Sky Lynx (G1)


 * Sky Lynx is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.



Sky Lynx is the unbelievably talented, unsurpassably skilled, and altogether magnificent robot behind most of the greatest, most adventurous, and most daring moments in all of Autobot history. At least, if you ask Sky Lynx, that is. Not that he isn't a skilled, fast, powerful warrior and an expert flyer, and well deserving of his rank as Lieutenant Commander. He most certainly is all those things, he's just rather a bit too eager to tell you about it. At length. However, his superiors recognize his undeniable skill and tolerate his ego. Springer has nicknamed him "Commander Modesty."

"Before you do anything, think, 'Is this what Sky Lynx would do in my position?', and you will not go far wrong."

- Sky Lynx

"Have no fear! Once again I will save the day!"

- Sky Lynx


 * Italian name: Argon

Cartoon continuity

 * Voice actor: Aron Kincaid (USA), Kōji Totani (Japan)



Sky Lynx made his fantastic debut when he selflessly risked his own life to save three vastly inferior specimens. Shortly after this, his peerless battle prowess was needed to fight off some ruffians.



When the Autobots investigated into the destruction of a provincial human law enforcement space station, Sky Lynx deigned to flawlessly transport a doddering old fool, that speech impaired imbecile and his friends to the filthy planet Goo. During the course of this investigation, Sky Lynx was forced to save his comrades from several inferior opponents, including a pale imitation of himself, a mere hooligan, and those ruffians he encountered earlier on Io. Did they not learn their last painful lesson in humility?



Upon the discovery of dinosaur transform static at the scene of Fort Knox's apparent theft, Sky Lynx was forced to endure a humiliating trial in Metroplex's ill-conceived kangaroo court, merely because, as that unrefined, multi-gunned cowboy put it, Sky Lynx had dinosaur electrons in his body. Be that as it may, did he have to be lumped together with such unsuitable company when he could be effortlessly tracking down and bringing the real culprit to justice?



During a journey to through the Junkion sector, Sky Lynx came under attack by another pretender to the shuttle throne. The two proceeded to engage in combat, until both were fired upon by the Junkions. Though the Junkions posed no threat to one of Sky Lynx's skill, he recognized that their actions were out of place, and sped with all possible haste back to Cybertron, informing Rodimus Prime of their out-of-character actions. Despite acknowledging his "ace work", Rodimus, for some reason, dispatched those uncouth flyboys to investigate. However, Sky Lynx proved his undeniable talents by rescuing their combined form from imminent destruction.



Later still, during a skirmish on Earth's Moon, superior forces arrived to save the Autobots in the form of Sky Lynx, though the brutish Trypticon dared challenge him. However, before Sky Lynx could deliver what would have likely been a stunning finishing blow, the other vulgars were spirited drawn away from the battle by a voice in the distance. For some reason, his magnificence was included in this motley crew and was even forced to voyage with them to the far reaches of space, a sojurn they surely could not have made themsleves without Sky Lynx's intellect and sense of direction. Upon landing, Sky Lynx took command of that ill tempered, uncivilized group of evolutionary throwbacks and directed them in a proper manner, a task which nearly exceeded his incredible skill. However, upon finding the caller, the fool had the audacity to call him Primitive! Can you imagine? Unfortunately for Sky Lynx, the menace Tornedron was too much even for him.

In one of his most successful endeavours, Sky Lynx's unquestioned skills were called into play yet again when Rodimus Prime required a Quintesson during the Hate Plague crisis. With his customary flair and talent, not to mention amazing speed, Sky Lynx located and retrieved one, who subsequently restored Optimus Prime to life. Jolly good show! Just as Sky Lynx hoped, Optimus Prime knew how to stop the Hate Plague.

Marvel Comics continuity
Sky Lynx's old chum Wheeljack, who was no stranger to his brilliance, called upon him to join the Autobots on Earth, where Grimlock's less than stellar performance as Autobot leader threatened to doom them all! (The uncouth Dinobot was overly obsessed with catching the rogue Autobot, Blaster.) Upon the venerable Sky Lynx's arrival, Wheeljack requested that he put his considerable skills on temporary hold. What a waste of his immeasurable potential! Before too long, thankfully, Sky Lynx was at last called into action! After Grimlock tossed some juvenile humanoids out the airlock of the Ark into space (for "conspiring" with Blaster), Sky Lynx, with utmost aplomb, rescued them, and put to use his finest displays of agility evading those mongrel Dinobots. Indeed, Sky Lynx's feats were subverted only by the actions of another. To wit: While Sky Lynx was surrounded (which posed no true disadvantage to the ever-resourceful paragon), Blaster turned himself in to Grimlock in exchange for the guaranteed safety of Sky Lynx's young charges. However, before speedily returning the kids to their home, Sky Lynx took them to a traveling space carnival. As they had no money to pay for tickets, Sky Lynx charitably agreed to work for the carnival, while the kids were taken care of. Unfortunately, the fine print in the magnificent Autobot's contract made all of them unwilling guests of the wretched carnival. Before Sky Lynx could effect a no-doubt-brilliant escape plan, Optimus Prime and the Powermasters passed by and rescued the group, saving Sky Lynx the indignity of facing down such unworthy foes as a Gilashark and Rorza, the Rocket-cycle Racer from Rigel III.

Sky Lynx then returned the Spacehikers to Earth with flair and dispatch. The humans, however, seemed impervious to his charm, and drove him away from Earth again with thrown produce and such.

Some time later, the Mecannibals, through an unfair deception, managed to capture the magnificent Sky Lynx. While they did admit to his wondrousness, they unfortunately considered him wondrously tasty. Luckily, Landmine and Cloudburst happened upon the impending banquet, and assisted in Sky Lynx's escape. When those selfsame Pretenders later found themselves harried by Darkwing and Dreadwind, the noble Sky Lynx showed up to repay his debt, easily dispatching the Decepticon Powermasters. He then explained to the Autobots that Hi-Test and Throttle were the binary-bonded partners of the Decepticons. (Which, really, they should have been able to figure out for themselves.) The ever-helpful Sky Lynx then held the Nebulans hostage while the Pretenders blackmailed the Mecannibals into reconstituting all their former victims. Having once again saved the day, Sky Lynx flew off into the sunset, and a shining place in history.

Dreamwave comics continuity


Sky Lynx found himself embarrassingly captured by the Decepticons under that small and irritating little flyboy and his band of merry miscreants, as, of all things, a punching bag for their training! Far be it for him to refuse combat, but did these fools not realize they were up against the mighty Sky Lynx, even with the Decepticon energy dampeners in effect? Sportingly, the Autobot lieutenant commander warned Starscream that it was hardly a fair match, which the Decepticon, for some reason, misinterpreted to mean that it was not fair to Sky Lynx.

Taking advantage of Starscream's gross overconfidence, Sky Lynx tipped the scales further in his favour by splitting in half into his separate lynx and dinosaur modes, then soundly thrashing the pitiful Combaticons before the shocked Starscream reactivated the energy dampners.

Naturally, Sky Lynx's personal punching bag Predaking only appeared after his magnificence was offline, which is just typical, really.

Generation 1

 * Sky Lynx (Motorized Space Shuttle, 1986)


 * Sky Lynx transforms from a space shuttle with under-slung cargo pod into a large, beast-like... thing. His shuttle and pod portions can split up; the shuttle grows legs to become a large, long-necked flying dinosaur thing, while the cargo pod grows a head and tail to become a "lynx"-like thing. The cargo pod section has a battery-powered motor that rolls him along in cargo mode and activates a slow, ungainly walking action in lynx/lower-body mode. The shuttle also has an opening "cargo bay", though there is no room to store anything in it. Even though it fails to capture his magnificence fully, it is still the apex of toy technology.

Unlikely as it may seem that anything could improve upon the perfection of this design, there were two different versions of this toy, released a year apart. On the first version, the rear thruster panel was connected to the body by a basic hinged piece. The second release modified this hinge so the panel could extend out from the body slightly, allowing a little more room for opening the panel and extending the tail.

Unusually for a toy of his size, he has no other accessories packaged with him. But then again, why add to something that is already perfect?

In February 2008, Takara's Encore line of reissues had the glorious honor of re-releasing Sky Lynx. This was the first time that this masterpiece of a toy was sold in Japan.

Trivia

 * Though it chafes the magnificent Sky Lynx to share an origin with the ungainly (if powerful) Omega Supreme, both were originally sold by a company known as Toy Box, from whom Hasbro licensed the designs for sale as Transformers. As with Jetfire and the Deluxe Insecticons, this meant it could not be sold as a Transformers toy in Japan, since Takara didn't want to promote its competition's toys.  Thus was Japan unable to experience Sky Lynx's full grandeur—but such glory could not be denied forever.  Sure enough, when Takara merged with former competitor Tomy, the situation changed.  After the merger, an especially perspicacious member of the TF development team spotted a "shuttle dinosaur" development code name among the molds listed in Tomy's possession.  Soon, the truth of Sky Lynx's esteemed lineage emerged: Toy Box was not the original equipment manufacturer, but rather, it had requested that Tomy develop the Sky Lynx design on its behalf.  (Such outsourced design and mold development was not uncommon in the Japanese toy market at the time.)  This unsung hero of a developer called attention to the fact, helping initiate the process for issuing Sky Lynx as a Japanese Transformers toy for the first time ever.  Had the situation moved a bit more slowly, the molds might have been lost forever—a tragedy of such magnitude, it scarcely bears consideration.