Diakron

Now, is that a rising sun or a setting sun?

Released in 1983, Diakron was a small toyline sold directly by Takara in the United States. It is notable for essentially being a direct port of Takara's Diaclone toyline, and featured several toys that would, mere months later, be released as Transformers by Hasbro.

Following the establishment of Takara's partnership with Hasbro, Diakron ceased production. It was functionally replaced by Kronoform, an American toyline from Takara that featured Diaclone and Microman toys which were not released as Transformers.

Story

The Diakron story, as related by a catalog:

Welcome to the futuristic world of the Diakron, where Diakron commanders go on secret missions to protect their civilization against enemies. To disguise their movements, the Diakron commanders ride in special vehicles that magically change shape and transform into robot warriors, space ships, lunar landers and more!

Toyline

The Diakron toyline consisted of:

Robot/Cars of the Future

• DK-1 — The Diakron red deco was changed to yellow for release as Sunstreaker. The red deco was used as inspiration for Spin-Out and the red Sunstreaker clones.
• DK-2 — The Diakron black deco was changed to red for release as Ironhide. The original deco was later released as "Ironhide Protect Black" and was used as inspiration for Shattered Glass Ironhide and DK-2 Guard.
• DK-3 — While the blue deco imported for Diakron went unused, the Diaclone black deco was virtually unchanged for release as Trailbreaker. The blue Diakron version was used as inspiration for Shattered Glass Trailbreaker and DK-3 Breaker.

Power Dashers
The Power Dashers were released with minor changes in Transformers as the Powerdashers. Each was released in the American market solely as "Powerdasher," and the Transformers characters did not receive individual names until reclaiming their Diakron designations in 2013 (Cromar) and 2015 (Zetar and Aragon).

• Cromar — Released with minor changes as "Powerdasher." Also released under the name "Sky Robot" as a Revell model kit in Europe.
• Zetar — Released with minor changes as "Powerdasher." Also released under the name "Drill Robot" as a Revell model kit in Europe.
• Aragon — Released with minor changes as "Powerdasher." Also released under the name "F-1 Robot" as a Revell model kit in Europe.

Multi-Force 14 Robot — The Diaclone Gats Blocker toy, later homaged with an unnamed comic background character

Notes

• When the molds for Aragon, Cromar, and Zetar were originally released as Diaclone toys, they were given the group name "Dashers". In the Diakron toyline, this had become "Power Dashers". By the time the molds were released in the Transformers toyline, the two words had fused into "Powerdashers".
• The uncharacteristically creative names of the Powerdashers do not actually originate with Diakron at all, but rather Joustra's French iteration of the Diaclone franchise.
• DK-2 Guard and DK-3 Breaker have their Diakron IDs bolted to the front of their Transformers toy names in a rather more blunt Diakron homage.