Jetfire (G1)
Jetfire is an Autobot from the Generation 1 series. He is also 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
Fiction
Animated continuity
Voice actor: Gregg Berger (US), Osamu Saka (Japan)
(In the G1 Cartoon Jetfire went by the name Skyfire. This was altered from the toy, as was his appearance in nearly all media, due to liscensing issues with the Robotech/Macross design he was based on.)
Millions of years ago on Cybertron, Skyfire and Starscream were good friends and fellow scientists. On a mission of exploration to prehistoric Earth Skyfire was lost in a storm and burried beneath the arctic ice. Starscream searched long and hard, but there was no sign of his comrade. He returned home.
Later the Decepticons found and revived Skyfire who joined them due to his past friendship with Starscream. When his compasion for humans led to his disobeying orders, Starscream, who had changed much in the intervening millenia, turned on his friend. Skyfire left the Decepticons and joined the Autobots, sacrificing himself again to be burried beneath the ice to stop the Decepticon's plans.
The Autobots would later dig him up when ever they needed an airborn taxi-service.
Marvel Comics continuity
See & Read Video
He went on a lot of suicide missions.
Generation 2 manga
(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 Skyfire's 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 be 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. But despite this revelation, 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
Against regulations Jetfire (his design here based on the Classics Jetfire toy) and the Technobots traveled to the supposedly abandoned husk of Cybertron from their science vessel the Calabi-Yau to investigate a strange energy reading. They were ambushed by a mysterious group of robots with some sort of stealth abilies. The Technobots are bady damaged or destroyed and Jetfire is captured. When he revives he finds his captors apparently worshiping the deadly Transformer Thunderwing.
Toys
Generation 1
- Jetfire
- 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.
Generation 2
- Jetfire
- 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.
(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
- Jetfire
Classics
- Jetfire (Voyager, 2006)
- Stormbringer Jetfire is supposed to be Classics Jetfire. Buy now. 'Nuff said.
- Jetfire (Legends, 2006)
- This toy is a redeco of Legends of Cybertron Thundercracker. The redeco was orginally thought up as a Sky Lynx toy by Aaron Archer, but Joe Kyde suggested a Jetfire redeco instead.
External Links
