Pre-Transformers

Yep, we got it here first, the very first official recognition (inside the US) that there was a 7th original Minibot. The article appeared just like this in the issue March 95 vol 1. Some interesting names in particular are mentioned... I actually bought my first Bumper from Tony later that same year at my first TF BotCon.

Before the name CyberCon was swiped and used for the NJ/East Coast Transformer convention, there was CYBER-CON the NEWS LETTER! Yes before many of us evolved as Transfans and even as a society, some dedicated fans got together to assemble at the time scarce bits and pieces from far and wide...with OUT the use of this new thing called the Internet. All on this ancient thing called PAPER, and it was distributed non-electronically, Snail-mailed direct to your home. It had pictures in black and white too. Also included something called fan-feed back, with art, drawings and even ads for fanfictions. The mag was actually rather interesting, and covered all sorts of…

Here's another back of the box shot (snagged off an recente ebay post) It shows another nice custom made base for the toy like a big ol repair bay. I don't have a boxed original one my self, so unless someone out there can donate a better pict, this "Borrowed" part from a public Ebay post will have to do.

http://cgi.ebay.com/G1-TRANSFORMERS-SUNSTR...1QQcmdZViewItem I posted this also on as seen on Ebay, figured I'd liven the discussion here. It goes along with my next question... Is PART of a Diaclone good enough for you and your collection? I have 1/2 of a red Skids, if I had the front 1/2, I would have swapped the rear and painted it custom and been done with it, so its not ok having just the rear. My first Diaclone swoop I pieced together from a junker, and that was ok for years (simply because I did not want to spend $$$ on a complete one). Some of the times you can get away with swapping parts to repair. Take for example Sunstreaker. I rememb…

And regular Prime too...

Another interesting find, right off the back of the Powered Convoy box. How'd you like to have your own Diaclone base like this? Appears that they used parts from Grapple to make the crane, and some model parts with a lot of silver spray paint, but its a company made display, with a couple Powered Convoy's and all. Pretty sweet looking eh? Oh yea, Switchblade, and some cars from the power bases down the bottom. And a mirror on the side probably.

Same difference here. The original artwork on the "Callibur" box aka Pre TF Roadbuster was re-used on the instruction manual.

Anyone ever wonder why they didn't simply recolor the original Diaclone box art for Magnus and went with the goofier new art? Well someone at the company liked the old sketch so much that they used it for the art on the instruction manual. Here's the picts side by side, they flipped the image for the inst's and added the gun, but other than that its the same traced outline and all. I believe they did the same thing with another TF/Pre TF character... CLASS, does anyone know off the top of their head?

In case you didn't know, and because I am BORED, here's a small scan of the backdrop that comes with the Diaclone Devestator gift set. The billboard in the distance for some reason has the word SEVEN, and there is one other in Japanese (have no idea what it says) The set also came with cardboard gurders that one could arrange to make a building's scaffolding. Also a plastic raised gray landscape and little clear plastic sand like pellets. here's what it looks like all together. I still was positive when I was a kid that Devestator came with a extra silencer that fit over the main gun barrel to make it longer...but it was probably a broken gun piece …

Figured I'd post here first. Funny thing happened in my trip to the super walmart. They had a $1 video rack near the toy section. I glanced at the covers and something caught my eye, it was a weird robot with some cartoon people here and there. I picked it up and flipped it over to see 3 screen grabs...one was more humans, another was some french guy with a machine gun that looked familiar...but the middle one, was INFERNO with a birds crest on his chest...The title right on the slim DVD case was "DEFENDERS OF SPACE" which was the name of a weird Diaclone or Pre TF series I came across years ago. So the once rare, nearly unheard of Diaclone series featuring the …