#48 Astrotrain was released in Japan originally in a different color scheme than in the US. Featuring a white and black, instead of purple and grey color scheme, the Japanese white Astrotrain is unique. Later on, this was replaced with the US version of Astrotrain, with accompanying box colors. This piece came with stickers with the Nasa name and logo on them, and it may be due to the copyright of the name and logo, that this item was removed from the market. An inordinate amount of these have shown up in the Philipines. It is possible to remove these unlicensed copies from the market, they recalled the stock and sent it to the Philipines. However, this is just one theory.

This piece was obtained from the Philipines

Collection of: Curt Fignar