The Energon Pub

Classics 1.0 Jetfire should have been called Skyfire as it was a cartoon art designs homage not a toy homage.

The classics 1.0 jetfire toy was based off the cartoon designs shown in the 1980's generation one cartoon.

Both DW & IDW borrowed heavily from the 1980's TF cartoon Skyfire art designs. when they created their comic art design version for jetfire in their comics.

It kinda would have made sense to name the classics 1.0 toy Skyfire. as it looked more like the cartoon art designs than the 1985 toy designs.

Personally I consider the Toynami MP Robotech toy & MP Macross toy as updated homage new molds based off the 1985 Jetfire toy mold.

Yes I realize,the Hasbro jetfire was liscensed for a temporary time from another company not called takara.

Hasbro called it skyfire in the 1980's cartoon. and jetfire in the 1985 toy line.

please post your thoughts on this.

ok. agreed.

I think it was a homage to both, really. I mean, the head with the helmet on looks more like the original toy jetfire than it does a homage to the cartoon, but then you take that little baby off, and whammo, youve got yourself a skyfire face hiding behind it. The takara version moreso, as the helmet has red eyes, yet the head lacks the black paint apps on the sides of the head, and was kept white to homage the cartoon.

Could it be that the copyright window just wasn't there? No idea. But I DO think that it should've been tweeked to an ultra class. If Hasbro thought the line would have blown up the way it did, I think that would've been a reality.

Regardless, its an incredible homage to both sides of the entertainment fence.

It was both a cartoon homage and a toy homage. It had toy-influenced armor and (for the domestic release) markings.

It's fine to call it either one, though. They're the exact same character.

I think the name Jetfire sounds more appropriate to the Henkei Black version, being that its jet in color. Didn't that pork pulling, Drift pull off a name switch like that?

How do you know it was not an homage to the G1 comic Jetfire?

It's also entirely possible that they still have the rights to the name Jetfire, but couldn't use "Skyfire" for one reason or another.

deathy wrote:please post your thoughts on this.

Honestly...who cares? Call it whatever you want. Knock the fig over and call it Susan for all anyone cares. The important thing is the caracter got a Classics release. Whether they called it that for legal reasons, better name recognition, or simply for shits & giggles...s'all good.

So why was RTS Legends Trailbreaker officially named Trailcutter?

This is reminding me that I still need to get this figuref for my collection.

Cartoon Skyfire definitely had guns on his head...er...a double ended removable backpack...er...thrusters for feet...er...removable red arm guns...er...what was I saying?

And here I though many of the Classics were designed around IDW character designs. That's where I saw them first. I find very little similarities between the original cartoons and the Classics designs. Don't get me wrong, I do see some similarites, but not enough to disclude IDW as the source for inspiration.

Im not sure about IDW. I think they used the universe molds for inspiration in their comics, and afterwards, it seemed that hasbro swapped positions and used IDWs designs for future releases.

Let me ask this:

Does the name printed on a cardstock packaging really matter? Is it really that hard to think of him as "Skyfire" instead of "Jetfire"?

Besides, they probably couldn't use "Skyfire" for trademark reasons.

Blackstreak wrote:And here I though many of the Classics were designed around IDW character designs. That's where I saw them first. I find very little similarities between the original cartoons and the Classics designs. Don't get me wrong, I do see some similarites, but not enough to disclude IDW as the source for inspiration.

I think the toy was inspiration for the comic on that one.

Henkei Skyfire got it right. The pint apps they used on the cockpit/chest look more like Skyfire form the cartoon.

Classics Jetfire is good but the extra detail gave henkei the edge and it looks more like the cartoon. Just look at pics of both.

Valandar wrote:It's also entirely possible that they still have the rights to the name Jetfire, but couldn't use "Skyfire" for one reason or another.

This is plausible, they were using the name Jetfire all throughout Armada/Energon/Cybertron, but when that Energon Omnicon that was an homage to Skyfire came out, they had to call him Skyblast instead.

I still think Jetfire's a better name for the classics toy, though. IMO, Hasbro's version looks like Jetfire, Takara's looks more like Skyfire.

How did Hasbro lose the rights to names of their own characters? I've seen it discussed before and wondered about it.

Classics Jetfire was based on early artwork for IDWs new continuity. Enter Stormbringer where we see our first comparason between the toy and the comic art. So like Prime and Megatron in Classics, (and the entire first run of classics) they were to be updated versions of themselves.

Now, in Henkei they did call him Skyfire because they have the ability to call him that over there, much like Octane in Henkei was Tankor for Hasbro. Naming issues have always been a thang for Hasbro. Shockblast comes to mind right off the bat.

Down_Shift wrote: Now, in Henkei they did call him Skyfire because they have the ability to call him that over there, much like Octane in Henkei was Tankor for Hasbro. Naming issues have always been a thang for Hasbro. Shockblast comes to mind right off the bat.

We'll at the very least Takara acknowledged the Henkei toy as Skyfire.

I just want to add: That i'm very impressed with this clasics 1.0 Jetfire voyager sized toy. hasbro/Takara did a excellent job creating this toy.

Down_Shift wrote:Classics Jetfire was based on early artwork for IDWs new continuity. Enter Stormbringer where we see our first comparason between the toy and the comic art. So like Prime and Megatron in Classics, (and the entire first run of classics) they were to be updated versions of themselves.

Nope, Don Fig saw the early concept art for Classics Jetfire and loved it so much that he used the design for Stormbringer.

HoosierDaddy wrote:How did Hasbro lose the rights to names of their own characters? I've seen it discussed before and wondered about it.

No idea on the specifics of Skyfire, but in general, it's because some other company has come out with a similarly named product since the last time Hasbro used it or the term is so generic that it can't be trademarked (that's more for stuff like Jazz where they start adding things like Autobot to it, though).

Unlike copyrights, trademarks don't just go on for decades and decades, so if Hasbro doesn't use a particular name, or even just doesn't defend a particular name, it only takes a short time for someone else to be able to come along and snag the name for some other product.

Furthermore, things were looser in the 80's and early 90's than they are now about this sort of thing, so even some names that were okay then aren't now even without taking abandonment into consideration.

I can't really prove it, but personally, I think Hasbro really started getting paranoid after Mattel put up a big stink when the GI Joe line added the Street Fighter characters and thus Hasbro was going to have a Ken "doll" on the shelves. Hasbro changed the toy name to "Ken Masters", even though in the games the toys were based on it was always just Ken. That's the first time I know of them starting to play the name game with their products, at least in a way that mattered to the end consumer.

I for one was disappointed with henkei Skyfire's SIZE. He should have been as large as Powerglide. Didn't really care for any sound effects but that they should have designed him as big as the original "Valkyrie"

fenrir72 wrote:I for one was disappointed with henkei Skyfire's SIZE. He should have been as large as Powerglide. Didn't really care for any sound effects but that they should have designed him as big as the original "Valkyrie"

He was always a big guy, so I'm with you on this one. The Classics lines were always quite limited with what they could do, though, so I can appreciate it for what it is.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:I for one was disappointed with henkei Skyfire's SIZE. He should have been as large as Powerglide. Didn't really care for any sound effects but that they should have designed him as big as the original "Valkyrie"

He was always a big guy, so I'm with you on this one. The Classics lines were always quite limited with what they could do, though, so I can appreciate it for what it is.

I can accept 1.0 Jetfire's toy height+bulk because at least he's a similar size to the 1.0 Voyager faction leaders.