Skyfall (G1)

Skyfall is an Autobot Action Master from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together

Skyfall is an up-and-coming Autobot weapons engineer who envisions a very bright future for himself. He has an effusive and enthusiastic personality, always heaping praise on those around him and telling them things they already know, in a way that doesn't seem suspicious at all. Whenever his friends reach a major success, Skyfall is always there to join in the celebration (and glory), and wouldn't you know it, whenever his rivals fail, things just seem to work out to Skyfall's benefit too. What a lucky bot he is! One day, Skyfall will accomplish great things—you'll see! Oh, you'll see.

His Action Master partner is Top-Heavy.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: Spotlight: Arcee (cameo); Bullets (where everyone learns to hate the guy)

"We're not going to make it!"
"Shut up, SHUT UP!"

Skyfall was a weapons-designer and a rival of Ironfist. Ironfist designed Optimus Prime's signature rifle, but the Autobot commander mistakenly believed it was Skyfall's work. Last Stand of the Wreckers #4 Of course, it was only out of respect for Prime's image that Skyfall never corrected that misconception. Yeah.

Skyfall received plenty of praise for "designing" Prime's ion blaster, but it was Ironfist who received the next round of cheers for his development of cold phosphex, otherwise known as "glass gas". Perhaps feeling he needed to prove himself, Skyfall volunteered to take part in an advance patrol, which was then captured by Decepticons. He endured 100 years of captivity in the infamous Grindcore penal colony. Upon Skyfall's rescue, Ironfist strongly advocated for him to become one of the engineers at the Kimia design facility. Instead, Skyfall was brought into the less-prestigious manufacturing division, although Ironfist still let his good buddy use his workshop from time to time for personal projects. There, working side by side, the two renewed their friendship... except for the teensy little detail about how Skyfall was an amoral bastard out for no one but himself. After Ironfist had developed the fearsome chemical weapon known as mycopropelene, he himself was so shocked by its virulence that he attempted to destroy the entire stockpile of his creation, but Skyfall found out about it and leaked critical information to the Decepticons, who then used it in the massacre at Babu Yar. Skyfall then manipulated the subsequent Autobot investigation of the incident to direct suspicion towards Ironfist, but ultimately, nothing came of it.

Skyfall soon fell under official scrutiny too, when he used his time in Ironfist's workshop to further development of cold phosphex (which he "jokingly" swore had been his idea from the beginning and that Ironfist had stolen from him). His more extreme and poorly tested concoction, black phosphex, led to severe weapons malfunctions in the field. High Command forcibly transferred Skyfall out of weapons design and into the penal system, working as a guard on Garrus-9. While there, he accidentally fulfilled Ironfist's dream and helped the Wreckers in battle, fighting off a prison break side-by-side with Springer's team. Bullets He was among the personnel attempting to defend the G-9 penitentiary from Banzaitron's assault Spotlight: Arcee and later, Nemesis Prime's. Spotlight: Doubledealer He, ah, did things while he was there.

Oh, right. The poison. The poison for Skyfall, the poison chosen especially to kill Skyfall, Skyfall's poison.

Once again, Ironfist intervened on his "friend"'s behalf, bringing him back to the Kimia engineering corps so he could enjoy Skyfall's company... which often took the form of passive-aggressive backhanded compliments about Ironfist's temperament during ethics investigations and the repetitiveness of many of his entries in the Wreckers: Declassified series. At some point, Ironfist promised his good buddy Skyfall that he could have Ironfist's lab if anything ever happened to him. Wasting little time, Skyfall tampered with one of Ironfist's cerebro-guns, ensuring it would automatically fire when held at a certain angle and thus dooming Ironfist to a slow death by creeping brain-bullet. Naturally, Ironfist confided in his friend about his injury, to which Skyfall sensitively replied that he should have his head examined.

Skyfall essentially sabotaged himself, however, once Prowl learned of Ironfist's injury (although not its cause). Thinking Ironfist's death sentence made him uniquely suitable for the Aequitas mission to Garrus-9, Prowl used his sway in High Command to get Ironfist named as a new Wrecker, replacing Springer's initial choice... Skyfall. Just as he was leaving Kimia for the Wreckers, however, Ironfist got the analysis reports back from Brainstorm about the cerebro-gun that "malfunctioned". Realizing that Skyfall had enough access to his workshop to have rigged the gun to fire as it did, Ironfist still departed Kimia without confronting his "friend".

After Ironfist left, Skyfall took possession of that precious, long-sought lab. But Skyfall's true personality soon shone through: He was arrogant and dismissive enough to repeatedly ditch the requests of Xaaron's investigative committee, and as punishment, the authorities repossessed all the weapon tech that the lab had housed. Skyfall had barely absorbed this setback when he found himself receiving a recorded message from Ironfist, who had just died at that moment. Revisiting all the strange coincidences that had accompanied Skyfall's career over the years, Ironfist had uploaded an automatic message and broadcast timer into his brain-bullet's internal computer, and he revealed the proof of all of Skyfall's crimes to every fan who was following "Fisitron"'s datafeeds.

Skyfall soon found himself barricaded inside his lab with an angry mob of Autobot troopers banging on the door, as Ironfist laid out one condemnation after another. Knowing he would never survive among his former victims on Garrus-9, Skyfall happened across the one remaining weapon in the lab—Ironfist's last, secret sample of Gideon's Glue—and drank it, killing himself. Bullets

During Skyfall's autopsy, his memories were read by mnemosurgeon Chromedome who as a result would later suffer an inherited flashback to Skyfall's last moments. You, Me, and Other Revelations Rewind later made use of old footage of Skyfall in his final, spliced-together message to Chromedome. The Gloaming

Ask Vector Prime

In Cybertron's distant past, Skyfall was one of five members of the Elite Flying Corps, under the command of Optimus Prime. Along with Divebomb, Dogfight, Strafe, and Doubleheader, he engaged Decepticons in the skies. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/09/20

Toys

The Transformers

Gun-DAMMIT! ...Sorry.

• Skyfall with Top-Heavy (Action Master, 1990)

• Accessories: "Top-Heavy" partner, "cloudbuster cannon"

Part of the third assortment of individually-carded Action Masters, released in the seventh and final year of The Transformers in the US, Skyfall is a non-transforming 3¾-inch action figure of a robot with details implying a former Cybertronian jet alternate mode. (Helps that his bio outright says "former jet fighter".) His construction is broadly similar to that used by the G.I. Joe figures of the time, having a swivel neck, shoulders and knees, plus ball-jointed hips attached via a steel rod internally secured by a rubber "o-ring". His hands have standard 3 mm holes which allow him to hold any other accessory in the Action Master line, plus his feet have holes in the bottom to secure him to larger vehicles. On top of that, the hole in his back is compatible with 5 mm posts.

He came with his transforming rhino-partner Top-Heavy, who turns into a "radar-guided, triple-barreled, electro-pulse machine gun" that can be enhanced with Skyfall's smaller rifle.

• More information on Skyfall at TFU.info

Notes

 

• Skyfall's toy bio^[1] contains the rather outrageous line: "Can change into anything from a construction crane to a can opener, then into a weapon in less time than it takes to plug in a phone jack", implying he has some kind of super-transformational ability—which is, of course, outwardly nonsense, as he is a non-transforming Action Master, even described in the very next line of his bio as a "former jet fighter." It's apparent that, given that he's a weapons engineer, the line is supposed to read: "Can change into anything from a construction crane to a can opener into a weapon in less time than it takes to plug in a phone jack".
• Skyfall's colors went through several alterations before production.
  • The 1990 boxback mural^[2] and Optimus Prime's Armored Convoy package art feature Skyfall in a grey and green color scheme (with Kick-Off also in entirely different colors in those artworks).
  • Meanwhile, Skyfall's catalog photography and Power Plans show him in red and white. The Hasbro "Spring 1990" Toy Fair catalog (printed in mid-to-late 1989) assigns the preproduction name "Fireball" to this deco, but the name had switched to Skyfall by the time the February 1990 Toy Fair catalog was printed.
• Skyfall's design seems to be strongly inspired by the Japanese Gundam robot line, with maybe a little Generation 1 Seeker mixed in.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Skyfall (スカイフォール Sukaifōru)

References