G1 Cassettes

[Alpha_Trion]

I was looking at different websites the other day getting a rough price range for cassettes to buy in the near future, and I started seeing gold weapons and chrome weapons for the same figure, does anyone know why they had the variants?

[Snapes on a Plane]

The silver weapons came first then the gold, sorta...

 

So the first time the two packs came out, silver weapons. For laserbeak, buzzsaw, ravage, rumble, and frenzy. Then in a later year, ratbat and frenzy were released with silver weapons, but then again with gold. So technically, no gold weapons for ravage laserbeak, buzzsaw or rumble(although you could just swap with frnezy's).

 

The same happened with the Autobots, the first 4 all had silver weapons but later got the gold treatment.

The later cassettes, the combiners and dinos, only came with silver.

 

To my knowledge, one is not more valuable than the other, just a personal preferrence/completist issue.

 

If someone else knows something I don't, please correct me.

 

-Turbine

[Cyclone_X]

I think that the gold Ratbat/frenzy weapon variants are more valuable, if you look at ebay, those cassettes usually go higher than their chromed versions

 

plus the fact that comic Ratbat has gold weapons, so comic-accuracy is more sought after

[Alpha_Trion]

thanks for the info Turbine, I'm just wondering why the change.

[JunkersHVN]

actually, the gold vs silver is a bit different.

The gold frenzy weapons were only issued with the version that came with ratbat (he also has gold details on his chest instead of silver). The gold ratbat weapons came with the version that uses stickers for the cassette label markings. The silver weapons came with the version that used spray-ops, which was intend for release only in china and japan (but some did get mis-sorted into american packages). The same is true in reverse of the autobot cassette weapons - the asian-market version with spray-ops for the cassette labels used the gold weapons, the american releases with stickers for the cassetted labels used silver weapons.

Neither one is particularly more valuable than the other though.

[Alpha_Trion]

hmm thats interesting because I bought a Ratbat from Fortress Maximus that had stickers and silver weapons.

 

Unless he bought them seperate.

[JunkersHVN]

if it was a loose ratbat, the weapons were probably switched (it happens a lot).

[Fortress_Maximus]

Actually JunkersHVN, that Ratbat was sold with the same original parts I purchased them with. I did not switch parts, also if I ever do I certainly would have the professional courtesy to tell the potential buyer. Lastly, Alpha _Trion, the gold vs. silver is simply a preference there is no real variant which is rarer per se. :thumb

[OldSchool80sKid]

I have both Frenzy that came with Ravage and that came with Ratbat. The chest decals are both gold and the Ratbat version came with gold weapons. I bought these myself from stores in the 80's, so that may be yet another variation combination that adds nothing to the value of these toys.

[Lord Madhammer]

The gold was just a later gimmick introduced in '86 to make the original cassette guys seem "new" or something. As such, I prefer the original chrome ones. But then, I prefer Rumble/Frenzy, Ravage, and Buzzsaw/Lazerbeak to Ratbat and all those other ones. Just an old school preference, I suppose. :tfgrin