Kronoform
Following Diakron, the Kronoform line was an unsuccessful attempt by Takara to market various Diaclone and Microman toys in North America which had not been licensed by Hasbro for The Transformers franchise.
Also included in the line were "Time Machine" transforming watch toys, many of which were taken from Takara's Watch-Q toyline in Japan. Three of the watches, Autoceptor, Deceptor, and Kaltor were released in The Transformers packaging, with a smaller Kronoform logo also printed on the boxes.
The Robot Time Machine (as Autobot) and Scorpia toys would later see official releases as Transformers in the US by Takara during the Transformers: Generation 2 toyline in 1993.
Decades later, the long-running Ask Vector Prime seized on the Kronoform's "Time Machine" schtick to conscript its toys and concepts into most of the Transformers brand's extant time-travel deep lore.
The Terminators are evil robots attempting to enforce their rule. Create your Kronoform Robot World with this space age concept.The entire Kronoform story[1][2]
Toy Range (Incomplete)
The following list covers all Kronoform releases that were released or later rereleased as Transformers toys or otherwise inspired Transformers concepts. Kronoform molds with no Transformers relation are generally not listed as they fall outside the purview of this site.
1984 - The Robot Time Machine
Kronoform's idiosyncratic first year consisted of a single toy: Kronoform, the Robot Time Machine. Originally released in Takara's Watch-Q as simply "Watch Robo" and rereleased in Micro Change as "MC-06 Watch Robo," Kronoform was marketed not only as a watch-to-robot transformer but as a six-changer ("and more!") with some very... creative modes, as famously immortalized in its commercial. This toy would go on to inspire a flurry of Transformers characters, mostly in the pages of the Facebook incarnation of Ask Vector Prime.
- Silver deco: The toy's primary colorway. Released unchanged in Generation 2 as Autobot, later repurposed as Vector Prime in Ask Vector Prime and again as Azimuth in the pages of IDW Publishing's comics.
- Gold deco: Not released in Transformers but did later inspire the appearance of another Azimuth.
- Blue deco: Not released in Transformers but did later inspire the character Ephemeris in Ask Vector Prime.
- Black deco: Not released in Transformers but did later inspire the character Meantime in Dreamwave's comics.
1985 - Robotic World
1985 saw Kronoform explode in size as it took on Diakron's duties as Takara's "miscellaneous" toyline for the North American market.
Diaclone refugees
The Diaclone-derived toys that made up the bulk of Kronoform's second year were recast as the central players in what could charitably be called Kronoform's "story" as they were carved up into the heroic "Originators" and the villainous "Terminators." While none of them made their way into The Transformers, some have inspired later toys or fiction-only characters.
- Pilot mini-figures
- Presumably the enigmatic "Diakron Commanders", these unnamed accessories were slight retools of Diaclone's heroic Dianaut pilots to replace their foot magnets with cheaper inert metals. Used as inspiration for the toy characters Dia, Cline, and Diac, as well as the fiction-only character Chifumi Takahashi.
- Originators
- Multi-Force - Originally the Diaclone Gats Blocker toy and pretty much a straight reissue of Diakron's Multi-Force 14 Robot. Used as inspiration for an unnamed background comic character.
- Terminators
- Attackon - Originally the Diaclone Dia-Attacker toy. Used as inspiration for the original form of Exarchon, arch-villain of the 2019-2022 IDW comics.
- Wargon - Originally the Diaclone Warudaros toy. Used as inspiration for the Storm Rider toy.
Time Machines and the Transformers
Kronoform-the-toy, now renamed simply "Robot Time Machine," returned at the head of a whole subline of watch-themed toys sourced from Watch-Q and/or Micro Change. Most significantly, this is where Kronoform's final year saw the line pipe toys straight into Transformers proper via rebranding, following a similar trajectory to adjacent European lines such as Trasformer and Joustra's iteration of Diaclone. While the entire "Time Machine" subline hovered in the vicinity of a Transformers logo in advertising, three specific toys received explicit Transformers packaging. Transformers-relevant releases include:
- Transformers-adjacent releases
- Robot Time Machine again - see above.
- Scorpia - Converts from watch to scorpion. Originally released as "Scorpio" in Watch-Q. Released unchanged (up to and including her name) in Generation 2.
- Joint Transformers releases
- Autoceptor - Converts from watch to robot. Seemingly original to Kronoform.
- Deceptor - Converts from watch to robot. Seemingly original to Kronoform.
- Kaltor - Converts from wrist calculator to robot. Originally released in Watch-Q as "Watch Robo Calculator.".
1986 - Maxitrek
The only known Kronoform toy solicited for 1986 was a potential fourth Transformers/Kronoform figure named "Maxitrek." The figure would have been a new mold watch Transformer with a motorized walking gimmick via a small wind-up motor.
Fiction
The Terminators unleashed the chronal bioweapon Hytherion against the Originators in their war at the end of time as the Big Crunch loomed in Cymond 772.0 Beta. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/06/15
Notes
- Kronoform's pilot figures were not distributed with any particular regard for the toyline's factions. What that means for the Diakron Commanders, who knows.
- Ask Vector Prime recruited all five Transformers releases from Kronoform to form a squad of multiversal adventurers known as the Time Warriors. You get it? Because, because of the watches. You get it.
References
External links
- Kronoform the Robot Time Machine commercial at YouTube
- Article on the Watch-Q toyline at Soundwaves Oblivion
