Quote Originally Posted by Geigerrock-2 View Post
Cool. it always bugged me that jetfire in the cartoon didn't really look like the toy (in the face anyway) so that probably explains that too.
how long did bandai own the rights for before they were needed by hasbro
or do they still own them?
BANDAI agreed top let Hasbro distribute the toys under the Transformers line, however they could not use the toys in the cartoon. Thus Jetfire became Skyfire and changed appearance enough to avoid legal. There is a Hasbro Transformers toy cartoon advert in which Jetfire appears as a toy-accurate Valkyrie Transformer. It was on YouTube... probably still is.

BANDAI still own the rights to the Takatoku Valkyrie mold. Harmony Gold (Robotech) still own the rights to SDF Macross outside of Japan. Thus a re-issue Encore release of Jetfire is... tricky...

The engineers who worked on the original Takatoku mold were later employed by BANDAI. Just as they were about to retire a few years ago their 'baby' came back to them to be re-released under the 'Origin of Valkyrie' line.