The Transformers (Chinese toyline)
 |
| |||||||||||||||
Although the original The Transformers toyline was hugely popular throughout much of the world during the mid-1980s, the People's Republic of China would not see the line until well past its global heyday. While it's not been officially confirmed, it is highly likely that this was due to Chinese government mandates preventing the line releasing there more than anything else; China's a big market, and you know Hasbro would have loved to have had a slice of that pie if they could.
In August 1989, Hasbro International resumed production of classic Transformers toys at Chinese factories for the local market. The Chinese Transformers toyline would eventually include many —but definitely not all— of the toys that had been available in the United States through the first five years of the US line. In its final year (1995), it incorporated several otherwise Japanese-exclusive toys from the Victory series. Ultimately, the total number of toys in the Chinese line tallies up to a little more than 100.
Interestingly, this delayed release would have a huge effect on the brand many years later. The first live-action movie came out right at the time when the kids from when the original series hit mainland China had grown up and were at the right age for some good old nostalgia-indulging, and many were coming into more disposable income to boot thanks to surges in the middle class, adding even more to the already-lunatic amount of profit the film franchise had earned elsewhere. Thus, the Chinese market became, and remains, a very sizable chunk of Hasbro's financial interests.
Toys
Most Chinese Generation 1 toys came in the same boxes as their American (or sometimes European) counterparts, only with small stickers in the corner giving the characters' Chinese names. The copyright and manufacturing information on the back of the box was also shortened to remove the no-longer-true statements "Made in Japan", "Made in Taiwan", etc. and omit references to Takara. The manufacturing information was instead applied as a sticker in Chinese on the back of the box. By 1994, when the Power Master-era toys were released, "Made in China" was added to the box. Other differences exist as well on the packaging, depending on the toy. For example, the Chinese Optimus Prime has black boxes around his toy images instead of white boxes, and a too-high window cut. Chinese Autobot cars and jets have thick tape instead of the normal thinner tape.
The toys were basically identical to the original Hasbro and Takara releases, but some had small but notable variations. For example, the Triggerbots and Triggercons had rubsigns added to them, all of the Mini-Cassettes had painted cassette-side details instead of stickered cassette-side details, the Clones have their second altmode-indicating rubsign replaced with a foil faction stickers, etc. However, all of the toys share one key difference from the originals: an altered copyright stamp. The early releases have no "Takara" or country stamp, while the later releases still have no "Takara" stamp, but do have a "China" stamp.
Note that there is evidence to suggest that these toys were made by the same factory that made the European-market Classics reissues. Both of them share the same augmented copyright stamp on the toys, both were made in China, many share the same alterations to the original releases (such as Tracks's altered shin deco), and both were made and released around the same time. Also, some Classics reissues have surfaced with Chinese name stickers in the corner.
1989-1990 (1984-1986 US/EU product)
These toys were slowly released over the course of several years in three "waves". While it is most likely that these were released in the same general yearly batches as the original Hasbro US line, we have not been able to confirm that... also, in some cases it would mean that only one toy out of some subgroups were released a year, such as with the Mini Vehicles. So until we can get more information, they're gonna be a bit clumped up here, sorry. (For the multi-year assortments, we're foregoing the usual all-alphabetical listings and grouping them by their original release years, juuuuuust in case.)
| Autobot Mini Vehicles | Mini-Cassettes | Constructicons | Aerialbots | |||||
| Stunticons | Protectobots | Autobot Cars | ||||||
| Triple Changers | Dinobots | Decepticon Planes | Communicators | |||||
| Decepticon Leader | Autobot Commander
|
1993 (1987 US/EU product)
| Mini-Cassettes | Clones | Double Spy | Decepticon Six Changer | |||||
Headmasters
|
(w/ Duros) (w/ Gort) |
(w/ Vorath) (w/ Grax) (w/ Monzo) |
Headmaster Horrorcons
| |||||
Targetmasters
|
(w/ Peacemaker) (w/ Caliburst) |
(w/ Spoilsport) (w/ Blowpipe) |
Headmaster Bases |
1994 (1988 US/EU product)
| Cassettes | Triggerbots / Triggercons | Headmasters | (w/ Quig) (w/ Lokos) |
|||||
| Powermasters | (w/ Rev) (w/ Hotwire) (w/ Lube) |
Powermaster Autobot Leader
|
1995 (1989 Japan Victory product)
 |
| |||||||||||||||
The Victory toys released in 1995, unlike the US toys released before them, basically used augmented Japanese packaging, with the characters' names now written in Chinese, and the Japanese Transformers logo replaced with a similarly styled Chinese language logo saying "Battles of Victory" (胜利之斗争). These versions are easily recognizable if you don't know Chinese or Japanese, because the "Takara" logo is printed in English instead of Japanese on the boxes.
Multiforce
|
Brainmaster | Breastforce
|
|
 |
Availability outside of mainland China
Chinese Generation 1 toys were widely exported to Taiwan and South Korea, with additional stickers applied to the packaging for those markets. They were also released to multiple other countries outside of Asia, including Australia, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. These would sometimes, albeit not always, feature some additional sticker indicating that they were imports.
In 1991, Takara sold a set of Chinese Aerialbots as a mail-away offer, complete with the American-style packaging. It is suspected, but yet to be confirmed, that the set of Dinobots that was another Takara mail-away offer the following year was also of Chinese origin.
Many Western collectors who have come into possession of Chinese Generation 1 toys have mistaken them for knockoffs, due to both the nature of their packaging and the trend of shady Chinese companies manufacturing an extreme amount of high-quality counterfeit vintage Generation 1 toys since the 2000s.
External links
- Chinese G1 Reissue ID Guide
- The Little Sticker in the Corner: The Truth about Early-1990's Chinese G1 Transformers Toys
- Fighting "Transformer Fever"
