Skyquake (Prime) - Transformers Wiki (2024)

The name or term "Skyquake" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Skyquake (disambiguation).

Skyquake is a Decepticon from the Prime portion of the Aligned continuity family.

Skyquake's loyalties are unlikely to be questioned anytime soon. A Decepticon guardian sent to protect Earth's energon stocks, he is completely loyal to Megatron. He will not only obey every order, he will follow them until Megatron says otherwise, regardless of the passage of time. He also possesses a rather short temper towards the disloyal, and is not beyond backhanding even a superior officer who gets in the way of Megatron's will. Otherwise, he's actually a polite guy when it comes down to it, even to his targets and foes. He's succinct, and will not mince his words. It's nothing personal, it's just orders from his master.

His split-Spark twin brother is the similarly honor-bound Dreadwing. The two are able to sense each other, even across the galaxy.

Skyquake also has a hospital named after him. Prematurely, anyway.

Fiction

Prime cartoon

Voice actor: Richard Green (English), Frank Welker (English, "Shadowzone"), Kellen Goff (BotCon 2011 script reading), Masami Iwasaki (Japanese), Tilo Schmitz (German), Ángel Amorós (Spain-Spanish), Gerardo Alonso (Latin-American Spanish), Marco Antônio Abreu (Brazilian Portuguese), Tamás Bognár (Hungarian), Alessandro D'Errico (Italian), Do-hyeong Nam (Korean), Jean-Marc Delhausse (French, first voice), Patrick Descamps (French, second voice)

Millennia ago, during the great war, Megatron tasked Skyquake with assassinating Optimus Prime at the Battle of Technahar but Skyquake failed to carry out his mission. He was later one of a number of Decepticon guardians sent to Earth by Megatron when the planet was seeded with Energon. He also became the namesake for "Skyquake Pre-Memorial Hospital", though it's unclear whether he ever learned of the hospital's founders anticipating his demise. Unreliable Narratives

In the modern era, he was sought out by Starscream, who needed a strong presence to inspire his troops into believing his reign would be a successful one. However, Skyquake was less amiable to the idea, firmly announcing both his loyalty to Megatron and his lack of faith in Starscream's claims of Megatron's death. Before the pair came to blows, Optimus and Bumblebee appeared on the scene. Skyquake reminded Prime of their encounter during the Battle of Technar, but Optimus still offered both Decepticons a chance at peace. Starscream showed some interest, as long as Optimus bowed to him, causing a frustrated Skyquake to belt him aside and attack Prime. Bumblebee threw himself into the fray but proved more of a distraction than anything else. He did manage to buy Optimus the time to realize Skyquake still lacked a vehicle mode.

Using the canyon they were battling in to their advantage, the Autobots managed to corner Skyquake. Unfortunately, Agent Fowler appeared in a high-tech military jet, which Skyquake immediately scanned.

Skyquake quickly dominated the battle until Bumblebee threw himself on the jet and, as Skyquake tried to shake him off, ripped out his internals. Bumblebee jumped onto Fowler's plane as a heavily injured Skyquake crashed into the ground. After Skyquake closed his optics for possibly one last time, Prime sadly noted how things might have been different, before burying the Decepticon. Dreadwing sensed his brother's emergence from stasis and later death. Loose Cannons

Some time later, Starscream attempted to resurrect Skyquake using the chunk of Dark Energon that he ripped from Megatron's chest. It worked, and Skyquake rose as a zombie, however a GroundBridge incident transported him to a strange alternate dimension along with the Autobots' human friends Miko Nakadai, Jack Darby and Raf Esquivel. After discovering that he couldn't harm the Autobots, who were still in the real world, Skyquake began pursuing the three kids. They managed to find Starscream's arm, left behind during the battle, and used it to shoot Skyquake. This merely resulted in his arm coming off and chasing them. It followed them back through a rescue portal created by Ratchet and briefly assaulted Starscream before he shook it loose. It ran after him again but Starscream GroundBridged himself away. The rest of Skyquake continued to roam the shadowzone and made a vain attempt to repair himself with Starscream's lost arm. Shadowzone Megatron wasn't happy about Starscream using the Dark Energon shard that was previously merged with his Spark to bring Skyquake back, among other things. Rock Bottom

Dreadwing was drawn to Earth after feeling his twin's death, where Megatron and Soundwave confirmed his loss. Dreadwing swore the Autobots would pay for offlining his brother, though his attempts to gain revenge were unsuccessful. Loose Cannons Starscream encountered Dreadwing at the Antarctic, but at first mistook him for Skyquake before being corrected. When Starscream obtained the Apex Armor, he prepared to reunite Dreadwing with his twin before Dreadwing blew a hole in the ice, into which Starscream fell. Optimus Prime expressed his remorse for his part in Skyquake's death and extended the same offer of a place in the Autobot ranks to Dreadwing. Triangulation Megatron used the oath Dreadwing swore on Skyquake's demise to get him to open the coffin of a Prime, rather than simply opening it himself. Alpha/Omega

While Megatron was using a cortical psychic patch to interrogate Starscream, Dreadwing finally learned his brother's ultimate fate, roaming the shadow dimension as a zombie, and was more than a little upset that Megatron would withhold that information from him to shield Starscream. Patch As a result, Dreadwing turned the Forge of Solus Prime over to the Autobots before attempting to avenge his brother by killing Starscream. However, it was Dreadwing who met his end when Megatron intervened in Starscream's favor. Regeneration

Legacy VS500 Collection Special Comic

Skyquake was a spectator for the second week of the Speedia 500 on Velocitron, where he reattached his right arm. Velocitron Speedia 500 Part 3

Takara Legacy toy bios

Dreadwing emerged into the Legacy World from Prime Spacetime in search of his brother. TL-57 Dreadwing bio

Games

Bot Shots Battle Game!

Skyquake originated from the far side of the Sea of Rust, and spoke with an accent that was strange to others. He was among the many Bot Shots who battled in the arenas of Cybertron. Bot Shots Battle Game!

Toys

Prime

Cyberverse

• Skyquake (Cyberverse Commander, 2012)

• Series / Number: 2 / 010
• Takara ID number: EZ-18
• Accessories: Two blasters (combine to form Tornado Cannon)
• Known designers: Joe Kyde (Hasbro)

Part of the fourth wave of Prime Series 2 Cyberverse Commander Class toys, Skyquake is a redeco of Dreadwing, with new weapons, and transforms into a modified F-35 Lightning II. He features translucent plastic on the center of his jet/his back and co*ckpit-chest, allowing him to be illuminated by the larger Cyberverse sets. He comes with two translucent orange blasters, and both weapons feature multiple 3mm posts, with one blaster additionally featuring two 3mm post-holes. This allows them to be held with his hands or mounted onto his arms and wings in different ways, store on Skyquake's back, combine with other Cyberverse weapons, as well as combine with each other to form a "Tornado Cannon" that resembles a mini-gun, and can be held with both hands.

Oddly, the instructions and the official Hasbro stock photos for the toy completely ignore the fact that the "Tornado Cannon" consists of two smaller weapons, and consistently depict it as one single weapon.

• More information on Cyberverse Skyquake at TFU.info

Robots in Disguise

• Skyquake (Voyager, 2012)

• Series / Number: 01 / 007
• Accessories: Light-up pulse cannon/Shatterwave blaster, sword

Part of the fifth and final wave of Prime: Robots in Disguise Voyager Class toys, Skyquake is a redeco of Dreadwing. He comes with a pulse cannon (retooled from Dreadwing's cannon to have a new barrel) and sword, both of which can be mounted (via 5 mm posts) onto ports on his forearms, hands, wings, and back, as well as behind the co*ckpit canopy. The sword itself features an additional peg on its hilt, and the cannon has a peg-hole on its translucent side. The cannon can transform into a longer-barreled "Shatterwave blaster" that's illuminated at the barrel by a red LED as a sort of "Energon glow". As with other Robots in Disguise Voyager Class toys, the deployed weapon cannot lock into place.

Skyquake's wave was pretty much skipped by most US retailers, leaving fans to order him from online outlets or get them from European fans. However, in late spring/early summer of 2013, US Toys"R"Us stores started putting the Skyquake waves on shelves. At one per case, Skyquake was still difficult to come across, but hey, beats his prior distribution!

His stock photography depicts him with much brighter translucent orange plastic, as well as silver paint operations on his shoulder-pads and jet fuselage that were omitted on the final product.

Voyager Skyquake and Dreadwing's very similar looking left & right robot mode feet are notorious for being incorrectly added to the figure during factory assembly, resulting in a left foot on a right leg, a right foot on a left leg, two left feet, or two right feet. Not having the right foot on the right leg and left foot on the left leg causes him to not stand properly because each foot is designed on the bottom to sit at a specific slanted angle. Both feet look very similar to one another, however they can be identified by finding the corresponding "L" and "R" on each one. If placed on a flat surface to be viewed, one will notice that both feet have subtle slants to their stance.

All versions of this mold have a spot that's very prone to breakage: the thruster/ stabilizer fin assembly which folds up onto his back has a joint that can crack and break the whole assembly off- even on brand new figures! This can be avoided by gluing it in vehicle mode configuration- while it loses functionality it is not detrimental to his robot mode.

This mold was also redecoed into Timelines Megaplex.

• More information on Voyager Skyquake at TFU.info

Bot Shots

• Skyquake / Jetfire / Powerglide (Multi pack, 2012)

• Series: 1
• Number: BP006
  • Fist strength: 475
  • Blaster strength: 750
  • Sword strength: 395

Part of the second wave of Bot Shots Series 1 three-packs, Skyquake is a redeco of Starscream in green and grey. He comes with Jetfire and Powerglide.

This mold was also used to make Acid Storm, Thundercracker, and Series 2 Sunstorm, and was also retooled into Series 1 Skywarp.

• More information on Series 1 three-pack Skyquake at TFU.info

• Bumblebee / Skyquake / Shockwave (Multi pack, 2013)

• Series: 2
• Number: Super Bot 006
  • Fist strength: 460
  • Blaster strength: 955
  • Sword strength: 205

Part of the first wave of Bot Shots Series 2 three-packs, Super Bot Skyquake is cast in translucent green plastic, though a darker shade than Acid Storm. As a Super Bot, he has more lopsided stats than a regular Bot Shot. Once again, he was available only in a three pack, this time with Jump Shot Shockwave and Jump Shot Bumblebee.

• More information on Series 2 three-pack Skyquake at TFU.info

Legacy

• Prime Universe Skyquake (Leader Class, 2023)

• TakaraTomy ID number: TL-35
• TakaraTomy release date: August 26, 2023
• Accessories: Gatling gun, Energon clip/sword
• Known designers: Mark Maher (Hasbro), Hisashi Yuki (TakaraTomy), Marcelo Matere (concept artist)^[1][2]

The first new Leader Class figure in Legacy: Evolution, "Prime Universe Skyquake" is an amalgamation of his cartoon appearance and his Generation 1's namesake in both modes. His robot mode torso, feet, and head crest are borrowed from his namesake, along with some sculpted details. The jet mode leans closer to the original Skyquake's toy, with almost the entire rear half being based on that version.

Skyquake comes with a gatling gun with an "Energon clip" that can detach and turn into a sword (that only his left hand can properly accommodate) for him to wield as part of his Evo-Fusion gimmick. His jet mode features three retractable landing gear and an openable co*ckpit canopy. Interestingly, Skyquake has some slots on the top of his jet mode that allow Needlenose to slot in, and this is illustrated in the instructions.

It would appear Skyquake had some late engineering changes to how the front jet portion transforms, as the instructions show the clear canopy sliding down inside when the nose is folded under a full 180 degrees, which isn't actually possible on the final figure due to the canopy being prevented from sliding inwards by ridges in the surrounding plastic. This can be mostly worked around by threading the canopy through the gap between the thruster assembly and the main wings/hull plate on the backpack. There is also an extra swivel joint inside the front portion that goes completely unused, as well as either arm having totally different (but identically functional) elbow joints to allow for the connecting pegs and holes on the back of his lower arms.

If one desires a more show accurate look, a semi-convincing Fan mode can be achieved via swapping his arms at the bicep swivel, swinging his wings around to the faux co*ckpit, rotating his waist, and finally rotating then sliding his head into place.

The stock photos have a slight mistransformation; there is a panel meant to cover the gap in his forearms.

He was recolored to make his brother Dreadwing.

• Designer commentary on Legacy Skyquake from Mark Maher

Merchandise

Eaglemoss cards

Notes

• It's a lucky thing Agent Fowler provided a jet with arm and leg kibble underneath for Skyquake to scan!
• While crash-landings have rarely been fatal to Transformers in past series, Prime executive producer Jeff Kline has stated that "When we kill a character, we kill a character."^[3] He has the dubious honor of becoming the first named Decepticon fatality of the series.
• Skyquake was originally going to be Skywarp.^[4]

Foreign names

• Japanese: Skyquake (スカイクエイク Sukaikueiku)

References