Transformers questions by newbies, and not-so-newbies

[GoktimusPrime]

I played with those toys today. Ratbat, Dirge and Roadbuster are pretty cool but Springer was kinda fail IMHO. Meh. Oh yeah, they have the comics mixed up too... :/

liegeprime: the official web site for Encore Convoy shows him with the phat rifle.

[roller]

Does G1.5 and G2 Hook toys have the driver cab on the opposite leg to the G1 version?

ta

[liegeprime]

thanks guys, that clears it up, Jay, Gok

[GoktimusPrime]

roller: there's no such thing as G1.5 Hook. The 1992 Constructicons are G1. G1.5 is 1993 pre-G2 stuff, like Obliterators. Transformers Generations refers to them as the "New" Constructicons, so I guess you can consider that a retcon of the '92 Constructicon names.

Anyway, here are some pics:

G1 1985 Hook

G1 1992 "Hook" (officially the toy was nameless... go Hasbro :/)

G2 1993 Hook

1953 Captain Hook Y'arrr!

[roller]

thanks, i always though G1.5 applied to everything not released in the US during the tail end of G1.

[Gutsman Heavy]

G1.5 is a fan term so it can appy to anything! my left butt-cheek is G1.5

[GoktimusPrime]

That's like say Seekers and Gestalt are fan terms so that my right foot is a Gestalt and my cat's droppings are Seekers! Heck, "G1" was originally a fan term too! Before G2 everything was just "Transformers." It was only after G2 came out that everyone started referring to everything that came before it as "G1" by default.

Although it is a fan term, "G1.5" refers to G1 figures which were later repackaged as G2. Exact same toy/incarnation etc., only difference being the packaging/marketing. Basically it was because in 1993 Hasbro was still releasing Transformers, then later on in the same year they released G2 and so they decided to repackage some of the latest "G1" toys that had been released earlier that year as G2. This meant that in 1993 we saw the same toys in both pre-G2 (G1) and G2 packaging! As a result, those toys have come to be known as "G1.5" in the fandom. The 1992 Constructicons were never repackaged as G2 and so are strictly G1/pre-G2.

"G1.5" Fearswoop

On the left is Fearswoop in pre-G2 (G1) packaging as released in early 1993. On the right is Fearswoop in Generation 2 packaging as released later that same year. The only difference between these toys is the packaging. If you got this toy loose without packaging it would be impossible to tell whether it was G1 or G2 - so as a result fans have come to call it G1.5.

[GoktimusPrime]

Ooh! I have a question to ask now!

Some dude on Youtube sent me this video "review" claiming that he owns a rare prototype _golden dragon_ Diaclone Sludge. I have never heard of such a toy. It's not mentioned in Transformers: Generations (published by Takara) nor Diaclone.net.

So I suspect that this toy could be a fake and I've mentioned so on this guy's comments page for the reasons I cited above, but he claims it's real because some other guy also has the toy and says that it's real... basically he seems to be relying on hearsay information. I've asked him to provide some _real_ evidence but um... yeah. *shrug*

Can anyone confirm or deny this person's claim?

[liegeprime]

Ha! thats a KO that was released for the Asian market. Ive also seen a variant of Grimlock which looks to have a Godzilla look to it and Slag had a different variation to his horns and crest. Its NOT an official TF ( prototype or otherwise) nor a Diaclone AFAIK. This was during the time when Armada was still in promotion when I saw em - back in Philippines. The quality is good, although they look awkward really.

[griffin]

Check that varients page (address escapes me right now), as it has a huge page on the Dinobots, and I'm pretty sure I recall them mentioning the gold ones.