Milton Bradley and the TF Red Tracks

The Transformers were released across the world from the mid-eighties onwards and almost every country’s Transformers had its own particular feature that set it apart from the rest, be it the toy or the packaging. Here are some examples:

• The Japanese Transformers had collectors’ cards, Japanese text on the boxes, styrofoam inserts and smaller boxes.
• Italian Transformers were distributed by a company called GiG and had their logos on them, they also had the “Trasformer” text on the packaging as well as Italian-exclusive names for the characters.
• Mexican Transformers had the company logo for IGA on the boxes along with Spanish text and very slightly different coloured boxes, a lack of robot points and the variations on the toys themselves.
• Greek Transformers had the company logo for El Greco on them.
• Canadian Transformers had both English and French text on the boxes and the characters had French names as well as the original US names.
• Peruvian Transformers had the company logo for “Lynsa” present on the packaging.

So basically, a little time spent studying the packaging on a Transformer and you can get a good indication of when and where it was released.

What about Transformers released in mainland Europe? That is what this article will attempt to address, but we need to go back a little bit to before Transformers were released in mainland Europe. Pre-Transformers are what we call Diaclone and Microman toys later to become Transformers. These were available not only in Japan, but in a number of European countries as well such as Finland, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and France. In Italy, the pre-TFs had packaging almost identical to the original Japanese pre-TFs but instead of the Diaclone or Microman logos, the packaging had “GiG” and “Trasformer” on it instead. Here is an Italian pre-TF, the GiG Diaclone Police Sideswipe:

The pre-TFs released in Italy were released at about the same time as the very first Transformers were coming out in the US. As a result, Italian GiG pre-TFs were a mixture of pre-rubsign (1984 mould) TFs with Diaclone stickers, repackaged Japanese Diaclone stock and even some hybrid releases.

In France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands a company called Joustra had the rights to distribute Takara’s pre-TF toys. The toys released by Joustra, while using the same inserts as the Japanese pre-TFs, created their own unique and attractive boxart. Most of the toys even had an exclusive comic included. Here is the Joustra F-15 pre-Starscream:

This particular release had a unique stickersheet. What’s really strange here is that the box depicts the Diaclone Thundercracker yet the toy is a Starscream. I personally believe this has some significance but I’ll come on to that a little later. There is an empty space in the styrofoam for the Diaclone driver but extremely few European pre-TF releases actually had drivers. Finnish Diaclones had drivers, a handful of Italian Diaclones had drivers but no Joustra pre-TFs had drivers. The Joustra release toys were either pre-rub TFs in Joustra packaging (some even having Autobot symbols), repackaged original mould toys or pre-rub TF/Diaclone hybrids. Here is the Joustra Trans-Am, which is basically Windcharger in Joustra packaging, Autobot sticker and all!

Now when the Transformers came to be released in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany etc Hasbro was in the process of taking over a company called Milton Bradley (MB). At that time, Hasbro did not yet have the facilities required to manufacture Transformers on a large scale in the aforementioned countries. The Transformers were subsequently manufactured using MB factories and that’s why the early TFs released in countries like France, Germany, Holland and Belgium have an MB badge on them. Many series 1 and 2 Transformers were released in such packaging. When Hasbro had completed their takeover of Milton Bradley in 1985, the “MB” was taken off the boxes, and in other countries the copyrights on the box went from “© 1984 Hasbro Industries Inc.” to “© 1984 Hasbro Bradley Inc.”. Here are some examples of boxed MB TFs:

The MB logo can clearly be seen on the bottom left hand corner of the box fronts. Also the text that usually says “Transforms from whatever to robot and back again” in the top left hand corner of the box front (not the flap) has been removed. That’s probably because these MB boxes are multilingual and they couldn’t fit all 4 languages on the box front. If you look at the back of the box, you can see the enlarged techspec. It was made larger to accommodate the four languages which are German, French, Dutch and Spanish. The techspec no longer has a verbal description of the character’s abilities and weaknesses, just a translation of his function and his quote. The box copyright is on the bottom of the box instead of under the techspec as with most TF boxes.

 

Here are some examples of carded MB TFs:

Once again, the MB logo can be seen on these cards and the “Transforms from…” text has been removed. The large techspecs are in evidence on the boxback, and on these small cards, they take up an awful lot of the available space.

If you look carefully at the techspecs on the back of the boxes and cards, the fourth language is Spanish and where it usually says “Function” on a US box, it says either “Función” or “Cometido” when translated into Spanish. I think the earliest MB TFs would have said “Función” but the later releases would have said “Cometido”. Megatron, some of the cars and the Dinobots all have the “Función” text. Interestingly, Prime has the “Cometido” text, indicating that he probably wasn’t among the first wave of MB toys released.

At this point you might be asking yourself why I would go into so much detail about these MB Transformers. What is it that makes them interesting beyond a few changes on the box? What really made them stand out amongst all the other packaging variations? This is where things start to get interesting. Here are some pictures of the Autobot cars that were released in MB packaging:

 

Can you spot the major difference? The cars are not in a plastic bubble stuck to a backing card, they’re in a styro insert! The same styro inserts that were used for Diaclones and later Joustra and GiG pre-Transformers. There is even space for the Diaclone driver, but Transformers came with no such feature so there is empty styro space. Also, Diaclone styro inserts were smaller than TF boxes, so the styro insert had to be suspended and held in place by cardboard supports. Another strange feature of the MB cars is apparent from the box back, the barcodes are all printed upside down! I’ve only seen this on the cars and Optimus so far (I suppose Optimus could be considered an Autobot car?).

The paperwork that came with MB TFs is also pretty surprising. On some of the catalogs, Jetfire is shown as Autobot leader. Why was Jetfire the leader? Maybe because Prime was not released in the first wave of MB toys and they needed someone to cover for him until they could produce and release Optimus in those European countries. One particular Dutch MB catalog featured a comic where Jetfire was battling Megatron and re-did one of the US Marvel Comic issues. Ginrai of www.Masterforce.org has it covered in detail with scans at the bottom of this page: http://www.pimbrecords.com/mfo/jetfire/jetfireg1.html

Below is a scan of the front page for the aforementioned MB comic.

What follows now are a set of scans from an early MB toy catalog, and there are some real eye-openers here.

 

Have a look at the above catalog picture of Blaster, Whirl and Roadbuster. Blaster is shown in his pre-TF Microman red and blue trim! The MB Blaster was coloured just like any other TF Blaster, so quite a mistake there. Roadbuster is also shown holding a Constructicon drill missile in his left hand instead of his own knife.

In the above pic there is confirmation of Jetfire’s leader status, but there’s more. Have a look at the picture of Slag. It looks very much like the mostly-red Canadian release Slag. He has the red tab on his back in dinosaur mode, his legs are white, his head is red and he has the red launcher, exactly like the rare Slag that came out in Canada. The MB Slag is just a regular TF-coloured Slag. You can see how early this catalog was released and how little communication there must have been about the product details at the time. In that same pic you might be able to see a mis-transformed Seaspray in robot mode, and the Jumpstarters appear to be holding the wrong weapons.

Things start to get seriously wacky again here. Astrotrain is shown in proto grey/purple colours with no handgun and Blitzwing is shown in his green/white Diaclone colours! The actual MB Astrotrain is the standard white/purple and the MB Blitzwing is the standard purple/cream release. It could be that MB/Hasbro simply used pictures of what they had lying around at the time, which appears to have just been prototypes, test shots, Diaclones and Microman toys. How about the jets? Look at Ramjet. He appears to have Starscream/Thundercracker/Skywarp-style long and short missiles but in white! The jet mode appears to have the correct big black cluster bombs he was actually released with though. Dirge also has the wrong weapons in robot mode, more series 1 jet-style weapons as opposed to the long black weapons he was released with. Thrust, Ramjet and Dirge all appear to be missing a load of factory stickers and the rubsigns, as do Blitzwing and Astrotrain, never mind the applied stickers from the stickersheet…

Any let-up in the oddities? Nope. Look at the Deluxe Insecticons. They are all shown in their pre-Transformers Beetras colour schemes instead of the newer TF colour schemes which the actual MB Deluxe Insecticons had.

Nothing too weird here, just that Devastator has his own number which could imply an MB giftset Devastator release, but then exactly how reliable has this catalog proven so far?!?! It hasn’t even shown Optimus Prime, the Autobot cars and other releases. You might also note that Shockwave’s ears are not transformed correctly. There are so many inconsistencies and mistakes in this catalog and it appears to be representative of the whole MB release line, not just the paperwork, but the toys themselves. Hasbro/MB appear to have used whatever they had lying around at the time to just put out whatever they could to take full advantage of the Transformers-mania sweeping the world at the time until they could start the ball rolling properly with US-consistent Transformers releases.

So far we’ve got differently-printed boxes, multi-lingual packaging, Autobot cars with styro inserts and cardboard supports, catalogs showing TFs in pre-TF and prototype colours and Jetifre as Autobot leader …but the best is yet to come. The one piece that really truly puts Milton Bradley Transformers on the map, the one that made fans and collectors stand up and take notice, the RED Transformers release of Tracks:

This is not only one of the most beautiful releases of any G1 Transformer, it’s also one of the rarest to find boxed. Just like the other Autobot cars in MB packaging, Tracks comes in a styro insert supported by cardboard. This particular specimen was left in a shop window and as a result has a heavily faded box front. A shame really because it’s otherwise mint. The following box back picture shows the larger techspec with earlier “Función” techspec text and upside-down barcode:

Q1 - So why on Earth is this thing red?!?!
Well the very first release of this mould as a Diaclone was red, just like the GiG Italian Diaclone was red too. It’s only when Transformers were released that the mould was re-coloured blue into the Tracks that most people grew up with. However, if you look at the box back for most 1985 TFs, there is a red-coloured Tracks on the box back art. That art was most likely based on the Diaclone toy around at the time. Incidentally, the Slag pictured in that box art is also red like the catalog and Canadian Slag and the Deluxe Insecticons appear to be Beetras-coloured.

Q2 - So did MB think that because of the art on the back, Tracks had to be red?
I doubt it, because the MAIN Tracks boxart on the front and sides of the box are blue, as TF Tracks should be. There’s more blue Tracks art than red.

Q3 - Is it Diaclone overstock?
Well it certainly isn’t JAPANESE Diaclone overstock. They didn’t ship these spare red Stingrays over from Japan as Diaclones, stick a rubsign on and shove it in an MB box. The way you can tell that is because the mould is not the same as the Japanese Diaclone. The copyrights are different, with Japanese Diaclone saying just “TAKARA JAPAN”. The MB red Tracks copyright has dates on it and is shown below:

Not only that, but the arms, legs, weapons mount and gun are different from the Japanese Diaclone too. The Japanese Diaclone red Stingray had VERY dark blue/purple arms, legs, waist, gun and weapons mount. The MB Red Tracks has black arms, legs etc. Also, the size of the handgun was reduced. It used to have a longer stock piece which meant that the toy could not hold the gun directly straight as it interfered with his arm. That was fixed for the Italian Diaclone release and the TF releases.

Q4 - So is it a GiG Diaclone toy in a TF box?
That’s a possibility since the copyrights are the same, as are most of the accessories (GiG red Tracks had big rubber missiles as opposed to the small blue ones seen with Japanese Diaclones and MB Tracks). MB and Hasbro could have again just used whatever was around at the time (Pre-TF inserts and toys) to make sure they got something out on the market, and then wait until the takeover of MB was complete before releasing these toys in the right colour with the correct inserts and contents.

In the above pictures you can clearly see the Diaclone-style insert layout with an empty space for the driver. You can also see that the styro space for the gun is larger than it needs to be, this is because of the aforementioned moulding change to this toy’s handgun. The one-piece cardboard support is also in evidence above. It’s absolutely gorgeous isn’t it? Here’s a closer look at the blue launchers, blue missiles and the regular black hand gun:

This toy came with a standard TF Tracks stickersheet. And what ABOUT the toy itself?

It’s truly stunning, THAT’S what! I personally think the addition of the rubsign on the roof is nice and does not detract from the look of the piece. The toy looks great with or without the stickers applied.

Every release of the red Tracks has its own features. The original Diaclone has the deep blue parts and long gun and Diaclone stickers, the GiG red Tracks has short gun and black parts and Diaclone stickers, the MB TF is almost the same as the GiG but has TF stickers and a rubsign, finally the reissue Roadrage has the rubsign near the rear window plus other little changes. What doesn’t change is how striking the figure looks in all its modes. The wings and weapons add so much to the look of this figure. The missiles on the MB Red Tracks fire well, no neutering here.

 

 

So much about this toy makes it special, and it does not matter how much the rarity of a “red Tracks” decreases due to Diaclones turning up or reissues being released, because the MB Tracks is truly special. It’s a Transformer, it’s an original, it’s STILL steeped in mystique and there will always be questions about it, it’s still deceptively difficult to find one in good condition and it’s still a legend.

But do you know what the truly ironic thing is? When it was released it was very unpopular. It wasn’t blue like on the box and on the cartoon. People wanted a blue Tracks, and after the takeover of MB was completed by Hasbro and the MB logos taken off the boxes, Hasbro released a regular blue TF Tracks in those European countries in a multi-lingual European box with regular inserts. In a way, Hasbro failed miserably to do what it set out to do as far as red Tracks was concerned. They aimed to fill the gap with an intermediate release until they could put out what they originally intended to. As a result, this particular piece was much maligned by those who wanted Transformers Tracks back in the day. However, its day has finally come and it’s loved and treasured by many a collector now. If only so many hadn’t been left unsold during the 80s and probably destroyed, there might be many more around today in packaged displayable condition. It’s strange how a mini catalogue of errors and miscommunications could have lead to something so special, but it’s always the way of genius to be appreciated only after its time!

That’s not quite the end of the MB story yet though. All the mysteries have not been solved and there are still unanswered questions. The MB Starscream is a wonderful example of such a mystery.

That is indeed a Thundercracker in the box instead of Starscream. Someone just stuck it in there right? Well that would be the easy conclusion, but this is the second one I’ve seen in an MB Starscream package, and BOTH of them had Starscream stickers applied to them, one from France and one from Holland. The one from Holland was childhood owned, so I am inclined to believe that this is a genuine variant. However, MB Starscreams have been seen with Starscreams inside, so maybe there are two releases, the later one being a corrected release.

Another thing to note is the smaller plastic bubble holding the accessories. Instead of being at the same slanted angle as the jet like with the US release G1 jets, it’s actually parallel to the side of the box. That’s a feature I’ve only seen on Thrust, Ramjet and Dirge boxes, never the first three jets except for this MB Starscream.

One last thing to consider, remember the Joustra F15 pre-Starscream mentioned towards the start of the article? That was a Starscream toy in a Thundercracker box, and this MB Starscream is the reverse! Wrong stock in the wrong box? Leftover correct stock too late to go in Joustra boxes shoved into MB TF boxes? The moulding on those two jets isn’t exactly the same. The MB Starscream/Thundercracker appears to use parts from various moulds. But that’s totally consistent with what MB and Hasbro were doing at the time in Europe, using whatever they could get their hands on. Make of it what you will….

Until a MISB example shows up, I cannot really say 100% that this is a true MB variant, there are those who disagree, but it fits in with the other oddities on other MB releases so for now I’ll keep the faith in what I believe.

So there you have it, my version of what happened in Europe in the 80s with Milton Bradley and Hasbro. Crazy catalogs, Jetfire as leader, hybrid releases, some beautiful variants and some mysteries yet to be resolved. And people say this area of TFs is too dull to talk about!

For the sake of completeness, here is the confirmed list of MB TFs released that I know of:

LEADERS: MB Optimus Prime, MB Megatron

AUTOBOT CARS: MB Prowl (w/styro), MB Tracks (red, w/styro), MB Wheeljack (w/styro), MB Ratchet (w/styro), MB Mirage (w/styro), MB Jazz (w/styro)

AUTOBOT MINICARS: MB Windcharger, MB Warpath, MB Cosmos, MB Beachcomber, MB Seaspray, MB Gears, MB Powerglide

AUTOBOT OTHERS: MB Blaster, MB Roadbuster, MB Whirl, MB Jetfire, MB Topspin, MB Twintwist

DINOBOTS: MB Grimlock, MB Slag, MB Snarl, MB Sludge

DECEPTICON JETS: MB Starscream (some w/blue jet - Thundercracker), MB Dirge, MB Ramjet, MB Thrust

DECEPTICON OTHERS: MB Blitzwing, MB Astrotrain, MB Soundwave, MB Shockwave

CONSTRUCTICONS: MB Bonecrusher, MB Scrapper, MB Mixmaster, MB Scavenger, MB Long Haul, MB Hook

INSECTICONS: MB Bombshell, MB Kickback, MB Shrapnel, MB Ransack, MB Venom, MB Chopshop, MB Barrage.

There could well be more, but I haven’t seen them as yet.

Many kind and helpful people have contributed pictures without whom this article would be truly lifeless. My deepest thanks must go to the following contributors: 80skid.com (MB Windcharger, Constructicons, Beachcomber, Cosmos, Warpath), Argus (MB Jetfire, home.wanadoo.nl/argus), Artfire2000 (MB Starscream and Bonecrusher), Alex Bickmore (MB Ratchet, Wheeljack(anon), Prowl (anon), toyarchive.com), Devvi (MB Ratchet), Morgan Evans (Joustra F15, skywarp.co.uk), EvilGrin (MB Mirage), Curt Fignar (MB Roadbuster, TFsource.com), Ginrai (MB Comic scan, masterforce.org), Lulu Berlu (MB Ramjet, Shockwave, Deluxe Insecticons, luluberlu.com), Panicweb (MB Megatron), Elvin Peña (MB Prime, geocities.com/elvinpena2000), Ras (MB Seaspray, Joustra Trans-Am, rarebots.cjb.net) and Paul Vromen (MB Bombshell). Uncredited from auction: MB Blitzwing, Dirge, Grimlock, Snarl, Slag, Sludge, Soundwave, Blaster, Prowl.

If in future, for whatever reason, any of the above contributors or un-credited contributors wish their pictures and names to be removed from the article, please do not hesitate to contact us and they will be removed.

All the best
Maz