Pixie Trix Comix & Hiveworks Community

Ok, I finally decided- Didi and Chloe

BTW, Thor, I remember when those 'plastic toys' were made out of about 50-60%% die cast metal. They were way better made back in the 1980's. All except for Prowl, who kept snapping in the middle.

You mean Prowl would turn into 'Ow!'?

Well, if you looked at it like the doors were wings, yeah lol.

Artemisia wrote: remember when those 'plastic toys' were made out of about 50-60%% die cast metal

No, you don't. Because they never have been.

There are random bits and pieces of diecast on various Diaclone-based characters, and a handful of Microman characters, but other Microman characters, and all toys taken from other lines, the only metal in them is connectors and springs. There may, or may not, have been a few toys that were made mostly of die-cast, but they weren't any of the major characters. Prime, for instance, only has die-cast for his chest. Megatron, his thighs. Soundwave, his feet. Bumblebee didn't have a single bit of die-cast (nor did any of the other mini-cars).

By the way? The 80s toys? Totally not better made. Especially the ones with metal bits. They were badly engineered with far too little tolerance to use metal, and plastic that was way too brittle to stand up to the poor tolerances and added weight of the metal. Not to mention that even painted/tampographed plastic on modern toys retains the colour better than painted die-cast (or old painted plastic).

No,

I remember there being quite a lot of metal to some of the very early ones I owned. I am also going off of my memories and the fact that they seemed better made than a lot of the stuff today which seems to be made from inferior quality plastic. I know that by about 1984, most of them were pure plastic and not overly good plastic at that. At any rate, they're all gone now. The Georgia summer heat slowly deteriorated the plastic to the point they were starting to break down. By about 1986, I stopped paying attention to the whole thing. I was into other things by then.

You memory is wrong.

Transformers have never, ever had more than the occasional panel made of die-cast. Even back when they were Diaclone (the only line that became Transformers that ever had any significant amount of die-cast).

And 1984 is the very first year of the Transformers brand, so there was nothing before 1984 (other than the original Japanese lines, and a couple non-Japanese lines that imported the toys before the Transformers brand started, such as Diakron).

The very, very earliest Transformers toys (that would be early 1984) were simply Takara-made Diaclone and Microchange toys repackaged in Hasbro packaging with Hasbro decals - although certain toys, such as the Decepticon jets, had sharp bits filed down (which could only be done because they were mainly plastic).

Here's a photo of the Microchange Cassette whose mold became Rumble and Frenzy. Note the lack of any metal except his feet.

And here's Battle Convoy, who became Optimus Prime. Notice the distinct plastic grain in his trailer, and the complete lack of difference in the cab/robot to Prime.

Your memory of the toys is coloured by being 20+ years distant. It happens. (Hell, the last time I took it onto myself to debunk the idea that most early TFs were primarily die-cast, I was shocked how little die-cast there was on even the Diaclones. I had remembered Sunstreaker, for instance, having a metal roof as well as metal feet. But, nope, I was misremembering as his roof was painted clear plastic, which tended to lose the paint to wear just like the metal. I had also remembered him being named Sunstreak.)

Well, it is something that I, honestly, aren't all that worried about any more. I have no memory of about half of my childhood, so . . .

All I know is that this makes one of the writers happy, and I'm a nice person.

I'm just glad I was just a bit too old to give a crap about Transformers. They sound like a horrible quagmire to get sunk into.

Thor,

I haven't even seen the movies. I am just not that into the whole thing any more.

Thor wrote:I'm just glad I was just a bit too old to give a crap about Transformers. They sound like a horrible quagmire to get sunk into.

The cartoons was good back then. That was as much i went into it though. >_>
Although i first saw them in the late 80's and early 90's.

Artemisia wrote:No,

I remember there being quite a lot of metal to some of the very early ones I owned. I am also going off of my memories and the fact that they seemed better made than a lot of the stuff today which seems to be made from inferior quality plastic. I know that by about 1984, most of them were pure plastic and not overly good plastic at that. At any rate, they're all gone now. The Georgia summer heat slowly deteriorated the plastic to the point they were starting to break down. By about 1986, I stopped paying attention to the whole thing. I was into other things by then.

It occurs to me that you may be remembering the Go-Bot toys that were released at the same time. I remember my Leader-one and Scooter had a decent bit of metal on them.

Y'know, she probably is...GoBots did come out earlier (1983), and, especially the standard size toys were rather heavier on the die-cast (pardon the pun) than TFs. The most extreme case being 1985 Vamp, who was primarily (though not quite entirely) metal. (Her 1986 Super version, on the other hand, was entirely plastic, aside from fasteners.) But most of the regular bunch had at the very least a metal torso.

That doesn't apply to the 'Super's (who were incredibly inconsistent about metal - some, like Bug Bite or Herr Fiend used it fairly extensively (at least on par with the Diaclone-derived TFs, if not more), whereas others, like Staks or Defendor used (almost) none), the Rock Lords, or others with a gimmick other than 'robot that turns into a vehicle'.

Meanwhile, at Hasbro, the voting page appears to be defunct. Which is odd, since the contestant profiles are still there.

EDIT!! I'd forgotten that voting ended on April 22. Which is why the voting page has been taken down.

Adamas wrote:

Artemisia wrote:No,

I remember there being quite a lot of metal to some of the very early ones I owned. I am also going off of my memories and the fact that they seemed better made than a lot of the stuff today which seems to be made from inferior quality plastic. I know that by about 1984, most of them were pure plastic and not overly good plastic at that. At any rate, they're all gone now. The Georgia summer heat slowly deteriorated the plastic to the point they were starting to break down. By about 1986, I stopped paying attention to the whole thing. I was into other things by then.

It occurs to me that you may be remembering the Go-Bot toys that were released at the same time. I remember my Leader-one and Scooter had a decent bit of metal on them.

I think you're right. I just remember transforming robots with a LOT of metal in them. Well, they're gone now. All but one of the toys I owned at that age- http://www.collectiondx.com/review/acti ... e/goggle_v

I paid a LOT of money for that toy and it doesn't matter that it's in very ragged condition, I still own it.

But, yeah, I'm probably remembering Gobots rather than transformers.

I've already put my vote in. I'll be content with whatever Giz and Dave want to put up.