MB (Milton Bradley) was responsible for the distribution of the first Transformers toys in mainland Europe. MB was taken over by Hasbro in 1984 and they decided to market the first wave of Transformers toys in Europe under their newly acquired MB brand (MB was a very well known brand in Europe in 1985, contrary to the Hasbro brand).

For the European launch MB released a selection of the first (1984) and second (1985) series of Transformers that were released in the U.S.  I recently acquired a very, very rare dealer catalog that MB released for its 1985 line up in Europe. Dealer catalogs are special toy catalogs that are usually sent out only to toy shops to sway them into carrying the product line. The catalog is beautifully designed and is printed on glossy paper.

One of the more interesting details about this catalog is the fact that there’s a seperate inlay that, obviously, seems to have been added later after the initial version of the catalog had been printed. It contains photos and catalog numbers of the MB Transformers that weren’t present in the original MB catalog that was included with boxed MB Transformers and the toy store catalog that was meant for consumers. It includes Optimus Prime, the Autobot cars, some more mini vehicles, Starscream and two Decepticon cassettes. To my knowlegde, these photos haven’t been published anywhere else as part of MB’s promotional material for its 1985 Transformers line up! Please enjoy these sneak peeks.

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A couple of months ago I picked up this very nice MOSC (mint on sealed card) Cosmos from the G1 (Generation 1) Transformers line. As with most G1 Transformers that I have in my collection, this is the MB version that was released in 1985 in mainland Europe.

Cosmos is part of the second series of mini vehicles released in the U.S., but part of the first series of Transformers released in mainland Europe under the MB (Milton Bradley) brand. Like most of the other mini-vehicles Cosmos featured pretty often in the Sunbow cartoon and was quite the likeable character.

Cosmos’ alternate mode is based on the Adamski type UFO, named after George Adamski, the man who made the now famous 1952 UFO photograph.

I found this item on a classified ads website. It’s in very nice condition, with just minor flaws on the card and the bubble still firmly attached to the card.

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The first waves of Transformers from the G1 (Generation 1) line are my favourites. The Insecticons were the first real subgroup among the Decepticons, akin to the Dinobots. The Insecticons were also among the first wave of Transformers that were released in Europe in 1985, sold under the Milton Bradley brand.

I recently added the MB (Milton Bradley) packaged version of Kickback to my MB Transformers collection. Just a couple of weeks later I managed to score a very, very nice Milton Bradley version of Shrapnel! Although there was no clear leader of the Insecticons, Shrapnel was usually depicted as the leader in the G1 cartoon, though Bombshell took the leader role on some occasions. Shrapnel is mint on a sealed backing card and includes an unused sticker sheet and instructions still sealed inside a baggy.

The Milton Bradley packaging is in near perfect state with no flap crease whatsoever, an undented window and still sealed on one side. Check out the detailed photographs!

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Last week I managed to track down another MB (Milton Bradley) Transformer, which I was fortunate enough to be able to add to my collection: Seaspray! Seaspray was a series 2 mini vehicle that was part of the first wave of Transformers that were released in mainland Europe in 1985 under the Milton Bradley brand.

Seaspray is a very sympathetic character voiced aptly by Alan Oppenheimer (also known for Skeletor’s voice in Masters of the Universe) in the G1 (Generation 1) cartoon. This particular Seaspray is in very nice condition with a nice clean card and undented bubble. I was very glad to be able to pick it up fairly cheap! Stay tuned, coz there’s 2 more Milton Bradley Transformers that I got a hold of. More pics soon!

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Soundwave is one of the most recognizable and most popular characters from the G1 (Generation 1) Transformers line. Looking like a portable cassette player in his alternate mode, Soundwave had the cool bonus of cassette robots that could fit inside his chest and was released together with the Buzzsaw cassette. Several other memorable cassette characters were released seperately like Laserbeak, Ravage, Rumble and Frenzy.

Soundwave featured heavily in the Sunbow cartoon and had a really cool voice that sounded very robotic (voiced by Frank Welker, who also did Megatron, processed by a vocoder). Come to think of it, most of the voice processing in the original G1 cartoon sounds very cool.

I have one Soundwave in my collection, which comes in MB (Milton Bradley) packaging. Both Soundwave and Buzzsaw are in pretty good clean condition, with stickers unapplied. Accessories, booklet and unused stickersheet are still inside a sealed baggy. I’m only missing a paper insert that goes on top of the styro, but I’m sure I’ll pick that up somewhere some time in the future. Check out these photographs I made of Soundwave from my personal collection.

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