Classics (Europe)
| The name or term "Classics" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Classics (disambiguation). |
Classics is a Transformers toyline from the later days of Generation 1.
In 1990 and 1991, the toy market in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe saw many re-releases of earlier Transformers toys. The new packaging was gold-coloured and featured a "Classic" prefix before the respective subgroup's name for the UK, Scandinavian, Dutch, and French markets (Spain and Italy omitted the title "Classic" from the packaging). The toys released in 1990 even still bore rubsigns, even though the 'standard' lines had ceased this practice by 1988. Most of the 1991 toys featured rubsign indents, but no longer sported rubsigns. They were also retooled to block out details stating the original year of manufacture and the original country of manufacture.
It has been suggested that the toys produced for this line originate from the same production run and facilities as the Chinese Generation 1 line.
Releases
1990
Autobots
Classic Heroes
Classic Aerialbots
Decepticons
Classic Stunticons
1991
Autobots
Original Autobot Leader
Classic Heroes
Classic Protectobots
Classic Dinobots
Classic Triple Changers
Classic Throttlebots
Decepticons
Classic Combaticons
Classic Triple Changers
Australian exclusives
Additionally, in 1990, Australia saw the limited release of several toys in their original G1 packaging, but they were also retooled to block out the original year of manufacture and the original country of manufacture. Due to the timing of these releases, and the re-use of the original G1 packaging rather than the gold Classics livery, it is very likely that the origin of these releases was the late 1980s/early 1990s Chinese G1 reissue toyline. The Australian 1990 releases in G1 packaging included:
Autobots
Decepticons
Fiction
- While not officially branded or recognised as 'Classics' fiction, the Earthforce stories in the Marvel UK comic were inspired by, and responding to, the reissues.
Notes
- The Classics reissues were released at a time when Hasbro had arguably reached its peak of packaging variations between various markets, with packaging in three different single languages and (arguably) two different bilingual versions confirmed to exist:
- The United Kingdom (as well as various Scandinavian markets and Germany) got toys in English packaging.
- France, Belgium and the Netherlands got toys in bilingual French/Dutch packaging.
- Spain got toys in Spanish packaging.
- Italy got toys in Italian packaging, distributed by Hasbro licensee GiG.
- Additionally, bilingual French/English packaging for some toys has surfaced, which appears to have been intended for the Canadian market. However, according to Canadian fans who were around at the time, the Classics were never actually available in Canada, and since all the known specimens feature small stickers in Chinese language on the packaging, it seems that this packaging might have only ever available in China.
