Jetstorm (BM)

The name or term "Jetstorm" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Jetstorm (disambiguation).

Jetstorm is a Vehicon from the Beast Machines portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Air superiority complex.

Arrogant and cocky with the skills to back up all his big talk, Jetstorm leads Megatron's aero-drones in his bid to remove the last vestiges of resistance on Cybertron. He is distinguished from the other drones as having a more purple colour scheme and yellow markings on his body. The only thing Jetstorm likes more than cracking wise is cracking heads. He takes great pleasure in tormenting the Maximals and lets them know at every opportunity how much better than them he is. He has a nasty temper that is barely hidden behind a thin veneer of cool indifference, and it really doesn't take much to set him off. Like that Blackarachnia chick, what's she staring at?

Despite his smarm, bravado and temper, Jetstorm knows when to cut his losses and run for it. He may have a whole load of personality flaws (and a load of aero-drones to back him up), but he's not stupid. Despite early rivalries, he has also developed a camaraderie with Thrust, even though the idea of being friends with anyone initially came as something of a shock.

Jetstorm is in actuality a programmed shell personality given life by the spark of the Maximal Silverbolt.

His Command Code is "afterburn".

Get it through your CPU! That program has been deleted. I'm Jetstorm now. PERIOD!—Jetstorm getting sick of Blackarachnia's attempts to appeal to Silverbolt, "Savage Noble"

Spanish name: Aluvion (toy)

French-Canadian name: L'orageux

Fiction

Cartoon continuity

Beast Machines

Voice actor: Brian Drummond, Scott McNeil (as Silverbolt) (English), Mitsuo Iwata (Japanese), Marcus Jardym (Brazil)

Jetstorm came online alongside fellow generals Tankor and Thrust, when Megatron realized that controlling his vast armies of Vehicon drones directly was beyond even his mental capacities. In order to more efficiently guide his forces, he created the Vehicon generals to serve as field commanders answering directly to him. Showing a twisted sense of humor, Megatron summoned the familiar sparks of two captured Maximals and one Predacon from the Beast Wars to be his puppets, installing personality shell programs to make them unrecognizable by their former comrades and foes alike. For the bombastic and cruel Jetstorm, he used the spark of the noble and chivalrous Fuzor called Silverbolt.

Wonder who would call their child "Problem"?

Jetstorm made his entrance alongside Thrust and Tankor, with Rattrap and Blackarachnia as his audience. When the spider lady noted that three mindless drones shouldn't be a problem, Jetstorm stunned the Maximals by replying that one, they weren't drones; two, they weren't mindless; and three, "Problem" was his middle name. Jetstorm teamed up with Thrust against Blackarachnia, strafing her from the air and obliging her with a ride through the skies after she webbed herself to him. When they initially lost the Maximals' signatures, Jetstorm was the first to detect them inside the spaceport terminal building, and the chase resumed, ending with a firefight between the generals and Optimus Primal and Cheetor that caused the destruction of the Autobot shuttle Omega-Delta. Fires of the Past

Berated by Megatron after his team's failures, Jetstorm protested that he'd almost captured the Maximals, only for the "lugnuts" to screw him up. Unsurprisingly, Megatron didn't buy it. After a couple of painful jolts and a promise of either reward or suffering, the three generals hit the road to find the Maximals. When Thrust stopped and began to brood, Jetstorm confronted him and demanded to know what the problem was, instigating a fight with the Cycle Commander. While they were dueling, the two picked up the Maximals' signatures and took off, only to find Tankor had beaten them to the prize. Teaming up with Thrust, Jetstorm attacked Tankor, landing a solid hit on him but ultimately getting himself knocked out when Tankor's counterattack blew up a fuel tank which walloped everyone but him. Later, Jetstorm angrily told Thrust he never wanted to see "that slagging turret-head" again—right before they were blasted back and then crushed by a falling Tankor. Mercenary Pursuits

A sub-surface scan picked up Cheetor's Maximal signature, and Jetstorm brought some Aerodrones to play. He went right for the new guy, hoping to teach Bat Boy some new lessons in pain. Optimus shook him off, though, and the beasties made a run for it. Jetstorm pursued with a homing bomb, setting it to lock onto the Maximals before zooming in to detonate at close range. Nightscream scrambled its locking mechanism with some hypersonics, however, and the bomb went after the Aerodrones instead! One big plume of flame later, Nightscream pressed his advantage by sonic-scrambling the drones up close, getting them to fire on each other and their general. Jetstorm was fuming, and swore to return with a full battalion to fry the animals. He tried out a new activation code as he tookoff, too..."Jetstorm: Adios!"

Jetstorm and his Vehicons tracked the Maximals to an underground orchard soon afterwards. Jetstorm gunned down the mouthy punk bat as revenge for earlier, but then Optimus Primal reformatted Nightscream into a techno-organic. The blasted kid now had sonic blasts, and he shot down Jetstorm's wingmen, then Jetstorm himself. Weakened from the fight, Jetstorm initiated an evacuation sequence in his remaining drones, to live to blight another day. Forbidden Fruit

The generals met up with the Maximals again at a Vehicon manufacturing plant. Cheetor and Nightscream were in the process of leading Jetstorm and Tankor into a trap when Rattrap bungled into the picture. Of course, his bungling still knocked the two generals for a loop. After a power surge knocked out at least three quarters of Megatron's power, the backwash also took Jetstorm and the others off-line for the remainder of the solar cycle. The Weak Component

In another chase, Jetstorm and the Vehicon generals attacked the Maximals near the spark extraction facility where Cybertron's populace was broken down for parts. Jetstorm's greatest nemesis during this battle was not the Maximals, but the randomly backfiring coolant vents that littered the area. He just had no luck with those things at all. Revelations Part I: Discovery Next, Jetstorm and Thrust responded to Nightscream and Blackarachnia blatently causing a distraction in the midst of Cybertropolis. Jetstorm toyed with the fruity bat boy for awhile before the brat fanged him. He soon confronted Thrust about how he was clearly not shooting at Blackarachnia. Thrust finally took the shot, but Jetstorm used the power of peer pressure to push him into finishing the job. Nightscream intervened, only to take himself and Thrust temporarily out of action. Jetstorm stepped in with style and used the portable spark extractor to steal the spider-babe's spark for himself. Revelations Part II: Descent Once he had her spark, Jetstorm took off to bring his prize to Megatron, and maybe earn a prize of his own. Nightscream was right behind him, though, and he swiped back the spark extractor. Jetstorm was so furious about losing the spark that his jovial mask slipped briefly, and he tore after the Maximal in an absolute rage. Pursuing Nightscream into a building, Jetstorm thought he cornered the punk in an elevator shaft until Nightscream dropped the car down on top of him. It hurt, but nowhere near as much as the pun. Revelations Part III: Apocalypse

Although Silverbolt's former lover, Blackarachnia, initially believed that Thrust possessed the spark of her beloved, she soon discovered the truth, that Thrust had Waspinator's spark and Silverbolt was in Jetstorm's body, and she went to great lengths to reawaken the Maximal spark Jetstorm held within him. And what did she get for her trouble? A samurai hawk with serious issues. After Optimus Primal and Megatron fell to their deaths into the organic core of Cybertron, which resulted in its reformatting into a technoorganic world and the restoration of its inhabitants, Silverbolt was his old passionate self, Blackarachnia was so happy and the two embraced, despite his corny line.

Toys

Beast Machines

• Jetstorm (Deluxe, 2000)
  • Accessories: 2 missiles

Er, right... I'm who now?

Part of the first wave of Beast Machines Deluxes, Jetstorm transforms into a Cybertronic fighter jet. His jet-mode cockpit has a spring-loaded extension, giving him a bird-like head in this form that is articulated at the neck to "search" for targets. Both jet and robot modes feature spring-loaded "energy blast" missiles. He also has an alternate robot mode, which folds his legs into a "flight cone" and reveals jet thrusters.

Note that, in the photo to the left, Jetstorm is slightly mis-transformed. In robot mode, the chest panels have holes in the back designed to pop over the yellow nubs on the collar plate, thus locking together the collar and the two halves of the torso. Further, in vehicle mode, his wings should be swept forward (like the Ultra-class toy below).

This mold has been redecoed to make the Sonic Attack Jet, Robots in Disguise Storm Jet and Jhiaxus, and Universe Skywarp.

• More information on Jetstorm (deluxe) at TFU.info

Dancing on air!

• Jetstorm (Ultra, 2000)
  • Accessories: 2 missiles, 2 drones

Part of the first wave of Ultra-class Beast Machines toys, Jetstorm is also the first Ultra-class toy since the beginning of the "Beast Era" to feature electronics. He was also the largest Ultra-class toy yet. Like the Deluxe version, he transforms into a Cybertronic fighter jet, but in this incarnation the jet mode looks far more like the Mainframe CGI model, even if the robot mode bears only a slightly stronger resemblance. His jet mode cockpit/neck is geared up with the pop-up gun turret on his back so that both turn in the same direction when moved. This turret has a light-up feature plus two spring-loaded missiles. Like the small toy, he has both a "normal" bipedal robot mode and a "flight robot mode" with pop-out thruster engines.

This mold was redecoed into the BotCon 2002 exclusive Cyclonus.

• More information on Jetstorm (Ultra) at TFU.info

• Jetstorm (Happy Meal, 2000)

The McDonald's Happy Meal toy's robot mode was very close to the CGI model -- from the waist up. Below the waist, the jet nose splits into two halves. Legs? Feet? Who knows? The toy's front torso is made of translucent plastic to simulate his slender TV show model, despite being quite fat. He also features a light piping gimmick which causes the spark crystal on his chest to light up when he's held up to the light. In jet mode his cockpit also has limited light piping.

• More information on Jetstorm (Mcdonald's) at TFU.info

• Jetstorm (Little Red Rooster Meal, 2000)

The McDonald's Happy Meal Jetstorm was also released in Australia through the Red Rooster restaurant chain. Like the other three toys, it came in four colors: the original colors (with opaques replacing the transparents), red, green, and very light blue. It was retooled from the original version, losing the light piping. To make up for this it has (sloppily) painted on 'eyes' for its jet mode.

Due to the lack of translucent plastic the toy's profile is different to the McDonalds version, looking somewhat fatter. This version of the toy isn't as well ballanced as the McDonalds version, either. They fall down a lot.

• More information on Jetstorm (Little Red Rooster) at TFU.info (scroll down)

Beast Wars Returns

• Vehicon Jetstorm (Ultra, 2005)
  • Accessories: 2 missiles, 2 drones

A redeco of the U.S. market Ultra figure, released as part of the Toys R Us exclusive Beast Wars Returns line in Japan. It is one of the less drastic redecos of the line, and is fairly similar to the U.S. release, substituting most grey parts for a secondary shade of greyish blue, and replacing some of the yellow and all the gold highlights with both a silvery grey and more blue, most notably on his cheek plates. It gives the figure a darker, more sombre and overall blue appearance, in order to have greater show-accuracy.

• More information on Beast Wars Return Jetstorm at TFU.info (scroll down)

Merchandise

Robot Heroes

Beast Machines series

• Optimus Primal vs. Jetstorm (2009)

Your bargaining posture is highly dubious. Proceed on your way to oblivion. This item has been canceled, with no current plans for release.

Notes

Jetstorm's summer wear.

• Jetstorm's pre-release name was Skybolt, but that was deemed too close to "Silverbolt", so the name was changed to further obscure the identity of Jetstorm's spark.
• Early concept artwork showed Jetstorm as being red instead of blue.
• Jetstorm was prone to making pop culture references, including "Gotta Catch 'em All!" (the slogan for the Pokémon franchise) and "swing batty-batty!" (a baseball pun intended to nark off Nightscream).
• In the show, Jetstorm has no feet and never walks. He only touches the ground when he is prone/disabled.