TF Views

At this point the only real reason to get them is for the nostalgia. And if you weren't around for that, then they really have no meaning or draw.

That still absolutely is not true. I was born in 1989, meaning by the time I was cognitive, TF would have been well and truly off store shelves by the time I was old enough to ask for toys--and indeed, the only TFs I had during my childhood (pre-G2) were secondhand ones found at yard sales and flea markets, largely by my parents. (Most of them, it turns out, were Gobots, with only a Wheelie, Cosmos and PM Prime being my only "real" G1 TFs.) Even then, the only G2 toy I ever got was G2 Bonecrusher, who I lost everything but his drill and fist. (That includes the figure.)

In other words, I cannot have nostalgia for G1 because I didn't live through it. And yet, I have an appreciation for the Diaclone toys because they were feats of engineering, and, in fact, sometimes because they don't match up to their media portrayals. To Dom, that probably makes zero sense, but to me, these represent a different time for the brand where experimentation was rampant and damn near anything could happen. (It is probably this same sense that makes me appreciate the Euro G1.5 and G2 colour schemes.) It's 'different' from the norm.

When you see Optimus Prime on the cartoon, that's--essentially--the Optimus Prime everybody knows. Both Masterpiece Primes are largely modeled after his cartoon model. The character sheets for the Marvel Comics were based on him. Even IDW's Optimus Prime is largely based on that design (with a few changes). But the G1 toy is almost completely different, with his clear windshield, gaping forearm holes for his wheel wells, dark-blue-to-the-point-that-it's-almost-purple legs and head, faceplate vents, yellow eyes, rubsign on top of the cab...so much of it is stuff that simply gets lost in translations for years that other Optimus Primes simply do not have.

For me, that's what it is. The Diaclone toys are a fascinating look at the actual toy models that inspired the cartoon, comic books, and future toys that we all know and love, but in many cases they're so vastly different. It's like reading the early first draft screenplay to Alien, or seeing a rough cut of Blade Runner, or reading the novel of Jurassic Park. It's like Terminator comic books that were produced before Terminator 2 came out. It's something that's a little different from the normal, accepted, "canonical" approach we see these days.

Now, we see Optimus Prime in the movie, and we buy the toy, and we play the video game, and that all matches up (for the most part). We see Prime Wheeljack on the cartoon, and the toy looks about the same. We almost never see these kind of radical departures in TF these days, but back then, the brand was full of them--and I want to celebrate that.

See you get it. But, you also look at it from a historical perspective. Like "Here's what came before and why it was important". Which is great, don't get me wrong, but it was different to be there at the time. Because before that, you either had toys cars and planes and stuff or you had action figures. You never had the two in the same toy. Suddenly Transformers came along and absolutely destroyed that. There it was, awesome jet toy AND an action figure as well! And THEN on top of that, they tell us that they're not mechsuits or anything but sentient living beings! They tell us a story about a planet where life evolved mechanically rather than organically. Can you imagine what that's like at 10 years old when everyting science has taught you says that life is organic? *searches for the head explosion gif that O6 postes somewhere* I mean it just blew us all a way in every aspect of the concept. And THEN, on top of all of that, they tell us that they're in disguise! Like, see that plane you just passed? That could be a robot! For me, a lot of the "magic" of Transformers comes from those initial concepts because it represents a time in my life where my way of thinking changed and I never really looked at the world the same way again.

Laserbeak: (drone/robot)
Despite the considerable praise that people have for this mould, this is my first pressing of it. Laserbeak shares a mould with RotF air drone mould, making it yet another movie mould to make the jump to the Universe/Generations line. All things considered, mould works suprisingly well for Laserbeak. The weapons, (wing sections from the drone form), look like they could be instruments of "persuasion", which is consistent with Laserbeak being an interrogator. And, as has been pointed out elsewhere, the drone mode strongly resembles Laserbeak's pre-Earth mode from the first episode of the cartoon. If I can find one cheap, I might pick up another (likely the RotF release) recolour as Garboil.

Grade: A


Dom
-can definitely seen the appeal of army building with figures from this mould.

Dominic wrote:If I can find one cheap, I might pick up another (likely the RotF release) recolour as Garboil.

Good luck! He's wicked hard to find, and when he does pop up, he's in excess of $20. I've been looking for one for a few years. (And also massively got burned on a trade for one with someone who severely misunderstood what I wanted.)