Block Town

Not actually released like this.

Block Town (ブロックタウン Burokku Taun) was an unreleased Takara line that was planned to follow the Japanese release of Generation 2 in 1996. The line would combine Transformers toys with Kawada's Diablock building-block line (a Lego blocks competitor in Japan), giving the Transformers small bases that could be rebuilt into battle stations.

Planned releases

Who didn't do this as a kid, really?

The first wave was planned to be four small toys released at 380 yen a piece (roughly $3.50 US at the time); individually-packaged members of the Micromaster Rescue Patrol with small garage-style bases. The Transformers toys themselves did not appear to have any notable changes from their Zone incarnations.

• Boater with marina
• Fire with fire station
• Holi with police station
• Pīpō with hospital

Brick-a-brack

The next releases would be six sets, redecos of 3/4ths of the Axelerators and Skyscorchers (all as Autobots) were displayed at a Japanese toy show.

• TFBT-1 Radar Set (with Snipe)
• TFBT-2 Control Set/Control Tower Set (with Terradive)
• TFBT-3 Airport Building Set (with Sky Tornado)
• TFBT-4 Gasoline Station Set (with Rapid Engine)
• TFBT-5 Garage Set (with Carzap)
• TFBT-6 Signal/Traffic Lights Set (with Hotrider)

"Carzap" is the only confirmed name in this listing; see Notes below.

Microtransformers: American Rescue Team

Although Block Town was canceled, the four Rescue Patrol Team members were still released in 1996, but instead as part of Microtransformers: American Rescue Team, which paired each Micromaster with a jig saw-style floor plan. This release causes some confusion in the West, where it has sometimes been mistaken as a Block Town release.

Notes

Blocktown's USS Flagg

Oh, what could have been...

• There are several promotional photos from toy shows and marketing materials at the time showing Takara was making a pretty hard push for the line, with a lot of dioramas to show the line's intended huge scope. One exceptionally notable diorama was a giant wheeled aircraft carrier made of building blocks. These displays used a combination of the above-listed figures and unchanged Generation 2 toys as the Transformers portions.
• Since the Axelerators and Skyscorchers are gang-molded, it is possible that two more sets were in the works using the last two members of those teams. If that were the case, Skram would have been red with white robot parts, while "Hawking" (Eagle Eye) would have been a lighter shade of green with blue parts.
• The Takara Transformers Generations book shows packaging for the Garage Set within one of its "unreleased items" sub-sections. This shot reveals that the robot packed in would have been named "Carzap"; given that "Carzap" shows up on a BotCon Japan-exclusive poster as Windbreaker's Japanese name, it is assumed the other applicable Japanese names from that poster would have been used for the Block Town editions had they come out.
• In March 2005, a supposed Takara upcoming product list was leaked, which included the Block Town sets. However, the sets didn't see release then either, nor did some of the other items on the list.
• Hasbro would much later revisit the combination of Transformers and building blocks with their Built to Rule! line, with only marginally more success... in that Built to Rule! actually made it to stores. The 2011-2017 Kre-O line proved a more successful building-block medium for Transformers. Some Diablock Transformers kits did get made in Japan in the 2000s, but they were few in number and very short-lived.
• In 2015, Fun Publications homaged Block Town with the Deluxe Class Carzap toy, which also came with a Kre-O gas pump/anti-aircraft gun mini-build and a G.B. Blackrock Kreon.

External links

• alt.toys.transformers post with the "leaked" product listing on Google