Joustra
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
Previously just a fan theory, it has since been confirmed that the second wave of the MB-branded Transformers toys were originally existing unsold Joustra Diaclone stock, taken out of their packaging and put into Transformers packaging, with new sticker sheets created.[1]
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.
Following the release of the Joustra Diaclone figures as MB-branded transformers, the packaging for European Transformers releases changed the branding from "MB" to "Hasbro", even though in many countries, the local MB subsidiaries still handled the distribution of the toys. Several of the 1986 European Transformers were actually manufactured by Joustra to fulfill Hasbro's massive demand for Transformers product. Oddly, the packaging for these figures alternatively credits them to Joustra, parent company Ceji, and even Revell (misspelled "Revel"), which was another Ceji subsidiary at the time. Some of these Ceji-producted figures resulted in bizarre oddities such as yellow versions of the Constructicons (not to be confused with the later, non-combining European 1992 releases of the Constructicons, or the 1993 Generation 2 versions), Optimus Prime with red feet, or Pipes" as a straight redeco of Huffer, rather than a retool like the US release (nicknamed "Puffer" by fans; not to be confused with a similar Huffer-in-Pipes-colors release by Mexican manufacturer Plasticos IGA, which was later also available in Europe).
Joustra Diaclone
Wave 1 (1984)
Mini-Cars
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Change Attacars
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Cars wave 1
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Dashers | Cassettes wave 1 | |||
Other
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Wave 2 (1985)
Cars wave 2
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Cassettes wave 2
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Balle / Ball
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Other
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Joustra Transformers
Milton Bradley Transformers wave 2 (repackaged Joustra Diaclone figures, 1985)
| Mini Vehicles | Cassettes | Autobot Cars | (actually Sunstreaker in a Sideswipe box) |
Other
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Hasbro Europe Transformers manufactured by Joustra (1986)
| Mini Vehicles | Insecticons | Constructicons (yellow) | Decepticon Planes | |||||
Other
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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
- ↑ "MB/Hasbro and Ceji theory confirmed" at 20th Century Toy Collector.
