2024 marks the fortieth anniversary of Hasbro’s Transformers franchise, a remarkable run for the series of transforming robots. Due to the initial wave’s overseas origins — transforming robot toys manufactured by Japanese companies like Takara and licensed worldwide — the early Transformers have a curious history to explore, one that goes beyond alternate color schemes for foreign markets.
Hasbro’s early decision to cross-promote the brand with comic books and television shows also creates some fascinating contradictions throughout the mythology. One example would be the Transformers’ earliest incarnation as “The Mysterians,” and the proposed Scooby Doo style promotional animated series that created friction between Marvel Productions on the west coast and Marvel Comics on the east coast.
As we know today, the initial wave of Transformers released by Hasbro in America in 1984 featured toys initially sold in Japan as Takara’s Diaclone and Micro Change lines. Optimus Prime, the figure Hasbro designated the American face of the brand, began life as Battle Convoy. Designed by famed mecha and anime artists Hiroyuki Obara and Shōji Kawamori, the toy was the largest figure in Diaclone’s subline imprint, Car Robots. Battle Convoy was a piloted mecha, with enough space in his cab for small Diaclone pilots. (In one of Marvel Production’s early Transformers pitches for the animated series, a teenager can be seen piloting Optimus Prime in the promotional art.) The figure received relatively minor alterations during its Western “transformation” into Optimus Prime.
2024 marks the fortieth anniversary of Hasbro’s Transformers franchise, a remarkable run for the series of transforming robots. Due to the initial wave’s overseas origins — transforming robot toys manufactured by Japanese companies like Takara and licensed worldwide — the early Transformers have a curious history to explore, one that goes beyond alternate color schemes for foreign markets.
Hasbro’s early decision to cross-promote the brand with comic books and television shows also creates some fascinating contradictions throughout the mythology. One example would be the Transformers’ earliest incarnation as “The Mysterians,” and the proposed Scooby Doo style promotional animated series that created friction between Marvel Productions on the west coast and Marvel Comics on the east coast.
As we know today, the initial wave of Transformers released by Hasbro in America in 1984 featured toys initially sold in Japan as Takara’s Diaclone and Micro Change lines. Optimus Prime, the figure Hasbro designated the American face of the brand, began life as Battle Convoy. Designed by famed mecha and anime artists Hiroyuki Obara and Shōji Kawamori, the toy was the largest figure in Diaclone’s subline imprint, Car Robots. Battle Convoy was a piloted mecha, with enough space in his cab for small Diaclone pilots. (In one of Marvel Production’s early Transformers pitches for the animated series, a teenager can be seen piloting Optimus Prime in the promotional art.) The figure received relatively minor alterations during its Western “transformation” into Optimus Prime.
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