Finnish Diaclone Group Shots

Among all the store-released Diaclone cars from around the world, Japanese, Italian, European, North American or whatever, the Finnish Diaclones are considered by many to be the toughest of all with most releases numbering less than 3 boxed specimens found. I personally believe some Ceji Joustra Diaclone wave 2 figures to be rarer as they have not even been seen before, but there are still doubts as to whether some of them saw a proper release at all. For the time being, with confirmed releases we know about, I believe the above (and below) to be a collection of the rarest production Diaclone car robots in existence, and the nearest thing we have to a picture of the complete set. Dear Truck Crane, your brothers await you. 

Diaclone "Change Attacar" Oneboxcar Vanette (Van)

Diaclone Change Attackers, or "Change Attacars", have become pretty well known in the last few years, much moreso than before in my opinion. Originally released for the Japanese Diaclone line as pull-back flip-changers with a vehicle mode and attack mode only, they were then licensed to Ceji Joustra in Europe in 1984 for the "Diaclone" line there, and when Ceji Joustra sold up their rights to Takara moulds to Hasbro Bradley in 1985, those toys were taken off them by GiG in Italy for the "Trasformer" line where they were re-branded "Destroy Car". There were even Arabic carded versions of these toys released in the Middle East. We take a look at probably the most common mould, the Oneboxcar Vanette or Van, the same vehicle that was used as the base for Diaclone/TF Ironhide.

Diaclone "Black Tracks"

Solved mystery, personified rarity, fraud magnet, ridiculed hackney. But is the Finnish Diaclone "Black Tracks" now irrelevant and over-discussed because of attempted fraud, blurry Japanese images and crazy prices? Try telling every single Diaclone or Transformers car variant collector in the world minus ten that this toy is irrelevant, uninteresting and yesterday's news. Of course if you're not one of them, well, at least the pictures are nice. To me this is still the pinnacle, the embodiment of the appeal of this hobby. Welcome, the Finnish Takara Diaclone "Auto Robot" Corvette Stingray in black.