Articles by Maz [ rarities & pre-TF figures ]

[Skyquake87]

Not really keen on Sideswipe. The sexy black and red of his g2 release is much better. Mirage is ... awful. mainly because the pink would work better if it were woven through the rest of vehicle mode, rather than just on the nose. it would still make your eyes hurt, but would have looked a bit better. Desert Ramjet is pretty funky though. Better than the character art would have you believe.

Interesting that at the time these toys were being considered for release in G2 (1994), the line was already moving onto newer, better articulated toys (Laser Rods, etc). Perhaps these were seen as a sure thing to boost sales.

[inflatable dalek]

Interesting that at the time these toys were being considered for release in G2 (1994), the line was already moving onto newer, better articulated toys (Laser Rods, etc). Perhaps these were seen as a sure thing to boost sales.

Yeah, even Mirage and Sideswipe, miles ahead in design terms of poor old Ramjet, look pretty piss poor compared to a lot of the newer stuff that would have been coming out at the same time. It's actually surprising how quickly the tech came on considering there's only just over a decade between Diaclone and something like Laser Rod Prime. The later could still easily be released as part of a kid aimed line now, Ramjet, alas, could not.

Though the GI Joe Tiger Forceish colour scheme is lovelier than any of the repaints to actually get a G2 release managed (with the possible exception of the black and red Sideswipe, but I've a feeling there was at least a smidge of vomit green or something on there).

[Maz]

I'm sure Maz already knows this if he's seen the Vault, but as an aside for the rest of us, the book claims the sandy Ramjet would have been called Sandstorm. Which suggests to me at least that, if he was from around the same time, Sideswipe would have been used as another new character as well.

And Mirage does indeed make me go "GHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

I don't actually own the book, my man, so that Sandstorm thing is news to me. It would also lend more credibility to the possibility that this G2 Mirage was possibly intended as Skullcruncher for G2.

I purchased the Desert Ramjet, yellow Sideswipe and G2 Mirage from the same place simultaneously. The Black Death Starscream came from the same batch.

All the best
Maz

[inflatable dalek]

I don't actually own the book, my man, so that Sandstorm thing is news to me. It would also lend more credibility to the possibility that this G2 Mirage was possibly intended as Skullcruncher for G2.

The G2 art in the book (including Hot Spot and Motormaster) have handwritten notes on them (including what looks liked the intended case assortments), "Sandstorm" is the only one to have a new name on it. Though Mirage's name has been covered by tape at some point you can still just about make it out. I'd guess Ramjet got rechristened due to the toy already having been released in G2, which is what makes me think they'd have been planning the same with Sideswipe.

I wonder why they didn't get one of the other, unused Seeker wings out of storage instead of a straight Ramjet reuse? It wouldn't have cost them any extra and it would have helped make the figure that little bit more different from the already out G2 Ramjet.

[Denyer]

Possibly on shared sprues?

[Cliffjumper]

Considering the zero effort put in on the first year or so of G2, just getting them out of storage might have been too much effort - if they were stored in some other facility, the attitude would have been "**** it". If they were stored in a cupboard someone had to stand on a chair to reach, the attitude would have been "**** it".

I mean, we've already repeatedly established that Hasbro/Takara couldn't give a shit about the original moulds (cf. losing a fair percentage of them through apparently not having any sort of filing system for the things; the slush-standard Encore releases of the Combaticons and Amazing Onebox Brothers; running Mach Alert/Alt Smokescreen into the ground in double-quick time), especially as they know Transformers fans are largely stupid enough to not only spend money on substandard products, but also defend their substandard nature. So there's no reason to believe those involved would be any more motivated to do so in 1993, when the company apparently believed the key to success was releasing a bunch of decade-old designs in batshit-insane paint jobs with missile launchers so big that they could be seen from space jammed on.

[inflatable dalek]

A lot of the thinking behind G2 seems bizarre in retrospect, and indeed very probably at the time as well. I don't know if they were just after a brief spurt of money for old rope rather than a serious attempt at a relaunch but every creative decision, bar some of the new toys, is completely half arsed.

You've got toys being used that weren't up to conempoary standards (and if there was a conscious decision to chuck out a lot of the original moulds it probably would have been after their failed use in G2, "Obviously these aren't good enough to continue being used, lets get rid of 'em". Understandable perhaps as the same fate likely befell other 80's toylines like MASK or whatever and there's no resissue market for them, but ultimately very short sighted), a cartoon of randomly picked episodes that don't gel up very well with what's been picked for rerelease, those colours... Eeek.

[Cliffjumper]

The early stuff especially is just "let's see if we can make some money here". It wouldn't surprise me if a big deciding factor in which toys were recoloured was who could be found quickly and needed minimal restoration (it's worth remembering a lot of the figures recoloured had been recently dusted down for Euro Classics - Aerialbots, Combaticons, Inferno, Sideswipe etc.). I dread to think what monstrosities we'd have seen had the initial sales been high.

Even the new figures from the first couple of years are miles behind the level of technology avaliable at the time (e.g. Bandai had been using ball-joints for about a decade - not just things like HCM, in mass-produced kids' figures too). Something like Rapido isn't much more advanced than, say, Scoop.

[inflatable dalek]

The Euro Classics rationale behind what got picked makes sense of why they'd go with Sideswipe rather than Red Alert even though the later had his own feature episode in the cartoon they could have dusted down for a tie in.

And of course, whilst how it turned out is great from a reading point of view, the comic being allowed to ignore virtually all the new toys (and most of the colour schemes for the old ones) despite being the only new form of tie in fiction was pretty daft as well.

[Skyquake87]

Generation 2 seemed to me by Hasbro US an attempt to replicate Hasbro UK /Europe's success in keeping the line going. At a time when Hasbro US were going mental with rubbish like Ultra Pretenders and Action Masters, Hasbro in Europe sensibly kept interest at retail going by giving older figures a second outing. A ploy that paid off as it lead to a brief period of original figures being created for Europe (some of which ended up repackaged as part of the main G2 line - all of the 1993 Euro G1.5 toys ended up released again in 1994 across Europe on G2 cards).

As the European toys released in 1992 - 1993 were produced in retina shredding colours (like pretty much all boys toys of the time - i blame that pesky rave music and those hallucingenic drugs!), Hasbro probably just thought 'well, if it worked over there...'

[Cliffjumper]

Nah, it was all minimum-attention stuff. The cartoon and comic were both there to raise brand awareness - reissuing Red Alert to tie in with an episode would be mad, especially in the context of the US cartoon channels. If there had been any sort of plan to tie the toys into the episodes, they wouldn't have randomly recoloured them. The original series made spotlight episodes for some of the cheapest toys in the range - Powerglide, Seaspray, Beachcomber. Both the original and G2 series were there to sell Transformers - Hasbro didn't particularly care which ones, especially by G2. The G2 series cost next to nothing to make, and got the brand back on telly.

The comic's the same rationale - kids were to buy it and go out and buy Transformers, not necessarily the ones in the comic. When we were kids, we wanted Shockwave and Swoop, but we'd settle for Rollbar and Fizzle if they were what was on offer.

[Skyquake87]

your last point probably gave American fans a dose of what it felt like over here during the 1980s - loads of interesting looking characters, but you just couldn't get the toys...!

[Cliffjumper]

Yeh - but if your parents had promised you a Transformer if you behaved yourself in town, you took the chance even if you didn't recognise them from TV or the comics - even if you'd never heard of them. If it came down to a choice between Bumblebee and Tailgate you'd go for Bumblebee; if it came down to Tailgate and Swerve, most kids wouldn't choose to go home empty-handed.

Too many people apply their adult collecting habits to their childhood ones. If we go into Toys R Us now we usually know what we're looking for - say, RTS Windcharger. If the shelves are full of the umpteenth recolour of that abysmal ROTF motorbike, we either pass or have the money to get one anyway, knowing full well we can come back and check soon for the one we want. As a kid, you don't know when the next chance you're going to get is coming, so you get the motorbike.

[inflatable dalek]

I don't know, perhaps I was some sort of freak when it came to getting toys but I don't really recall owning any TF's that weren't in some way characters I was fond of, be it from the cartoon or comics (even a minor toy like Battletrap I'd wound up worryingly excited by simply thanks to an awesome Time Wars death). Even with Christmas and birthday presents, which oddly suggests my parents were actually paying some attention. If the shop didn't have any Transformers I liked I'd just get a Thundercats toy or whatever instead.

[Skyquake87]

heh. I just took whatever came along. My parents were always careful to explain that we couldn't always have what we wanted as young 'uns, so I was just happy with whatever Transformers I did get (although if i had a choice i always asked for Decepticon toys - i always seemed to get Autobots for Birthday's and Christmases). generally, it didn't matter that i didn't have a favourite character. i also had a load of lego which we got off a family friend, and just used to build stuff from that to make do for stuff i never had Fun times.

[Cliffjumper]

(even a minor toy like Battletrap I'd wound up worryingly excited by simply thanks to an awesome Time Wars death).

Which just goes to show how pointless tying a figure into a feature episode is. If someone's going to be excited about buying a figure because it's in three panels of a comic, there's no point in tying a whole episode into one figure. Beyond making sure figures were currently avaliable, there's not much more thought put into it. Honestly, what sort of percentage of people buying the figures at the time were avid buyers of the comic, or avid viewers of the cartoon? How many just bought them because the toys were cool?

I don't think anyone's saying kids bought characters they weren't fond of, but kids are fond of characters for all sorts of reasons - because they turn into a car they like the look of, because they like the character, because they like the name, because they've got a cool looking gun, because their tech-spec is great... Sure, a character who's a big name as well carries a certain cachet, but it wasn't vital. Bear in mind the characters in G1 who didn't get more to do than Battletrap did are very, very much a minority.

[Maz]

Hey guys,

Here's my article on TF-1 for the last of the wave 1 cars released by Ceji Joustra in Europe under the "Diaclone" banner.

Joustra Diaclone AMBULANCE <- CLICK



Lots of pics in there of Japanese and Italian Diaclone Ratchet, Milton Bradley 'MB' Ratchet, US Ratchet, Japanese mailaway Ratchet, bunch of stuff on the Red Cross box variant and of course the Joustra artwork and comic (which you HAVE to see!!! Evil minibots!)

Enjoy

All the best
Maz

[Maz]

Hi all,

It's one of the greatest gems of the Joustra (or any) toyline, and even by Joustra standards the art is spectacular. Loads of history, pictures, interesting paperwork scans and even some attempts at fancy photography, this is the Joustra Diaclone Caméra Robot - pre-Reflector:

Joustra Diaclone Caméra Robot <--- CLICK



Paul Vromen / Eman Zubia artwork and colours imminent, will notify when they've added their interpretation of this insanely beautiful piece.

Huge thanks to Paul Hitchens, Jeroen Blok, Marco Salerno for their contributions
All the best
Maz

[Denyer]

Can't remember whether that one was amongst the stock the warehouse outlet I got the Browning from had or whether it's just the back-of-box (which sadly I don't think I kept unless it's wedged with a lot of card backs somewhere) group shot that's giving me the idea... it was always nice when the transformation provided some incidental articulation, and a shame Reflector didn't see a wide release.

Difficult to make sell at retail in a similar form these days, I'd imagine, so it's nice to see Perfect Effect have had a stab at it.

[Skyquake87]

I don't know, we had those real gear robots a few years ago...mind you, they did linger on the shelves for a looong time...

Anyway, just got through the articles on Reflector (a toy I would like, but put very little effort into trying to acquire, put off as i am by the silly prices it goes for), but my favourite has to be the article on Ratchet.

I really like the Onebox moulds (so much so that I have the e-hobby releases of ratchet and ironhide and the encore ones!) and its nice to see someone else bestow some love on them. i like that they are quite mad looking and its a shame a lot of folk can't get past the 'no heads' thing and try to dress them up with a variety of awful third party add ons. they are lovely as they are!