Transformers: Alternators

Transformers: Alternators, known as Transformers Binaltech (トランスフォーマー バイナルテック) in Japan, is a line of Transformers toys that started in late 2003. The toys in this series transform into licensed, 1:24-scale accurate representations of real cars from automobile manufacturers around the globe, complete with opening doors, hoods, trunks, either connected front wheel "steering" or individual wheel suspension, plus "realistic" detailed driver/passenger compartments. Essentially, Transformers toys that turn into model cars.

Over the course of its run, it turned from a neat well-received idea to a pure production nightmare for both American and Japanese versions.

Car licenses and character selection

This photo resulted in collective drooling.

At one point in 2003, Hasbro stated that the Alternators line would consist of "six 'hot' contemporary cars". The first six models were based on a Subaru Impreza, a Dodge Viper, a Jeep Wrangler, a C5 Chevrolet Corvette, a Mazda RX-8, and a Ford Mustang. Even before the line was launched, though, new licenses were already pursued by Hasbro and Takara, with the first new sculpt that was not part of the "original six" anymore being based on a Honda S2000. More and more models and manufacturers joined the line over its run. Nearly all of these models are from either American or Japanese manufacturers, with the only exception being the Jaguar XK, which is originally a European car.

Character-wise, Hasbro and Takara initially started out with better-known Generation 1 characters from the 1984-85 era that had originally transformed into cars. Smokescreen started the line, with his extensive paint operations and tampographed sponsor logos meant to show the level of detail put into the line. For budget reasons, Hasbro and Takara decided very early on that redecos/retools were necessary even more than they were in other lines, thus retools of the first three sculpts were already available by the time the last of the "original six" sculpts came out. Initially, Hasbro and Takara intended to keep the retools rooted in Generation 1 whenever possible, thus the retool of Smokescreen became Bluestreak (renamed into "Silverstreak" for trademark reasons). Though the line was originally meant to be just Autobots, it was later decided to release Decepticons as part of the line, which took the form of retools of existing Autobot toys, hence the Side Swipe retool ended up as Dead End rather than Sunstreaker, and the intended Trailbreaker retool of Hound ultimately became Swindle instead.

Over the time, the selection was expanded to include characters which had not originally transformed into vehicles (such as Grimlock, Shockwave aka "Shockblast", or Ravage aka "Battle Ravage"). The first character difference between the Alternators and Binaltech versions of the line occurred when Hasbro named a toy that was designed to resemble the Omnibot Overdrive (who the toy was released as in Japan) after the Mini Vehicle Windcharger instead, presumably due to trademark reasons (a constant thorn in the side). As the two lines progressed, they diverged more, both in terms of different decos and the addition of third-stringer characters (mostly on Hasbro's end). Even characters that had no root in Generation 1 at all would eventually be added, namely Decepticharge and Nemesis Prime. Interestingly, the first sculpts to start out as Decepticons rather than Autobots, Rumble and a second Ravage toy, would ultimately also be the last new sculpts of the line released by Hasbro.

Alternators

Windcharger feels incomplete.

In the USA, the Alternators line was launched in December 2003, with the toys being made entirely out of plastic (with the exception of the rubber tires). The first wave consisted only of Smokescreen, who shipped in a case all by himself. The second wave mixed Smokescreen and Side Swipe in a 50:50 ratio, with new toys being introduced in the following waves (but Smokescreen choked shelves like crazy). Over the time of its original run, the Alternators line was particularly notorious for including toys that were extremely hard to find due to only shipping in one or two waves (Meister, Tracks, Decepticharge, Swerve), whereas others shipped for multiple waves, despite having already been shelfwarmers (Swindle, in particular).

In 2005, Walmart decided to drop the Alternators assortment due to poor sales. As a result, Hasbro relaunched the line with a new assortment in late 2005, featuring completely new packaging, a mix of new sculpts, redecos of older toys and re-releases of highly sought-after rarities such as Tracks or Meister, prompting Walmart to pick the line up again. In an ironic twist of fate, those once "rare" toys re-released ended up as shelfwarmers this time around.

As sales for the second assortment were not particularly stellar either, Hasbro eventually decided to drop the Alternators as a mass retail line altogether. A Nemesis Prime redeco of the Optimus Prime sculpt was released as a Hasbro Toy Shop exclusive that was originally offered at San Diego Comic-Con 2006, with poor handling and limited availability resulting in a lot of frustrated fans. Meanwhile, the toy was warming shelves in Asia, where it had been released at general retail. Following Nemesis Prime, the last two new sculpts that had been far into development at the time it was decided to discontinue the line, Rumble and Ravage, were released as Walmart exclusives in Spring 2007. The last new release after that was Rodimus, a retool of Mirage, again available as a Hasbro Toy Shop/San Diego Comic-Con exclusive.

And you are...?

Distribution in other countries was oftentimes even worse: Canadian stores already dropped the line after the first four or five waves and didn't really pick it up again until the launch of the second assortment; in New Zealand, Meister shipped in a solid case assortment (similar to Smokescreen before him), thereby almost killing the line there; Australian stores dropped the line during its second year, making it effectively an online retailer exclusive for the most part there from that point on (on the upside, Australia also got Nemesis Prime and Rodimus, albeit only as store-initiated imports); and Europe got a borderline random selection of toys, with different toys being available in different countries (and some toys not being released anywhere in Europe): For example, Meister was only available in Italy, whereas Swindle was available in various markets, but not in Italy. However, as if Jaguar-Ravage wasn't already exceptional enough, the toy was also available in various European countries several months before he came out in the USA.

At BotCon 2007, Hasbro staffers (notably Greg Lombardo) said that many of the licenses they had acquired to make Alternators had expired. They said further that they were hoping to make a few more exclusive redecoes using the remaining licenses (like Rodimus) before those expired in 2008, but were unsure of the available venues, noting that future retail releases—even as exclusives—were unlikely even back then.

With the live-action film series toy lines, the 2008-onwards Universe line, Reveal the Shield and Generations filling the gap for "realistic vehicles" at a smaller scale and a more budget-friendly price point, mostly featuring unlicensed approximations of vehicles (with some of the movies' main characters having licensed vehicle alternate modes), the Alternators line has long since lost its novelty, and became a footnote in the brand's history (although it still has a cult following among several Transformers fans).

The Human Alliance assortment, launched with the 2009 Revenge of the Fallen toy line and continued through Transformers (2010) and expanded with Dark of the Moon, can be considered as a spiritual successor of the Alternators line: Licensed vehicle modes roughly at a 1:24 scale (but taking more liberties compared to the Alternators toys) with interiors that can even hold (included) figures of human characters.

Binaltech

Completists had a love–hate relationship with the line.

In Japan, the line started three months earlier than its Hasbro counterpart and was known as Binaltech, with the primary difference being that Binaltech figures are more "collector"-oriented, featuring fully-painted car bodies and die-cast metal parts, in comparison to Alternators' color-molded plastic construction. Additionally, various Binaltech figures have same-character variants, usually released concurrently with the "regular" version in a 50:50 ratio per case (as Japanese toys usually ship in solid cases), that Hasbro did not release (though there are numerous redecos and retools in Alternators that never saw release in Binaltech).

The mass retail Binaltech line was officially canceled (or, to put it politely, put on "indefinite hiatus") in early 2006 after the release of Skids, apparently due to slow sales. Reportedly two more releases were cancelled: "Blackwidow" (a silver and purple redeco of Decepticharge as the Beast Wars femme fatale, better known as Blackarachnia outside Japan) and Ginrai (Optimus Prime's Super-God Masterforce look-alike) had been solicited, but only the first was shown in any capacity. The latter would ultimately end up as the first release of Takara's short-lived replacement for the Binaltech line, Kiss Players Convoy, whereas the Blackarachnia concept eventually evolved into Binaltech Arcee much, much later (see below).

In 2007, the Binaltech line got resurrected in a way similar to the state Hasbro's version was in at that point. The two new sculpts that had previously been intended to be released prior to the cancellation of the mass retail line were now released as redecos of the Kiss Players toys, with Black Convoy (exclusively available at the Wonder Festival 2007 Winter convention, and later at e-HOBBY) being Takara's counterpart of the Hasbro Toy Shop/San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Nemesis Prime redeco of Optimus Prime/Convoy, whereas "Rijie" (Mirage), a redeco of the Ford GT sculpt which Takara had previously released as Kiss Players Hot Rodimus, was only released as a clear e-Hobby exclusive version, using the same head sculpt as Hasbro's Alternators Mirage version. Therefore, Rijie was the only Binaltech toy that didn't contain any die-cast parts. Takara never released the new Rumble or Ravage sculpts; however, four new redecoes of older toys were released in 2008, all of them once again available at mass retail. Convoy was released as the latest addition to this resurrected Binaltech line, featuring slightly different coloring from its previous Kiss Player Convoy counterpart.

Following this, Takara replaced Binaltech with a new toy line following a similar overall concept (licensed vehicle mode, diecast parts) at a smaller scale (1/32), under the new name Alternity. Four sculpts were released, all of them based on Japanese car models, each of them in multiple color variants, some even as different characters.

Binaltech Asterisk

In late 2005 (not too long before it went on "indefinite hiatus"), Binaltech gained a sub-series called Binaltech Asterisk, using old sculpts in new decos as previously-unreleased Autobots, but also including small PVC figurines of human girls, each one based on a female human character from a previous Transformers series. This series only had three releases before it was canceled and ultimately replaced by Kiss Players, which used a similar concept (though at a very poor fan reception).

Fiction

Binaltech

Things eventually get really complicated.

Binaltech has its own storyline written by Hirofumi Ichikawa called simply Story of Binaltech, though it is only told in small text chunks within each toy's instruction booklet (during the original run of the series) or on the toys' packaging itself (for the toys released in 2007 and 2008). Supplemental information was also included in the characters' bios and Tech Specs, also included in the books and on the packaging. The story of Binaltech later continued with the advent of the Alternity toyline.

Alternators

Who is the Mazda RX-8 Transformer? Who? WHO?

Unlike Binaltech, there was never any fully-fledged actual fiction for the Alternators line. According to Hasbro representatives, they never pursued the licensing rights for "2D" representations of the car models. Though the reasons were never stated, it is not hard to extrapolate numerous reasons not to; additional costs for securing rights for an indefinite period, debatable ability to utilize those rights in a timely manner, plus clearing whatever fictional portrayal is made with every car company involved (see Windcharger's page for more on that), which would have massively bogged down any publication.

However, a few chunks of Takara's Binaltech story have made it to the Western market nonetheless: A promotional website set up by Mazda's USA branch in early 2004, offering the first hint at what would ultimately end up as the Alternators Meister toy, featured a brief summary of the original setting for the Binaltech story, including mention of the Cosmic Rust. More than two years later, a bio for the Hasbro Toy Shop/San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Nemesis Prime toy, written by Forest Lee, directly referred to the Binaltech story, including the names of Doctor Arkeville and his employer, the "Concurrence". For reasons unknown, though, the story was never officially released, and only found its way to the public through websites with access to Hasbro's official library for promotional material intended for retailers, later also to be featured by Ben Yee in his review for the toy. Interestingly enough, the story for Takara's Black Convoy version of Nemesis Prime, as well as a related revelation from the subsequent chapter that came with the e-Hobby exclusive Rijie toy, appear to be based around the bio for the Alternators toy.

Toys

Hasbro Alternators

Retail releases

Assortment 1 (2003-2005)

Wave 1 1 Subaru Impreza WRC—Smokescreen		Wave 2 2 Dodge Viper—Side Swipe		Wave 3 4 Subaru Impreza WRX—Silverstreak		Wave 4 3 Jeep Wrangler—Autobot Hound
Wave 5 6 Dodge Viper—Dead End		Wave 6 5 Chevrolet Corvette Z06—Autobot Tracks 7 Mazda RX-8—Meister		Wave 7 8 Jeep Wrangler—Swindle 9 Ford Mustang GT—Grimlock		Wave 8 10 Honda S2000—Windcharger
Wave 9 11 Chevrolet Corvette—Battle Ravage		Wave 10 12 Mazda RX-8—Shockblast		Wave 11 13 Ford Mustang GT—Wheeljack		Wave 12 14 Honda S2000—Decepticharge
Wave 13 15 Chevrolet Corvette Z06—Swerve		Wave 14 16 Acura RSX—Prowl

Assortment 2 (2005-2006)

Wave 1 5 Chevrolet Corvette Z06—Autobot Tracks (re-release) 16 Acura RSX—Prowl (re-release) 17 Scion xB—Autobot Skids 18 Dodge Viper—Sunstreaker		Wave 2 19 Jeep Wrangler—Rollbar 20 Subaru Impreza WRX—Ricochet		Wave 3 21 Dodge Ram SRT-10—Optimus Prime		Wave 4 7 Mazda RX-8—Meister (re-release) 22 Ford GT—Mirage
Wave 5 23 Acura RSX—Autobot Camshaft

European Alternators releases, meanwhile, were a lot more complicated (if not to say outright confusing). Notably, Swindle and Silverstreak were also re-released in the second US assortment's "bubble-style" packaging in some European countries, while Decepticharge, Shockblast, and Dead End were only ever officially released in European markets in that packaging style. Also, aside from Smokescreen, no European Alternators toy sported a number on its packaging, as a lot of the toys were never released anywhere in Europe at all, starting as early as Side Swipe.

Exclusives

San Diego Comic-Con / Hasbro Toy Shop 24 Dodge Ram SRT-10—Nemesis Prime (2006) 27 Ford GT—Rodimus (2007)

Walmart 24 Honda Civic Si—Decepticon Rumble 26 Jaguar XK—Ravage

Notes

Takara Binaltech

Binaltech toys usually shipped in solid cases all by themselves. Toys with official variants typically shipped in mixed cases in equal numbers, containing three of each.

Retail releases

Wave 1 (9-25-2003) BT-01 Smokescreen ("#7" version) BT-01 Smokescreen ("#8" version)		Wave 2 (12-11-2003) BT-02 Lambor		Wave 3 (3-25-2004) BT-04 Hound BT-03 Streak		Wave 4 (7-16-2004) BT-05 Dead End
Wave 5 (8-5-2004) BT-06 Tracks (yellow)		Wave 6 (8-26-2004) BT-07 Smokescreen GT ("#1" version) BT-07 Smokescreen GT ("#2" version)		Wave 7 (9-30-2004) BT-08 Meister (white) BT-08 Meister "Velocity Red Mica Edition" (aka Zoom-Zoom)		Wave 8 (11-11-2004) BT-06 Tracks (blue) BT-09 Swindle
Wave 9 (12-9-2004) BT-10 Grimlock		Wave 10 (2-24-2005) BT-11 Ravage		Wave 11 (3-31-2005) BT-12 Overdrive		Wave 12 (4-21-2005) BT-13 Laserwave
Wave 13 (5-26-2005) BT-14 Wheeljack		Wave 14 (7-26-2005) BT-15 Prowl "Patrol Type" BT-15 Prowl "Vivid Blue Pearl Edition"		Wave 15 (11-17-2005) BT-16 Skids		Wave 16 (6-26-2008) BT-19 Bluestreak BT-20 Argent Meister
Wave 17 (7-17-2008) BT-21 Arcee		Wave 18 (10-2-2008) BT-22 Convoy

Exclusives

Wonder Festival 2007 BT-17 Black Convoy

e-HOBBY BT-18 Rijie "Electro Disrupter Mode"

Pre-release development

You'll never ever find us in stores.

It's not certain what exactly originally led Hasbro and Takara to the concept of a line of Transformers based on licensed vehicles. An interview with Takara's development team confirmed that both companies initially had different ideas (for example, a different intended scale for the toys) that ultimately resulted in a compromise. It's possible that Hasbro's motivation stemmed from the 2001 Robots in Disguise franchise line, where they were required to alter X-Brawn's headlights in order to avoid legal trouble with Mercedes, and had to acquire a license from Dodge for all iterations of the Side Burn mold beginning with the "Super Side Burn" redeco. The earliest known concepts for the line imply that the initial idea was to give each character a direct update of his respective Generation 1 alternate mode, i.e. keeping the car manufacturer consistent and simply using the then-recent successor model. With many a car manufacturer being hesitant or even outright refusing to cooperate, however, these plans were ultimately put aside, allowing for more creative options.

• The first toy planned for the line was Jazz (probably to be named "Autobot Jazz" for trademark reasons) as a Porsche 986. A prototype was made, but Porsche refused to grant Hasbro and Takara the license, stating that "Transformers are not worthy [of] carrying the Porsche trademark. They are war machines and the toyline in no way represents the lifestyle and ideas which Porsche represents." As a consequence, the toy ultimately never went into production. Photos of the prototype were first depicted in the Japanese book The Transformers: Binaltech & TF Collection Complete Guide. Hasbro later displayed the prototype during the BotCon 2007 Hasbro Tour; TakaraTomy subsequently displayed it as part of Transformers Expo in 2014.

• The second prototype produced was Tracks as a Chevrolet Corvette Z06. Although the toy eventually came out, Chevrolet initially denied Hasbro and Takara the license as well, presumably fearing that "having these car panels that separate apart conveys an image of being broken". This led Hasbro and Takara to conceive an alternate concept for Tracks as another "well-known American sports car", namely a Dodge Viper. Ultimately, though, Chevrolet would later have a change of mind, which allowed Hasbro and Takara to start production on Corvette-Tracks after all, whereas the Viper ended up as Side Swipe instead. The head sculpt originally designed for Viper-Tracks ended up being used for Corvette-Tracks, though.

Too good to be true.

• The third design was for Bumblebee as a Volkswagen New Beetle, with Cliffjumper as the redeco. Unfortunately, VW had similar concerns as Porsche, what with not wanting to be associated with "war toys" (though they would back-pedal years later), therefore the design never even made it to the prototype stage. Control drawings for both Bumblebee and Cliffjumper have been published in the aforementioned Japanese BT guide book.

• Ultimately, the only character aside from Tracks to follow the original "direct upgrades" approach would be Hound, whose Alternators version became a Jeep Wrangler, although he was originally intended as a Rubicon with a slightly different transformation that would have reduced the "backback" kibble.

By the time Hasbro and Takara entered negotiations with Fuji Heavy Industries/Subaru, they had most likely abandoned the "direct upgrades" idea. The 1:24 scale Subaru Impreza mold was apparently also the first design that went without any major difficulty at any stage in its production process. Silverstreak (the WRX street model) was originally designed first, with Smokescreen (the WRC rally model) being intended as the redeco, but Takara's marketing department decided to reverse the release order of the two versions, thinking that the rally model would have "more visual impact" as the first release of the line.

Another prototype that doesn't fit into this timeline at all is a smaller version of Smokescreen, displayed by Hasbro as part of the BotCon 2007 Hasbro Tour. This prototype was apparently created before the final scale for the line was settled on; oddly enough, it is a different scale than the one Takara claimed having initially pursued in their interview in the Binaltech guide book. Furthermore, the small Subaru prototype was stated to be the second prototype after the Porsche version of Jazz (which was displayed next to him), which also appears to contradict the Takara interview; and lastly, the Subaru prototype mixes a Smokescreen head sculpt and a WRC (Smokescreen) front bumper with a WRX (Silverstreak) rear spoiler.

Beyond that, many other toys later down the line also went through various changes prior to being released. More details can be found on the individual pages for Sunstreaker, Dead End, Camshaft, Bluestreak, Trailbreaker, Swindle, Grimlock, Freeway, Windcharger, Overdrive, Wheeljack, Decepticharge, Wildrider, Blackarachnia, Prowl, Red Alert, Optimus Prime, Ginrai, Hot Rod and Mirage.

Legacy

• Alternators was the first line to consist primarily of newly designed toys clearly intended as new versions of classic characters from the original series, rather than mere design homages or new sculpts directly based on the designs of the original toys and/or the animation models from the original cartoon with modern technology. It also pioneered pre-planned redecos and retools with new head sculpts ("pretools"), which was later adopted by Universe (Sunstreaker and Sideswipe) and, to a larger degree, the 2010 Transformers toy line's Hunt for the Decepticons and Reveal the Shield sub-sets, Generations and many other subsequent lines.

Notes

Hasbro should consider branching out.

• Hasbro originally intended to use real branded tires such as Bridgestone, Michelin, or Goodyear (evidence can be found on early, "leaked" test shots for Smokescreen, Side Swipe and Meister, and in the Japanese The Transformers: Binaltech & TF Collection Complete Guide book). However, all the final Alternators and Binaltech toys either use the fictitious brand Cybertronian Radial for their tires, or sport no brand markings on their tires at all.
• In early 2004, a trade publication named Brandweek reported that Hasbro was negotiating with Dodge about the licenses for a Dodge Ram pickup truck and a Dodge Neon. While the former ultimately ended up as Optimus Prime much, much later, the latter vehicle was never actually turned into an Alternator.
• In mid-2004, several online stores solicited an upcoming Binaltech toy based on a MINI Cooper alongside the newly confirmed Swindle and Grimlock. The preorders were later canceled, which, coupled with conflicting statements from Hasbro and MINI prior to that, resulted in quite a lot of confusion among fans. To this day it's not certain whether the preorders were premature and solely based on an advertising campaign MINI had been running during that time, or whether such a Binaltech/Alternators toy was actually in the works. Rumors of an existing prototype could never be verified.
• In late 2004, store listings revealed an entry for an upcoming Alternators toy based on an unspecified Mitsubishi vehicle, listed alongside an Acura which would later turn out to be Prowl. Ultimately, the Mitsubishi would never materialize, and the only other concrete piece of information was a rumor that predated the store listing, suggesting that an Alternators toy based on a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution was in the pipeline.
• Another new sculpt, a Cadillac XLR convertible, was also planned. According to Hasbro at BotCon 2006, the toy would have been Megatron, but when it was decided to put the Alternators line on an indefinite hiatus, the Cadillac Megatron plans never went beyond the early planning stages. It would have sported an Oregon license plate.
• In early 2006, Walmart store and website listings included another release of the Scion and Mustang sculpts, in addition to mass retail releases of Rumble, Jaguar Ravage, and the aforementioned Cadillac Megatron. The Mustang and Scion never got far enough along in development to be assigned characters.
• Aaron Archer saw the 20th anniversary Optimus Prime figure (more commonly known as MP-1) as "belonging with" the Alternators line. For its "Perfect Edition" re-release, Takara gave it a brand new trailer designed to accommodate a single Alternators figure in vehicle mode - which is funny, considering Archer had said "The trailer, to me, is a bit of... a box."

External links

• English translation of the Binaltech story, with images and footnotes
• English translation of the BT-18 chapter (from BT-18 Rijie)