explode without risk to the Earth. Jetfire was seemingly annihilated in the explosion. His demise caused Bumblebee to throw down his arms and quit the war.

(It was revealed long after the demise of Dreamwave that an issue was planned that involved the return of both Jetfire and the Fallen, meaning his "death" would not have been final.)

IDW comics continuity
Years of war had put the Transformers' home world of Cybertron through too much punishment, meaning a spiral into planet-wide cataclysm, a consequence the scientist Thunderwing had foreseen. Jetfire and other Transformers scientists ignored his warning, until it was too late.

Seven hundred years later, and against regulations, Jetfire and the Technobots travelled to the supposedly-abandoned husk of Cybertron from their science vessel, the Calabi-Yau, to investigate a strange energy reading. Upon arriving on the dead surface of the planet near Thunderhead Pass, Jetfire, Scattershot, Afterburner, and Lightspeed were ambushed by a mysterious group of robots with stealth abilies. The Technobots were badly damaged and Jetfire was captured. When he revived, he found his captors worshipping the reanimated corpse of Thunderwing.

Their leader, Bludgeon, wished to revisit the mad scientist's plot and harness the power that accelerated the planet's death in a apocalyptic torrent all those years ago. Jetfire pleaded with Bludgeon not to again unleash the powers that destroyed his planet, but he was ignored, and his attempts to escape were thwarted. Thanks to a distress signal sent by the remaining Technobots in the Calabi-Yau, Optimus Prime and the Wreckers soon arrived, released Jetfire, and defeated his captors, just before an alert system announced the arrival of Thunderwing, newly reborn.

Fortunately Jetfire was able to figure out that the ultra energon powering Thunderwing would deplete in a prolonged struggle. This allowed Optimus Prime, the wreckers, and the mayhem attack squad to stop the monstrosity without destroying Cybertron.

Generation 1



 * Jetfire (1985)


 * A Takatoku VF-1S Super Valkyrie box set was repainted, repackaged, and released with an Autobot symbol (and some minor retooling of the nose cone) and named Jetfire.


 * Jetfire features three modes - robot, jet, and an "alternate transformation" that deploys his arms and legs in jet mode. Additionally, Jetfire comes with several red pieces of armor that can snap onto his arms, legs, and back in any mode.


 * Naturally, Jetfire was not released in Japan, since the toy (or at least, a dozen variations of it) was released by one of Takara's rival toy companies.

(Note: The shoulder assembly where the jet mode folds in half for robot mode is one of the more commonly-broken parts in the early Transformers toy line. The more rigid plastic used on the armor pieces also means that it's not uncommon for their attachment clips to have snapped off. And finally, the small black clip-piece that attaches Jetfire's rifle to his jet mode is possibly one of the most commonly-missing accessories on secondhand Jetfires, if not secondhand Transformers all around.)

Generation 2

 * Jetfire (Cyberjet, 1995)
 * Japanese ID number: TRF-16




 * Jetfire was released in Generation 2 as one of the Autobot Cyberjets, a redeco of the Decepticon Hooligan. Interestingly enough, his toy has Decepticon faction symbol stickers, despite being released as an Autobot.


 * The Japanese release of Jetfire came with an extra decal sheet.


 * (Note: R Blade's expanded bio in the Robot Masters sourcebook specifically mentions Jetfire as the leader of the Autobot Cyberjets, even though no mention of this is made in Jetfire's Generation 2 bio.)

Titanium Series

 * Jetfire (6-inch Cybertron Heroes, 2006)


 * Jetfire is based on Don Figueroa's design as seen in Dreamwave's The War Within miniseries, which in turn was based on Figueroa's scratch-build custom Transformer, Strikefire. He transforms into a Cybertronic fighter plane with armor add-ons.


 * Like all Titanium Series figures, Jetfire's toy is constructed of both die-cast metal and molded plastic, and it comes with a plastic display stand featuring his name and his faction logo. In jet mode, landing gear can be deployed from underneath the fuselage and both legs.  In robot mode, the two wing cannons can be removed to be held by the robot either separately or combined together into a single weapon.

Classics

 * Jetfire (Voyager, 2006)


 * Classics Jetfire's design is an amalgam of the original cartoon/comic model for Jetfire/Skyfire and the original toy. It not only features removeable armor like the original toy, but the toy-inspired head can be removed like a helmet to reveal a cartoon/comic-inspired head.  The toy's add-on booster packs have flip-out reveal cannons, and it also features arm-mounted spring-loaded missile launchers.


 * The toy's design was first featured on the solicited cover to Stormbringer #1.


 * Jetfire (Legends, 2006)


 * This toy is a redeco of Legends of Cybertron Thundercracker, transforming into an SU-37 fighter jet.

Why "Skyfire"?


We may never be certain of the exact circumstances behind the change from Jetfire to Skyfire. There are, however, a few known factors, and a lot of theories.


 * Not all of Hasbro's Transformers product originated with Takara. The Macross Super Valkyrie, the toy that would become Jetfire, came from a company called Takatoku (who were also responsible for the toys that became Roadbuster, Whirl, and the deluxe Insecticons). Why did Hasbro market non-Takara product? Bob Prupis, one of the original members of the Transformers marketing team, would frequently go to Toy Fairs in Asia, where "any product that really looked good that was exciting we didn't care where it came from. We did some work with Bandai, who had been working with other people, and took a few products that looked right for our line". The Super Valkyrie, then, must have met their criteria for inclusion.


 * As a larger toy, it would follow that Hasbro would want to sell Jetfire by including him in the Transformers animated series. However, even though Hasbro had the rights to release Takatoku's Super Valkyrie in the US Transformers toyline, Hasbro's chief collaborator on Transformers was still Takara. It may have been that Takara always had plans to air the Transformer animated series in their own market (as it featured a majority of their products), and objected to the inclusion of a competitor's product on the show. This may also be why no other Takatoku-designed toys appeared in the series, although their relatively smaller sizes as compared to Jetfire may have been a factor in Hasbro not including them.


 * As the theory goes, the Jetfire animation model was adjusted to look less like the toy as a compromise to Takara. However - perhaps because it now failed to look like the product it was supposed to be advertising - the character became "Skyfire".


 * Conversely, it is possible that licensing issues played in to the decisions to change Jetfire to Skyfire; the story bible for G1 writers mentions how Jetfire had been "transformed" into Skyfire for "legal reasons". See also Trivia.


 * The evidence of Robotech influencing Jetfire-related decisions is murky. That show began airing in syndication in March of 1985, whereas "Fire In The Sky", the first episode with Skyfire, aired December 8th, 1984 - and would have had to have been written and animated much before then. Statements indicate that it took nine months to edit Robotech together, placing the start of production somewhere around July of 1984. So... who knows. All that's certain is that Hasbro licensing the Super Valkyrie seemingly did prevent the use of that toy in Matchbox's Robotech toyline.

Beyond Prupis's statement and the notes in the story bible, however, nothing supporting (or denying) any of the previous statements have come out.

Trivia



 * The story bible for the original animated series contains a different character model for Jetfire, one clearly based on the actual toy. This model did appear twice "fictionally," once as a partially-obscured background character in the second Marvel Comics issue, and again in the animated portion of the commercial for Jetfire and Shockwave. It would also occasionally crop up in secondary media, such as coloring books.


 * In fact, the Transformers story bible offers seemingly contradictory statements on Jetfire/Skyfire. An early page notes how "JETFIRE has been "transformed" into SKYFIRE -- with a different model -- due to legal reasons. Do not use this character unless necessary", whereas a subsequent page on new Season 2 characters notes that "Although Reflector should no longer be used as a character in the series, JETFIRE will be redesigned and reintroduced in the near future". As the Valkyrie-derived animation model never appeared in the cartoon, and Skyfire was never redesigned, it's uncertain just what these notes refer to.




 * It's believed that there were some trademark issues with the name "Optimus Prime" in the Netherlands due to a manufacturer of kitchen utensils named "Optimus". Whether or not this was actually the case, Milton Bradley did not initially release Optimus Prime's toy, referred to Jetfire as the Autobot leader, and called Optimus "Jetfire" in the Dutch translation of the Marvel comic! Whatever the problem was, it was later rectified, as the Optimus Prime toy was later released and they stopped calling him "Jetfire" in the comic.


 * The Energon Omnicon Skyblast was created as an homage to Skyfire. He would have been given the name "Skyfire" as well, but the trademark had been secured (and Registered) by Hasbro rival Mattel.  Also on the homage front, Robot Masters R Blade features a very Jetfirey deco.