G1 Transformers

[Joe Redifer]

I remember the Jumpstarters.  They were incredibly hard to transform.  It took me 3 weeks to figure out how to transform Top Spin into his vehicle mode.  I finally figured it out and then I got Twin Shaft or whoever he was and it was another 3 week learning curve there because he was so incredible different.  [/sarcasm]  They were in the Transformers Universe comics (which weren't actually comics).  I kind of remember the Deluxe Autobots.  I'm sure I had a few but I can't recal them right now.  TO GOOGLE!

EDIT:  Oh hell yeah, Whirl!  I used to have that skinny a$$hole.  I remember being impressed by how large his Autobot symbol was.  What other ones were there?  I can't find any.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Roadbuster is the other one: http://tfu.info/1985/Autobot/Roadbuster/roadbuster.htm



They are doing a remold of the recent Bruticus...



.... to be the Wreckers(Topspin, Twintwist, Whirl, Roadbuster, & Impactor)


http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Ruination_%28Generations%29


They're not what I'd call perfect, but I think they're pretty cool none the less.

Topspin


Twintwist


Roadbuster


Whirl


Impactor(relatively new character)


Oh, & it looks like the Deluxe Insecticons did have some minor comic book appearances in the old Marvel UK comics, as well as in recent years

[Joe Redifer]

Holy crap I had Roadbuster, too!  He was pretty bad-ass looking.  Why didn't they appear in official canon?

The new ones look less impressive.  The merged robot's torso is way too small.  The colors are also a bit flamboyant.  Their guns are ridiculous.  They don't look as sleek as the old models but instead kind of clunky.

EDIT:  So I'm looking at this page and a lot of these things aren't even transformed properly in their photos.  Blitzwing and Bonecrusher have incomplete robot modes.  I haven't gotten past the B's yet but I'm sure there's more.  And I am once again reminded of the pretenders.  I bought one.  That's when I stopped buying the toys because they were just stupid.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I think the Deluxe Autobots & Insecticons not appearing might've partially had to do with them being originally made by a different company(Bandai I think?), though, that didn't stop them from having Shockwave or Sky/Jetfire in the show.

[Joe Redifer]

Ooops, for got to put the URL in my last post when I referred to "this page".  I mean this ---> http://www.tfu.info/series/g1.htm  Great to see all of those old ones again but it drives me nuts that some aren't transformed correctly.

EDIT:  Holy crap!  Omnibots!  I had those!  Even more than never got any love.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Ah, yes, TFU.  That site comes in handy, but, yeah, there are tons of mistransformations.  Man, the Omnibots, I wanted those.  I did get a few mail away's.  I got Reflector, & I also got Sunstreaker thru the mail away program.  I think I got a couple of those Power Dasher's or whatever they're called.

[Joe Redifer]

I never had Reflector but I wanted him bad and wondered why there was no toy of him.  I never saw the mail order thing until it was too late.  I wonder why some of these guys were mail order only. The Omnibots weren't cheaply made or anything. Was Sunstreaker ever sold in stores?  I had one friend who had him but I never saw him at retail.

[GohanX]

I always loved that they had an Omnibot named Camshaft that turned into a RX-7. RX-7s do not have camshafts.

[SignOfZeta]

I think the Deluxe Autobots & Insecticons not appearing might've partially had to do with them being originally made by a different company(Bandai I think?), though, that didn't stop them from having Shockwave or Sky/Jetfire in the show.

I don't know where deluxe Insecticons came from, but Roadbuster and Whirl were molds they bought from Takatoku who had just gone into receivership. They were from the anime Dvorak. Likewise, Jetfire was a Macross VF-1S. Some of them even have UN Spacy stickers on them. Since this was the 80s, and people weren't as litigious as they are now, this was actually possible. However, Jetfire was in the show and the anime, although he was completely redesigned to the point where the only similarity is that he's a red and white plane. He was also renamed Skyfire much of the time.

[Joe Redifer]

Yeah I still don't know which one is Jetfire or which one is Skyfire or why one name was ever used over the other.  The one in the cartoon and comic looked absurd.  But I immediately knew that Jet/Skyfire wasn't a REAL Transformer when I saw some Robotech cartoon playing on TV and there were 100s of them flying around, looking just like my toy.  I kept watching Robotech and Jet/Sky Fire was the only thing they had that looked cool and they had HUMANS controlling them which I though was pretty lame, so I stopped watching.

[SignOfZeta]

Well, as a show Macross is approximately one trillion times better than Transformers.

Also, all the characters in early Transformers were from other toy lines, and most of them have pilots. This is why guys like Prime and Wheeljack and Grimlock and whoever have little seats in them; for the Diaclone dudes that originally controlled them. The only early TFs without cockpits were the Microman Change toys like Reflector and Megatron, most of which (all?) became Decepticons.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Sunstreaker was deffinitely in stores.  The mail order version, from what I recall, didn't include a box, but it did have a B&W copy of the tech specs.  I wanna say that Mirage, & maybe Hound were also available this way, maybe a few others.  Any bot that is in those catalog's(that come packaged with them) was available in store's.  Some theorize that Reflector was originally planned for stores since he was fairly prominent in atleast the first season.

Hasbro has talked of taking the Generation Perceptor & remolding him to be a Reflector.  I'd prefer it were 3 bots that combine into a camera, but, I might still budge if they do the remold, but ofcoarse, I'd have to buy 3.

As for the Deluxe Insecticons, I did some more reading & found this in Barrage's page




Barrage, like all of the Deluxe Insecticons, was designed and originally produced by Takatoku Toys for inclusion in their Armored Insect Battalion Beetras toyline (機甲虫隊ビートラス). Decoed in black and grey, the mold first saw release under the name Beet-Gadol. Takatoku Toys went out of business a short while later in 1984, and their assets were purchased by fellow Japanese toymaker Bandai. At that time, the American market was one Bandai was not very active in, which made it a competitor of Takara, but not of Hasbro. Due to this, the company had no objection to licensing various Takatoku molds to Hasbro in 1985 for sale in the American market primarily as part of their version of the The Transformers toyline. Nowadays, Bandai has a worthwhile interest in every market and since it only once licensed the molds, there is little likelihood that Barrage and company will ever be put up for reissue.
 Since Hasbro and Takara shared the Generation 1 cartoon as promotional material for their respective versions of the toyline, Barrage and the other Deluxe Insecticons were not included in its cast to avoid giving Japanese market-competitor Bandai free publicity. The group was also omitted from the US Marvel comics and barely appeared in the UK Marvel comics, making them the least "successful" of the Takatoku molds. This trend has continued in fiction since, the team's current highlight being their role in the Micromasters comics.
 Barrage, Chop Shop and Venom all appeared in their Beetras color schemes on Hasbro's 1985 packaging mural, along with several other toys in early or unused color schemes.
 
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Barrage#Notes

Ha, here's some alternate smaller(& apparently liscensed) versions of the Deluxe Insecticons

http://www.toyarchive.com/Convertors/Insectors.html

I think I had the binocular guy at the bottom, he seems really familiar!
http://www.toyarchive.com/Convertors/Spies.html

Ah, I just realised I think I still have Chopper, who was based on the same mold as Whirl!
http://www.toyarchive.com/Convertors/Defenders.html