Reissues

Reissues. An ideal way for G1 fans to get the figures from their childhood without paying through the roof ebay prices and something that really kick started my collecting.

It was the Takara Collection reissues of Prime and Megatron in 2003 that did for me, when I got PM Prime as a kid I was acutely aware that he wasn't the proper one that I'd seen in a catalogue years before when I hadn't even learned to read and write. And Megatron, much like many of the animal-formers I wasn't even aware that he had a toy.

After some deliberation I got Prime and Megatron. And Jazz and Prowl, then Skids, Tracks and Smokescreen, Sideswipe, Inferno, Starscream and Soundwave. I was hooked on reissues and eagerly checked the Transformers websites for news of the latest reissue.

The Takara Collection reissues were brilliant, good packaging, great artwork and a few little extras such as Prime's energon axe.

Astrotrain, the Minibots, Hot Rod, Hound and Stepper then followed over the next few months, then I found out about some of the older reissues: God Ginrai, Sixshot, and Sixtrain and the other Micromaster combiners. I snapped these up as well, God Ginrai was particularly cool as I left the main figure in the box and used God Bomber to 'upgrade' my childhood PM Prime. Sixshot was and is one of my favourites, cool colour scheme, animal mode, a brick yes, but so much playability if I could send one figure back to the 10 year old version of me I think he'd get the nod.

By this time the reissues were coming thick and fast - even Hasbro got in on the act and so my reissue collection was boosted by the likes of Rodimus Prime, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Dirge, Bluestreak, Red Alert, Grapple and Hoist. That Christmas Takara really did something unexpected and released the Predacons one of the so called reissues that would never happen.

Then came the Insecticons, Blitzwing, Soundblaster, Kup, Wheelie and Blaster. Blaster and Soundblaster were particularly significant as I then started venturing on to ebay to get the animal cassettes that hadn't been reissued (Ramhorn, Overkill, Slugfest and Ratbat). Combined with the Dinobots I suddenly had most of the animal formers from the first few years (84-86). Galvatron got a surprise release as well in anime colours.

The release of Stepper and Soundblaster (and the e-hobby release of Twincast) were interesting releases as they fell into the category of rare outside of Japan and so ridiculously overpriced on ebay. The reissues of these meant that people who had forked out for them in some sense lost money overnight. Something is only worth what people are willing to pay and with the rare exception of people who want originals; if a reissue is available people will choose that over an expensive original.

Blaster was to be the last collection reissue, and the reissues went on hiatus until the Encore line which was a return to the original style boxing. Having got all the collection reissues meant that I wouldn't follow the Encore line too closely but Ironhide, Ratchet and Trailbreaker were all released and meant I had pretty much all of the 84 releases. Sky Lynx and Omega Supreme really shook up the potential of the line and with Metroplex proved Takara were happy to release some of the bigger bots.

I managed to get Trypticon for a really good price on ebay (with working electronics) and I picked up Mirage, Sunstreaker and Wheeljack. My collecting was really focused at this point - 1984 and 85 Transformers and the cast of Call of the Primatives.

I've picked up most of the figures that have been ever released, notable exceptions are Star Convoy whom I've given much thought to but eventually decided against since he doesn't feature in any fiction that I've ever read or watched. The only other reissued figures I don't have are the 1986 Minibots, I deliberately passed on these in my bid not to try and collect every figure ever. I know nothing of the characters of these figures, and since they're repaints of 84 and 85 figures which I do have I don't see the point in owning them. If I could just stick to that decision there may be some hope........

Reissues have really shaped how and what I collect, getting all of the 84 and 85 bots became an obvious goal (particularly those which featured in the anime) and collecting of all the leaders.

I think I've managed to mention every G1 figure which has been reissued (did I mention Landcross was released as a 'Micromaster' combiner?). I suppose you could also include various figures which have been recycled for other lines, particularly the Takara Brave series which used many of the Japanese exclusive figure from the tail-end of G1 and Brave Maximus in the Car Robots (RID) line, a recoloured release of Fortress Maximus. The Seacons and Trypticon got released in the Japanese Beast Wars line, missing a few accessories (and one team member for the Seacons) but otherwise complete. For me the Beast Wars Seacons have a superior colour scheme to the originals and so I picked these up instead of the G1 figures.

The Combaticons are also due for release along with some more of the cassettes. It will be interesting to see what the future brings.