Today marks the first part of a long series of articles that I will be publishing on this website about my favourite corner of Transformers collecting: vintage MB (Milton Bradley) G1 Transformers! For those that do not know, in most of mainland Europe Transformers were introduced in 1985. Not by Hasbro, but by MB. I’ve spent quite some of my spare time in the past 2 years collecting, cataloguing and investigating everything there is to know about this line. I decided it was high time to contribute my fair share to the TF collector community and put down all the info I have gathered about MB Transformers in a series of articles.

It’s going to be an extensive series of articles with lots of information about the line and everything that surrounded it. There’s going to be a complete list of all the MB Transformers ever released, background information to why some Transfomers were and why some weren’t released as part of MB’s 1985 line up, a thorough look into the connections between the MB line and its close relative the Joustra Diaclone line, scans of promotional material of MB’s 1985 line that have never been published online and much, much more. Please join me and check out the introductory part of this article series on MB Transformers by clicking here. New parts will be published right here every week-ish. Enjoy!!

“Introduction”

You know what’s so frickin’ cool about the first waves of G1 (Generation 1) Transformers Autobots? They were actually based on REAL vehicles! They contained die-cast metal parts, nice and shiny chrome parts and rubber tires, which gave them a feeling of quality that I really miss from most of the later waves of G1 Transformers. The Autobot this article is dedicated to is no exception to the rule! Submitted for your approval, I present to you: Prowl!

Prowl is the military strategist amongst the Autobot ranks and his alternate mode is based on a Datsun 280ZX Japanese police car. According to the tech specs that we find on the back of Prowl’s packaging, Prowl has a rank value of 9, which puts him squarely as second in command, right after the Autobot leader Optimus Prime who holds a rank 10 rating. Well, not exactly. Jetfire somehow also holds a rank 10 rating and Grimlock also holds a rank 9 rating, but we’ll conveniently ignore that for now, because popular opinion in Transformers G1 fandom holds Prowl as the second in command and because both Jetfire and Grimlock were second wave characters (Prime and Prowl were amongst the first wave of Transformers characters that were released in the U.S. in 1984).

 

“Oil crisis”

As I mentioned above, Prowl is based on a real life vehicle, the Datsun 280ZX. The name Datsun will probably not mean a lot to anyone born in the late 1980’s or later, but it used to be a Japanese car brand that rose to popularity in western countries in the 1970’s. You see, life was not all that grand in the early seventies of the 20th century. In October of the year 1973 something nasty happened. An oil crisis broke out. The catalyst to this crisis was the U.S. decision to supply the Israeli military during the Yom Kippur war and the subsequent reaction of the Arab members of OPEC to increase the price of oil by creating artificial scarcity, in order to meet their political goals. On October 16, 1973 the OPEC member countries decided to increase the price of oil by a whopping 70%. In addition to that they also decided to decrease their production of oil by 5% on a monthly basis. Their strategy worked. Oil prices around the world sky rocketed, especially in the U.S. which was also the target of an oil embargo by OPEC. About a week later the oil embargo was expanded to include the Netherlands, which has long been known for its pro-Israel stance. In the Netherlands, this lead to a string of government imposed car free Sundays. No motorized vehicle was allowed on the road on those days, except for emergency purposes of course.

Although I wasn’t born then yet, I remember by parents’ recount of those oil crisis days. My parents were Yugoslav worker immigrants back then, who moved to the Netherlands in the early 1970’s. With the oil crisis going on it was no surprise there that my dad decided to buy a Datsun 120Y coupé in 1974. The Datsun 120Y was a very fuel economic car and I suspect that my old man really digged Datsun back then. Here’s a picture of him leaning proudly against his brand spanking new Datsun somewhere around that time.

Funky, right? But wasn’t this an article about a Transformer called Prowl, you might ask? Yes…. Yes it is. I like to place things against a background though, so please, humor me and continue reading and we’ll get to the good stuff. I promise!

“Datsun”

So where did Datsun come from? Well, the name can be traced back to 1911 when three friends in Japan decided to invest in the automotive industry. Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama and Meitaro Takeuchi helped create the Kaishinsha Motor Car Works company. The firm was renamed in 1925 to “DAT Motor Co.” and later, in 1926, it merged with another Japanese car company to become “DAT Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd.” The name DAT, of course, was an acronym of the last names of its founders (Den, Aoyama and Takeuchi). In 1931, DAT Automobile Manufacturing created a new small car called the “Datson”, literally the “son of DAT”. In 1933, the name was changed from “Datson” to “Datsun”, because the symbol for “son” apparently means “loss” in Japanese. The Japanese are pretty picky about things like that. Also, using the word “sun” instead, would honour the sun depicted in the Japanese national flag. Double whammy!

If the above Datsun logo looks a tad familiar, that’s quite understandable. You might recognize it from the Nissan logo:

“Nissan Fairlady Z”

The name Nissan is an abbreviation of sorts for “Nippon Sangyo”, which means “Japan Industries”. Nissan was founded in 1928 and took over Datsun in 1930. The name Datsun was maintained as a seperate brand until 1986 and our beloved Prowl happens to be a Datsun Fairlady Z, also known in the U.S. as a Datsun 280 ZX. This model was available between 1979 and 1983 and proved to be a sales success.

As was the case with most of the early Autobot cars, Prowl was originally based on a toy created by Japanese toy maker Takara as part of their Diaclone toy line. The mold was used three times in the Transformers universe for Prowl, Bluestreak and Smokescreen, the only difference being a different paint job and, in Prowl’s case, police lights on the roof. If you’ve ever wondered what Prowl’s police decals are based on, wonder no more, because they are based on Japanese police cars! Not really surprising given what we now know about the toy’s history. Here we have two photos of Japanese police cars, that will surely spark a sense of recognition with anyone who is familiar with Prowl’s car mode:

“Oh my god, it’s all Prowls!!” Yes. Yes, they are. See, what’s so cool about Prowl is that he’s not only based on a real life car, but his police decals are also not just some fantasy police design, but also based on real life! That is one of the many things that are so hellacool about these early G1 Transformers in this collector’s humble opinion. Let’s have another look at some photographs of Prowl in car mode.

If we have a look at Prowl’s sticker sheet closely and look at sticker number 8, we can also see a small black logo with what looks like a yellow sun with sun rays inside, reminiscent of the petal style emblem of Japan’s Emperor (click on the photo below for a larger version).

In fact, it is (a slightly modified version of) the official Japanese police emblem! This emblem can be found on all Japanese police cars and police badges. This what it looks like:

How cool is that? Takara really did their best to create vehicle modes for their car robots that approximated their real life counterparts as much as they could. It is this attention to detail that makes these early G1 releases so fascinating to me. It’s not just some fantasy car, but a real car with a real history! Makes owning one and looking at one all the more enjoyable if you ask me.

“Milton Bradley Prowl”

As most of the regular visitors of this blog will know, I specialize in collecting the MB (Milton Bradley) branded G1 Transformers that were released in Europe in 1985. Prowl was part of MB’s 1985 line up and I was very fortunate to have been able to buy him not too long ago. This particular Prowl has slight yellowing on some parts, but is otherwise in fantastic shape and was childhood owned by a good collector friend of mine. The stickers are unapplied and Prowl comes complete with all his inserts and paperwork.

As with all the Autobot cars that were released by MB, Prowl comes in a styro foam insert instead of the sealed bubbles that we see in other western markets. A very nice packaging variation if you ask me. It allows you to remove the toy from its packaging without damaging the inserts. As most hardcore collectors will know, these styro foam inserts are actually remnants of this toy line’s heritage: Diaclone. The Diaclone toys were released in Japan and Europe inside these styro foam inserts. Now, Diaclone toys in Japan were usually accompanied by little Diaclone driver men with magnetic feet like the one below that belongs to my Diaclone version of Hound:

The Diaclone styro foam inserts usually had a space where the little Diaclone man would fit as you can see from the styro insert of the Milton Bradley Mirage from my collection below:

There at the top left you can see a shape cut out where the Diaclone driver would easily fit. Because Transformers did not come with Diaclone drivers this space is left unused in the MB releases. However, a peculiar thing happened with MB Prowl. If you look closely at the styro foam there is no space carved out for the Diaclone driver. Here, have a look:

What’s the significance of this, you would ask? Well, all the other Autobot cars that were released by MB have a space in their styro for a Diaclone driver. Only the Japanese Transformers did not have any Diaclone driver spaces. This is not just a coincidence, because it appears that the Joustra Diaclone Prowl also has this same styro insert without the space for a Diaclone driver, further adding to the similarities between these two lines.

“Cajofe”

MB released a total of 9 Autobot cars in 1985. Although the toys themselves were all manufactured by Takara in Japan, they were shipped off to France inside their styro foam, where they would be packaged by MB in their signature multi-lingual packaging, sporting German, French, Dutch and Spanish. The packaging was printed in France by a company called Cajofe which was located in the small town of Fegersheim, 12 kilometers south of Strasbourg. An interesting thing about the Transformers packaging that Cajofe created for MB in 1985 and for Hasbro Europe in 1986, is that they printed a date code inside of one of the inner flaps as evidenced in the photo below.

On the top flap you can clearly see the Cajofe logo, but if you look closely at the lower flap you see the number “8 85” upside down. This translates, of course, to August 1985. I’ve noticed this on all the packaging that was printed by Cajofe. What does that mean? Well, although we’ll never know for sure until an ex-Cajofe employee can confirm this, an educated guess would be that August 1985 is the month in which Cajofe printed this Prowl box. Incidentally, all of the Autobot cars boxes that were released by MB in 1985 carry this same date code of August 1985. I have confirmed them all myself, except for Jazz’s box, because I have never seen or owned one, but I’m willing to bet a lot of money that MB Jazz will have the same date code. It is interesting from a nerdy and obsessive compulsive standpoint as my own to know when these boxes were printed, because it gives us the chance to create a fairly accurate estimate of when these toys actually hit the European market. It is not entirely unthinkable that these MB Autobot cars hit European toy stores shortly after they were printed, perhaps around September 1985? Although I’m afraid I don’t know the exact month, I do remember seeing Transformers for the first time in my local toy store around that time in 1985.

“Copyright stamp”

So where does this MB Prowl fit mold wise? Well, the best way to check a bot’s place in history is to check the copyright stamp on the toy itself! Here’s MB Prowl’s copyright stamp:

This specific copyright stamp is in line with most of the pre-rub sign Transformers that were released in the US in 1984. Whereas most of the other MB Autobot cars all have copyright stamps that resemble those from the Diaclone line, this specific Prowl resembles an actual Transformers mold. This actually fits with MB Prowl’s out-of-place styro foam without the Diaclone driver space. It looks like MB Prowl was based on a more recent production run by Takara than the other MB Autobot cars, which were mainly Diaclone molds.

“The Face of the Autobots”

There is one more interesting tidbit of information regarding Prowl that I could not leave out of this article. Have you ever wondered what the original Autobot sign was based on? Well, wonder no more!!! It was based on Prowl’s face! Just look at the comparison photo that I threw together below:

Pretty cool, huh? I’m still amazed at how many Transformers collectors are unaware of this fact and it’s always an eye opener. Now you know as well, so go on and educate the masses! Of course, now you might be wondering who’s face the Decepticon logo was based on? Well, let me give you a hint. His name starts with “S” and ends with “oundwave”.

You might be thinking “Why would Prowl’s face be the basis of the Autobot logo?” Wouldn’t Optimus Prime’s face have been a more logical choice? Well, that’s quite the mystery still. One of the theories doing the rounds is that both Prowl and Soundwave were originally considered as potential leaders of the Autobot and Decepticon factions. You see, the Autobot and Decepticon logos were designed at a very early stage of development, probably even before most of the Transformers were even properly named. My personal view is that the afforementioned theory might be true, but I would not be surprised at all if the original designer of the logos just picked two robots of both factions and created stylized logos of their faces without any real regard as to who would ultimately become the leader of either faction.

“Tail lights”

I started out this article with a long detour into the oil crisis and the history of Datsun and a photo of my dad leaning against his newly acquired Datsun 120Y in 1974. What’s that got to do with Prowl? Well, although the Datsun 120Y is a far cry from the Datsun 280 ZX that Prowl is based on, some design aspects of the 280 ZX resemble my old man’s Datsun 120Y. Ever since I added Prowl to my collection I got a flash of familiarity that I could not place every time that I looked at the back of the toy in car form. Not too long ago I finally put two and two together when I dug up some of my old folks’ photographs. The back of Prowl, especially the tail lights, looks a lot like the Datsun 120Y. Check it out:

My dad bought his Datsun in 1974. I was born in April of 1975 and it remained our family car until around 1978 I think when my parents bought a brand spanking new Ford Taunus. On a subconscious level I always recognized the tail lights from my old man’s Datsun in Prowl. It only hit me when I found this photo below of me and my old man from October 1975. I must’ve been around 6 months old there. My mom’s photographical skills sucked, because her finger is blocking out the majority of the car’s rear on this photograph, but I could recognize enough of our old Datsun’s rear to make the connection. I must have been no more than 3 years old when this Datsun was sold, but its image was engraved in my memory. Prowl always made me remember my old man’s Datsun.

 

“Gallery”

 

 

Been a busy week. I managed to score some nice goodies that have been added to my collection. First off, I managed to add another Transformer to my ever growing MB collection: Snarl! Snarl himself is in pretty awesome shape, with only a loose joint here and there. The packaging also came with its original, multi-language instruction booklet and all of Snarl’s accessories are present. For the connaiseurs; the copyright stamping on the bot itself is Takara-only with year, i.e. no Takara-Hasbro stamping, which seems to be in line with most of the MB releases and leads me to believe this bot is an original MB. The box itself is pretty worn and has seen better days, but I don’t mind, because it’s another addition to my MB collection, so I’m pretty stoked about getting it in the mail this week, regardless!

But that’s not all the Transformers I got! I also got the European versions of Ramjet, Bumblebee and Blurr! Bumblebee’s packaging has been opened, but in such a way that it still looks very nice. The bot itself is missing its rub sign and is in pretty dire shape. I plan on replacing the bot in the near future with a better looking specimen. Still, it’s nice to be able to finally add the most popular mini-vehicle of all to my collection. Ramjet has some loose joints, but is otherwise in pretty good shape and Blurr is even MISB (mint-in-sealed-box). Unfortunately (one of) the previous owner(s) has touched up the box with marker to mask some very minor wear. A real shame, because the wear is very light and these unnecessary restoration attempts automatically disqualify this MISB Blurr from ever getting an AFA rating. Nevertheless, from a collector’s perspective I’m still extremely happy with this European MISB Blurr finding its way into my collection!

And still another Transformer: I also got the European Metroplex! As a kid I really, really wanted Metroplex every since I first saw him in my local toy store in 1986. I thought it was the coolest and most bad ass Transformer ever made (and still do). Unfortunately he was just way too expensive for me to afford back in 1986 as a kid. Thankfully, 25 years later my financial situation is a lot more positive and I finally managed to add him to my collection!

On to the Joe’s! I’ve lamented numerous times about the scarceness of vintage carded Dutch G.I. Joe’s form the toy’s initial European release in 1987 and onward. The only Dutch carded item I had up until now was the 1988 Dutch Battle Gear Accessory Pack #1 and that’s not really an action figure. Well, I finally managed to add my first Dutch actual action figure! It’s the second edition of Gung-Ho in marine dress blue uniform. In the Netherlands, this was the first release of Gung-Ho though, and for some reason he’s not called Gung-Ho, but Chung-Ho! Chung-Ho is part of the third series of G.I. Joe action figures that were released in late 1988. He’s also part of the last series of G.I. Joe toys that were released in Dutch-only packaging. The next series of G.I. Joe action figures featured French/Dutch language backing cards, which were also slightly over sized. I’m so glad to be able to finally add a MOSC (mint-on-sealed-card) Dutch G.I. Joe action figure from the original 1987/1988 series. Many more to go! As part of the same deal, I also managed to score the Dutch Battle Gear Accessory Pack #2! Good times!

Also arriving in the mail this week are three MOSC Action Force action figures. As most European G.I. Joe collectors will know, Action Force is the name of the toy line that was the predecessor to the G.I. Joe line. Before Hasbro introduced G.I. Joe in Europe in 1987, a lot of G.I. Joe action figures were available in Europe under the Action Figure moniker. This particular lot of Action Force figures does not feature any G.I. Joe molds (they have less articulation points), but they were so cheap I could not pass them up. The cards are Dutch and French so I assume they were originally sold in the Benelux countries and maybe also in France.

And lastly, I also bought this very nice Playmobil Esso Station from 1981!! I’ve been buying some vintage Playmobil stuff in the past couple of weeks of which I hope to add some photographs soon. I’m totally nuts about vintage Playmobil trains and most of their late 70’s and early 80’s line up. I just love the early 80’s design of the packaging and the toy itself. As you can see the box is in exquisite state for its age. More Playmobil soon!

Regular visitors of this website will know of my fondness for the MB (Milton Bradley) G1 Transformers toys. Before Hasbro properly got in on the act in Europe, the very earliest Transformers were sold in mainland Europe by MB. Through this website I’ve been fortunate enough to get in touch with some fellow MB Transformers collectors.

From time to time I get questions by mail from visitors asking about the exact extent of my MB collection. So the last couple of days I’ve invested some time in taking quick snapshots of all the MB releases I have in my collection and created a page that will be continually updated whenever new MB’s are added to my collection. Currently my collection is around two thirds complete. You can find the page in the Collection menu on the top right or by clicking here. Enjoy!!

I’m in the process of setting up a page which contains an overview of all the MB Transformers I already have in my collection. I spent the better part of this Sunday afternoon in my collection room taking photographs and I expect to have the MB page up within the week, time permitting. Something I’d like to share with you already is a few snapshots of my nearly complete MB Autobot cars collection.

Question: What do eight Milton Bradley Autobot Cars look like together in their original packaging?

Answer: Fucking awesome! As evidenced below.

As some of the growing number of you regular visitors of this blog might know (thanks for visiting!), I collect all sorts of action figures and toys from the last couple of decades of the 20th century. Only a part of my collection is visible on this website, because quite frankly, it takes a shitload of time to take photographs, import them, select the best batch, clean them up and upload them to my site and incorporate them into articles. But it’s a labour of love, so you don’t hear me complaining! Of all the stuff I collect, the G1 (Generation 1) Transformers are my absolute favourite, and to be even more specific, my main focus is on collecting all the G1 Transformers that were released in mainland Europe in 1985/1986 under the MB brand. I’m such a sucker for these MB releases. They just look so awesome together and I get a tingly feeling inside whenever I see them. It cost me a lot of blood, sweat, tears (and money) to get these, but it is so totally worth it. Fellow obsessive compulsive collectors, you know what I’m talking about.

A total of 9 Autobot cars were released by MB as part of their 1985 line-up, which was the first series of Transformers to ever hit mainland Europe (Transformers were released first in 1984 in the US, and probably partly also in the UK, under the Hasbro brand). The MB releases are easily identifiable by their conspicuous MB logo at the left bottom of the box. Another stand out fact is that all the Autobot cars came with styro foam inserts instead of the regular see-through plastic bubble inserts. As you can see, I’m only missing one Autobot car: Jazz (if someone has an MB Jazz and wants to sell it: contact me!!)

I understand that this blog’s focus has been very much about Transformers lately (which is good), but for those who are a little fed up with all the Transformers stuff (for shame!) I have good news. I plan to focus on some of the non-Transformers stuff in my collection soon. First up is some Joustra Diaclones. Technically not really Transformers, but still kind of Transformers. But I plan to allot some space on these pages to some other toy lines soon like Blackstar, Wheeled Warriors and BraveStarr! Stay tuned!