Not too long ago I added a total of three vintage, boxed G.I. Joe vehicles to my collection of the first wave that was released in Europe in 1987. As regular visitors to this site will know I try to collect all of the first couple of waves of  G.I. Joe figures and vehicles that were released in the Netherlands. Hasbro went all out with the introduction of their G.I. Joe line in Europe in 1987 by creating specific packaging and promotional material for each individual European country. So for example, the Netherlands got all Dutch packaging and France got all French packaging. Even Belgium, which is not your biggest European market, and which is a country where the predominant two languages are Dutch (in Flanders) and French (in Wallonia) got their own specific packaging, featuring Dutch and French!! How about that for commitment to their European market? The Dutch G.I. Joe figures and vehicles are some of the most hard to find. In fact, even though Belgium is a lot smaller than the Netherlands, G.I. Joe was quite big there and as a consequence it’s easier to find the signature dual-language French/Dutch G.I. Joe’s than it is to find the all-Dutch Joe’s.

“Cobra Hydrofoil (Moray)”

The first of the three big box vehicles that I scored is the Cobra Hydrofoil (Moray), which is pictured above. It’s a big ass hydrofoil boat with room for seven action figures. I remember wanting the Cobra Hydrofoil badly in 1987, but there was just no way I could afford it, because it was one of the most expensive vehicles of Hasbro’s introductory European G.I. Joe line up in 1987. Recently I spotted the Cobra Hydrofoil on a Dutch classified ads site as part of a giant lot full of loose G.I. Joe action figures and vehicles and to my astonishment the photo in question also showed the Dutch packaging of the Cobra Hydrofoil. I quickly struck a deal with the seller for just the Hydrofoil and its Dutch box and got them really, really cheap. When the package arrived in the mail I was pleasantly surprised to find that the seller had included a shitload of extras in various states of completion. Good times! Only problem was that the Cobra Hydrofoil and all the other goodies that came along with it were not exactly…. well, clean.

So after letting the Hydrofoil and all its parts soak for a while in the sink, everything came out nice and clean! I removed some of the really worn stickers. I might decide to order a set of repro stickers in the future. Here’s the all cleaned up Hydrofoil together with some Cobra action figures !

Much better! The original action figure that was included with the Hydrofoil is missing as are some parts here and there, but I really can’t complain, because I paid a very modest amount for this item.

“Transportable Tacticle Battle Platform”

I also scored the Dutch packaged version of the Transportable Tactical Battle Platform which was known here as the “Transporteerbaar Tactisch Gevechtsplatform”. Yes, “Gevechtsplatform”. You read that right. A total of six consonants strung together there in one word. Crazy Dutchies. I’m not even going to begin explaining how that is pronounced.

“Skystriker”

The Skystriker jet is one of the coolest vehicles of the initial G.I. Joe line up in Europe if you ask me. Although I wasn’t able to secure the all-Dutch packaged version yet, I did score the Belgian version, which features French and Dutch on the packaging. One of my best friends had the Skystriker in 1987. It was such a cool toy until we made it blow up a couple of years later by stuffing it full of fireworks, while throwing it out of a second floor window in a pathetic attempt to create a mid-air explosion. It fell straight into his dad’s small fish pond where it exploded under water (and probably took quite a few fishes with it….). In-depth features and photos of the insides of the Battle Platform and the Skystriker in a future article!

I’m a real list nazi. One of the many aspects of collecting that I love is to make lists and check off things. It gives me a wicked buzz whenever I acquire something I was looking for and thus am able to place a big fat checkmark on one of my many lists, getting closer and closer to completing something. I know, I’m crazy that way, but I’m willing to bet that a lot of collectors know exactly what I’m talking about! I recently acquired some nice new additions to my MB (Milton Bradley) Transformers collection, so I was able to put down another couple of those big fat checkmarks on my list.

What you see above is the fruit of my obsessive labour. It’s a list of all known Transformers released by MB in 1985 in Europe, ordered by assortment. As you can see, my collection is now 79% complete, which still amazes me, because I only started collecting this line just two years ago. I have a special page dedicated to my MB Transformers collection, which also contains photos of all the items in my collection. I have now updated this page with my latest additions and if you’re ever in the mood you can check it out here!

MB (Milton Bradley) released a total of four jets in 1985 as part of their European Transformers line up. There were two assortments. The first one (number 9109) featured coneheads Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge. There was a second assortment later on (number 9126) that only featured Starscream. No other jets were officially released by MB in Europe (there was an unofficial MB Thundercracker release inside Starscream packaging). I already had MB Thrust in my collection, but recently I was able to add the remaining two coneheads, Dirge and Ramjet, to my collection and in what shape they are!

MB Transformers Jets - asst. 9109

“MB Ramjet”

First off here’s a photo of the MB Ramjet that I scored. The toy itself is in great shape with unapplied stickers and comes complete with all paperwork; red decoder strip, Milton Bradley 1985 pack-in catalog, MB’s quad lingual instruction booklet and an unused Ramjet sticker sheet. The box is so shiny and bright that it almost hurts! Check it out:

“MB Dirge”

Thankfully, Dirge is no exception. Although the sticker sheet is missing and the stickers have been applied, the toy is in fantastic condition!! Again, the box is in such great condition I just couldn’t believe the state it was in for something that is 26 years old and so rare.

Together with Thrust I now have the 9109 assortment complete, which was a real kick as I am drawing ever closer to completing my MB collection!!!! Here’s a photo of the complete assortment.

Stay tuned for more stuff, because I had so much luck in the past 2 weeks scoring cool stuff. More Transformers and Dutch G.I. Joe’s coming up soon!!

“MB Trailbreaker”

Been a nice week collection wise. I managed to add three G1 (Generation 1) Transformers to my collection, being an upgrade for my MB Trailbreaker, a European Powermaster Optimus Prime and a European Soundwave. I took some quick snapshots of the lot. I am most satisfied with my new MB Trailbreaker!

This particular MB Trailbreaker came to my attention through a visitor of this site. As you can see the box is in immaculate condition, with one side still sealed with the original factory tape. The insides aren’t bad either. The styro foam insert and accompanying cardboard support are in great shape, as well as the toy itself. Trailbreaker’s legs are slightly loose, but not in a way that negatively affects the toy either in robot mode nor vehicle mode. Trailbreaker features a lot of chrome and as such this specific Transformer is very susceptible to chrome wear. Although this Trailbreaker looks like he’s been played with now and again, the chrome work is surprisingly intact with only very minor visible wear.

Trailbreaker’s paperwork is included, with the red decoder strip, the Milton Bradley 1985 pack-in catalog and the quad-lingual European instructions booklet. The only thing really missing is the sticker sheet.

“Powermaster Optimus Prime”

The next item is Powermaster Optimus Prime. Released in 1988 in Europe by Hasbro, this was Optimus Prime’s long awaited come back to the Transformers toy line. This is the French/Dutch version of Powermaster Prime that was presumably sold in France, the Netherlands and Belgium (and most likely also Luxembourg). As a kid I remember seeing Powermaster Prime at my local toy store many, many times and I desperately wanted to have him. But as was often the case in those days, I just didn’t have the moolah.

As most G1 collectors will know, the amount of detail and sophistication that went into most of the Headmasters, Targetmasters, Powermaster, etc. completely pales compared to the early G1 releases. I mean, really, instead of die cast metal, chrome finish, rubber tires and actual see-through windows, what we have here is plastic, plastic, plastic and stickers that are supposed to represent windows. It’s a complete disappointment compared to the original Prime if you ask me and I wasn’t blind to that in 1988 either, but somehow I still found this Powermaster Prime to be a kick ass, must have toy. I think what really sold this to my 12 year old self was the absolutely stunning packaging. I mean, just look at how cool Prime looks:

Even if the toy itself was not that grand looking, my 12-year-old mind compensated that with the absolutely bad ass box art representation of Powermaster Optimus Prime. Now, some 23 years later in the dazzlingly futuristic year 2011 I finally have the same Powermaster Prime in French/Dutch packaging that was available in my local toy store. The kicker is that I only paid around 50 euros for it.

“Hasbro Europe Soundwave”

I got it together with the Hasbro Europe version of Soundwave that is pictured below from a Dutch collector who was cleaning out his collection. Good times!

By the by, the fourth installment of my series of articles on MB Transformers is coming along nicely. The text is now about 90% completed, with still a lot of graphical work to be done. It should be online within two weeks or so!

The day before yesterday I did something I planned on doing for quite some time now and that was to group all the MB Transformers from my collection together on a large table so that I could take some kick ass photographs. Whenever I see more than, say, 5 vintage G1 Transformers in their original packaging grouped together on a photo my heart starts beating faster. It’s just such a sight to behold.

The total amount of MB Transformers in my collection, at the time of writing this, is 39, so I could only imagine how cool that lot would look together! Easier said than done though… The large table and my collection room are seperated by two flights of stairs. Not only that, but we’ve been having some exceptionally beautiful, warm and decidedly un-Dutch weather here in the Netherlands for the past two months (April and May) with temperatures reaching summer averages. Two days ago was no exception with the mercury hitting 27 degrees Celcius. (If you want to know what Dutch weather is usually like, just think of English weather, only a little less bad)

Running up and down stairs many, many times carrying (literally) thousands of euro’s worth of vintage toys under those weather conditions tends to break out a sweat for me. More than I would usually have on a nice summer day, oh, let’s say sitting down and drinking beer, which is what I would have been doing had I not been doing this. I was sweating like a pig when I finally managed to move them all down. After I caught my breath I started arranging all the Transformers on the table in a half circle, so that I could fit them all on one photograph.

I took a shitload of photos and then started the task of moving them all back into my collection room. What seemed like a job that could be completed in an hour when I originally though of it turned out to be a 3 hour ordeal. Damn me and my neurotic impulsiveness.. Worst of all, when I was finally done and looked at all the photographs, I only counted 38 Transformers instead of 39. I forgot to include Trailbreaker!

Ah well, I knew in advance that this group photo would be outdated in a few days anyway, due to the impending arrival of several new MB Transformers additions to my collection, so I didn’t really sweat it (see what I did there? A witty pun!). Now, you might be forgiven if you had assumed that the above four photographs of MB Transformers are from some old and worn out 1980’s catalog. As a matter of fact they’re close ups of the group shot photo that I made! Here’s my collection in full:

As you can see my living room table has a square grid and is located in some martian landscape with a faint sun shining over the horizon. Well, no, not exactly. I got inspired by the absolutely stunning UK Dinobots commercial and tried to recreate some of that style in this photo by flexing my Photoshop muscle. It’s just a quick and dirty low resolution concept of what could be done. There are loads of rough edges there. The lighting of the original photograph especially was a problem, due to the fact that I did not have controlled lighting in my living room the same way that I do in my collection room. The right half of the photograph, featuring the Decepticons, had lots of sun light which I tried to fix with colour correction. Also, the table surface looks too clean and the perspective is a little bit off. Also, Grimlock and Snarl are invisible in this photo, except for a small part of Snarl’s box to the left of Roadbuster and Whirl. The MB Transformers catalog that you can see in the front of the picture was digitally added, by the way. I could’ve done a better job there as well, but all in all it was a nice learning experience. I really dig the early G1 catalog photography style due to its simplicity and its simple use of colours and I hope to create some more custom catalog style photos of my collection in the future.

Above, for reference, I included a screen capture of the UK Dinobot commercial that inspired me into embarking on this project. You can find the complete commercial on YouTube if you’re interested. Just search for ‘UK Dinobots commercial’ and it’s bound to come up as the first result.

Right. The mail man just dropped off a huge box of vintage G1 Transformers on my doorstep that I ordered from BBTS two weeks ago. I am now going to open it up and take out all the pretty European Transformers inside and lose myself in a wave of nerdy nostalgia!! Good times.