is Sky Lynx a dinosaur?

I don't know about dinosaur, but he is one of the "Primitives." I don't remember exactly what the shuttle portion of Skylynx was supposed to be, but the cargo carrier was a Lynx....

One might assume that the tooth-ed, tail-ed bird is meant to be some kind of pterosaur...

sky linx was the missing link between dinosaus and birds


in space shuttle form

I believe he's a griffin when combined then when he is split he is a lynx and a generic bird since the shuttle has more bird like parts then dino bits

and Indeed he is a Primitive but then so were the Predacons and cassettes so it can really be any TF with a beast mode

Double

That was a good question. Have never really thought about it, since I've seen that form of him more like his robot form.

I think it's a simple case of the designers wanting to give "Sky" an interesting design instead of basing him on a real world equivalent. Funny thing about "Lynx" though; practically all official matterial refers to him as a puma. He does kind of look more like a puman than a lynx.

hes a Dimorphodon sitting on a Lynx (more of a mountain lion, really).

He's an archaeopteryx I believe, kinda like Airraptor.

Where's Sean with the big dinosaur words when you need him?

I would assume it's an archaeopteryx. Most of the better fossils have come from China. It resembled a dromaeosaur dinosaur like the deinonychus (think Jurassic Park velociraptor) but had flight feathers and some hollow bones. Or if you like it was an early bird with more dense bones and teeth. The line is still pretty blurry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeopterix




As for the bottom part... It is not in anyway lynx like. Lynx are defined by hair tufting from their ears and a LACK of tails. Sky Lynx's cat part has TWO tails.

Anyone who knows Naruto, Inuyasha, Orochi, Pokemon or even Sonic the Hedgehog knows the Japanese obesession with things that have more tails that they should and are therefore magic. Magical Japanese cats with two tails are called "nekomata" and occur throughought Japanese folklore. They apparently shapeshift, haunt houses, and attempt to reanimate the dead to cause mischief.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nekomata

Here's Kirara/Kilala, a nekomata from Inyasha.


So... Sky Lynx is an archaeopteryx and a nekomata that combine to make a British speaking griffon.

Oh, and the thing the cat turns into is loosely based on the shuttle crawler transport but... the crawler hauls the shuttle and both boosters with its fuel tank upright, not laying down.

As far as the Sky Lynx name that makes NO sense... blame Hasbro I guess. Better than Space Cat, but I'm pretty sure they could have come up with something.

Modern Geese and many other similar species (Ducks, Swans) have teeth...

I just assumed that the top half was a dragon, though a half breed of European and Oriental made to look more like a Hoatzin , and the bottom was a cougar..

Well, the old manual specifically called it a "prehistoric" bird, and his Marvel TFU profile a "dino-bird".

That and the fact that he hung out with the Dinobots in "Call of the Primitives" and was even referred to as a Dinobot in that ep (at least I think I remember that?) kind of made me lean towards him being a dino.

So archaeopterix made more sense than anything else to me.

And there are no birds with teeth. It's part of what makes a bird a bird and not a dino, along with the feathers and hollow bones. They don't have separate, individual teeth with enamel set into a soft substrate. Those birds with "teeth" you mention have a sharp serrated ridge just inside their mouth which is part of their beak.



It's all one piece with no enamel. While every individual serration could be considered a "tooth" in a loose sense, like in a chain saw, that's not what's meant when comparing dinos and birds.

But... I can totally see a winged snake type dragon there too.

I have no idea what exactly the folks at Toybox JP were thinking of when they first molded the thing. Only what Hasbro USA decided to call it when they sold it here. A prehistoric bird and a tail-less cat. Which somehow had two tails.

Maybe it was supposed to be a dragon. Or a bird. Or a dinosaur. Maybe the bottom is a lion or even a dog. I mean, the thing is weird looking and kibbly enough to be whatever you want it to be.

I'd be really interested to find out what TAKARA thinks it is. Seeing as how this reissue is the first time they are making and selling the mold. Anyone have a reissue and read Japanese?

All I know is that mine broke into like ten pieces in the early nineties. Then the bottom got thrown out and the top sold in a garage sale. With the engines broken out. (My little brother was rough on the TF's.)

I am gonna call bullBlot on that one, not because your are in malice but because that particular fossil wasnt a mainstream like the others back in 85 so I doubt that hasbro/takara would have had toy developers that knew about it and wanted to market it as a toy.

and I wont accept the griffin angle since those are depicted as lion/dragon hybrids and usually have the cat head not the dragonny one

I think we just need to accept that sky link was some kind of bird thingy and lynx was a canid/feline thingy designed to entertain pre-pubescent boys

It's a toy.

Heh, perfect description.

and you know the odd thing about sky lynx (shuttle form) he was released the same year as the challenger tragedy and HAD to be released after (the challenger blew up in January 1986 and grounded the space program for years)

if this had happened in modern times, he would never have been released due to fear of offending people

Gotta love the "Go screw your feelings" attitude of the 80's.

Sky Lynx offends me.

It offends me that his big a$$ doesn't fit on my shelf very well.

arnt griffins like head and wings off an eagle and body of a lion? that's the only sort I've ever seen and after doing a search on goggle same as most other people

but any ways... he looks like a space shuttle with a jaw line, neck and legs rather then any known animal

technically yes, it's meant to be a dinosaur, or dinosaurs - the Pre Transformer version of this toy is described as a dinosaur iirc.

He was also described as having "Dinosaur Transform static" in the episode "Thief in the Night." (I THINK the episode was thief in the night...)

Yeah, I'm surprised it took someone that long to mention that.

I still stand with him being a Dragon or Griffin...

dragon could work i guess but its not like he has anything that is really striking that defines him as anything other then a cat and bird/dragon/dino... thing

He's still described as a Dinosaur in canon

I think he is this -->

I think Sky Lynxs is a Robot in Disguise.

Sky Lynx's top half is a Dino-Bird. From the MTMTE files from the DW days:



From this point on, I guess the arguement can be exactly what SORT of dinobird he is.

Maybe this one? -->:fail

Like BigDaddy suggested?

confirmed





fwiw i can't wait to get one!

HE'S A PUPPY!!! WHO CARES?!!? OMFG!!!! ARRRRR!

YOU ARE CORRECT, SIR

DISCUSSION OVER