I’m so glad to be able to post this information. It’s probably going to evoke a “meh, so what..” reaction from 99.9% of everyone reading this (and probably rightly so), but for me personally and the handful of nerds who are as obsessive about info like this as I am (my hat goes off to you!)  it’s wonderful info that has only recently been unearthed. It has to do with the distribution and rights to selling early vintage Transformers in the 1980’s in Europe.

“The MB & Ceji Joustra connection”

I have been researching the early years of Transformers releases in Europe and I’ve put some stuff on paper that you can read starting here in my, as of yet, unfinished series of articles on MB Transformers. In these articles I have made a big point about there being a connection between MB and Ceji, the latter being the company that held the original license to exclusively sell the toys that Transformers were based on in Europe. There was seemingly a lot of evidence that pointed in the direction of MB having taken over Ceji’s Diaclone stock. The evidence was very strong, but until today it was all circumstantial. Not anymore:

Letter from Hasbro to Takara regarding MB-Ceji deal – 6 May 1986

What you see above is a copy of a letter dated May 6th, 1986 sent by Hasbro to Takara (edited very slightly by me for clarity) in which they refer to the acquisition of all DIACLONE stock from Ceji at cost. It goes on about Hasbro (the owner of MB) getting a break from Takara regarding the royalties for Transformers sold in Europe, maybe because some of these were already factored into the price that Ceji originally paid to Takara.

It is also interesting to note that Hasbro/MB got Ceji’s Diaclone stock at cost price. This seems to further support the idea that Ceji might have been in financial difficulties for them to give away their rights to sell and distribute Diaclones/Transformers in Europe and sell off their Diaclone stock at cost price!

“Hello, former Ceji Diaclone stock!”

Some great “new” info there that confirms theories about what happened in Europe in the 1980s. I will make an effort to update the MB articles with this new info as soon as I can (probably within the next week), including a long overdue overhaul of the articles themselves, but I just couldn’t refrain from publishing this info here already. A big, big thank you to my good friend Maz for pointing me to this info and for RC85747 at the AllSpark forums for publishing the link to the SEC filings containing this info. Dig through them here if you’re interested!!

Sometimes I just can’t believe my luck with collecting vintage toys. As every collector will probably know from first hand experience there are usually a couple of items in your collection you paid just a tad too much (or way too much) for, but the flip side to that coin is that there’s bound to be several highly desirable items in your collection that you got real cheap, so in the end it probably evens out. That’s part of the fun of collecting hard to find stuff, I think. I’ve certainly had more than my fair share of good luck in finding rare items and some of them for peanuts. Case in point: I recently scored two first wave vintage G.I. Joe action figures in Dutch packaging: Alpine and Barbecue! And they only cost me 10 euros a pop!

G.I. Joe – Alpinist & Barbecue (1987) – MB International B.V.

“Surprise, surprise!”

A while ago I bought a vintage Zartan in Dutch packaging and when the package arrived at my doorstep I found that the seller had included two empty backer cards of the Dutch versions of Alpine and Barbecue! I try to collect early vintage G.I. Joe’s in Dutch packaging and those are pretty hard to find. Of those the action figures are the hardest to find inside their packaging. Imagine my surprise when I saw these two backer cards which were in great condition and even more, the bubbles where still largely attached to the cards without any noticeable damage or tearing to the backer cards!! So I started looking for a very nice and complete Alpine and Barbecue to put inside! I took me a while, but last week I found a local seller here in the Netherlands who had a C9 Alpine and Barbecue for sale 100% complete with accessories who sold them to me for 20 euros.

Alpinist, resealed!

The loose figures arrived yesterday and what better way to spend my Friday night then to geek out and put these two great looking action figures back in their original packaging! I cleaned the action figures and their accessories and dusted off the backer cards and bubbles. I then carefully placed them inside their respective bubbles and resealed the bubbles with some hobby glue that I carefully swiped along the edges of the bubbles. I placed some weights on the bubbles over night and this afternoon I cleaned up the dust and excess glue from the packaging with Goo Gone (a great little tool for removing dirt and sticker residue etc). I am quite pleased with the results, because they look great as display items! Let’s have a detailed look at both of them.

“Alpinist”

Alpinist is the Dutch name for Alpine. Alpine was originally released in the US as a wave 4 action figure in 1985 and was released in the Netherlands around April of 1987 by Hasbro as a wave 1 figure (G.I. Joe wasn’t properly introduced in most of Europe until 1987) and was distributed here by MB International B.V. Alpine saw a simultaneous release in most other West European countries that year as well, most of them also distributed by local MB subsidiaries. Hasbro had taken over toy giant MB in September 1984.

Alpinist – an international hero

I like to believe that Hasbro leveraged MB’s experience with the fragmented European market in the 1980’s. MB probably knew what was best for their local markets and part of this was to make sure the packaging of their product was localized as much as possible. This resulted in specific translated packaging for all the European countries where MB was active, similiar to MB’s original product like board games and puzzles. Even small countries like the Netherlands and Belgium got their own specific packaging. As a vintage collector and Dutchman myself I highly appreciate these all-Dutch releases.

“An International Hero”

Another thing that MB probably realised was that the moniker “A Real American Hero” would not sit well with all European countries. Now, I know that the Dutch would’ve been pretty ambivalent about this. The French on the other hand would probably have been a bit more chauvinistic about a toy line of Real American Heroes being released in France. So Hasbro and MB quite cunningly rebranded the line as an international fighting force for Europe (hey, whatever sells more, right?)

Alpinist’s file card

The cool thing about this is that most of the European G.I. Joe action figures had altered bio’s. Names and birth places were often changed to European and international alternatives. I always like to compare the Dutch releases in my collection to the American releases. Alpinist’s bio is largely the same as that of the American release. His name is Albert M. Pine in both the American and European releases. But his place of birth is different. The US release of Alpine shows us he was born in Minidoka, Idaho. As Alpine’s file card states “from the middle of the flat dusty Snake River Plain where Alpine was born he could see the mountains on the horizon in almost every direction”.

The Snake River Plain, where Alpine was born

According to the Dutch file card Alpinist was born in Grenoble, France. Also, although no specific mention is made about his parents in the US file card, the Dutch file card says that his parent were originally from Algerian descent, which would explain his dark complexion. This is not an entirely arbitrary choice either, by the way. Algeria used to be a French colony and there’s a large Algerian community still living in France.

Grenoble, where Alpinist was born

Also, while the US file card states that Alpine graduated from Ranger School in Fort Benning, the Dutch file card shows that Alpinist got his education in Toulouse, France.

“Barbecue”

Next up is Barbecue, who is named identically in the Dutch release. If we compare the US and Dutch file cards we can see that they are largely the same, but again the place of birth of Barbecue has been altered as has his surname. The US file card says Barbecue’s real name is Gabriel A. Kelly, born and bred in Boston, Massachusetts.

G.I. Joe – Barbecue (1987) MB International B.V.

Now, if we look at the file card on Barbecue’s Dutch packaging we see that he was born and bred in Naples, Italy. Kelly is not exactly an Italian sounding name, so his name was changed to Gabriel A. Garibaldi, which sounds pretty cool (Babylon 5 FTW!!). The rest of the file card is a pretty accurate translation of the US file card.

BBQ, Italian style

“Four Down, Sixteen to Go”

With these two additions I now have a total of four wave 1 vintage G.I. Joe action figures in Dutch packaging. Hasbro released a total of 20 action figures in the Netherlands in early 1987 (wave 1), which can all be seen on the back of Alpinist’s card here, including their sometimes colourful Dutch translated names.

G.I. Joe – Netherlands wave 1 (1987)

I don’t think I will ever be able to complete this first Dutch wave inside its original packaging, because these are even harder to find than the MB Transformers that I also like to collect, but a guy can hope. For now, I am going to sit back and feel rather content with myself for scoring these two items and being able to restore them to their original retail state as much as possible. Good times! Have a great weekend!

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Thanks to alaskan dude and cotitoo for the use of the photos of the Snake River Plain and Grenoble. Used in accordance with CC-BY 2.0 and CC-BY-NC 2.0 license respectively.

Pssst… wanna hear a secret? When international collectors think of the MB Transformers line they usually think of the red Tracks variant, which is considered to be very, very rare to find inside its original packaging (and it is!). It might come as a surprise to some, but the red Tracks is not the rarest of all the MB releases. Going by my own collecting experience and that of fellow MB Transformers collectors I have found that there are several Transformers that are even harder to find inside their original packaging than the mythical red Tracks. One of these, without a doubt, is MB Jazz. It is one of the rarest Transformers to find inside its original packaging.

Transformers – Jazz (MB) 1985

As you may have read in my previous post I recently finally tracked down a complete MB Jazz. I found this one in Belgium a couple of months ago, which is coincidentally the same country where the only other MB Jazz sighting I know of was located. This MB Jazz was childhood owned by the seller and is 100% complete as you can see, even down to the used sticker sheet. The seller recalls getting this MB Jazz and an MB Optimus Prime for Sinterklaas in December 1985 (Sinterklaas is -more or less- the Dutch/Belgian equivalent of Santa Claus), which fits nicely with the confirmed first appearance of Transformers in Europe.

“Porsche”

Jazz is a fan favourite and was certainly popular as a toy among all my buddies in the 1980’s. The funny thing about the packaging on this MB version of Jazz is that an alteration has been made to the name badge. Take a look, here’s what the packaging of the US version of Jazz looks like:

Transformers – Jazz (Hasbro) 1984 – US name badge

And now take a look at the packaging of the European MB version of Jazz from 1985. Right behind his name we can see the addition of the name “Porsche”:

Transformers – Jazz (MB) 1985 – name badge variation

I have to admit that I am quite baffled as to the meaning behind this packaging variation. Each and every of the 53 known Transformers that MB released in Europe have 100% identical name badges on their packaging compared to the US versions they are based on. Jazz is the only one that has this variation. If you look closely you will also observe that the change has been done rather crudely. The typeface normally used for the name badges on G1 Transformers looks like it’s part of the Eurostile typeface family. Yet, the altered part of Jazz’s name badge in the European release is obviously done in a different typeface, named Helvetica, which is coincidentally the same typeface that was used for the European age notice and the multi-lingual tech specs on the back of the box in the European releases. This means that this alteration was made specifically for the European market. You can even see that the width of the name badge has been increased to allow for the longer text.

It is also quite interesting to note that this is the only vintage G1 MB Autobot car that carries the trademarked name of the car that it is based on (Porsche) on its packaging. It looks like Hasbro was careful to avoid using the brand names of the Autobot cars they released in the early years (Lancia, Datsun, Corvette, Porsche, etc.), but somehow it was decided that the European release of Jazz could carry the name Porsche on the packaging. The reason as to why I am so intrigued by this is because I wonder whether this was a deliberate change to the European packaging that was OK’ed by Hasbro’s/MB’s legal department or whether it was simply a change done by the person who was responsible for localizing the US packaging of Jazz for the European market that slipped under the radar. Either way, quite an interesting packaging variation if you ask me.

Transformers – Jazz (MB) 1985

“1986 re-release”

In 1986 Transformers in Europe started getting released under the Hasbro brand. A lot of the 1985 MB-branded releases were re-released in Europe in 1986, but now with Hasbro branded packaging. The funny thing about this is that the Hasbro branded European 1986 release of Jazz still carries this same name badge variation.

Transformers – Jazz (Hasbro Europe) 1986 – name badge variation

“Joustra Diaclone”

As most hardcore followers of this blog will know (all three of you), there is an interesting history to some of the European 1985 MB Transformers releases. A lot of them were originally meant to be released as Diaclones by a French toy company called Ceji Joustra in Europe in 1984. Although I do not have hard proof (yet), it is my conviction that MB Jazz originally saw release as a Joustra Diaclone Porsche 935 in Europe under the Joustra Diaclone brand and was re-assigned in 1985 to MB’s Transformers brand. You can read the details about this theory here. One of the many things that supports this theory is that a lot of the Joustra Diaclone Porsche 935 releases and the MB Jazz carry the same copyright stamp, (which is coincidentally also the same copyright stamp for most of the 1984 pre-rub releases of US Jazz)

Transformers – Jazz (MB) 1985 – copyright stamp

Transformers – Jazz (MB) 1985

Transformers – Jazz (MB) 1985

Transformers – Jazz (MB) 1985

“Cajofe date code”

If we look at one of the inside flaps of MB Jazz’s packaging we see the familiar Cajofe logo of the French company that was responsible for printing the wave 2 MB Transformers packaging. We can also observe the date code that Cajofe used to print as part of their production process. It shows a date code of “08 85”, which of course translates to August 1985. This date code is the same for all the Autobot cars that MB released, which suggests that this toy was released in Europe shortly after that (I’d guess an October or November 1985 release).

Transformers – Jazz (MB) 1985 – Cajofe date code

Transformers – Jazz (MB) 1985

So there you have it! MB Jazz, one of the most sought after MB Transformers. If you ever find one inside its original packaging do not hesitate to obtain it. :-)

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• Many thanks to ‘patobot’ for the use of the photo of the US Jazz packaging. Used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

UPDATE: This post has become somewhat obsolete, due to the find of the MB Sunswipe (Sunstreaker in Sideswipe packaging). Please see an update to this article in post number 106.

Milestone!! A couple of weeks ago I scored a very elusive item that I had been chasing for quite some time. The item I’m talking about here is the Milton Bradley (MB) Jazz and it was really tough to track down. But it’s not really Jazz himself that I want to focus on today, because I will do that in a future article. No, today I would just like to gloat and concentrate on the subgroup that Jazz belongs to inside the Autobot ranks. A little group known as the Autobot cars. A group that, for me, embodies everything that is so fucking amazing about early G1 Transformers. A group that I now finally have complete in my MB collection! “All hail Jazz, Sideswipe, Ratchet, Mirage, Hound, Tracks, Wheeljack, Prowl and Trailbreaker!!!”

The result of blood, sweat, tears and spending boatloads of hard earned euros.

But totally worth it…

“Milton Bradley”

As most regular visitors to this site will know, most of continental Europe was introduced to the Transformers not by Hasbro, but by MB. The packaging of these early European Transformers releases also carries an MB logo instead of the usual Hasbro logo. MB branded Transformers were released primarily in 1985 in France, West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland, where they were distributed by the local European MB subsidiaries: MB France SA, Milton Bradley GmbH, MB International BV, SA MB Belgium NV, MB España and MB (Switzerland) AG. MB branded Transformers possibly also ended up in New Zealand (through M.B. New Zealand Ltd) and in Scandinavia (through BRIO AB, -thanks Martin!). There’s some evidence that even the UK might have ended up with some MB branded Transformers in the shops (most of the Transformers in the UK were Hasbro branded).

Wonderul packaging

“The Joustra connection”

What’s so cool about these MB branded Transformers, other than the fact that they hold nostalgic value to me as a European collector, is that there’s a pretty exciting history behind them. You see, a large chunk of the Transformers that MB released in Europe in 1985 were originally meant to be released as Diaclones by a company called Ceji Joustra! It is my belief that, for whatever reason (most likely financial), Ceji struck some sort of deal with MB that gave MB control over Ceji’s stock of Diaclones, had them repackaged inside Transformers boxes and unleashed them onto a hungry European market in 1985. If you’re interested in the nitty gritty of this theory, then start reading here. This theory explains a lot of the peculiarities of this line, like why the MB Autobot cars all came inside styro foam packaging, why Tracks is red and why the 9 Autobots that MB released was limited to just these infamous 9!

These were originally meant to be Joustra Diaclones…

“MB wave 2”

The nine Autobot cars that MB released were part of the second wave of MB Transformers that saw release in Europe in late 1985. According to date codes hidden on the inside of the packaging of these Autobot cars the packaging was printed in France, most likely in August 1985, presumably followed by a release shortly afterwards in most of continental Europe.

Pieces.. of.. fucking.. art..

“Cosmic balance”

But enough with the facts… Don’t they just look friggin’ awesome together!?! I’ve had eight of these nine Milton Bradley Transformers in my possession for so long that it was becoming a pain to have Jazz missing from the bunch. Suffer I will no more! As soon as I had placed MB Jazz next to his brethren an uncanny calm came over me. The stars were aligning. The universe was in balance once more. I had done something right. I had restored a cosmic balance by reuniting these infamous nine and the rush of endorphines in my brain was my reward. These are the first photos ever of all nine Milton Bradley Autobot cars together as far as I know and I love to share them with you. What do you think?

“Say cheese, boys…”

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My sincere thanks to James “Bo” Insogna for allowing me to use his amazing sunset photograph as a background in the first photo of this article! Check out his amazing site here.

Before God created the Transformers, he created the Universe. Masters of the Universe, that is. At least, that’s how my memory as a child of the 1980’s goes. For me, the Masters of the Universe was the snowplow that really paved the way for many more US toy lines with cartoon tie ins to come. I was introduced to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe by watching the Filmation cartoon on Sky Channel in 1985 and I was mesmerized by the beautiful packaging of all the Masters of the Universe toys in my local toy store. These were seriously cool toys!

Teela, Sorceress & Evil-Lyn (Mattel) – from my personal collection

I’ve acquired quite a few European Masters of the Universe toys over the past few months and I plan to feature them here in the next few weeks. Today we start with Teela!

“Teela”

According to the mythos of the Filmation cartoon of Masters of the Universe, Teela was the daughter of the Sorceress. Teela was raised by Man-at-Arms as if she was his own daughter. In the episode “Teela’s Quest” she shortly discovers the truth about her mother, only to have the memory erased by the Sorceress for her own protection.

Teela – from the cartoon by Filmation

“European Teela”

In the US, Teela was part of the first wave of Masters of the Universe toys that were introduced in 1982. I am not sure at what time the toy line got introduced in Europe, but it was probably introduced first in France and the UK in 1983 and in the rest of western Europe in 1984 I’d guess. I found this MOSC (mint on sealed card) European Teela not too long ago on one of my many travels through the internets. The bubble has yellowed and it seems there’s some discolouration on the arms, but otherwise it’s in pretty good condition and has never been opened!

Masters of the Universe – Teela (Mattel) 1983

“Single logo card”

What struck me as odd is that Teela comes with a “normal”, single logo on the card as is seen on the US cards. Most of the European releases came with two logos on the card, one in English and one in French as you can see from the photo at the beginning of this post. There are three languages on the front of Teela’s card below the Masters of the Universe logo, which are English, German and Italian. This is also unusual, because the language missing here is French! I am not sure what the significance of this is, but I do know it’s hard to find good information on all the packaging variations that existed in Europe, especially in the early years! The back of the card does have the usual quad-lingual texts including French.

Masters of the Universe – Teela (Mattel) 1983

“The Women of He-Man”

I don’t know exactly how it happened, but the funny thing is that all the MOSC (mint on sealed card) Masters of the Universe action figures I have are female! As you can see from the photo at the top of this post, besides Teela I also have Evil-Lyn and the Sorceress. These will feature in a future post soon so stay tuned!

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