I'm new to this pre-transformers stuff but I know of Diaclone and Microman (or is it Microchange?), but that's not why I'm here.

I'm new to this pre-transformers stuff but I know of Diaclone and Microman (or is it Microchange?), but that's not why I'm here.

Hi there,

 

Whirl and Roadbuster were from the Dorvack line manufactured by Takatoku. Whirl was the Ovelon Gazette and Roadbuster was the Mugen Calibur.

 

The Deluxe Insecticons were from the Beetras line also by Takatoku I believe.

 

Omega Supreme was originally the Mechabot-1 from ToyBox.

 

Shockwave was called Astro-Magnum and was from ToyCo.

 

Jetfire was by Bandai and was based very heavily on the Macross (and Robotech) Valkyries.

 

Those are a few off the top of my head. I do remember SkyLynx being non-Takara also...

 

All the best

Maz

wasnt energon snow cat a re-mold of a old gi-jo toy?

Jetfire was by Bandai and was based very heavily on the Macross (and Robotech) Valkyries.

 

Those are a few off the top of my head. I do remember SkyLynx being non-Takara also...

Jetfire wasn't just "based very heavily on" the Valkyries, it was a Valkyrie, specifically Takatoku's 1/55th scale VF-1S Super Valkyrie. The only difference between the two is that Jetfire is red where the VF-1S is yellow, and lacks the skull-and-crossbones logo.

 

SkyLynx is thought to be an unreleased ToyBox figure (they went out of business before the figure could be released), but I don't know of any proof for that. I believe it anyway.

wasnt energon snow cat a re-mold of a old gi-jo toy?

No. Snowcat is based on the... Snowcat, but it's impossible to be a remold.

Jetfire wasn't just "based very heavily on" the Valkyries, it was a Valkyrie, specifically Takatoku's 1/55th scale VF-1S Super Valkyrie. The only difference between the two is that Jetfire is red where the VF-1S is yellow, and lacks the skull-and-crossbones logo.

Plus has a shorter rounded nose than the VF-1S (for safety reasons).

Personally I like the Taka/Bandai pointy nosecone IMHO.

Actually, there's an interesting story on how Hasbro got the Valkyrie as Jetfire:

 

The 1/55 VF-1 Valkyrie was originally sold by Takatoku Toys before they went bankrupt in 1984. At that time, a smaller company called Matsushiro Toys had the mold castings for the toy when Hasbro signed a deal with them to produce a batch of Valkyries for the TF line.

 

Within the same year, Bandai bought the molds from Matsushiro to manufacture more Macross toys, especially for the release of the Do You Remember Love? theatrical feature. Consequently, Bandai had to follow Matsushiro's contract of producing Jetfires for Hasbro.

In Beast WarsII the Tako-Tank was an unused Microman toy, and Magnaboss' ship is from another line, I am pretty sure those Orbs that TFed inot animals were from another line too!

SkyLynx is thought to be an unreleased ToyBox figure (they went out of business before the figure could be released), but I don't know of any proof for that. I believe it anyway.

It's been a while since I've seen it, so I can't say exactly what it was, but I do remember being surprised when I noticed that SkyLynx had a non-Takara copyright stamping on it. It might have been ToyBox as that seems to ring a bell, but after 10 years of not seeing the toy, that might be a false memory...