The 9 Transformers Toys Who Looked Nothing Like Their Cartoon Counterparts
Posted at 5:04 AM Oct 01, 2008
By Kevin J. Guhl
Life is good for young Transformers fan who grew up on shows like Armada and Energon, and are currently enjoying the Transformers: Animated series. When they walk into a toy store intent on purchasing action figures of their favorite characters, chances are they’re going to recognize them. That hasn’t always been the case.
Back when toy construction was much more primitive than today, the animators of Transformers took one look at the brick-shaped toys they were supposed to be drawing, shrugged, and went ahead with designs that would actually look good in cartoons. This left a generation of kids with the severe disappointment of finding that its favorite Transformers characters from the show had piss-poor representations in toy form. Here are nine of the worst offenders of “the toy doesn’t match the animation model” syndrome that left the children of the '80s with crippling trust issues we've never quite gotten over.
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9) Bumblebee
Remember Bumblebee in the Generation 1 Transformers cartoon? That sweet, bubbly, grinning guy who turned into a Volkswagen Bug? Kids in the 1980s found that while the body of the toy looked pretty much Bumblebee’s, the expressionless robot face it came with made toy Bumblebee look like he’d rather fry your face off with his eye-lasers than be your pal. As it turned out, cartoon Bumblebee’s face was based more off of fellow minibot Cliffjumper’s than his own toy. Takara, who produces Transformers in Japan, righted this in 2004 when it re-released the original Bumblebee toy with a cartoon-accurate head.
8) Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge
Boy, does Hasbro like to repaint its Transformers toys and sell them as different characters! During the early years of Transformers, they would even release several different versions of the same toy at once, dressed up as different characters. A good chunk of the early Decepticon force was made up of a jet fighter robot, sold with different decos as Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp. When Hasbro decided to release the toy as yet three more Decepticons, albeit with different-styled wings for each new character, the producers of the cartoon decided they has to do SOMETHING to differentiate the new characters from the three original seekers (as they’re called by fans) and the horde of background characters sporting the same design that had been shown in the cartoon. This was done by drawing the three new Decepticons—Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge—with their jet nosecones on top of their heads, a neat idea that worked wonders in making them look different. Kids, of course, wanted to do the same thing with the toy versions of the characters but found that leaving the nosecones up made the fearsome Decepticon air warriors all resemble Beldar Conehead, since the nosecones couldn’t shrink down like they did in the cartoon. Hasbro would release properly-coned versions of the characters in the 2007 Transformers Classics line, although Dirge and Thrust were only available in a very limited and now insanely expensive Botcon exclusive boxset.
7) Wheelie
If you’ve seen Transformers: The Movie, you’re probably asking why anyone would want a toy of Wheelie. He was uber-annoying, a childlike character that spoke in a distorted screech and rhymed everything he said. However, some kids must have been gluttons for punishment and desired to recreate Wheelie’s adventures in their living rooms. Wheelie had a good design in the cartoon, streamlined and humanoid. His toy, however, made him look like the Robot Hunchback of Notre Dame. It’s hard to be too mad at Hasbro, though, since Wheelie deserved to have a bad toy.
6) Nightbeat
Nightbeat, the Autobot Headmaster who fancied himself a detective, never actually appeared in an American Transformers cartoon. His toy was released after the show was canceled and he was only depicted (and gained popularity among fans) in the comic books, where he looked fairly similar to his toy, aside from heaving a cooler-looking head. Nightbeat’s dark secret is that he did appear in a cartoon but with one major difference—he was a woman. In the Transformers Super-God Masterforce cartoon, exclusive to Japan (as if the title didn't give that away), Nightbeat was a female Transformer named Minerva, an extension of the girl who piloted her. I’d like to see Nightbeat solve the mysterious case of how he got a sex change! What sucks is that countries outside of Japan could have had their first female Transformer toy, but the toy company suits probably feared boys would revolt and released Nightbeat instead. Nightbeat ended up being a great character, though, so it’s pretty much a wash.
5) Rumble and Frenzy
The toys of Soundwave’s cassette tape minions Rumble and Frenzy look a lot like their toys. That’s not the problem. The problem is that the cartoon messed up so badly in figuring out which colors those twin characters were that no one can any longer figure out who’s who. If you don’t believe me, go to any Transformers message board, ask for opinions on the “Frenzy is blue/Rumble is red” debate, and watch the shitstorm begin.
Here’s a brief recap of what happened: In the toyline, Rumble was black with red highlights; Frenzy was various shades of blue. The cartoon showed both characters, but more often featured wiseass punk Rumble, who appeared to be purple. Frenzy appeared in the cartoon to be black and red, the colors of Rumble in the toyline. So, most fans that wanted a toy of Rumble, the more prominent character in the show, would reach for the blue Frenzy toy, since his colors were the closest, but he wasn’t the right character. Confused yet? Good, I am, too.
4) Galvatron
Galvatron erupted on the scene explosively in Transformers: The Movie, turning into an awesome-looking cannon and blasting Starscream into dust. Galvatron was really Decepticon leader Megatron, given a powerful new body by the planet-devouring robot Unicron, and provided an awesome new voice by Leonard Nimory. Galvatron looked deadly, all futuristic curves and pointy, purple stylings. It was therefore sad that this mighty new version of the Decepticon leader was a let down in the toy department. As a toy, Galvatron was actually one of the better-articulated toys in the original Transformers line. He looked kinda decent as a robot, although nowhere near as dynamic as his cartoon model, and his cannon mode was stumpy. But you know what Hasbro’s most egregious error was? Galvatron wasn’t purple! Darn it, he was gray! Being purple and not caring one damn bit about it was part of what made Galvatron great. Japan would once again come to the rescue by releasing a purple Galvatron in 2005. Hasbro is coming out with a Transformers Classics Galvatron in 2008 that has a robot mode similar to the cartoon version, but unfortunately they chose to make him a tank instead of a cannon.
3) Blackarachnia
In the Beast Wars cartoon, Blackarachnia was a sultry vixen who fought for the evil Predacons but had her heart won by the gallant Maximal Silverbolt and ended up switching allegiances. Every fan surely desired a sexy, curvy Blackarachnia figure to pose locking arms with the Silverbolt figure, but poor Silverbolt might have reconsidered his feelings when he saw the original figure that Blackarachnia was given. The problem was that the chunky, not-so-feminine beast was never designed as a female figure at all, as it was first released as the male Predacon Tarantulas. Sure, the spider’s eyes kind of look like breasts in robot mode, but you have to squint and think thoughts that will ultimately disgust you. The creators of the cartoon just took a lot of liberties when including a female Transformer in their show. Hasbro would later release more feminine versions of Blackarachnia.
2) Silverbolt
Silverbolt was a lovable character in the Beast Wars cartoon, a heroic Maximal who was too noble for his own good, and chivalrous to the point of hilarity. He also could turn into a flying wolf, and it doesn’t get much better than that. Beast Machines, the sequel to Beast Wars, was a grittier show and Silverbolt was converted for a time into an evil Vehicon. His Maximal pals rescued him and he got a new body, although his personality was a lot more serious and angrier than before. His new body in the cartoon was based on a condor and looked pretty decent but the toy, dear God, what was that thing? Just see for yourself…
1) Ratchet and Ironhide
Two of the coolest of the original Autobots who crashed on Earth were Ironhide, the grumpy veteran who talked in a Southern accent and was good friends with Optimus Prime, and Ratchet, the Autobot’s resourceful doctor. Aside from Ironhide being red and Ratchet being white and having a crest on his head, they looked pretty much identical. Ironhide especially was an important character in the cartoon, while Ratchet got the spotlight in Marvel’s Transformers comic book series. It was a sad day indeed when they bit the dust in Transformers: The Movie to make way for the next generation of characters. It was an even sadder day when a child went to Lionel Kiddie City and discovered the travesty that Hasbro called the Ratchet and Ironhide toys. Sure, their vehicle modes looked just like they were on the show, with Ironhide being a van and Ratchet being a van with ambulance lights mounted on top. Transformed, however, they looked nothing like the blocky, humanoid robots we had come to know and love on the cartoon. First of all, the back part of each already-small van separated and became a battle station, which wasn’t too bad on its own. The front of each van became these tiny robots that were flimsy and didn’t even have heads! Ratchet and Ironhide were known for their bucket-noggins in the cartoon but in toy form only had little tabs, each decorated with a sticker of a god-damned smiley face!
What’s worst is that Hasbro waited forever to release more cartoon-accurate versions of these popular characters. Botcon pounced on the opportunity to release better versions of the toys in 2005, but once again they were very limited and now require a mortgage to buy. In 2008, though, Hasbro will finally release a decent version of Generation 1 Ironhide in the Transformers Classics series. Japan is repainting and retooling the toy as Ratchet, so he is likely to see release elsewhere, as well. It’s about damn time, Hasbro. To hold you over until those come out, company Best Toys has released custom heads that can be added to your original G1 Ratchet and Ironhide toys to make them somewhat less embarrassing.
Comments
NICE. I don't see enough transformers stuff on this site.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 05:50:58 AMI can sum up in one word how crappy it can be when the animation mirrors the toy line EXACTLY.
Go-bots.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 06:11:21 AMMan, ArtF knocked it out of the park!
Posted 10/01/2008 at 06:30:28 AMGreat article. I remember that the first issue of the Marvel Transformers comic had an intro of each character, and each robot looked exactly like the toy version of the character. Even Ratchet and Ironhide had their crappy command centers. By issue 2, the look of each character became streamlined.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 06:41:21 AMUh... Jetfire? Hello? The toy looked like a Robotech VF-1S, nothing like his limited cartoon appearances. And Megatron is an awful, dwarfish disappointment to anyone who ever saw the cartoon Megatron.
I'm a little disappointed those two got left off in place of the Frenzy/Rumble name confusion (whatever their names are, the toys are still fairly accurate) and the fact that Nightbeat looks like Nightbeat, and not a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHARACTER WITH THE SAME TRANSFORMATION.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 06:42:42 AMSpeaking of which, the Minerva/Nightbeat swap reminds of a quote from a recent SNL sketch about how Dumbledore was gay:
"Oh, Minerva -- if only you had a penis and some balls!"
Posted 10/01/2008 at 06:46:22 AMZach, I'm with you on Jetfire ... I thought for sure he'd be No. 1. And I'm sorry, but the two photos of Silverbolt look pretty much the same to me.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 07:36:50 AMThe original Brawn minibot also broke my heart a little, too.
But I don't wanna poop on the parade too much, here; Galvatron and Ironhide totally suck as toys. Galvatron looks like Burger King.
Yes I fully expected to see Jetfire/Skyfire on the list as the number 1 entry.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 08:36:21 AMBased on the criteria in the article for Bumblebee, you could say most of the original Autobot minibots looked much different from their cartoon versions. Brawn had hook-like claws for arms and Huffer had pipes for his arms.
Don't even get me started on the next wave of mini bots including Seaspray, Outback, Pipes, Cosmos Powerclide, and the red tank dude whatever his name was. They just sucked as toys and looked nothing like the cartoon considering the cartoon gave the toys actual hands, legs, arms and feet.
Also, Most of the Beast Wars characters looked different as well. Dinobot, Tarantulus, and Rhinox to name a few. Besides, I think the majority of the beast wars characters had 2 heads; a robot head and a mutant mask of some kind.
When I was a kid, I hadn't seen the Transformer movie, but my mom would only let me buy the Wheelie figure at the store one time because it was one of the cheapest. For years, I had it confused with another Transformers character and thought it was supposed to be a girl, so that's how I played with it when I was eight or so. Looking back, having Optimus put the moves on Wheelie seems even weirder knowing that he was in fact supposed to be a pre-pubescent boy-bot.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 08:43:57 AMMan I had that Nightbeat back in the day. Brings back memories...and now asks many, many questions.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 09:22:17 AMGreat idea for an article, some of the original Transformer toys really did look nothing like their on-screen counterparts. I'd completely forgotten the lack of purple on the Galvatron figure.
While he looked quite accurate to the cartoon, I'd nominate the Rodimus Prime figure for being quite shit. For starters he was a spindly little thing, completely dwarfed by the Galvatron figure and he had absolutely zero articulation aside from his arms at the shoulders. Hardly the dynamic character of the film. But then again, Hot Rod got Optimus Prime killed so he deserved a shit toy! ;)
Posted 10/01/2008 at 10:31:27 AMnailed it with Ironhide at #1, but the other 8 arent the best examples of the worst toy incarnations. G1 Jetfire, G1 Megatron, Trailbreaker, and Huffer should all be on the list.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 11:25:46 AMI think the problem with the Jetfire/Skyfire toy was while the toy was based on the Valkyrie (Veritech) Fighter from Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, they didn't have the rights for that design for the cartoon, which came to the west as Robotech. I can't remember if there was a transformable Veritech in the Matchbox Robotech line, but if there wasn't, maybe Hasbro was the reason.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 11:31:06 AMIn Kevin's defense, he had Jetfire as an honorable mention because the toy actually looked better than the cartoon version. I edited it out, because I for some reason thought the list should only be the other way around, and because I am a moron. Blame me, not the writer.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 11:35:00 AMWow, Mr. Oat! Yeah, good point about Jetfire, I would have thought to see him on the list for sure.
I think that Ironhide/Ratchet was a good pick for #1, though.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 11:39:49 AMArtF> Not all the GoBots were so bad, and not all were completely accurate, either; Leader-1 is a perfect example. Pretty decent as toys of that size go, and he suffered Bumblebee syndrome, with a different face. But then, I think the toy head looked cooler.
Not to mention, there must have been some confusion with two colors of each leader...
--LBD "Nytetrayn"
Posted 10/01/2008 at 01:15:22 PMJetfire's problem was that he WAS a VF-1S Valkryrie from Robotech. In the early days of the series a lot of the toys were actually taken from older toylines like Diaclone and Microman. Jetfire was from a lesser known line (at the time) made by Tatatoku toys. After Bandai bought Tatatoku out and decided to use the Valkyrie in their Robotech/Macross series, Hasbro had to change the animation model and name to Skyfire (I always liked his design better myself). So he's more the fault of legal matters.
Ironhide and Ratchet's problem was they were from Diaclone. The line was actually meant to be giant pilotable mechs andthe originals actually had little tiny people to drive them. Those two were just designed to have the drivers seat where the head should have been. It's the same reason that the Dinobots and early decepticons had cockpits built in.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 01:15:30 PMI'm glad more time wasn't wasted here on Beast Machines. I'd swear Mainframe didn't think they were getting a toyline when they made their character designs. Beast Wars was decent in that--piece proportions aside-- the parts moved liked they toys did when they transformed. Beast Machines just sorta went "poof! I'm an aminal!"
I'm also surprised more post-Movie figs didn't appear here. Kup looks abysmal. What were they thinking with the goofy curves
Posted 10/01/2008 at 02:16:38 PM"I can sum up in one word how crappy it can be when the animation mirrors the toy line EXACTLY.
Go-bots."
Posted 10/01/2008 at 03:06:48 PMOr when they do it RIGHT, Transformers: Animated.
Great article. I never did understand why they did that to the Ratchet and Ironhide toys. You might as well have a Transformer toy from a Happy Meal.
Posted 10/01/2008 at 03:49:41 PMWhile there's no such excuse for some toys such as Galvatron, which did have his toy based on the cartoon designs, this article fails to acknowledge that all of the first wave of G1 Transformers (basically the ones before the 80's movie and a few after it) were not created FOR Transformers, but were from the Japanese Microman/Microchange and Diaclone toylines and licensed by Hasbro. Ratchet and Ironhide toys were not based on the characters, the characters were inspired by the toys. And Jetfire/Skyfire couldn't look the same as the toy because Hasbro did not have the animation rights to the licensed toy's design, which came from Macross (aka Robotech). Blaming the toys for not looking like the cartoon characters is just wrong--the toys were built for entirely different reasons in Japan, and the cartoon was contrived in the US months or even a couple of years later. You might as well blame the cartoon for not looking like Michael Bay's live action/CG version.
One page on "Pre-Transformers" toys:
Posted 10/01/2008 at 04:46:55 PMhttp://www.geocities.com/futuristgroup/vdiaclone.html
I do think it's fair, in most cases anyway (Skyfire not withstanding), to blame Hasbro, Sunbow, and Marvel for not working together a little more cohesively on some of these.
Incidently, Classics Jetfire is excellent at skirting the line of the Macross vehicle and also covering the Skyfire base as well.
--LBD "Nytetrayn"
Posted 10/01/2008 at 05:05:54 PMI thought I did mention Microman/Microman, meant to in the Ironhide/Ratchet section, but it must have skipped my mind at the last minute. It's why Grimlock and a few others have seats built into them. I still fail to see how the toys' origins forgive the Transformers character designers. Not that they need forgiving, of course, but they theoretically could have done the same show with the Japanese toy designs.
Yeah, Huffer, Brawn and other minibots could have easily gone on this list but I felt it would have been too repetitive. I went with what I thought was a fun and amusing assortment, and included a couple twists.
As for Megatron, maybe I'm blinded by my love for the toy, but I thought his likeness was actually not too bad when compared to the usual track record for G1 Transformers. Was he a flimsy toy? Yes, but he was very identifiable as Megatron. The original Optimus Prime toy certainly isn't a perfect match to his cartoon appearance, but just about everybody loves that that.
And it's okay, Rob, I forgive you for deleting Jetfire and getting everyone mad at me. lol
Posted 10/01/2008 at 07:10:07 PMPerceptor's head was pretty awful compared to the cartoon.
Springer was tiny and a bit of a letdown.
Rodimus Prime was a major letdown, being the Autobot Commander and all.
--Begin rant--
Posted 10/02/2008 at 06:58:03 AMCall it blasphemy, but Rodimus Prime was an exponentially better leader than Optimus. Under Optimus' leadership, the Autobots lost control over Cybertron, crashed and spent millions of years inactive, and had a hard time keeping the Decepticons from wreaking havoc in Oregon. Under Rodimus, the Autobots retook Cyberton, established an intergalactic defense force and granted humanity galactic diplomatic relations, kept the Decepticon Empire in check across the galaxy, not just a couple oil platforms and power plants across the pacific northwest, as well as taking on another foe in the Quintessons. Rodimus' tenure enjoyed growth and prosperity.. Optimus' reign was tantamount to the Bush administration, only much worse. It'd be like America being taken over by Lichtenstein. Couple this with Optimus' proclivity for dying, only to be saved, put back together and reincarnated a multitude of times just to satiate the audience's lack of a sense of mortality; and we have a horrible leader. Optimus' only saving grace was Peter Cullen's voice. Ok. I'm done ranting.
Here's a video response to Shawn's Rant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq1_6D9QS9Y
Prime Says Differently at 3:43
Posted 10/02/2008 at 11:51:20 AMI never tire of watching Dr. Smoov's "The Rude Awakening of Optimus Prime!" :-D
Posted 10/02/2008 at 03:15:48 PMi remember playing with my cousins Galvatron when i was a kid and i'd never seen the movie at the time. i had no idea what i was supposed to be transforming him into which is thoroughly frustrating for a child who's trying to learn how the world works and realizes that there is no payoff once you get to the end.
"this seems to be fully transformed... what is it? i must have done this wrong"
Posted 10/03/2008 at 09:09:28 AMYeah, I don't object to the idea of the show characters being drawn to look more like the toys (I would have loved it), but I get a little annoyed when people think the toys were based on the show characters rather than the other way around. Still, you can understand why the animation character designer would want to change Ratchet and Ironhide for example since their toys didn't look very expressive (being originally just meant as simple piloted mechs). It's hard to empathize with or dramatically draw a character with no head! :D The interviews I've read all seem to indicate the production was pretty rushed, too, since they needed to get the product out quickly to beat Tonka and other companies licensing Japanese robot toys back then. I imagine a lot was thrown together at the last moment. Frankly I wished they didn't license a popular toy like the Valkyrie/Jetfire if they didn't have the rights to use its likeness accurately in the animation. It would have been better to assign his role to a toy they could portray correctly. Perhaps the same can be said for Ratchet and Ironhide. As a Microman/Diaclone fan both then and now, I'd have rather seen the original toys get an accurate adaptation (at least Microman finally got their own new anime and toys in 1999). But I'll admit Transformers carried over with it a lot of core themes and motifs, and caught the public imagination like nothing before.
Posted 10/04/2008 at 01:21:30 AMOrigionaly as MEGGATRON he was a pistol to be more persisly a WALTHERS P-38 and as GALVATRON he was virtiual cannon
Posted 10/26/2008 at 08:20:29 AMI loved Ratchet as an ambulance as a kid, but hated it as a robot. I could never get it to transform, much like Jazz.
Good list.
Posted 12/03/2008 at 10:31:19 AMcool
Posted 01/04/2009 at 11:04:22 AM