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Transformers Figures: A Brief Look at Their Wild History |
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Written by Jared Conley
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Saturday, 15 November 2008 |
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Transformers figures are incredibly popular toys due to their excellent story lines, wild history, and simple coolness factor. While newer additions to the toy line are impressive with their gadgetry and intricate transformations, the clunkier and larger toys of the eighties are extremely desirable, partially due to their controversial history.
by JaredConley
Transformers figures are incredibly popular toys due to their excellent story lines, wild history, and simple coolness factor. While newer additions to the toy line are impressive with their gadgetry and intricate transformations, the clunkier and larger toys of the eighties are extremely desirable, partially due to their controversial history.
In the seventies, Japanese toy company Takara manufactured the popular Microman and Diaclone toy lines, which featured figures that transformed into vehicles, robots, and electronics devices. Hasbro was already licensing the Takara technology for the G.I. Joe toy line and continued the partnership to manufacture the Transformers figures toy line, while simultaneously buying the Diaclone toy line outright.
A backstory was created for the toy line and a plethora new characters were added, while many of the original Diaclone toys were reworked to blend into this new story line. That's the straightforward part of their history. Then things begin to get confusing.
Soon after, the Marvel comic was released in the United States. The comics would later be released in Japan and the UK, inspiring new figure variations and bilingual names for figures in the process. In 1984 the animated series was developed, but the writers didn't precisely follow the original backstory.
In 1986, the full length animated movie was launched, two more seasons of the cartoon show were released, and the UK and Japanese story lines were still being developed. In the early 90's, the second generation series was produced (G2), followed by Beast Wars, followed by a new series of toys and comics developed by Dreamwave in the early 2000's. This all led to wild discrepancies in characters, plots, backgrounds, and most other aspects associated with the backstory and toy line.
Concurrently, Hasbro was releasing many more Transformers figures and sets, including Actionmasters, Multiforce, Powerlinx, Pretenders, Micromasters, Technobots, Targetmasters, Omnicons, Masterforce, Combiners, Brainmasters, Aerialbots, Minibots, and many more. Many of these lines were truly engineering wonders. What, don't tell me that you thought there was just one toy line?!
Adding to this confusion are the new Transformers releases, inspired by the feature film. Some of these new toys even feature tie-ins with the popular Star Wars franchise. Although these transforming toys don't carry the same geek appeal as Star Wars vintage action figures or the original Transformers figures, they are very popular with newer fans of both the Star Wars and Transformers series.
The bottom line is that Transformer action figures are more than just a fun memory for many collectors; they are also a prime example of design ingenuity, cooperation, and creativity rarely seen in the current mass market toy releases. Thanks to their past, vintage Transformers figures should remain collectible and valuable for many years to come.
About the Author:
Jared has amassed a huge collection of vintage toys, and primarily focuses his efforts on Pez, Star Wars vintage toys, and Transformers (more than meets the eye!). He writes about the history of the toy lines, the plot variations, and the history of the characters on his Transformers figures blog.
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