Jetstorm (Animated)
| The name or term "Jetstorm" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Jetstorm (disambiguation). |
- Jetstorm is an Autobot from the Animated continuity family.
Jetstorm and his twin brother Jetfire are part of a risky Autobot Elite Guard experiment in duplicating the flight and combat abilities of the Decepticons. The two also have the ability to combine into the powerful robot Safeguard.
Fiction
Animated continuity
- Voice actor: Phil LaMarr (English)
Jetstorm was a simple repair bot who, along with his brother Jetfire, nearly died in an on-site accident. Viewed by the Elite Guard as completely expendable, Jetstorm and his brother were chosen to have Decepticon coding (acquired from Starscream during his time in custody) grafted onto their Autobot shells in hopes that the pair would gain the Decepticons' flight abilities. Wheeljack, Perceptor and Red Alert did the necessary calculations and programming needed. After this, the pair's combat abilities were tested against Jazz, whom they easily defeated.
To try their combat skills against a Decepticon, Starscream's programming was scanned into a combat simulator. However, Starscream's programming overpowered the training system, and the battle became real. Starscream's strength and cunning were more than they expected; Jetfire briefly lost control of his flame throwers and began to burn up, only to be saved when Jetstorm's wind turbines put out the flames. With newfound determination, the two combined into Safeguard for the first time and destroyed the virtual Decepticon. After this performance, Jetstorm and his brother were inducted into the Elite Guard. Rise of Safeguard
 Spoiler warning: Plot details for Where Is Thy Sting? follow. of the next episode/issue in the series or 30 days after release, whichever is sooner |
Later, Jetstorm, along with his brother, Jazz, and Sentinel Prime, were sent by Longarm to chase after the supposed Decepticon spy Wasp. The twins soon found a Wasp-disguised Bumblebee, who Wasp intended to frame by swapping paintjobs and voices, but Jetstorm accidentally flew Bumblebee away. They then were confronted by Optimus Prime and Ratchet, who mistook them for Decepticons due to their ability to fly. After a one-on-one battle with Optimus & Ratchet (with Jetstorm facing Optimus and Jetfire facing Ratchet, respectively), the two combined into Safeguard and try to gain the upper-hand, only to have the brawl end when Sentinel & Jazz arrive and clears up the misunderstanding. Then, under Sentinel's orders, the twins set out to find Wasp once more.
They later found him, with Bulkhead and Prowl, who try to convince them of that Wasp swapped places with Bumblebee, but to no avail, and the twins assumed them as traitors and attacked them. The long battle was, once again, broken up by the others, who are told of Bumblebee's true identity. The group soon head back to the Autobot's base to try to sort this out. Hwever, Wasp hacked into the Autobot's files of Bumblebee, allowing Wasp to know everything about Bumblebee. However, Bulkhead decided to settle it in a game of Ninja Gladiator to determine the real Bumblebee. Jetfire and Jetstorm were amazed at the video games that tehy both shouted that they would play whoever would win. This would not happen, as Wasp reveals his true identity, reswaps the paint jobs, and escapes. Where Is Thy Sting?
Toys
Animated
- Jetfire and Jetstorm (Entertainment Pack, 2008)
- Available only in a Voyager-class two-pack with his brother Jetfire, Jetstorm transforms into a blue Cybertronic wedge-shaped jet. He features pop-up "ice blades" in his robot mode armor. He can combine with his brother in both modes; in vehicle mode, they form an odd super-jet simply by docking together along their undercarriages (Yes, yes, har har, very droll), while Jetstorm's robot mode forms the left half of the super robot Safeguard.
- Both Jetfire and Jetstorm can flip open their cockpits. Very nice.
- The set comes with a bonus comic book, Rise of Safeguard, which details the creation of the twins.
Trivia
- Jetstorm's design, revealed at BotCon 2008, contains numerous homages to the Beast Machines Vehicon General Jetstorm, particularly his helmet.
- Jetfire and Jetstorm's fire/ice theme has its roots in some of the earliest concepts of Animated. Sean Galloway, who had been commissioned to do early concept work for the series, revealed several pieces of this concept art long before the "final" Derrick Wyatt-designed characters were shown. Among these images were a pair of "fire and wind" robots who have a few features that made it into the jet-twins' final designs.
- In addition to the fire/ice theme, the twins' method of combination is an intentional homage on Wyatt's part to Hyoryu and Enryu/Choryujin from the final installment of Takara's Brave Series, King of Braves GaoGaiGar.
- In the early stages of the toy's development, the end of the twins' combined vehicle mode is supposed to split apart and wings are supposed to slide out of the shins, so that the combined mode resembles an X-wing fighter<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-0" title="">[1]</a></sup>; however, this did not appear in the released instructions. Their robot modes were also initially shown mistransformed; both are supposed to have visible hands in their individual and combined modes.
References
<ol class="references"><li id="cite_note-0"><a href="#cite_ref-0" title="">↑</a> <a href="http://derrickjwyatt.blogspot.com/2008/09/hey-everybody-its-prowl.html" class="external free" title="http://derrickjwyatt.blogspot.com/2008/09/hey-everybody-its-prowl.html" rel="nofollow">http://derrickjwyatt.blogspot.com/2008/09/hey-everybody-its-prowl.html</a></ol>
