Alternators sort of played with my feelings like a yoyo. First hearing about them, they looked amazing. I mean, posable versions of G1 characters! Looking back now, they're too big for my tastes (they don't fit in with anything but MP figures and each other... and HA, I suppose) and the robot modes are... questionable. As the line got into the swing of things and I saw them I got... uninterested. This I blame solely on the Viper mold. The robot mode looks terrible and turned me off the line, so I missed a lot of releases until I finally gave it a second look. That said, even now some of the releases I love dearly. Battle Ravage, despite (... because of?) being silly is a great mold. I would love a remold of Turbo Tracks with a new head as Ravage. Rodimus/Mirage is just an awesome, awesome mold despite being not screen accurate for either character. Hound's mold is awesome, but I prefer Swindle since I like the character more and the headsculpt just looks better (Hound looks clinically depressed... it's like he ran over his own damn dog). Still desperately want Jaguar Ravage. But yeah, mixed feelings about the line. Ultimately quality figures, but most of them don't have much of a place in my collection anymore, sadly.
It's a shame that we didn't at least get a Binal Tech Trailbreaker as originally planned (colors to the BT Guide by SQ7). Trailbreaker by sodawilly and SQ7 - Alternators - Binaltech Customs
That's because it was a very poor character selection choice....as with a few other moulds, off the top of my head: Viper = Wheeljack Dodge Pickup = Trailbreaker Police Subaru = Prowl They should have left out Sunstreaker/Sideswipe or made them modern Lambo's like in CHUG. Prowl was more like Sideswipe (so much so I used half of my Prowl and reshelled into a Lambo).
The Integra mold was originally intended to be Red Alert. Given the size, I'm surprised we got the Ram at all in the Alt line. There was a small rumor that it was to be Ironhide, but I don't think there's a lot of truth that the one. It makes sense though, but TakaraTomy felt the mold would not sell unless it was Convoy. The Lamborghini license could never be secured, though I don't think it was heavily pursued. Personally, I like the deviation from G1. Smokescreen set the precedent with the Subaru deco. After that, I was already geared up for something quite a bit different than the norm.
Honestly, I wish they'd used a bigger truck for Convoy. The SRT is a nice looking alt mode, but it seems like almost every day I will be driving on the freeway and see a more massive looking truck and think, "That would have made a better Convoy."
Yeah, I don't know anything about trucks. Come to think of it, I don't know all that much about cars, either. But I thought it was at least a nice looking truck for an alt mode. Crummy truck or not, I think the alt mode is the best part of Binaltech Convoy.
Makes perfect sense to me lol I guess it boils down to what you collect as for me they make perfect MP Autobots.
Oh yeah, totally. I learned about the SRT-10 (and other cars) due to my interest in the Alt/BT line. The SRT-10 is the product of the manufacturers having a speed war with their trucks to see who could produce the fastest (hence the Viper engine). Dodge Ram SRT-10 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Oh yeah, certainly! Different strokes for different folks I'm probably one of the few who likes Prowl as an Integra.
A few history facts: Alternators/Binaltech was originally conceived as "direct upgrades" for G1 characters. The first characters selected were Jazz as a Porsche Boxster, Bumblebee as a Volkswagen New Beetle (with Cliffjumper as the redeco/retool), Tracks as a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and Hound as a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. Then Porsche and Volkswagen said "NO WAR TOYS FUCK YOU HASBRO", and GM said "no broken car panels, please". Hasbro and Takara turned to a company Hasbro already had a license agreement with thanks to RID Side Burn, Daimler-Chrysler. They got the license for a Dodge Viper SRT-10, which became the second attempt at Tracks (with Sunstreaker as the redeco/retool). The Jeep had to be changed from a Rubicon into a Wrangler Sport, resulting in some design alterations for the transformation and robot mode. Then General Motors had a change of mind and allowed Corvette-Tracks after all, resulting in Hasbro and Takara slightly modifying the transformation of the Viper and giving him a Sideswipe head. Eventually, Hasbro and Takara realized that European car manufacturers, especially those pesky Germans, wouldn't play along, so they decided to stick with American and Japanese manufacturers instead, especially since Takara also wanted to pimp some domestic models. Thus, Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru) and Mazda were approached and gave their approval. As for some licenses that were pursued but ultimately never turned into toys: Waaaaay back when the line had just been launched, there was a report about a Dodge Neon SRT-4 and a Dodge Ram. The Ram ended up as Optimus Prime much MUCH later, whereas the SRT-4 never materialized. There was the case of the Mini Cooper that was solicited as a Binaltech release at one point but then canceled. We never got a clear explanation for what had happened there - was the solicitation premature? Had Hasbro and Takara ever actually pursued that license? Did they obtain it at one point but then Mini backed out of the deal? There was also a Mutsubishi listed in Walmart's computers at one point, and a rumor claimed it would be a Lancer Evolution. Nothing ever became of that one. The first (and only) European model released as an Alternator (but not on Takara's end) was Jaguar-Ravage. Had the line not been canceled, we would have also gotten Megatron as a Cadillac XLR. In the end, Classics and its successors ended up being pretty much what the original idea for the Alternators/Binaltech line had been before it turned into "everyone becomes a car, we use whatever model we get licensed from our domestic manufacturers", just minus the licenes and the 100% real-life accuracy and at a less oversized scale.
I'm having Binalternators nostalgia now That being said, required reading (by Nevermore as well): Transformers: Alternators - Transformers Wiki
The Mini Cooper would have made an awesome Bumblebee/Cliffjumper/Glyph/whoever else. I'm kind of fine with not getting a Lancer, though.
Oh man I remember this line. An thanks to Nevermore who pretty much summed up why I got outta this line.( everyone was a car , an all the massive repaints ). Matter of fact , in 2007 , I sold all my Alts to jump start my Classics / Henkei addiction.
I love you....I think that's the best I've ever seen it broken down into "simple" terms anyone could understand. Alternators will always be special to me. As others have stated, it combined two loves I've always had, into one. Masterpieces they were!!
The only Alternators I have are Rollbar,Skids,Overdrive,and Decepticharge. I say get all of these. But Overdrive.....he costs too much.
were any concept sketches ever found of this guy? very interested to see how they invisioned an alt megatron. I always saw him as the nissan GTR myself, which is why I was shocked when they chose convoy for that in the alternity line. It's still a great toy, but I would have killed for a GTR alt megatron
No. Megs only made it to the discussion stage as far as we know. What Nevermore reports on the TFWiki article is pretty much all that is known by us. And this is sexah:
