Milton Bradley G1 Warpath

I've spoken a lot about European G1 Transformers on this blog, recently, and this short piece will be much of the same. The Warpath you see above is from 1985, and the packaging is branded Milton Bradley instead of Hasbro. Otherwise, it's a standard, Takara-manufactured G1 Warpath. This would have been available in countries like France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and parts of Scandinavia on a quad-lingual Milton Bradley cardback. It also happens to be a bit of a rarity.

Milton Bradley G1 Ravage

I'm not exaggerating when I say the Transformers Generation 1 Milton Bradley-badged Ravage from 1985 is one of the rarest packaged regular production Transformers in the history of the line. Ravage itself is a very common G1 toy, released in many countries and in many forms, but this specific packaging from mainland European countries in 1985 stands out as not just the rarest occurrence of this figure, not just of all the known and confirmed MB-badged G1 figures, but almost ALL G1 packaged figures worldwide.

Ceji G1 Bombshell

I'm re-treading the past again here on Square One. I first featured the Ceji-manufactured 1986 G1 Insecticon variants from Europe a few years ago as a set. The article on the Ceji G1 "Orange Chested" Insecticons was basically what the title suggested, a look at the French-made Insecticons produced by Ceji on behalf of Hasbro Bradley for the 1986 wave of Transformers in mainland Europe. The deeper and richer orange plastic on the chest canopies was always the draw of these variants, making the toys more closely resemble their box artwork compared to Hasbro's vintage Insecticons with a much more yellow translucent plastic. So why revisit the Ceji Bombshell?

Joustra G1 Starscream

There's something I have missed deeply about writing vintage G1 articles, especially those that are about obscure variants, and that's the thrill of discovering something new or undocumented. I recently bought the above Starscream from a European seller, not expecting it to be anything groundbreaking; it just happened to be a good price and in highly displayable condition. Perfect for someone rebuilding their variant collection. What I found instead was a hugely significant and probably historical - yet tiny - detail. Spoiler alert, though, there may only be five of us worldwide who will care!

Hasbro Europe G1 Divebomb

Less article, more pictorial. This is the mainland European G1 Predacon "Divebomb" in bilingual packaging. I had absolutely no idea this existed, I knew there were US Predacons, Canadian bilingual Predacons and even GiG Italian Predacons, but to have had the Predacons in the 1980s - and therefore Predaking - in Europe outside of Italy is completely news to me. The giftset is out of the question (right?), but these 1987 releases would have been available in Holland, France and presumably spots in Germany, Belgium and maybe even Scandinavia. Euro collectors knew of course, but that's never been an obstacle to my ignorance.

Milton Bradley G1 "Sunswipe"

Since Mijo of 20th Century Toy Collector confirmed the existence of the mainland European Generation 1 1985 Milton Bradley "Sunswipe" - a Sunstreaker in Sideswipe packaging - there's been a lot written about it by both himself as the remover of the veil of ignorance, and myself as the first owner of probably the best specimen ever found. I have since passed this diamond of a Euro variant onto Mijo, where it belongs to be fair, but here is the first dedicated write-up I've personally done on this variant.

Ceji G1 "Yellow Devastator"

This is not Generation 2, and these are not Classic-era yellow and grey non-combining European Constructicons, which can be seen clearly in the above picture of the combined "G1 Yellow Devastator". That's right, "G1", look at the rubsigns. In 1986 before they folded, French toy company Ceji (by then Ceji Revell) agreed as part of the deal for Hasbro Bradley to take over their stock of Diaclone and licences for the mainland European region, to manufacture certain Transformers figures for release under "The Transformers" in countries such as France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Austria and parts of Scandinavia. The Constructicons were part of that arrangement, except the memo about the colour was lost.

Milton Bradley G1 "Red Tracks"

A giant of vintage Transformers Generation 1 variations, the original red version of the 1985 Autobot Tracks. First seen and made famous as a Transformer on the back of 1985 Hasbro packaging, it didn't take as long to deduce the reason for that artwork's red depiction of Tracks as other mysteries in the hobby have taken. The Tracks mould was originally "Corvette Stingray" in the Japanese and Italian (and Finnish) Diaclone Car Robot lines by Takara, where its first ever colour was red. Undoubtedly using Takara samples for reference, the artists depicted a red Tracks on the 1985 box back artwork for Transformers packaging, but of course the toy was released in blue everywhere. Everywhere, that is, except mainland Europe.