Why were some G1 figures introduced in the toyline but were never in any episodes? with the exception of Skyfire/reflector/omega. omnibots, deluxe insects, roadbuster, whirl, twintwist, topspin. These guys were never mentioned in the cartoons, only seen in the toy catalog.
In a tv show where there's so many characters it's hard to keep track of all of them, it would be a bad idea to throw more characters in
Omnibots: probably because they were mailaways rather than mass retail, and thus less deserving of marketing. Deluxe Insecticons, Deluxe Vehicles: These moulds all originated with companies other than Takara, and so were excluded from the cartoon so Takara could dub it for Japan without advertising competitors' products. It's the same reason Jetfire looked very different to his toy in the cartoon. Jumpstarters: Unknown. I believe they did have animation models designed for them, but they were never used.
The same reason they make off screen characters now variety. Also some may have been in the Japanese cartoons? I know a lot of toys that came out later on weren't in us G1 but were in the Japanese series, not those specific ones.
Nearly every "generation" of Transformers had more toy characters than what appeared in their respective shows. Just look at Beast Wars.
Naw it was all licencing and the like. It's a shame Skyfire eps weren't shown in Japan. Sure they wouldn't have gotten a toy back then..... but maybe we could have had a MP Skyfire now.
Guys, Jalaguy got it, the non-compete issue in Japan. Omnibots not appearing because they were mail-aways is consistent with Reflector being removed from the show when it was decided he wouldn't be released through retail. He became a mail-away exclusive in '86.
The Transformers was a runaway success. After its beginnings, the lineups and the shows couldn't be made fast enough. It accounts for the huge amount of animation errors of the show and also the discrepancies (Rumble is red as a toy, yet blue as a character, etc., etc.). Reflector was in the first episodes yet only appeared as a mail-away? Skids, Shockwave, and Jetfire have 1984 box art yet were officially in the 1985 line? In short, Transformers as a whole, cohesive brand of toys had never been done before by Hasbro, and they were very much figuring a lot of things out at the time.
I had both Shockwave and Jetfire in 1984. I think at least there would have been a better chance of it happening.
We were lucky. That almost all of Series 1-4 North American toys showed up in the 4 seasons. I've never read the UK comics, I heard many of those you listed showed up there. Unlike many of the others TV series since G1, where there's more off-screen toys than on-screen toys. Heaviest offenders are BW, BM, Prime, and the Live Action Movies.
