Pre-Transformers

Recently i came across one and snatched it up for some non TF related projects. RIght when i was about to dive into the figure with a blade... I paused. Are these figures rare? Should i just make copies ( cast replicas) as opposed to cutting up the original? I dont have any particular attachment to the figure other than for this project but id hate to desecrate something rare. Thanks in advance :-)

I remember various knockoff TF's back in the day, including a couple 1/4 sized Roadbuster and Whirls, and then a very odd one... There was a series of, I think, animals and such. The only one I clearly remember was a bat. Th legs would extend, the arms would slide out, the wings would fold, and then the chest would open and the bat head go inside, then close the chest, and you had a robot. IIRC, most of the toy was black plastic, but the half of the wings that folded back were chromed plastic. Does anyone remember this? And if so, do you know what toy or KO series this was?

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-DIACLONE-CAR-ROBO...1QQcmdZViewItem I saw this and it still has me wondering...rubber transformers....what were they thinking? Are any of these toys still in good shape? I'd think the rubber would have dried out, cracked and broken bits off by now. Glad they only made 4 of these.

Since the Transformers series began there have been many annoying little questions. One of the biggest is of course WHY is Bluestreak called bluestreak? As most any transfan now knows, he got his name early on as the toy line was developing. The 2 original versions of this Datun Far lady were either Silver with either a black hood, or 2 tone blue with the silver hood. The box art, the catalog, instructions and even some of the early ads showed the toy in the Blue version. Somewhere along the lines, a genius at Hasbro decided to cut out the second coat of paint and keep the toy all silver. Considering the fact that the version we have used red inner parts, such as…

Today I got up early, and it was such a nice day I hit the local flea market. They did not have anything G1...till I came across a bunch of matchbox like cars and thought HEY I recognize those... Wheeljack and Jazz had matchbox like cars, so I grabbed them for a buck and brought them home for the collection. Although the Porsche is #5, its the same car and paint skeme as our Jazz, and the Lotus, that has the right stripes and # 539. as luck would have it, they had an extra Lotus minus the #, I bought that as well. Now that I think of it I should have gotten another Porsche to make a custom Stepper. Ah well. I made a digibash of the Marlboor car so far, …

(I will post picts later)... ITS LATER!!!! UPDATE !!!!!! The DRIVERS are one of the most important factors of the original Pre TF toy line. Significance, these drivers put the robots into perspective as vehicles, not aliens them selves. Through out the toy line evolution, we were given several different versions of these drivers, even spanning into the knockoffs. Back in the day, I attempted to put the majority of them into 3 categories, humanoid, head phones and robo suits. There was even a chart which showed what driver came with what, but that is another posting, this is about the drivers them selves. The first driver is the thin humanoid, w…

I've been busy with writing this stuff today havn't I? At any rate, the Omega Supreme variations, there are 3. Black, Blue and TF gray. The black has been called OMEGA-TRON or BLACK OMEGA and is the original version. Releasd as Meckabot 1, and believed to have been re-released in black as Cosmo Robot. Later the supposed Knockoff, blue and chrome silver was called Space Tank. However when the character in the series came out, it was in this blue version. I have one (or most of) each of the 3 versions and I didn't think to look or take pictures of any copy rights. But its rather hard to believe that the series would put a knockoff color skeme into the s…

A lot of people ask about the Diaclone Swoop. Did it or did it not come with a driver or not? Evidence is rather sparse, with little proof but it is there. Unlike the other Dino's, the box its self does not come with a slot for a driver. Most of the Diaclone toys had in their Styrofoam inserts, a spot for their drivers. Even the TraSformer toys still had these spots, with or with out the drivers. Also, the toy its self does not have an obvious seat as each Dinobot has a compartment or cockpit. Those fortunate few that have, or have sold a Diaclone Swoop show that the driver actually did come with it. At least with the original Diaclone version, unclear …

I touched the surface on the Mircoman transforming watch series in the could have been TF post. SO here's a better look at the cool Kronoform watches. So cool, they got their own series in the states. Out in the early TF years, if not just before, the Kronoform watches were a hot item. A majority of them used chrome parts, to make them look like real metal watches, and were working time pieces. Some could transform into robots, just into vehicles...some of these were more complicated than others. Still others were even TRIPPLE changers, and a couple included working AM radio's. Attached is a collection of the different watches, straight out of th…

Pre TF SHOULD have bins One of the best things about discovering the Transformers toy line from the past is all the variants and cool robots that should have become TF’s. Some snuck in under the radar, some were released in foreign TF lines…and some were even hinted at in the TV series and comic books. I compiled a few of the pre trans historic toys from the Takara book, and some catalogs to show off some of what I consider the most interesting Should Have Been Transformers. Microman or Microchange and Diaclone, the parent toy lines to our Transformers, gave us most of those toys, which qualify. Some of the few others are additions to other sub toy li…