Raving Toy Maniac

Yes, he looks terrific.
Cue up Fry's "Take my money" meme.

I have mixed feelings about this guy. He looks incredibly in both modes, but it's Jetfire's jet mode and Skyfire's bot mode. Technically they're the same character, but I really want single figures of each. Skyfire has that really cool Cybertronian jet mode that looked nothing like the Jetfire figure and still hasn't been fully realized as a figure. The Classics Jetfire was close, but was based on some very specific comic art, not the cartoon.

However, there has been a theory going around that this figure is actually a triple changer and capable of both jet modes. This idea comes from his chest cockpit not being the same as the jet. Of course it could just be a fake cockpit, but the jet cockpit is one big piece and doesn't seem to have anywhere to go in the bot mode so it could be removable.

Whatever the case we'll know for sure this weekend.

I know that jet fire and sky fire are the same character but I thought that robot was called Jet Fire as the toy and on the cartoon tv show, he was knows as Sky Fire.

Avian

Jet fire looked like a Robo tech valkarye air plane and sky fire has a more human round like head in the tv show? I know when the tv show came out I was totally confused...

Jetfire/Skyfire is a weird case. When Hasbro was putting together the Transformers toyline, they first two years were pretty much exclusively reuses of toys from existing lines, cobbled together into a new brand. Most of the Autobot cars and the Decepticon jets were from a Japanese line called Diaclone. The Dinobots and Insecticons were, too. Megatron, Soundwave, and Reflector were from MicroChange. Deluxe Insecticons = Beetras; Deluxe Autobots = Dorvack.

So, Jetfire: the toy was licensed from Takatoku's Macross line. In the Macross line, it was the VF-1S Super Valkyrie. Hasbro had the US rights to that particular toy. However, in Japan, Takatoku had the rights to the toy, so the Jetfire toy couldn't be released in Japan. Meanwhile, Harmony Gold had the TV distribution rights to Macross, which they cut together with a couple of other Japanese shows to form Robotech. Therefore, Harmony Gold had the animation rights to the VF-1S. Because of that, the Transformers couldn't show Jetfire looking like the toy.

However, Jetfire was a pricey new toy, and Hasbro really wanted it on the show in some capacity as advertisement. So, to avoid legal entanglements, the animation model was redesigned. The new model is clearly distinct from the VF-1S, but still reminiscent - white with red trim, red armor pack (but in a different arrangement), things like that. Further, the name was *slightly* tweaked to Skyfire, just in case someone tried to claim they were still advertising the VF-1S in the animation. Clearly, "Skyfire" the toon is clearly distinct from "Jetfire" the toy.

At last year's SDCC, Hasbro released a GI Joe/Transformers crossover - a Skystriker jet painted with Jetfire's color scheme, with the added booster on top. Harmony Gold, who has the US rights to the VF-1S, sued Hasbro over the likeness, claiming a red/white F-14 with boosters was their intellectual property. The case was dismissed "with prejudice," which was a pretty decisive victory for Hasbro. Rumor has it that this Leader Jetfire has been designed for a few years now, but Hasbro was worried about a lawsuit from Harmony Gold. (In fact, the Voyager-class Classics Jetfire was a concern for Hasbro's legal team at the time.) The results of the lawsuit in Hasbro's favor emboldened them to go ahead with this new Jetfire, which is even closer to the VF-1S design (yet still legally distinct).

Some more information about how the Transformers line was stitched together can be found here:
Pre-Transformers

Not to thread-jack (and I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with this idea), but imagine a world where Hasbro as a reaction to being sued under such a stupid pretense*, bought out Harmony Gold. Just think, we'd actually get new/GOOD Robotech stuff.

* - stupid pretense being that part of Harmony Gold's claim was that the Skyfire release would take away customers from their own product, of which there is none.

Oh, dude, no doubt. Harmony Gold has become nothing more than a copyright troll in recent years. I was hoping Hasbro would counter-sue, but alas, that didn't work out. Man, the 80s were weird times, when a company could be granted distribution rights in perpetuity. Nowadays, if a licensee does a poor job, the contract can be revoked on grounds of mismanagement, or you can just wait a few years for it to expire and be handed off to someone else. But HG is dug in like a tick, contributing absolutely nothing and just sucking blood out of anyone that wants to exploit the franchise. It's why we can't even get newer Macross stuff over here. A pox on Harmony Gold!

What do you mean contributed nothing!? At the end of last year they made a direct to DVD feature about Lancer that no one knew knew about.

Seriously the only reason I knew about it was because it was listed on an Amazong "New To DVD This Week" email. And as bad as Shadow Chronicles was I haven't even glanced at any reviews of this new thing.

I've always like Jetfire/Skyfire, and this toy revealed at NYTF2014 looks really nice.
Like, REALLY nice.

I'm picking it up for sure if it scales in any decent way with my MPs, (and really, just be taller than MP03/11 Starscream in robot mode and you're fine) and while this Leader Megatron is still a rumor, seeing how nice THIS came out (assuming it doesn't get crapped up in production, but Hasbro's pretty good anout that) I am all kinds of excited to see Megatron (Botcon?? SDCC??)