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Post by JB on Jul 22, 2003 22:20:47 GMT -5
Gentlemen,
Which version of what's known as Transformers came first, Hasbro's or Takara's? And how does Diaclone play a part? Is Hasbro to Takara what Shogun Warriors are to Popy?
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Post by admin1 aka Ed on Jul 23, 2003 8:48:19 GMT -5
Diaclone came first and formed a basis for Transformers. I believe US Transformers actually came first, then the Japanese Transformers came second (after it was found successful in the US). Maybe Shax can confirm this.  |
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Post by shaxper on Jul 23, 2003 13:32:00 GMT -5
Gentlemen, Which version of what's known as Transformers came first, Hasbro's or Takara's? And how does Diaclone play a part? Is Hasbro to Takara what Shogun Warriors are to Popy? Yes and no. "Diaclone" has become a generic term for pre-Transformers but, in fact, the Transformers were derived from several sources. Takara attempted to bring Diaclone to America in 1984 with their American Diakron (same Japanese pronunciation, different spelling) toy line, which they produced directly. This was only shortly after Bandai had brought GoDaiKin directly to the States, so the influence is pretty clear. Anyway, Hasbro became interested in this toyline for whatever reason, acquired the rights very quickly (thus the Diakron line ended after only one wave of releases), and Hasbro basically said "Okay. What other transforming toys have you got?" As a result, they acquired the rights to both the Diaclone car robots AND Takara's MicroChange toy series. Transformers became an odd mixture of the two very different transforming toy lines, which is why you have tape decks larger than tractor trailers and such. Hasbro also grabbed up the rights to several other non-Takara transforming toys that got thrown into G1, such as Jetfire, Roadbuster, Whirl, and the Deluxe Insecticons (Takotoku), and Omega Supreme and Skylinx (Toybox and Toyco). Anyway, Transformers became a huge somewhat unexpected hit, largely due to marketing tactics (Diaclone and Microchange were never all that huge a hit in Japan), and Takara saw an amazing potential for profit so, oddly enough, Takara acquired the rights to the American toyline, even though it was using their very own toys. In 1985, (one year after G1 launched in America), Takara launched their own Transformers series and ended Diaclone and Microchange in order to avoid confusion. The Takara Transformers series did not include non-Takara toys though, since they were only buying the rights to the Transformers name and logo, not the individual toys (which were already 99% theirs). Since then, Takara has always designed the toys, but Hasbro has always released them first. The only exceptions to this were Beast Machines (designed by Hasbro and only released in America), and RID (released in Japan first since Hasbro chose to acquire the rights late in the series). |
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Post by mechapunk on Jul 26, 2003 14:59:55 GMT -5
How enlightening!
Now that clears the confusion I have of the TF toyline!
Thank you very much Shaxper!
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Post by shaxper on Jul 27, 2003 10:37:43 GMT -5
Always happy to share the knowledge I really should finish my comprehensive history of the transformers toyline sometime soon. A link would be so much easier than a lengthy response, but I've been putting that project off for nearly two years now. |
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