It’s quite a joyous occasion for me whenever I manage to add another Milton Bradley G1 Transformer to my collection. Recently I tracked down a shiny, minty Milton Bradley Megatron from a French vintage toy store. The box is in very good shape with just minor scuff marks and a slightly scratched window. The toy itself though, shines as if it were new. The styro insert is in extremely good condition and the unapplied stickers and MB catalog are still sealed in a plastic bag!

MB branded Transformers were the first official Transformers to appear on store shelves for most of mainland Europe and as such are very rare and highly desired by collectors. It wasn’t until somewhere around 1986 that Transformers were released in Europe under the Hasbro brand.

Of all the vintage toys I collect, the European G1 Milton Bradley Transformers are my absolute favourite! They remind me most of my childhood. I remember the exact spot where they used to be displayed in my local Intertoys store in the 1980s. It was like a shrine that I visited on a near daily basis. So yes, I’m fairly hardcore when it comes to trying to complete my MB collection. And what’s a G1 MB collection without a Megatron, ruthless leader of the Decepticons? Nothing! That’s what! :-)

I’m currently adding the last touches to a more in-depth article about the MB Megatron and the toy in general, which should be up here shortly with way more photographs. For now, I’m off to do my dance of joy! Mwoohahahahahaaaaa… “Excellent!”

Here’s another rare MB (Milton Bradley) release in my collection. It’s the Autobot mini vehicle Huffer. Except for the fact that it’s a MOSC (mint on sealed card) Huffer, this MB version of Huffer has the oddity of Huffer being carded in a halfway transformed robot mode! Have a look!

Why is that strange, you might ask? Well, in the U.S. Huffer was released twice. Once in 1984 where Huffer was available as a so-called pre-rub version (the first wave of Transformers in the U.S. did not have any rub-signs that would show the Transformer’s allegiance once rubbed) and Huffer was pre-transformed into his truck mode as you can see in the photograph below.

Huffer photograph courtesy of Manny Galeano

Then, in 1985, Huffer was released again in the U.S. as many of his mini-vehicle brethren, but this time in robot mode as you can see in the picture below.

Now let’s have another closer look at the MB version of Huffer in my collection from a closer angle…

As you can see, the card looks a lot like the 1985 U.S. release with the exception of the mini-spy, but Huffer is only half transformed. The cab portion hasn’t been flipped back to show Huffer’s face! So what we’ve ended up with here is a robot-mode Huffer with the cab still down obscuring his head. Pretty weird, huh? I’ve never seen any other G1 Huffer releases that have him carded like this. If we look closer at the bubble, we can see that it matches Huffer’s halfway transformed mode perfectly!

UPDATE: It seems that the Joustra Diaclone version of Huffer, known simply as ‘Truck’, has Huffer carded in the exact same manner as this MB release! Very peculiar!

Moving over to the back of the card we see the usual quad-lingual tech-specs in German, French, Dutch and Spanish and the copyright notice says “(c) 1985 Milton Bradley International Inc. under Berne & Universal copyright convention. Made in Japan. Printed in France. Manufactured by Takara Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.”.

Damn, aren’t these MB releases beautiful? Although the back of the cards and boxes are usually more crowded due to the necessity of having everything stamped in 4 languages, the front of the cards and boxes usually look much more tidy, not in the least because the text “transforms from (insert anything here) to robot and back” is missing. Probably due to the fact that having that text translated into 4 languages would be too crowded for the front of the card.

And there you have it! Another interesting MB G1 Transformers release for any G1 collector to sink his teeth into. This one definitely shouldn’t be missing from your collection!

Thanks to Manny Galeano for the photograph of Huffer from his collection. Check out his website at www.smokescreen-38.com.

Thanks to Alex Bickmore for his photograph of Joustra Diaclone Truck. Check out his webiste at http://www.toyarchive.com/

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NOTE: A more detailed and up-to-date look at MB’s Laserbeak is now also available and has been published in post number 104.

Wow! This is definitely one of the coolest items in my collection of MB Transformers. It’s a MOSC (mint-on-sealed-card) Laserbeak. The Transformers releases by MB in Europe are known for their packaging variations and here’s a great example. Laserbeak is, ofcourse, one of Soundwave’s cassettes and in the U.S. all cassettes were sold as double packs, meaning you would always find two cassettes on one card. Not so with MB’s cassette releases! These were sold solo, with just a single cassette on the card. As far as I know of, there were just 2 cassettes released by MB. One being Ravage and the other Laserbeak.

Laserbeak – front

The Laserbeak in my collection is in particularly good shape! The card and the bubbles look great and there aren’t any major flaws to speak of. It was part of a set of carded MB Transformers (all MOSC) I bought from a seller, according to whom this was part of some German toy store’s old stock.

Laserbeak – front close up

Being just a single cassette release, the artwork on the card looks fantastic! Laserbeak takes center stage on the card, not having to share the spotlight with fellow cassette Frenzy as is the case with the U.S. release. On the top left corner of the front of the card you can find the usual quad-lingual age notice found on MB releases, being German, French, Dutch and Spanish. At the bottom left you see the MB logo, which is slightly larger than the Hasbro logo would have been at that position.

Laserbeak – front

Moving to the back of the card we see the quad-lingual tech-specs taking up half of the card’s back. The copyright notice underneath says “(c) 1985 Milton Bradley International, Inc. under Berne & Universal copyright convention. Printed in France. Manufactured by Takara Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.” The other half of the back is taken up with quad-lingual rub sign instructions, half a Transformers point, tech-spec instructions, Transformation instruction and a barcode.

Laserbeak – back

Love or loathe him, but Laserbeak featured prominently in Sunbow’s animated series of Transformers. He was regularly dispatched on reconnaissance and spy missions to secretly observe the Autobots and is one of Megatron’s favourite and most respected Decepticons. Here are some screen caps from the cartoon.

Laserbeak kicking ass

Laserbreak kicking even more ass

Laserbeak being ejected by Soundwave, in order to kick some ass

“Gallery”

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