21 March 2008

I like to call him Skyfire



‘His name is Skyfire. We were scientists before the great war….’ Starscream to Megatron in Fire in the Sky.

That was episode #07 of Transformers. It was the seventh week in a row I was blown away- this time by a huge white and blue giant that towers more than 2 heads above Optimus Prime and transforms into a jet.

His name is Skyfire.

A little me was quite disappointed when I discovered the Skyfire toy representation is actually a red and white repaint of a VF-1S Super Valkyrie, which looked nothing like he did in Fire in the Sky. What’s worse, it was called Jetfire. Yes, the Roy Fokker VF-1S Skull Squadron Super Valkyrie is very cool and more than a little desirable, but that is still insufficient for it to be called Skyfire, surely.

Sadly, as history would reveal, Jetfire is the name that won out over Skyfire in terms of who would be the large white scientist jet that also functions as the Autobot Air Guardian. I still cringe a little when I come across the name Jetfire and much as possible would read it as ‘Skyfire’ in my mind.

For me at least, Skyfire, of the design in the G1 cartoons, would remain the Autobot Air Guardian; and Jetfire would ever remain a red and white Macross Super Valkyrie with an Autobot symbol.

Once again, another instance where I’m treating the cartoons rather than comics as canon and it seems the advent of history, like for RIBFIR, makes me appear like a person in constant denial. It’s certainly a questionable outlook, but that’s where I will stand at the moment.

This is not Skyfire. This is Jetfire, a different Autobot.


This is Skyfire.

3 comments:

  1. I feel the same way and adore the fact that they released the "Classics Jetfire" with a Skyfire face (once the helmet is removed) and a more similar jet form. If only they had tapered the cone in the opposite direction, it would have been so close. Of course, the toy also still has the double red barrel guns, but those are required to simultaneously maintain the Jetfire homage.

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  2. Screw the cartoon. Screw the comics. Toys uber alles!

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  3. Jaydisc, I'm with you there. Other than Unicron, I think Classics Jetfire qualifies as the other toy that fans have been waiting 2 decades for. I do wish that there is less 'macross valkyrie' homage though. It could have been made to look as close to 100% G1 Skyfire as possible. That would rock!

    Botch, without the cartoon or the comics as marketing vehicles, the toys may or may not have taken off- the cartoons and comics increase awareness and fuel imaginations which sparks the fire to buy the toys.

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