Transformers Generations (guidebook)

All the G1 Autobot leaders. Well, from the Japanese animated continuity anyway. So what I told you was true, from a certain point of view...

Published a few years ago, Transformers: Generations is a Japanese-exclusive book featuring a wealth of information on Generation 1 and Generation 2, including product photos of all Transformers toys released in Japan, Europe and the U.S. during the original releases of these generations. Unfortunately, the book is entirely in Japanese...

Content

The main selling point is the book's exhaustive photography of the entire G1 and G2 toylines. Including not only all U.S. Releases (which were mostly all also released in Japan), the guide includes all Japanese-exclusive toys from Japanese-only lines such as Super-God Masterforce, Victory and Zone.

In fact, the book is somewhat U.S. centric, despite being created for the Japanese market. Product lines are listed by year and present U.S. assortments with Japanese exclusive characters in separate "Japan" sections by year. The only english text in the book are character names and designated function titles, subtitled below the Japanese heading. European-exlusive releases are also features in similarly separate "EU" sections, by year.

Were it not entirely in Japanese, this book would surely be the definitive toy guide to pre-Beast Era toys. Even so, it's a contender, being far more exhaustive (albeit less detail-oriented) than the next best English-language equivalent, Antartic Press' Cybertronian: The Unofficial Transformers Recognition Guide.

The Second half of the book includes a gallery of what appears to be Japanese-market promotional art, possibly from sources such as TV Magazine, as well as an extensive collection of toy concept designs. These include some fascinating glimpses of characters who went in different directions (such as Rodimus Prime with a fire-truck altmode), more elaborate concepts for the Pretenders, early design prototypes for characters such as Optimus Prime and Fortress Maximus, and sundry other concepts that never came to be. This includes non-toy characters such as Battlestars'Super Megatron and Dark Nova.

Following this are character model sheets from the G1 cartoon, including the Japanese-exclusive anime series Headmasters, Super-God Masterforce, Victory and the OAV Zone. And what appears to be some designs for manga such as Battlestars.

Finally, the book includes several black and white-only pages of mostly text (Japanese, of course) about topics such as Battle Beasts, The TV Magazine manga, The U.S. Comics of G1 and G2, and apparently some stuff about the original designers. Apparently.

Editions

There is apparently a vanilla version of this book in addition to the Deluxe version (pictured). The difference between the two editions is unknown and all of the preceeding information refers to the Deluxe version.

Primus Contest

Unbeknownst to most English-language fans, the first official Primus toy was not the Supereme-class figure that debuted in the Cybertron/Galaxy Force line. It was a limited (to one?) gold-chrome vac-metallised reissue of the G1 Rodimus Prime mould. Dubbed "Primus" and doubtlessly taking its lead from the god's rather Rodimus-esque astral form shown in U.S. Transformers #61 "Primal Scream". This "Lucky Draw" toy was apparently a contest prize offered in (at least the Deluxe edition of) Generations. Apparently.

Trivia

• There were a lot more G1 Transformers than you ever owned as a kid.
• There were a lot more G1 Transformers than you even knew existed as a kid.
• Understanding Japanese would be very useful for English-speaking Transfans, even if it would invite a whole world of pain...

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