Miscolorings based on the Generation 1 cartoon

**Left:** *Inaccurate fan-colored model*
**Center:** *Accurate fan-colored model*
**Right:** *Inaccurate 2020 product created using image at left for reference*

In the 2010s and 2020s, miscolorings based on the Generation 1 cartoon have appeared in numerous Transformers collector items despite said items specifically appealing to nostalgia for the 1984 animated series in question. We here at TFWiki.net have opted to cover this specialized series of circular reporting in its own article.

Overview

The 1984-1987 The Transformers animated series that has become a centerpiece of the Transformers brand was, to be blunt, not a high-quality production in the animation department. All four seasons were prone to animation errors, adding an additional challenge to modern fans attempting to isolate simple views of any given character model. To make matters worse, screen captures from degraded home media recordings have long accompanied the fandom's vast Internet presence. And as the proverbial icing on the cake, Hasbro, their licensees and fans alike have often relied upon a set of fan-colorings from the Ukrainian Transformers fan website, Transformers.kiev.ua, that attempted to recreate Sunbow animation models using screen captures of episodes, while eye dropping the colors from said screen captures, and then replacing the heads of the models with traced headshots also taken from episode screen captures. These fan-colorings regularly make rounds on the web since they are readily available on Pinterest and Fandom wiki pages, making it hard not to come across them through a simple Google Images search.

On top of all of this, the models Transformers.kiev.ua would frequently use were also the ones published in The Ark series books, as they were the only real source available for US Generation 1 animation models at the time. In the years since, better copies of animation models have surfaced through eBay and various Japanese auction sites, revealing that almost all of the models used in the books were actually out of date pre-final models that had been revised anywhere from once, to several times afterwards. The author of the books, Jim Sorenson has also stated in conversation with the wiki team that due to the condition of some of the models he had found or been given access to, Bill Forster had to sometimes trace, redraw, and digitally mend models, such as the Junkions, to make them more presentable for publishing; this has also led to several inaccuracies with the original model sheets that have surfaced since. It should also be noted that this was all likely down to Toei being the ones to finalize pretty much the entirety of the US cartoons' production material. Toei has been reportedly unwilling to share quite literally anything that they've worked on with anyone in just about any given context of the word, and as a vast majority of the materials Jim Sorenson was given access to were from Bob Budiansky and other Marvel-related employees, it appears that Marvel—and by extension, its employees—may have never been given the bulk of finalized material by Toei, and quite possibly, never even knew that they were working with "obsolete" material, as the Marvel US and UK comics, as well as other print-media released around that time mostly featured unfinalized material.

Example items

R.E.D. Soundwave

R.E.D. [Robot Enhanced Design] Soundwave's shins were incorrectly left blue instead of being painted silver/gray due to Hasbro once again basing the figure on the Transformers.kiev.ua fan-colored model.

1984 cartoon scene pictured
Off-model 2020 product pictured

War for Cybertron Trilogy Bailiff

The 2020 War for Cybertron Trilogy "Quintesson Bailiff" is depicted in a brownish-green deco based on a fan-colored character model previously uploaded to this very wiki in the 2000s (second image below), which had a reddish tint based on the poor DVD masters of The Transformers: The Movie available at the time. The actual color scheme is supposed to be more leafy-green. It should be noted that at the time of the toy's creation, the wiki had already switched to an updated character model (first image below); the older version was likely still cached by Google Images, or drawn from elsewhere on the web.

Unlike many other examples on this page, Hasbro would rectify the problem by releasing a "fixed" redeco of the Bailiff in 2023, and one specifically meant for troop building at that!

Accurate model pictured
Inaccurate model pictured
Off-model 2020 product pictured
On-model 2023 product pictured

Earthrise Grapple

Another victim of Hasbro Google-searching for character model references, Earthrise Grapple features a silver painted panel appearing under his front bumper that is not present on his original animation model. This detail comes from Transformers.kiev.ua, which can also be found on Pinterest and Grapple's Fandom article.

1985 cartoon scene pictured
Off-model 2020 toy pictured

Studio Series '86 Kup

Studio Series '86 Kup suffers a miscoloring in his vehicle mode as a result of Hasbro using the Transformers.kiev.ua model as a reference. Using this reference, Kup's vehicle mode roof section ended up being colored in the light green-blue plastic, with the darker green-blue panel that folds up on his back in robot mode painted to match this. This coloring is the result of a misinterpretation of the dramatic lighting used during the scenes where the Autobots make their way through the inner workings of Unicron's body in The Transformers: The Movie (second image below). The correct color for this part is actually the darker green-blue used on most of his body. As a result of this miscoloration, the figure's entire transformation appears to have been built with this color layout in mind, as the side sections that are molded in the lighter green-blue form his faux wheel wells/shoulders in robot mode.

Fortunately, the 2022 Buzzworthy Bumblebee release of Kup fixes this error by recasting the roof piece in the darker shade of green and adding paint applications of the same color to the insides of his shoulder pieces that form the vehicle mode side sections, giving his vehicle mode a cartoon-accurate fully dark green roof. However, this version still has a distinct blueish tint which is also a result of using movie screen captures as reference material; Kup's actual character model is more greenish in hue (first image below).

It should also be noted that an older revision of Kup's character model features the lighter shade of green used on the roof in vehicle mode too (though the exact model has yet to surface). This model was used during "The Rebirth" and occasionally during other AKOM-animated episodes in season 3 (though Kup notably spends little to no time in vehicle mode in season 3).

Original character model pictured
Dramatically-lit 1986 movie scene pictured
2020 off-model toy pictured
2022 on-model toy pictured

Studio Series '86 Slug

Studio Series '86 Slug features blue details on his knees that aren't present on his original cartoon model, which used black. This appears to be another fault of the Transformers.kiev.ua model which is likewise readily available on Pinterest and Slag's article on Fandom. The biggest issue with using this image as a reference, is that fact that the fan who colored it added an extra line to divide these two color details, likely based on awkward screen captures where the knees were misdrawn (see image on the left as an example), as the original model places this detail on the lower, angled part of the knee instead. As readers may have caught on by now, this blue coloration was likely taken from a screen capture using an eye-dropper tool in Photoshop; one where the black had since faded to a bluish tint in the aged, but partially restored DVD animation. Ironically, Hasbro neglected to add the gray paint to his robot head "vent" details on the final toy, which happens to be present on both the original and Transformers.kiev.ua models, as well as the official render for the Studio Series toy.

TakaraTomy on the other hand, did not make the same coloring mistake for their Generations Selects Dinobots, which had been just released prior, as they appear to have some sort of cartoon reference material that they can go back and use, unlike Hasbro.

Off-model 1984 cartoon scene pictured
On-model 2021 toy pictured
Off-model 2022 toy pictured

Reissue Galvatron (and others)

In a different systematic error predating the War for Cybertron Trilogy, multiple TakaraTomy lines have released versions of Galvatron in a light lavender color that doesn't really match any media.... except for the washed-out appearance he occasionally had in Japanese LaserDisc releases of the 1986 movie and cartoon season.

It is the year 2005 in 1986 America
It is the year 2005 in 2005 Japan

Edge cases

Siege Astrotrain and Dramatic Capture Series Astrotrain

The Siege Leader Class Astrotrain figure has a deco based on a widely-shared but incorrectly-colored screenshot of the character from the episode "Triple Takeover", as seen with mostly-grey wings. This coloration also ended up being used on a fan-coloring of his character model that regularly makes its rounds on the web since it is readily available on Pinterest and his Fandom wiki article; making it one of the top results on Google Images. The origins of this fan-coloring come from Transformers.kiev.ua.

The original origins of the coloration used in the episode is from his pre-final model sheet, which AKOM and the other animation studios usually ended up with, instead of the finalized ones Toei Animation used. Having other studios use unfinalized models would often result in episodes with characters having drastic color changes or even completely different models (e.g. Junkyard). As it happens, a lot of the details found on this model are also non-existent on his final cartoon model but are present on the pre-final model used in the episode "Triple Takeover", such as the triangles on his forearms and the knee details that are loosely based on the Generation 1 toys' stickers, something that the Siege toy also features.

On-model 1985 cartoon scene pictured
Off-model 1985 cartoon scene pictured
Off-model 2019 toy pictured
Off-model 2024 toy pictured

Combiner Wars Reflector, Siege Refraktor and Dramatic Capture Series Reflector

In a very odd chain of events, the Combiner Wars and Siege versions of Reflector feature a red stripe on their wrists that did not appear in the cartoon itself but did appear on Reflector's internal Sunbow model sheet. As with Astrotrain, this detail is present on the Transformers.kiev.ua fan-colored model, Which Takara would use later in 2025 as a reference for their version of Reflector in the Dramatic Capture line resulting in an inaccuracy with an otherwise pretty screen accurate figure.

It is unclear if the Ukrainian fan colorist in question knew about the actual never-formally-published model sheet, or if they thought that Reflector's robot mode wrists were where the red stripe from camera mode ends up (an easy mistake, given the robot modes share very few details with the camera mode). Much like the aforementioned official Reflector products, several unlicensed third-party companies have also used Transformers.kiev.ua's character models, resulting in the red stripe also being present on their respective interpretations of the character.

1984 model sheet pictured
1984 cartoon scene pictured
2016 toy pictured
2019 toy pictured
2025 toy pictured

Age of the Primes Swerve

Back in 2007 when The Ark series books were being published, the original cartoon character model for Swerve hadn't yet made its way into the public eye, and due to the lack of the character's appearances in any Marvel Comics media from the 1980s, Bob Budiansky apparently didn't own a copy of the model for use in the book either. To make up for Swerve's missing character model, what appears to be a poorly traced screencap of a static-posed Swerve from "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5" was put into the book, with a lot of guesswork being used for the finer details that were harder to make out, presumably with the assumption that said static pose was meant to be a character model pose inserted into the episode, which–given past precedent–was a completely reasonable assumption. However, since a picture of the official model sheet later made its way into the public eye via an auction listing, we now know this was not the case.

Because of this, when retooling the Legacy: United Gears mold into Age of the Primes Swerve, Hasbro and TakaraTomy based the new head and chest design off of the Ark series Swerves' smooshed proportions, even going so far as to include the made-up guesswork chest details that don't exist on the official model that has since surfaced online (the actual chest details resemble that of the G1 toy's sticker details, even in coloration). Following the trend of the previous examples in this article, the coloration of Age of the Primes Swerves' chest design was also likely based on the Transformers.kiev.ua fan coloring, as this is the only place that the coloration for these made-up chest details exists. Much like the previous examples, this fan-colored model can also be easily found in Google Searches via Swerve's Fandom wiki article and Pinterest.

Model sheet and screencap evidence pictured
2026 toy pictured

A better reference

Contrary to how this article may be perceived, not all fan-colored models are "bad", as a gathering of long-time fans of the brand with access to numerous amounts of production materials from online auctions held in both the US and Japan, as well as members of other Toei-animated cartoon communities (such as [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Dragon Ball Z|{{#if:||Dragon Ball Z}}]]), have all shared what they have with a member at The Allspark that goes by the username DM, to accurately recreate and represent all of the original Generation 1 cartoon character models in HD quality for all to use as reference and enjoy (these can be found here).

These recreations all use currently-available, behind-the-scenes material originating directly from the "source", so to speak, including: original, undoctored Toei and Marvel Productions model sheets and materials; original color model guides; cel-vinyl color code charts; and paint-mixing color chips (similar to the color chips you'd use for picking colors to paint a house, only these are used to match colors when mixing paint for animation cels). All of this compiled production material was scanned at the highest possible quality by the respective owners of the materials, and all of the colors were scanned and translated into digital color codes by members of the other Toei-animated productions' communities via Twitter (e.g. the Toei/Marvel production color code for Optimus Prime's red was "X-27", which looks like . When translated into a digital format, the color code for this specific shade of red is "#d20121" aka "Blood Orange"). All of this combined effort makes this compilation of models as 100% accurate as you'll ever likely get them to look and doesn't rely on eye-dropping aged screen captures or masters of the cartoon.

While a lot of the material for the first two seasons and The Transformers: The Movie has been released to the public, there is still, unfortunately, quite a number of model sheets and materials for certain characters appearing in season 3 and "The Rebirth" that haven't found their way into the public eye yet, or even the hands of collectors, and could also potentially be lost to time altogether. Likewise, a number of "one-shot"-episode characters haven't surfaced either, so while this compilation of fan-colorings is an excellent source, there is still a lot of work needing done to complete it.

Notes

While not "inaccuracy" per se, as the media in question is a different continuity not claiming to be a Generation 1 recreation, the 2018 Bumblebee incarnation of Arcee demonstrates the proliferation of fan-colored Sunbow models. An ILM design presentation about the film in question included the Transformers.kiev.ua fan-colored model of Generation 1 Arcee as a design reference for Bumblebee Arcee,<ref>Bumblebee: Developing an Epic Set Piece - ILM San Francisco</ref> though the fan model does do reasonable justice to the original animation.
Meanwhile, the Transformers.kiev.ua model was used as a handy visual aid in 2022 by Hasbro designer Mark Maher to discuss the newly-revealed Legacy Deluxe Class Cosmos, which in fact was not designed according to that reference.<ref>{{#if: Do you believe?!?!Here he is folks, in all of his cybertronian glory! COSMOS! |"Do you believe?!?!Here he is folks, in all of his cybertronian glory! COSMOS!"—|}}{{#if: https://www.instagram.com/p/CfZ2WSJOFtS/ |Mark Maher|Mark Maher}}{{#if: Instagram |, Instagram|}}{{#if: |, ""|}}{{#if: 2022 |, 2022{{#if: 6 |/{{#switch:{{#len:6}}|1=06|6}}{{#if: 30|/{{#switch:{{#len:30}}|1=030|30}}|}}}}|}}{{#if: https://www.instagram.com/p/CfZ2WSJOFtS/ ||}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://www.instagram.com/p/CfZ2WSJOFtS/%7C7%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://www.instagram.com/p/CfZ2WSJOFtS/%7C8%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://www.instagram.com/p/CfZ2WSJOFtS/%7C7%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://www.instagram.com/p/CfZ2WSJOFtS/%7C8%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#if: | (dead link)}}</ref>
The people who run Hasbro's official Transformers social media accounts (specifically their Facebook and Instagram accounts), and even the Hasbro Pulse live streams on YouTube often use the Transformers.kiev.ua models in memes, as visuals for trivia and holiday celebration posts, and even placeholder images for pipeline reveals of upcoming figures. As mentioned several times prior in this article, these were obviously picked up through a quick Google Image search, with the people in charge of posting to the respective accounts likely not even aware of the origins of these models and the fact that they aren't official or even the original models.

References

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