In the many stories of Jetfire (who was referred to as Skyfire in the TV series), told through the numerous Generation 1 continuities, there is one constant aspect—an early affiliation with the Decepticons, which has served only to convince him to side with the Autobots. Jetfire's dedication to the Autobot cause is matched only by his devotion to scientific and technological advancement. He believes this is the only way victory over the Decepticons can be achieved. It is this overriding belief that tempers his bravado in battle. Nevertheless, he is often one of the most eager Autobots to plunge into combat, and his position as one of the fastest usually means he is the first to do so. Jetfire is created from the same mold as the
VF-1S Super Valkyrie from the
Macross series (see
Toys), including the VF-1S's
gun pod which is described as a laser on Jetfire's technical specifications. He uses a photon missile launcher in robot mode.
Animated series On Cybertron before the war between the Autobots and Decepticons, Skyfire was a scientist and explorer working with
Starscream. Together, they investigated an uncharted planet, actually a prehistoric Earth, where they failed to find any signs of intelligent life. Skyfire wished to scrutinize the planet further, and moving in close enough to the planet, a polar wind storm swept him up and buried him beneath the Arctic ice. Starscream searched for his friend, but was unable to locate him and returned to Cybertron alone. Millions of years later, in 1984, the Decepticons discovered the frozen Skyfire, while draining heat energy from the Earth's core and reactivated him. Reunited with his old friend, Starscream, Skyfire joined the Decepticon ranks. When the Autobots arrived, Skyfire engaged them in battle, and then rescued Sparkplug and Spike Witwicky when they became stranded on an ice floe. Unknowingly, he took the two to
Megatron under the impression that he and the other Decepticons valued human life, but when Megatron took them as prisoners, Skyfire started to question his allegiance. When Starscream ordered him to destroy the captured Autobot search party, he refused, and Starscream turned his weapons on him, leaving him heavily damaged. Repaired by Ratchet, he joined the Autobots and engaged in a dogfight with Starscream which ended when he sacrificed himself to stop the core drain, burying himself in ice once again in the process. A short time later, however, Skyfire was recovered by Wheeljack and
Sideswipe, and immediately participated in an attack on the Decepticons in
Peru, where the evil robots were once again attempting to use the Earth's core energy for their own means. Skyfire was almost permitted to destroy the villains' new weapon by
Thundercracker, but was then blasted by Starscream (who attempted to blast Thundercracker) and repaired with some difficulty by Spike. Skyfire would go on to make semi-regular appearances in the immediate future, helping the Autobots evacuate their base when the volcano it was embedded in became active, and flying a squad of troops to battle the
Insecticons, Skyfire appeared in a few more episodes, but slowly disappeared from the cartoon, due to legal issues. Skyfire's animation model made infrequent appearances in the third season, making its final appearance in "Dark Awakening" after being shot down by
Quintessons in a space battle.
Books Skyfire was featured in the 1985 audio and book adventure
Satellite of Doom. His appearance matched his animated form, not the toy. During the story, Skyfire is killed. Skyfire appeared in the audio and book adventure
When Continents Collide.
Comics Devil's Due Publishing Jetfire would also appear in the third G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover from
Devil's Due Publishing. He was present with the other Autobots at the Capital City peace celebrations, battling Reflector, but was ordered off by
Optimus Prime. He was later seen as part of the combined Autobot/G.I. Joe force attempting to rescue Optimus Prime.
Dreamwave Productions In
Dreamwave's 21st-century re-imagining of the Generation 1 universe, Jetfire was once again presented as Starscream's friend before the Great War started. As the war broke out, Jetfire was slow to choose an allegiance, eventually siding with the Autobots. Despite the fact that he even remained with the Autobots when Optimus Prime and Megatron vanished in an early space bridge experiment and the factions splintered into smaller sub-groups, his original hesitance caused his Autobot allies to regard him with a certain degree of mistrust. Grimlock in particular bore a fierce grudge against him for an unspecified incident involving a mind-controlling cerebro-shell and was perfectly ready to believe that he had betrayed the Autobots when he arranged a meeting with current Decepticon leader Shockwave. Jetfire was among the Transformers kidnapped by the ancient Cybertronian called the Fallen, who planned to use the genetic potential in his spark to awaken Primus, but he was freed by
Grimlock, putting the grudge to rest. Prime and Megatron subsequently returned to Cybertron, but when they and their elite crews were lost aboard the Ark, Jetfire was part of a mission to find them, along with
Omega Supreme and the
Micromasters Countdown and Groundshaker. When a lead emerged in the form of a beacon from the Sol system, Jetfire and Omega split off from the team (who went on to investigate Decepticon attacks on other planets) and headed off after the signal. The duo entered stasis for the lengthy trip, with Jetfire eventually awakening millions of years later as their craft approached Earth. Before Jetfire could bring Omega back online, however, their ship was attacked by
Scourge and crashed in the Arctic, where shrapnel from it killed a pod of whales. Jetfire ejected from the ship before impact and managed to seal Scourge in a booby-trapped stasis pod, but an avalanche buried both of them in ice. At an ill-defined point in time, the Decepticons discovered Jetfire and brought the slab of ice containing him back to their underwater base. Upon returning from a trip to Cybertron with fresh plans of conquest, Starscream thawed Jetfire out to aid in repelling the maniacal
Sunstorm, a clone of himself that
Shockwave had created, but which had gone insane. Deducing Sunstorm's clone nature, Jetfire jury-rigged a power siphon to de-energise him, and then reactivated Omega Supreme to battle him. To save his own skin from Autobot retribution, however, Starscream had a change of heart and saved Sunstorm, who led him to a mysterious underground energy reservoir that Sunstorm intended to use to give Starscream powers like his own. Yet another double-cross by Starscream saw Sunstorm immersed in the liquid as well, and it began to destroy him from within as Jetfire engaged him in battle, leading him out into space where he exploded, apparently taking Jetfire with him.
Fun Publications Classicverse In the
Fun Publications Classicverse stories Optimus Prime has returned to Earth commanding
Bumblebee,
Cliffjumper,
Grimlock, Jetfire,
Mirage and
Rodimus (formerly Hot Rod). In the story
Crossing Over, Jetfire was among the Autobot troops of Optimus Prime who responded to the sighting of
Megatron and arrived in time to save the dimensional traveling Autobot Skyfall from Megatron's wraith. In ''At Fight's End'', Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust are under the orders of Megatron. The city was defended by Ironhide, Jetfire, Optimus Prime and
Sunstreaker.
IDW Publishing Jetfire was presented as a technician and computer expert, who ran field ops during the battle of Thunderhead Pass trying to find a weakness in Thunderwing that could allow the Autobot-Decepticon army to defeat him. Many years later, he and the
Technobots served as a scientific surveillance team orbiting a devastated Cybertron, monitoring it for any signs of life. The discovery of an energy spike caused Jetfire to lead the team down to the planet, where they were assaulted and captured by a team of Decepticon cultists who worshipped Thunderwing. Once freed by Optimus Prime and the
Wreckers, his skills at decrypting Bludgeon's computer files uncovered an exploitable weakness in Thunderwing's new power source, allowing Prime to eventually defeat him, and uncovered
Shockwave's Energon-seeding plan Regenesis. His appearance is based on the recent redesign of the character seen in the Transformers Classics toy line. He was also mentioned in
Transformers: Escalation during a communication between Optimus Prime and him.
Marvel Comics Jetfire was constructed by
Shockwave on Earth to be one of his new Decepticon troops, given life through the powers of the
Creation Matrix, tapped from the captive Autobot leader,
Optimus Prime. However, before Shockwave could accomplish this, Prime transferred the Matrix into the mind of the Autobots' human ally, Buster Witwicky. Shockwave programmed Jetfire's lifeless shell to recover Buster, but Buster was able to use the Matrix to disassemble Jetfire before he could accomplish his goal. Buster then reconstructed Jetfire and used him to rescue Optimus Prime, who infused Jetfire with true life. Immediately after this—in the UK's sister
Transformers comic series, which interspliced its own original material between reprints of the US Marvel title—Jetfire participated in the "Dinobot Hunt", helping to track down the rogue Dinobots, who were running wild across America. Still bearing the Decepticon insignia Shockwave had stamped him with, Jetfire was not trusted by Ironhide until he saved him from the deranged Slag, proving his Autobot loyalty. Subsequently, in the US title, he underwent the Rite of Autobrand and was branded with the Autobot insignia at last. Jetfire went on to perform few significant actions in the future (although he did serve as the Autobots' acting leader against
Galvatron in the
Target:2006 storyline), but was clearly thoroughly accepted into the Autobots, as he was one of the small number of voices heard when a new Autobot leader had to be chosen, and Dinobot leader
Grimlock was elected. A story called
The Gift in issue 93 of the Marvel UK comics explored Jetfire's problems fitting in with the other Autobots. Wheeljack informed
Optimus Prime of a newscast where they learned the Decepticons had taken over a
NASA space monitoring facility near the
Ark.
Prowl and
Trailbreaker, with Jetfire as backup engaged the Decepticons
Soundwave, Kickback and Dirge as the Decepticons attempted to contact Cybertron with the facility's deep space radio equipment. Although Prowl ordered Jetfire to stop Soundwave from sending his message, Jetfire ignored the order to help save Prowl from Kickback's attack. With the transmission sent the Decepticons retreated victorious. Jetfire then accompanied
Jazz to a
Blackrock fuel plant to oversee the creation of more fuel for the Autobots. The plant was attacked by Decepticons Thrust and Bombshell. Although Jetfire was able to put out a fire at the plant before it exploded, he blamed himself for being slow to react. Jetfire then visited Buster Witwicky on
Christmas Eve and told him of his troubles of not fitting in with the Cybertronian-made Autobots. Buster encouraged the young Autobot by telling him he's the first of a new generation of Earth-made Autobots and he should be proud of what he is. In issue #27 (US), "King of the Hill!",
Perceptor summoned his fellow Autobots
Blaster,
Hot Spot, Jetfire,
Omega Supreme, Ratchet and
Silverbolt in order to decide who should take leadership of the Autobots. After an attack by the giant Decepticon
Trypticon the leader was chosen—
Grimlock. Sometime later, Jetfire was among the Transformers who attempted to defend
New York City from the cosmically powered Starscream, only to be deactivated alongside everyone else. Unlike most of Starscream's victims, there was no indication that he was revived through the power of nucleon.
Games The
Robots in Disguise Classic line appeared in a simple
Flash-based video game on the Hasbro website called
Transformers Battle Circuit. In this one-on-one fighting game, the player presses the right and left arrow keys to try to overpower their opponent. Players can control Rodimus, Bumblebee, Grimlock, Jetfire, Starscream, Astrotrain, Trypticon or Menasor. Optimus Prime and Megatron each appear as the
boss to defeat to win the game. He also featured as a playable character in Glu's android game: Transformers G1 - Awakening
Other media Marge Simpson appeared as Skyfire in one opening sequence to the Simpsons alongside the rest of the Simpson family rendered as Autobots. Skyfire briefly appears among the characters in
Re-Unification, the 2010 TFcon voice actor play prelude comic.
Toys • '''
Generation 1 Jetfire''' (1985) :The first two years of Transformers toys were figures taken from older Japanese toylines, primarily
Takara's
Diaclone and
Microman lines. 1985, however, saw several figures reused from lines created by
Takatoku Toys, of which Jetfire was one—that of the
VF-1S Super Valkyrie Fighter from the
Macross series. This figure was one of the most
articulated of the early Transformer toys, featuring fully poseable shoulder, hip, elbow and knee joints, and even poseable
sacroiliac joints. The instruction manual for the toy even included the
GERWALK mode designed for the
Macross version of the toy, which was used in that animated series, and seen briefly in the
Transformers season 2 episode "Day of the Machines". :Problems over the Jetfire toy began when
Bandai absorbed Takatoku Toys, and
Macross regained popularity, leading to Bandai's desire to reproduce the Valkyrie toy themselves. This led to problems for Takara when they imported the Transformers toyline—although Hasbro was able to market the Jetfire toy in their markets,
Takara was not, nor could they promote it via the animated series, since the mold was owned by their main competitor, and therefore, it was viewed as potential free advertising for Takatoku (this issue also prevented the Deluxe Vehicles, Deluxe Insecticons,
Omega Supreme, and Sky Lynx from being released in Japan, though after Takara merged with
Tomy, the latter two were finally released in Japan). Although an animation model had been created for Jetfire based on the appearance of the toy (which could be seen in the original toy commercial advertising the figure), this was quickly abandoned and completely redesigned so as to no longer resemble the Valkyrie. This was the design that went on to feature in the comics and cartoons. :Jetfire only saw a few American production runs, as the show the original toy was based upon,
The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, was exported to America to become the first third of
Robotech. Ironically, since Hasbro released Jetfire first, there was never a U.S. release of an authentic transforming version of the toy for
Robotech, even though the design was the series' most recognizable and popular mecha. As with other pre-
Robotech borrowings from
Macross (for instance,
BattleTech), the licensing situation for the toy became murky with two different companies (
Big West and
Tatsunoko Production) asserting exclusive rights to license
Macross merchandise outside Japan. Due to these legal issues, Jetfire has not been among the Transformers toys reissued in the 21st century, instead being offered as part of the War For Cybertron: Siege toyline in his cartoon/comic design. :This toy is patented in the U.S. as patent number D287037. • '''
Generation 2 Cyberjet Jetfire''' (1995) :The first new Jetfire in a decade was a member of the
Cyberjets, highly poseable, ball-jointed jets with pressure-activated launching missiles. A repaint of the Decepticon figure released at the same time named Hooligan—and consequently erroneously decorated with Decepticon symbols—this figure bore some physical resemblance to his original (unarmored) self, although his color scheme and missile launcher arm drew attention away from his familiar shape. His tech spec bio made it clear that this was still the same Jetfire as before. Cyberjet Jetfire could be partially transformed into a forward-kneed "gerwalk" mode, but his rear wings and tail made the figure too top-heavy to stand upright for very long. • '''
Robot Masters R-Blade''' (2004) :Cyberjet Jetfire figure was redecoed in 2004 for the Japanese-exclusive
Transformers: Robot Masters toyline as
R-Blade, in a red, white and black color scheme that was a direct homage to the original Jetfire. The bio of this figure specifically noted that Jetfire was the leader of the Cyberjets, although the original figure's bio made no mention of it. R-Blade comes with the missile weapon as a
sonic lance and a
flare gun. • '''
Titanium 6 inch Jetfire''' (2006) :Released in the second wave of the die-cast metal
Transformers: Titanium line, this 6" version of Jetfire is based on his Cybertronian mode from Dreamwave's
War Within comic book series. • '''
Classics Voyager Jetfire''' (2007) :Part of the second wave of releases for the
Transformers Classics toy line, this incarnation of Jetfire has a removable booster pack and helmet; with them attached (and excluding the translucent blue missiles), the toy looks much like the
Macross (Super) Valkyrie-based original. Without them, he is closer to Skyfire's appearance on the Generation 1 cartoon. His double-barreled rifle was also made to resemble Skyfire's weapon from the cartoon. Some fans have also found a sort of "hidden" mode with the Classics figure. Due to the toy's unusual hip design, it can be configured into a Gerwalk-like mode, although no official public documentation by Hasbro, on the website or instruction sheet, specifies this. Without armor, Jetfire's vehicle mode resembles an
F-14 Tomcat, with exhaust design elements inspired by the
F-22 Raptor. :A printing error on the back of the Classic Grimlock box used Jetfire's picture as one of his co-sells, but listed him as the Decepticon Astrotrain. :This toy was remolded into the
BotCon 2007 exclusive Timelines Dreadwind and the 2008
Universe Series Tread Bolt. • '''
Classics Legends Jetfire''' (2007) :First seen at Botcon 2006, the Legends Jetfire is a repaint of
Cybertron Legends
Thundercracker in the traditional colors of Jetfire. :This version of Jetfire turns into an SU-27 Flanker jet. • '''
Henkei! Henkei! C-06 Voyager Cybertron Skyfire''' (2008) :The Japanese version of the
Classics Voyager figure by
Takara Tomy is virtually identical to the Hasbro version. • '''
Gentei! Gentei! Voyager Dark Skyfire''' (2009) :Exclusive to Toy Hobby Market in Japan, this is a dark gray/purple redeco of
Classics Voyager Jetfire as a Decepticon. • '''
Transformers Kabaya Gum Skyfire''' (2010) :Part of Wave 2 of
Kabaya's
Transformers candy toy line. The package comes with an easy-to-assemble robot kit and a stick of gum. The Jetfire toy in this line is a simplified version of the
Universe/
Henkei figure. • '''
Generations Leader Jetfire''' (2014) :An all-new mold of Jetfire released as part of the Transformers franchise's 30th anniversary offerings. The figure incorporates design elements of the original 1984 toy and Skyfire's animation art. ==
Transformers: Robots in Disguise==