Childhood Misunderstandings

[Dan]

I've always seen the Deluxe Insecticons as part of the Insecticons... just as the Deluxe Autobots are also Autobots (although I guess the Deluxe Autobots are their own group). But we have other groups that don't have uniform designs.
e.g. Autobot Mini Vehicles: Bumblebee, Bumblejumper, Cliffjumper and Hubcap are all deformed vehicles really based on Choro Q/Penny Racer toys rather than real world vehicles. Their aesthetic clashes with the more realistic proportions of the other Mini Vehicles. Even Cosmos is realistically^accurately proportioned to George Adamski's photo of a Venusian flying saucer! (that totally wasn't a fake photo of a modified surgical lamp ). Then there's Wheelie...

Needless to say that the Deluxe Insecticons' aesthetic certainly are different from the Insecticons since they're from totally different pre-TF toylines (not that any of us knew that in the 80s). I'm surprised that you even saw any Deluxe Insecticons at the time since they were never released in Australia! I'm guessing that you or someone you knew must've gotten them from overseas (I know NZ had them).

As for Beast Wars, the Deluxe Insecticons' alt modes have all appeared in BW.
* Venom = cicada ---> Cicadacon & DJ
* Barrage = rhinoceros beetle ---> Ram Horn & Motorarm
* Chop Shop = stag beetle ---> Insecticon, Beetle & Scarem
* Ransack = locust ---> Scourge

Although I'd like to see a Transformer with a realistic/organic looking locust mode rather than a robotic/cybernetic Transmetal 2 locust mode (not really a robot in disguise).

I saw the Deluxe Autobots (setting aside the different company origin I have since discovered) as more like two unique standalone toys lumped into one grouping for the sake of catalogue formatting. You could have called Jetfire the Super Deluxe Autobot (given that back then deluxe denoted greater detail and tricky transformations).

More generally I regard them as an out-of-fiction grouping. They never need explanation in-story as a group. The same applies to the Autobot Mini-Vehicles. I get what you say about the aesthetic clash within that group but for me the bigger clash is between that group and others. It is more than a size difference since the micro-cassettes looked as classy (I cannot think of a better word) as (say) a Decepticon Plane or Autobot Car. The Autobot Mini-Vehicles seemed to be blatantly more childish.

Oh and I never saw Deluxe Insecticons. it was just rumour and misunderstanding based on someone seeing a catalogue and then telling others about it. ☺

One more thing about what one assumes exists in and out of story - as a kid I initially believed that Transformers was just the brand name and that the characters were all Autobots or Decepticons. It was a shock to hear them saying "Transformers" within the cartoon.