Remember that the original Transformers cartoon was first and foremost a very elaborate toy commercial. I think that's why there were so many "one-shot" characters.... each character had to have his moment in the sun, to introduce a new toy kids could buy, but once that was done they had to move on to the next one. I mean, really, by modern standards the number of named characters in G1 was ridiculously huge.

But on the up-side, Jetfire/Skyfire became enough of a fan favorite that he has been resurrected many times in subsequent series/toylines. Sometimes he's referenced in name only (like in the Unicron trilogy) but others he clearly IS the same character (Classics and the modern comics universe).

So he's still around, as much as any of the G1 guys (and a lot more than some).

 

Actually, they do. A lot of G1 characters were barely used on the cartoon. Windcharger, Gears, Prowl, Sideswipe, Skids, Reflector, Frenxy, Buzzsaw... The list just goes on and on. Skyfire had his moment in the sun, then he got dropped. It happened. A lot.

 

He read the little reader and the find your fate books where he seems to constantly be sacrificing himself, and thought, "If that's all they think of me, screw it." He took off, and was never heard from again.

 

Thank you.  

I get so tired of correcting all the un-informed Gobot bashing, especially the assertion that GoBots were somehow devised later as a KO of Transformers. I wonder how many of the people who believe this were actually there in 1984 to see both toy lines come out?  

zmog

 

I wonder if they make a Classics series,Would Jetfire still be the show or would be in the toyline.

I hope they do an Animated Jetfire.

 

I was there!   I was born in '78, so I was at prime toy-buying age when both Transformers and Gobots hit the shelf. And you know.... I had as many Gobots as I did Transformers as a kid. Frankly I don't even remember making a distiction between them, they were all cool little transforming robots.

I still think that the smaller-sized Gobots beat the pants off their closest competitor, the Transformer minibots. Gobots were realistic, metal Matchbox-like vehicles, Transformers minibots were cartoonishly distorted plastic vehicles. Larger Transformers were superior to larger Gobots, though... especially the whole series of Gobots like Bugbite who had car cabins in lieu of proper heads. And of course Transformers had a superior cartoon.

I'm sure there is some parallel universe out there right now, though, where Gobots triumphed. And in that universe, online nerds like us are debating the pros and cons of the live-action Gobots movie, hunting store shelves for Classics Cop-Tur, and wondering if Bandai will ever start listening to the fans and release the much-requested Masterpiece Crasher.  

 

Yeah poor skids. He only apeared in like 2 episodes and had but one line total in the series. Frenzy and Buzzsaw were pretty much the same, yet there counter parts got so much attention it didn't really seem to matter much.

Now I'm wondering (trying to remember) if Reflector ever appeared in season 2.

Well at least Gears got a whole episode for himself.  

 

But on the up side he made a very nice chair.  

 

Actually, where I lived I didn't see the Gobots on shelves until much, much later, around about 1987 - 1989 or so. I remember getting several of them at the same time as the first Micromaster Patrols. So I'd actually probably be justified in that mistaken line of thought! I'd have been about - just - when they first launched, and I do remember Tesco carried the European series, Robo Machines, at the same time as they carried the Combaticons. Got an awesome little Blackbird robot at that time.

 

I felt bad for 'ol Jet/Skyfire. In his first episode he gets trapped under the ice... then convieniently when the Autobots DECIDE they need him they decide to go free him.

 

ok now that Ive seen attack of the autobots (I watched it because I wanted to see skyfire because I love my new classic one) whenever did they call him jetfire they always call him skyfire whats up with that

 

Bandai, the maker of the original Valkyrie toy, is a major competitor of Takara, the company which designed most of the Transformers. When the cartoon was being planned, due to the fact that it was to be shown in Japan as well, Takara did not want a Bandai design appearing in the Cartoon (for reasons involving both competition and legality). However, because Jetfire was such a popular toy, the decision to modify him for the small screen was made.

The only time that Jetfire has been seen in animation is the initial TV commercial which advertised both him and Shockwave. A similar thought process was probably behind Marvel's decision to draw Skyfire yet name him Jetfire in the comic book. The anti-Bandai sentiment also explains the absence of a few other characters (like the Deluxe Insecticons) from the cartoon series.

In essence, they were keeping the character seen on the show completely separate from the character that was on the toy shelves... so they are completely different, but yet completely the same.