Electric Train and Battle Set
The Electric Train and Battle Set is an HO-scale model train set manufactured by Tyco in 1985. The set includes a locomotive with a "Search Mode", a gondola with coal/"Proton Laser Cannon", a box car/"Weapon Center", and a caboose/"Hawkfighter", all in a matching silver paint scheme with a red stripe. The set additionally includes a number of static Autobot and Decepticon figurines, the buildings for a power plant, track, a plastic layout mat, and a power pack.
Fiction
Renegade Rhetoric
In Jasper, Nevada, Nemesis Prime stole the D-5 supertrain. A local nurse reported the theft, allowing Wheeljack and the other Autobot Spy Changers to intercept the train. Hoist and Wheeljack were diverted by Crash Test, who knocked a building onto two cats, allowing Frenzy to escape with the train.
When next the Autobots caught up to the Decepticons, they had mastered the D-5's abilities. The locomotive's Search Mode enabled the Decepticons to locate the Autobots, allowing the Hawkfighter and the Proton Laser Canon to be brought to bear. Prowl was able to activate the train's Red Mode, a self-destruct protocol. Transformers: Renegade Rhetoric
Commercial appearances
When several Decepticons invaded an Autobot command post, the Autobots sent in their secret weapon, a "speeding transformers train," to defend it. Electric Train Set commercial
History
In the 1980s, Tyco released five licensed sets (Transformers, G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., The A-Team, and Rambo), some of which shared various rolling stock and other parts with one another.
Many collectors attribute the component reuse to Tyco's financial troubles in the mid-1980s. At the time, the company was suffering from low sales and interest in trains, and they needed something to revitalize the market. The licensed trains were seen as a part of this, though Tyco didn't wish to spend a great deal of money. Thus, they reused as much as possible for each set, thereby saving on tooling and production costs. Cosmetically, the four main sets (excluding the A-Team one) were virtually identical; the Transformers train set did include a newly designed caboose, however.
Early runs of the Transformers train often contain parts from the other sets, including (though not limited to) carriages, vinyl maps, soldiers, and even decals. This suggests that all of the licensed sets were being assembled on the same production line. The Transformers train set does still hold some value to train collectors, however, largely because it was only produced for three years.
Components
The main focus of the set was the transforming engine and cars and the small plastic generic robots that interacted with them.
Locomotive
The locomotive was a slightly modified working switch engine. It transformed into "Search Mode" by lifting a hinged panel on the front-left side of the diesel engine and raising a ball-and-socket mounted concave plank on top; the transformation did not hinder the operation of the engine in any way.
Gondola Car
The gondola car came with a plank that represented a pile of coal on one side and a non-firing "Proton Laser Cannon" on the other. The cannon was mounted on to the underside of the coal by a small peg which allowed it to swivel horizontally. Another hinge allowed it to raise vertically. Swiveling the cannon too far to one side or the other without weighing down the gondola car resulted in the car tipping. This gondola car is structurally the same one used in the "M.A.S.K." set, but the coloration was changed for the Transformers set.
Box Car
The box car unfolded into a "Weapon Center" in which the included figures could fit. Both sides were identical, except for the spot on top where a box with a concave dish mount could be affixed. The weapon center consisted of two overhangs and two boxes with window slats attached by hinges that allowed the boxes to swivel 180 degrees for a wide variety of configurations.
Caboose
The caboose transforms into a "Hawkfighter." The wheels at the front of the caboose fold down to allow the robot mode to continue rolling on the tracks while giving it a perched or launching appearance.
The cut of the stickers for the caboose only allows for them to be applied with the broad red stripe flanked by the two narrow black stripes on bottom, while the stickers for the engine bearing the G1 "The Trans Formers More Than Meets The Eye" slogan is only right-side up if positioned with the broad red stripe on the top.
Robots
The twenty-four non-transforming "Transformer" figures included in the set consist of six distinct molds in metallic silver (Autobots) and metallic blue (Decepticons). The box and 1985 Tyco catalog assert that each set was supposed to include six Autobots and eighteen Decepticons. But in practice, the sets seemed to include semi-random quantities of figures, but always heavily weighted towards Decepticon blue, making the silver ones much harder to come across today.
At least two of the designs are lifted from other Japanese giant robot franchises: the spindly one with the shield on its left arm (top center in the image to the right) is based on the "L-Gaim" from Heavy Metal L-Gaim, while the tallest, blockiest one (bottom center) is the "Irongear" from Combat Mecha Xabungle. (The original Irongear actually does transform into a big space battleship so it fits in that way at least!)
It's likely the other four designs are also lifted/"adapted" from other toylines/anime, but we've yet to identify them if they are.
Setting
The play mat depicted a small dam in a grassy and wooded area with a road and parking lot. The card-stock power station, plant, and two power line towers were meant to be placed around this, though a convincing layout that also left room for the standard oval-track layout was difficult to achieve.
Notes
- The version of the Electric Train and Battle Set packaging seen in the 1985 Tyco catalog describes the "Hawkfighter" as a "Battlestar Ship", despite the catalog text using the final name. Conversely, the catalog text inaccurately describes the locomotive's "Search Mode" as an "Early Warning Center".
- The package art depicts the train as using the more standard X2F "horn-hook" coupler, but the actual toy uses a simplistic semi-operating (It's not a dummy, but the knuckle is not a separate independently articulated piece) knuckle coupler unique to the licensed Tyco sets.
- In a truly mind-boggling coincidence, the Electric Train and Battle Set's HO scale renders it compatible with TakaraTomy's high end Masterpiece G Series rendition of the Trainbots, the Transformers brand's second foray into model trains some 37 years later.
