Jetfire is an early G1 toy - I think he's officially year 2 even though the box back shows the year one picture. The toy has some history - it's the first toy imported from another toy line - in this case Robotech - and this caused it not to be sold in Japan. This maybe why the toy is dramatically redesigned for the comic & cartoon, and renamed Skyfire for the cartoon. Jetfire was never re-released, and the name disappears till it was used with a different colour scheme for a repaint G2 swing wing Cyberjet Hooligan, and then repeatedly in Armada/Energon/Cybertron. The Jetfire deco finally appeared on the Hooligan mold in the Japanese Robotmasters line as R-Blade.
Jetfire is a white swing wing jet fighter with red and black detailing - all present and correct so far. There's something nice about new shiny white plastic ! The Jet mode is an amalgamation of previous Jetfires - the front is meant to resemble the comic/cartoon version but doesn't - it looks like the front of Sixshot's jet mode upside down with a squared off cockpit a little way back. Level with and to the sides of the cockpit is a pair of guns that can be adjusted up or down. From the cockpit back it's essentially the original Jetfire design. The wings do indeed swing from fully back to pointing forwards with 2 notched positions - one half way to the side, and another fully to the side. Turning the jet over we have an obvious pair of arms and legs at the back under the wings and in the middle respectively. The arms end in hands which don't fold away or disguise at all. There's landing gear under the cockpit and about 2/3 of the way back on what would be the robot knees. Overall a quite attractive jet.
Like the original Jetfire this one comes with armour. The armour snaps on using a peg and clip arrangement - think Headmaster head - there's a missile launcher which goes on the sides of the under carriage under each wing on what is the robot's arms and a dual thruster back pack which mounts on the top of the jet - the tail find fold down to allow this. Said Jetpack is in the style of the original Robotech jet with 2 separate thrusters rather than the big combined thruster of the comic/cartoon. The jet nozzles at the end have some poseability. In a further homage (rip off? you decide) to the Robotech line you can TF's the thrusters into the thruster/gun combinations seen on certain Robotech toys - pull back on the mid section of the thruster and a gun flips up folding out as far as the front of the cockpit. Both missile launchers and jet pack can be mounted either way round, though sadly you can get the missile launchers into the slots for the jetpack. To add to his firepower in this mode store each half of his gun in a robot fist so there's a gun barrel beside each missile launcher. Jetfire can be transformed with or without his extra weapons on.
To Transform him to robot mode start by folding the landing gear in then unpeg the arms from the legs on the underside of the toy. Where the shoulder for the arm is there's a black connector - the connection to the arm is lower down the jet than the connection to the body. Fold this hinge up, forwards and down so the connection to the arm is further up the jet than the connection to the body - it's obvious when you see it ! Pull the tail section out from the legs, the pull down on the legs and fold the feet out. Pull the cockpit canopy up and forward, then bend the nose down toward the robot chest. The nose separates in two and folds into the gap where the side guns were. Lock into the robot chest and fold the flap at the top down in front of the neck. Turn the head round, and concertina the tail section onto the robot's back. Pose wings - I like them raised up. Combine gun halves and place in hand.
The resulting robot screams G1 Jetfire to you - full marks. We've got everything in the right place and the visored head with posable guns to the side. But wait - this head is just a helmet that can be removed to reveal Jetfire's robot face with blue eyed lightpipe. He's no slouch in the articulation dept: swivel below the knee, knee that bends back only. bend just below the hip, swivel to the sides at the hip, shoulders that move to the front, and to the sides, elbow that bends forward, swivel below the elbow, wrist and neck plus what you get from the helmet guns and the wings. Backpack and missile launchers can be attached in this mode, and when the guns are deployed from the backpack they can be folded down over the shoulders as cannons.
Jetfire was released in Japan as Henkei toy C-06 Skyfire.
Another good repaint, looking very like the G1 original.
Another good repaint for this mould - two out of two so far !