Transformers: Classics Jetfire is Something That Exists

OK, here's a bonus article. I've had this one on the buffer for a while, and it's TFNation week! So why not?

 

The 1985 Jetfire Toy

An increasingly common irony in Transformers is how nostalgia lines have aged into retro themselves. Classics is probably the best example. Its the forerunner to the modern collectors line, and the capital C of the inelegant fandom term CHUG. Its near enough where geewunner pandering started, a filler line designed to fill the gap between the Unicron Trilogy and the first Bayverse film. Following on from efforts like the first Universe line, and the somewhat obscure Robotmasters line, Classics sought to do the G1 cast with then-modern engineering, but these were more reinventions than direct updates. These toys confirmed the demand for such things, with a lot of these these seeing much reuse in coming years, but such releases remained the exception, not the rule. Bayverse would dominate for a time, but G1 characters were back on rotation, and decade later we were swimming in such items. Well, sometimes its more like drowning, but I've already talked about that too much as it is. This places the Classics toyline in a bit of an odd position where it is well-loved, but pretty much everything it ever did has been supplanted several times over, but Generations has been so Sunbow G1 of late these early attempts have become interesting again. Jetfire can be considered a case study. In addition to being a go-to name for Autobot jetformers, Jetfire tends to pop up as a big box release, like as the first of the modern Commander class, and a Japanese Masterpiece release. The latter is rather funny given that Takara absolutely did not sell that character in the 80's, because a different Japanese company made the toy.

Now, I’ve written indirectly about Jetfire before. Specifically, he was the Transformers version of the Takutoku Valkyrie toy, a truly ahead of its time toy I gushed about. It looms large over this toy, both figuratively and literally. The legal minefield around that, much too lengthy to go into here, meant that Jetfire aka Skyfire had a substantially different character model from the toy, which presented a problem for any remake. Character-wise, Jetfire is a rare flying Autobot, a scientist whom hung around with Starscream in the before-times, tending to be depicted as both large and heavily armed. While he does better in comics, especially post-2000s releases, Jetfire has a relatively small number of fictional appearances. Legal issues again, plus Takara not wanting to promote a competitor's product, although the specifics aren’t entirely clear. I swear his popularity has more to do with the toy being awesome and the Macross connection. The version created for Classics then would split the difference having elements of both toy and animation, but also its own innovations. As far as jet mode goes, the balance is largely in favour of the 80s toy, the angular nose being the most obviously animation inspired bit. How sleek or convincing it is kinda scales with how much of the armour bits you put on it. As a basic jet, its not doing a bad job with respects to surface detailing and paint. Its very nicely presented, with landing gear, but the arms are just kinda hanging out in the underside. His rifle mitigates this somewhat, splitting in half to conceal the fists, but there are the obvious bare clips where the other bits go. Its not that disrupting to the deco, but I'd imagine the designers would just use 5mm ports these days. There's also a set of blasters on either side of the cockpit, which pivot vertically for dogfights, although my example is slightly damaged and missing one barrel. The cockpit window is translucent, and certainly nice in context, although there's not much in there to see other than the top of his head. Plonking on the assorted armour parts completes the look, completely disregarding aerodynamics, but gaining much credibility as a spaceship. it gains two sets of spring loaded gimmicks, two nowadays-rare firing missile launchers, and two flip-out cannons reminiscent of the VF1's Strike variant. The new parts downplay the weaknesses of the base jet with more guns, and even posable thrusters on the upper engines. Its big, its fun, its a swing-wing, and has no small amount of dakka. Its a great altmode, and bar the rifle, all the accessories can remain where they are during transformation, the missile launchers even having specifically shaped pegs for that. Its the mode that has aged the best, definitely.

Said transformation is maybe a touch unconventional? Maybe? It might just be my imagination. As noted with the arms in jet form, its not doing anything clever. And nor is it taking notes from the original toy, its engineering still outclassing our subject even when accounting for vintage and mass. But it does place the shoulders on some heavy duty ratcheting assemblies. This feels a bit like over engineering the whole matter, as you could have done a slider arrangement as with the legs. There is a bit of flair with how the nose of the plane forms the chest too, by splitting apart and folding to the sides. It adds a bit character to the process.

Upon putting Jetfire into robot mode, the first impression is that he's a big chap. Even if your strip off the myriad accessories, he still ends up a big chap due to the proportions and the wings. This guy looks like someone whom would put Starscream in a headlock and call him a nerd. And possibly looks like a giant, heavily-armed, butterfly. So, is this more toy or more Sunbow? Well, that's on you, there's a removable toy style helmet that conceals a cartoony head! This is a great way of doing it; they brought it back for the Siege And Thrilling Thirty versions, but I digress. It looks great, and the accessory game is excellent. The missile launchers are well-placed on the forearms, the rifle has a functioning sight on it, and you can fold the cannons over the shoulder. There's also gun ears, if you leave the battlemask on. So, massive presence, striking white & red colour scheme, enough dakka to please an Ork, what's not to like? Well, we have an extremely unusual situation here. When it comes to G1 updates and articulation, usually the only way is up, but with this toy its sidegrade as the original was so ahead of its time. The legs and neck are better, but the arms are worse, and this is annoying the arms don't have an excuse as they do nothing for the transformation. The limbs have their swivels in the wrong place, like below the elbow rather than above. As a result, Jetfire is limited to basic standing poses, not unreasonable given his chonkiness, but still a missed opportunity. In fairness though, this does also mean that the toy is very stable despite the pointy feet and the substantial backpack. There’s an awful lot of ratcheting joints, and very little in the way of hollowness, so assuming that the springs are good on your example, it feels quite solid in hand.

So, the painfully obvious question is, is Classics Jetfire an actual classic? Hmm, tricky. There's no disputing that it does several things very well. As a visual update of Jetfire its great, its fun to mess with in hand, and it does the whole fast-pack thing better than more recent toys. On the other hand, the articulation is frustratingly limited by modern standards, if not terrible by the standards of the day. Posing isn’t everything, but it is a thing, and its not like this is an Armada toy where articulation is the exception, not the rule. It doesn’t help that this toy is also following one of the all-time greats either. Then again, I find myself enjoying this toy in-spite of that weakness. As a reinterpretation, its pretty great, and it feels different enough from more recent releases to justify itself. Classic? Maybe not, but if you're smoking this kind of nostalgia, Classics Jetfire is worth tracking down.