All of the original Transformers figures from 84-85 were molds borrowed from Takara’s Diaclone and Micro Change toylines. Hasbro more or less just struck a deal with Takara to bring the toys over, practically unchanged, as Transformers. For most of them, the only change was the inclusion of faction insignias/rubsigns, and a new box.

 

All of this is factually false.

 

Yep, those molds were released in 1983 as part of the Micro Change line, a subsidiary line of the New Microman line. Don’t know where I got the 70’s from. Maybe I was confusing it because Microman had been around since the late 70’s.

 

Presumably from the old misconception that stemmed from the copyright markings of those toys, because back in the day, copyright markings in Japan identified the launch of the series in general, not the creation of that particular figure. So basically, a toy designed in 1982 and released in 1983 as part of a toyline that started back in 1970 would have a "1970" copyright.

 

Maybe thats it.

 

When these show up on Brickseek or Walmart.com, do you think it’ll be front paged?

 

Getting close.

The G1 Transformers were almost all from either Diaclone or Microman toys from 1983ish. There are exceptions like Shockwave and Jetfire, which came from different lines entirely.

 

Nope. Go and read my posts.

Mirco Change was a spin-off line of Microman released in the eary 80’s. It is from that line, not Microman itself, that all those molds are taken from.


From TFwiki.
Micro Change - Transformers Wiki

 

Has there ever been any indication that the 85 Minibots (Cosmos, Powerglide, Warpath, Beachcomber & Seaspray) originated somewhere else? They seem odd to be the only original toys in the first two years.

 

Micro Change was not a spin off, but a sub-category of the Microman line:




Microchange was not a separate line of toys. It'd be like saying the Headmasters or the Pretenders were a separate line of toys from the Transformers. They were all part of the same line of toys.

 

I know, you got the image from
The very TFwiki page I linked. But it was still called Micro Change.

 

Cue Russian Accent: microMAN...microCHANGE...ALL MADE IN VIETNAM!!! (or China, or Taiwan, or Macau, or Japan, or something or France if you're hip to the whole Joustra thing).

 

The line of toys was called New Microman. They had various sub-groups within the line, but Micro Change was not a separate line of toys.