Joustra

"You need to go on a diet!"

Joustra was a French toy company, a subsidiary of Ceji (Compagnie Générale du Jouet), that held the license to market Diaclone and Micro Change toys in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. In 1985, Hasbro Bradley introduced the Transformers brand to continental Europe through their subsidiary Milton Bradley (MB), including the countries where Joustra had been the Diaclone licensee. During 1984 and 1985, Joustra continued to sell toys under the Diaclone brand, but by then Takara was mainly focused on producing Transformers-branded toys for the North American market; as a result, some toys with factory-applied Autobot or Decepticon stickers were sold in Joustra Diaclone packaging.

Connection between Milton Bradley and Joustra

Yellow-bellied coward!

Previously a fan theory, it has been comnfirmed that the second wave of the MB-branded Transformers toys were originally existing Joustra Diaclone stock, taken out of their packaging and put into Transformers packaging.

Because Joustra's parent company, Ceji, was in financial trouble in 1985, Hasbro/MB acquired Joustra's existing Diaclone stock and had Joustra put the toys into newly created Transformers packaging, which would then be distributed by MB. This would explain why the second wave of Joustra Diaclone toys (which became wave 2 of the MB-branded Transformers toys) is so rare compared to the first one. It also explains why Optimus Prime was originally absent from the MB line-up, as any toy released by Joustra was off-limits for MB due to Joustra's exclusive contract with Takara until the Joustra/MB deal allowed for those toys to be released as Transformers as well. This resulted in several oddities, such as the MB version of Tracks being red (the toy's original Diaclone colors) instead of blue (the regular Transformers version's colors), Thundercracker being sold in Starscream packaging with Starscream's sticker sheet, and, most bizarrely, Sunstreaker (whose toy, in its yellow Hasbro Transformers color scheme, was part of Joustra's Diaclone line-up), being sold in Sideswipe packaging with Sideswipe's instructions and sticker sheet.

The same theory also suggests that several MB toys (in particular, Optimus Prime and Megatron) were explicitly manufactured by another Ceji subsidiary, Revell, as part of the same deal. Ceji continued to manufacture toys for Hasbro/MB, such as the Insecticons and unique yellow versions of the Constructicons (not to be confused with the later, non-combining European releases of the Constructicons or the Generation 2 versions), which were released in Europe in packaging sporting Hasbro's rather than MB's logo.

Joustra Diaclone

Wave 1 (1984)

Mini-Cars 9600 Trans Am (pre-Windcharger) 9601 Truck (pre-Huffer) 9602 Pick Up (pre-Gears) 9603 Cheetah (pre-Brawn)		Change Attacars 9604 Van 9605 Cheetah 9606 Turbo 2000	Cars wave 1 9607 Toyota 4x4 (pre-Trailbreaker) 9608 Ambulance (pre-Ratchet) 9609 Porsche 935 (pre-Jazz) 9610 Ligier (pre-Mirage)		Dashers 9613 Aragon 9614 Zetar 9615 Cromar		Cassettes wave 1 9620 Jaguar (pre-Ravage) 9621 Condor (pre-Laserbeak)
Other 9611 Diaclone Truck (pre-Optimus Prime) 9612 F-15 (pre-Starscream) 9622 Camera Robot (pre-Reflector) 9623 Robocolt (pre-Browning)		9641 Cosmocar 9642 Diatrain 9650 Multiforce 14 9655 Kronoform

Wave 2 (1985)

Cars wave 2 9656 Countach (pre-Sunstreaker) 9657 Fairlady racing (pre-Smokescreen) 9658 Jeep (pre-Hound) 9659 Fairlady police (pre-Prowl)

9660 Lancia Stratos (pre-Wheeljack) 9661 Corvette (pre-Tracks) 9662 Camion grue (pre-Grapple) 9663 Camion pompier (pre-Inferno)

Cassettes wave 2 9665 Cassette hélicoptère 9666 Cassette moto

Balle / Ball 9667 Balle Lion / Ball Löwe 9668 Balle Robot / Ball Robot 9669 Balle Aigle / Ball Adler

Other 9654 Scorpion / Skorpion / Schorpioen 9664 Camion voite-portures (pre-Ultra Magnus)

Notes

Joustra is a portmanteau made of the words "Jouet" (toy) and "Strasbourg", the city in the east of France where the company was funded in 1934.

External links

• Overview of Joustra's iteration of the Diaclone franchise at TF1.com (archived)
• Articles on various Joustra Diaclone toys at TF1.com (archived)
• Articles at 20th Century Toy Collector: MB Transformers part 2, MB Transformers part 4 (including the MB/Joustra connection), part 5, part 6
• French Connection
• French Transformers