User:FortressMaxxing/Sandbox
Transformers in Portugal
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Transformers media arrived relatively late to Portugal, with the cartoon debuting in November of 1989 and now-defunct publishing company Meribérica/Líber only printing the comic book all the way into 1990. The first 18 issues of the US comic, from "The Transformers" to "The Bridge to Nowhere!", were released by Meribérica, but the series was abruptly cut short after the release of the last issue in December of 1990. <ref>https://transformerstugatron.blogspot.com/2010/04/listagem-das-revistas-em-portugues.html</ref>
As with other regions that experienced a peak in the popularity of Transformers during the early 90s, Portugal saw a mixture of 1989's Chinese reprint of the The Transformers toyline and the later European Classics reissues making up the bulk of its toy offerings in national stores. The Chinese figures were imported by Portuguese distributor Chaves, Feist & Cia. S.A. (which also distributed several Tomy and Nintendo products during this era), and the rear portion of the packaging usually included a large printed sticker with the transformation instructions translated into Portuguese and - if any - a list of included acessories.
Also sometime during the early 90s, an oddity hit the Portuguese market when the (otherwise) Japanese-exclusive Star Convoy managed to show up in his original Takara packaging across a handful of Portuguese stores, most notably in hypermarket chain Jumbo (later rebranded and renamed into the French Auchan group). As a result, it is surprisingly not too uncommon to find Star Convoy copies on the Portuguese secondary market.
As with other European countries, some U.S. retail exclusives were released in Portugal under different national retail chains: for instance, the second wave of Target's Scout Class figures from the 2007 Transformers movie toyline were released by the now-defunct Feira Nova stores, and the Netflix War for Cybertron Trilogy figures and Walmart's Transformers One toys were released through Toys"R"Us in Portugal - which, in conjunction with their Iberian cousins in Spain; have continued to operate as a major toy retailer after the bankruptcy of their American counterpart.
Notable people
[edit]- Gonçalo Lopes, a Portuguese comic book artist who's illustrated and colored some IDW Publishing comics and Transformers Collectors' Club stories.
- Joana Lafuente, a Portuguese artist who's worked as a colorist for IDW Publishing.
Transformers in Spain
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Starting in 1985, the U.S. Transformers comic was released in Spain by publisher Forum. Antena 3 premiered the original Transformers TV show, as well as a good portion of the later Japanese cartoons - Transformers: The Headmasters, Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, and Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory also all aired on Antena 3 - and, eventually; also Transformers: Generation 2. Later on, Tele 5 would air future shows like Beast Wars and Transformers: Armada. <ref>https://transformers-megaweb.azurewebsites.net/Transformers/Principal/Principal.html</ref>
Transformers figures were first licensed into the Spanish market through Milton Bradley in 1986, however; they saw an earlier introduction of sorts with national toy company Gisima covertly launching a few bootlegs of Beachcomber, Windcharger, and Seaspray in 1985. These were commonly available on small stories, kiosks, and even gumball machines at one point, with sightings of these molds being reported up until the early 2000s. As with other European countries, The Transformers again experienced a peak in popularity across Spain during the early 90s, with late Generation 1 figures like the Micromasters and the Classics reissues arriving in abundant numbers to national toy stores. Notably, Spain received the honor of getting fully-translated Spanish packaging during this time (beyond Italy with GiG, most other European countries had to settle for either English or multilingual packaging instead).
Much like their cousins in Portugal, the Iberian branch of Toys"R"Us has continued to operate as a major toy retailer after their American counterpart's bankruptcy. As a result, some figures that were exclusive to specific retailers in the U.S., like the Netflix War for Cybertron Trilogy figures and Walmart's ensemble of Transformers One toys, were released in Spain through their Toys"R"Us stores instead. Another instance of a foreign retail exclusive releasing in Spain was Kmart's Universe Mini-Con Class 10-Pack showing up on El Corte Ingês department stores at the end of 2009.
Fandom
[edit]Spain has a moderately sizeable Transformers fandom, with various fan groups having cropped up across the country in the past decades. Most notably amongst these was ATAC (Asociación de Coleccionistas y Aficionados a los Juguetes Transformables, in English; "Association of Collectors and Aficionados of Transformable Toys"), a fan club that's best known for organizing several fan events that include large, nearly-comprehensive exhibits of Transformers toys from all eras across the country.
At one point in 2009, when partnering up with the aforementioned El Corte Inglês department store chain, ATAC's exhibits received the backing of Hasbro, with that year's Madrid exhibit getting promoted by posters with official Transformers branding and the event even doubling as a promotional stand for Activision's then recently-released Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen video game. Future events - dubbed the Jornadas de Transfans Españolas ("Spanish Journeys of Transformers Fans") - would also receive Hasbro backing. Unfortunately, with ATAC's website no longer online and their Facebook page void of updates after 2019, it appears that the organization has ceased activities sometime since. <ref>https://www.facebook.com/asoc.acat</ref>
Notable people
[edit]- Ramón Rocabayera, a Spanish voice actor who dubbed Optimus Prime in the original cartoon.
- Alfredo Martínez, a Spanish voice actor who's been frequently voicing Optimus Prime in the country's dubs since Transformers: Armada.
- José Avilés, a Spanish comic book artist who's worked on some IDW Publishing Transformers titles.
Transformers in Italy
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Italy has a very strong and often overlooked connection with the Transformers franchise, starting even before the establishment of the "Transformers" brand proper as it was one the first non-Japanese countries to receive a pre-Transformers toyline (that is; to have a licensed international release of the Takara figures that would later constitute the original The Transformers toyline). There's also the longstanding debate on whether the very name of the Transformers brand was either born in Italy or just sneakily stolen by one of its companies at an opportune time.
In 1982, GiG launched their localization of Takara's Diaclone toys under the original toyline name, with this initial batch mostly consisting of the earlier figures from said toyline like Dia-Battles and Dia-Attacker. In early 1984, GiG rebranded their Diaclone toys into Trasformer as the Diaclone Car Robots - as well as the now newly-acquired Micro Change toys - were rolled out, parallel to Hasbro introducing the Transformers name in the U.S. to designate their own releases of Diaclone / Micro Change toys. Inevitably, this has lead to long heated discussions as to who exactly merits the credit for the Transformers name: on one hand, GiG's renamed toyline was first advertised two months after the reveal of Hasbro's Transformers at the 1984 Toy Fair and five months after Hasbro's registration of the Transformers trademark, but on the other hand, GiG already used terms like "trasformazione" (Italian for "transformation") and "trasformare" ("to transform") to market their Diaclone figures dating back as far as 1982, thus; given how temporally close all these marketing decisions were, it is ultimately not at all implausible that either toyline might have inspired the other. Notably, GiG also used the term "Autorobot" to describe their Car Robots, which seems to bear some similiarity to the later Autobots.
Eventually, starting from 1985 and beyond, GiG would get the Transformers license from Hasbro and release their toys using the official Transformers packaging - with all the writing translated into Italian - using both the international brand logo and also, added in at a smaller scale, the Trasformer logo so as to create some continuity between the two toylines. This would continue to be the case with Transformers toys released in the country up until 1988, where the Pretenders would drop the Trasformer 'sub-branding' entirely. Nonetheless, GiG would remain involved with the distribution of Transformers figures in Italy up until Beast Wars, with their logo dropping from multilingual European boxes - and thus, presumably, marking the end of their relationship with Hasbro - during one of the later Transmetals waves. Most famously, throughout their era of involvement with the Transformers brand, GiG also managed to get an Italian release of the otherwise Japanese-exclusive Galaxy Shuttle.
On the media side of things, Transformers dubs in Italy have also received a few entirely unique theme songs, from Generation 2 to Energon and even all the ways into the 2010s with Prime! National publisher Panini has also released multiple Transformers comics across Europe, as well as creating the 1986 The Transformers Sticker Book.
Fandom
[edit]Perhaps unsurprisingly given the country's extensive history with the brand, Italy has one of the most active Transformers fandoms in continental Europe. One of its largest online hubs used to be the now-defunct Autorobot.it forum, whose userbase has since mostly migrated into the eponymous Transformers Autorobot.it Facebook group. <ref>https://www.facebook.com/groups/transformers.autorobot.it/</ref>
Notable people
[edit]- Guido Guidi, an Italian comic artist who has worked extensively with the Transformers brand.
- Emiliano Santalucia, another Italian comic artist who has also worked extensively with the Transformers brand.
- Marco Balzarotti, an Italian voice actor who's dubbed multiple Transformers projects.
Transformers in Greece
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Transformers media arrived relatively late to Greece, with the original cartoon only premiering on TV network MEGA Channel in 1991 - thus coinciding with a boom in popularity for the franchise across Europe during this time. Panini would also release The Transformers Sticker Book in the country, albeit it's unknown whether it was released before or after the show (the sticker album was originally produced in 1986 but it would only release in some regions all the way into the 90s). At this moment, there isn't any known Greek release of the original comic.
Greece would, however; get the Transformers toyline quite a few years before the cartoon in 1986, and in a pretty unique fashion: national toy manufacturer El Greco scored the rights from Hasbro to nationally manufacture and distribute their own copies of Transformers figures, which resulted in a handful of Mini-Vehicles with different color tones (which can mostly be attributed to their use of different plastics), as well as some alternative paint applications, slightly altered sticker designs, and the lack of either any faction insignia or rubsigns. The blister cards for these figures were also fully translated into Greek and featured unique regional names for the characters, with Huffer earning the name "Gígantas", Powerglide earning the name "Keravnόs", and so on.
A later quirk of Transformers distribution in Greece during the 90s was the bundling of figures alongside Easter candles, a practice first done by El Greco while the Generation 1 line was still ongoing and later adopted by Hasbro with some Beast Wars toys seeing a similar arrangement. Greek apparel brand Paxos has also made some Transformers merchandise over the years, mostly of the school supply variety - the most distinctively quirky amongst these being a 1992 pencil case with art of Overlord in bright green, blue, and pink <ref>https://www.ebay.com/itm/286285743280</ref>. And you thought only bootlegs were allowed to have funky colors!
Given the popularity of Greek mythology, it might not be much of a surprise that various Transformers characters have been named after characters and concepts derived from it, like Hades, Proteus, Amphitrite, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, and Momus. The Lithones also derive their name from the ancient Greek word for stone (λίθος, "lithos").
Notable people
[edit]- Giannis Milonogiannis, a Greek comic book artist who's been involved with some Transformers projects.
- Nick Abadzis, a British-born Transformers comic book artist with Greek ancestry.
Transformers in Brazil
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Transformers has had a surprisingly complex history in Brazil, with the country being first introduced to the characters through the U.S. comics near the end of 1985 - first published by Rio Gráfica Editora and later by Editora Globo - and the cartoon eventually airing in 1986. National toy company Estrela, however; would get the license to manufacture and market Transformers toys quite a few months before the comics were released, resulting in an odd toyline that did not feature either of the two original factions and virtually none of the named characters, with currently existing molds being named after their vehicle modes instead (thus; Bumblebee became known as Volks, Brawn as Jipe, and so on). This toyline also only featured the Mini-Vehicles and Jumpstarters in terms of molds imported from the Hasbro toyline, with the only two other types of figures available being the more gimmicky auto-transforming Bat-Robô and Eletrix toys imported from different Japanese toylines. Whereas some color schemes were imported from the Hasbro toyline, others were entirely new, thus adding to the collector allure of these figures. They also licensed out the Transformers toyline to Argentina's Antex, which in turn created even more newly-colored Mini-Vehicles and Jumpstarters.
By the end of 1985, the comic book had brought about the introduction of proper Transformers factions and characters to the Brazilian toyline, and with it; the renaming of the Autobots and Decepticons into "Optimus" and "Malignus". Accordingly, Estrela released a new wave of Mini-Vehicle retools in 1986 under the faction names of Optimus and Malignus, yet again with entirely new color schemes, but now bearing completely different insignia from that used by the Autobots and Decepticons. Add to this the fact that the cartoon would release in the same year with the factions now returning to their original names, and the result is that the Optimus and Malignus of the Brazilian toyline are instead often considered separate all-new factions by fans, an interpretation that was eventually adopted by a few instances of later official Transformers media!
Throughout the 90s and 2000s, Estrela transitioned from being a manufacturer to a distributor of Transformers toys in the country, with their relationship with Hasbro ending in 2007 as they moved towards their own distribution chains in South America instead (and also ensuing a decade-long lawsuit regarding royalties for the Hasbro-derived toylines that Estrela still manufactured locally, lasting up until its settlement in 2021). Much more about all of this can be read on the wiki's dedicated page on Estrela, but in short; the quirks of their unique toyline have become a major intrinsic part of the legacy of the Transformers franchise in Brazil.
A single extra, non-Estrela Transformers figure that's exclusive to the country exists, with the 2007 Grendene Transformers watch being a funky little working adaptation of Real Gear Robots Meantime and Midnighter XR-4. Multibrink, another Brazilian company, also received the license to produce some Transformers merchandise to tie into the 2015 Robots in Disguise franchise.
Fandom
[edit]Given the country's sheer size and the popularity of the franchise during the 1980s, it might not be much of a surprise that Brazil has one of the most active Transformers fan scenes in Latin America. Much of it sprung from the internet during the turn of the millennium with Yahoo Groups' Planeta Cybertron ("Planet Cybertron") and the Aliança Transformers Brasil ("Brazilian Transformers Alliance") website and forum, with the community of these pages eventually uniting into the primarily Facebook-based Nova Cybertron ("New Cybertron") group during the 2010s.<ref>https://www.novacybertron.com/in%C3%ADcio</ref>
Starting as small informal meet-ups between the members of the aforementioned communities, the Encontrebas eventually grew in scale into becoming the country's de facto unofficial Transformers convention. Sometimes done in partnership with toy stores, these events often involve exhibitions of Transformers toys and all-ages activities. <ref>https://www.facebook.com/encontrebastransformers</ref>
Notable people
[edit]- Marcelo Matere, a Brazilian artist who has worked extensively with the Transformers franchise as a character designer, comic book artist, and packaging artist.
- Guilherme Briggs, a Brazilian voice actor who's dubbed various incarnations of Optimus Prime.
Transformers in Argentina
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Starting in 1985, Argentinian media company Ledafilms printed a localization of the original U.S. The Transformers comic, with their editions having some entirely unique cover designs... And the quality of this art often being downright questionable at best. Ledafilms also distributed the original Transformers cartoon on home video. <ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dS7b_7BEs8</ref>
A common feature of the Transformers' early presence in Latin American countries was Hasbro's reliance on licensing out the brand to a given local toy manufacturer, which would then produce their own domestic Transformers figures (with smaller toylines, inconsisent quality, and many quirky-colored variants ensuing) - most likely; this strategy was adopted on the grounds of protectionist laws making it harder to directly export U.S.-made Hasbro products to these countries. But unlike most of their neighbors, Argentina actually received the original 1980s U.S. The Transformers toyline in its national stores... And, at the same time, also had a whole three national toy manufacturers who held the license to make their own Transformers toys!
The most notable of these was Antex, who presumably obtained their license from Brazil's Estrela rather than Hasbro. Their offerings consisted of a handful of Robocars and the Salt-Man X / Z duo, with most featuring new colors not present in either their original Hasbro or Estrela counterparts (despite retaining the packaging art and pictures of the Brazilian versions). Another company that'd get the Transformers license - this time directly from Hasbro - was Comando Toys, an electronic toy manufacturer which released the infamously odd Radio AM Robot and Walkie Talkie Robot toys. Notably, the former was a bizarre rebranded bootleg that blended together elements of Generation 1 Megatron, Blaster, Omega Supreme, and Soundwave, whereas the latter featured a design clearly ripping off the titular mecha from super robot anime Rokushin Gattai Godmars, a level of carelessness towards copyright that hasn't been seen before or since with an officially labelled Transformers product - and yet, again; they still got that Hasbro-backed branding! Finally, Lynsa was another Argentinian company that manufactured a handful of Mini-Vehicle variants, however; these were actually primarily distributed in Peru and Chile instead of Argentina (it is not impossible that some might have found their way to Argentinian retail but so far no proof of this has been found).
On top of all of these releases, a few original Estrela Minicars also managed to slip into the country, bearing a new strange packaging with the seemingly non-Transformers related name Invasion Galactica and generic art of a UFO. The toys themselves were clearly just blatantly cut off the Brazilian blister cards and pasted into the new crudely-made ones, with the inclusion of a small "Industria Argentina" on the bottom right suggesting that these were probably repackagings done by toy stores wanting to distribute their foreign-made stock while avoiding protectionist laws that forbade them from doing so without paying extra tariffs.
Antex would become Hasbro's distributor in the Argentinian market during the 90s, with several Generation 2 figures showing up in Argentinian stores featuring joint Hasbro and Antex branding on the packaging. They would also re-release their Salt-Men X and Z figures unchanged as the Decepticons Robot-Man X and Robot-Man Z. Eventually, Hasbro would move on to instead using their own supply chains for future Transformers releases in the country.
Notable people
[edit]- Fico Ossio, an Argentinian comic book artist who's worked on several Transformers comics.
- Atilio Martin, an Argentinian artist who drew the second chapter of the Transformers: Prime graphic novel.
- María Ana Paolo, an Argentinian illustrator who colored multiple cards in the Transformers Trading Card Game.