Optimus From Yugoslavia - Part 1

In June 2014, that feeling came again. The feeling where everything you think you know about the limit of Generation 1 Transformers is once again lain to waste with the discovery, or rather uncovering, of an age-old lost section of vintage G1 variants. This time it was a boxed Generation 1 Optimus Prime from...Yugoslavia! Thanks to the Serbian Transformers community, this absolute gem of a hybrid variant was posted on TFW, and I couldn't wait to dive in and get involved. If it wasn't for the sharing and kindness of the Serbian TF community, there'd be nothing to report, so first off, my sincerest thanks to Danilo, Nikola and G1 Aerialbot for help with that auction, for information and communicating their knowledge.

Yugoslavia as a country, is of course, no more. The Optimus Prime you see above was the second one of its kind sold in the same few weeks and the one I was lucky enough to get my hands on. Another Serbian collector had gotten one which showed some variation also, more on that coming. My Yugoslavian Optimus Prime was found in Novi Sad, Serbia, along with a handful of other G1 Transformers like Hound, Twin Twist, Sideswipe and a couple of Constructicons. All had the same origin.

One of the revelations of the find was that the toy seemed to be a Mexican G1 variant Optimus Prime. The box was covered in typical Plasticos Iga Spanish text, and the toy inside bore all the hallmarks of an exported, safety-tested Mexican Plasticos Iga Optimus Prime. This was supported by the other Transformers sold alongside my own Serbian-sourced Optimus Prime.

The Hound, Sideswipe, Twin Twist, Hook and Scrapper were all Mexican variant specimens, Hound and Twin Twist even sporting their Plasticos Iga packaging. This was no big deal though, Mexican Iga Transformers are known to have been exported to and sold in many European territories such as the UK, the Benelux and Scandinavia.

What made Optimus Prime from Yugoslavia special, this Mexican Iga Optimus Prime, was that it came in a box featuring not an Iga logo, but the logo of a company nobody had ever seen on a Transformers box before.

End of Part 1

Part 2 <<< Click to read on

Part 3 <<< Click to read on
All the best
Maz