Transformers G1: Favourite moments?

A lot of the animated character models were deliberately more humanlike because it was easier to draw and it was felt they would relate to kids better. The molds for many of the toys were drawn from two separate lines (Microchange and Diaclone) and in more than a few instances they had originally been designed to be lifeless piloted vehicles that came with mini-figures. This is why the Ironhide/Ratchet mold was rather funky and the Dinobot and Insecticon molds had those little flipout compartments that didn't seem to serve a specific Transformer function. Megatron's character model was based on an earlier prototype whose transformation was more accurate to what we saw onscreen, and had things like the cannon rotating to the back rather than to the middle as on the final toy.

Additionally, some of the animation errors that cropped had to do with the original toys being in different colors prior to Transformers, and they would sometimes be colored that way by mistake. Ironhide's mold was black, so he occasionally turns black in certain scenes. Poor Bluestreak got the worst of this. His original Diaclone colors were blue with a silver hood, and this version appeared on the box art and the first Transformers catalogs. The cartoon used an alternate Diaclone scheme that was largely black and silver instead, and the toys used a unique all-silver scheme for Transformers. No packaged blue version of the toy has ever been found, but it has become something of a running joke in the fandom. Astrotrain and Perceptor also had well-known prototype color schemes that were different from the final version, and Astrotrain's animated model kept his darker prototype colors. This figure would have had some features not present in the final toy, such as arms that could extend and shrink to fit into the vehicular modes.

Jetfire was a rather unique case, because his mold was licensed from Bandai and Takara (which was Bandai's rival and produced the Japanese Transformers) couldn't legally produce his toy. His character model was heavily altered and renamed Skyfire, and he only made rare appearances because Hasbro didn't want Takara to think they were giving Bandai free publicity. Other notable characters, like Omega Supreme and Sky Lynx, also had their molds taken from other toy lines besides Takara and often they didn't exist in the Japanese continuity for that reason. Same with the Deluxe Insecticons, who have made only rare appearances outside of the original toyline. The comics kept the animation model for Jetfire but called him by that name and gave him an entirely new origin, being a creation of Shockwave.

Swoop is an oddball, in that the other four Dinobots were released as toys in the UK but Swoop's mold wasn't, even though he still appeared regularly in the cartoon and comics. Why that happened, I'm not sure.

 

IDW has done some interesting things with the Starscream/Megatron relationship, and it was actually rather fun watching Megatron chase Starscream in his newer IDW body after he retook command. Prime nearly killed him after a Decepticon assault on Earth and Starscream assumed command, but he secretly always expected Megatron would be back.

 

Devastator's molds existed in Diaclone, and the original color was orange (later used for Generation 2 in some places). The distinctive green color was exclusive for Transformers. The later five-point combiners which became standard are what's known as the "Scramble City" system. When the combining teams were introduced in Japan, Takara made a special episode called Scramble City which was designed to advertise not only them, but Metroplex and Trypticon as well. All of these molds had originally been designed for Diaclone but were never released in that line, and that's why they're designed to fit together as well. Metroplex will actually connect to Decepticon commanders like Onslaught and Motormaster just like Trypticon does, but for obvious reasons that feature wasn't mentioned when the figures were carried over for Transformers.

One of the features somewhat exclusive to the Japanese episode is that because of the design similarities, it's possible for the limb of a combiner to detach and fit into the socket of an enemy combiner if that limb is knocked off or damaged/injured, and thus mess up the whole gestalt robot. It was also assumed that the gestalt forms could rotate their limbs and utilize specific abilities for that individual, but this isn't translated in the best way.

Interestingly enough, there is a concept art of Menasor's character model with the limbs in different positions and wearing Autobot symbols, implying that the Stunticons might have initially been conceived as Autobots in keeping with the ground/air scheme for the factions. Presumably this would mean that Superion would have been a Decepticon, but no other art of this concept has yet surfaced. If you compare the 1985 battle scenes, though, you can see what I mean earlier about differences between the Japanese and American versions. The Japanese version removes the non-Takara molds and puts the Constructicons in their place, along with Hoist and Blitzwing. Swoop is notably absent from the U.S. version this time, but the Japanese remembered. There are also two versions of Tracks (red and blue, the latter is next to the Dinobots) as the result of an apparent error. Red was the alternate Diaclone scheme and may have been intended for the American release, as Tracks is red on the American version, but blue was switched at the last moment. Europe did get the red version. Or maybe that was just Road Rage. Japan also recycled some elements for their 1986 package art, featuring the Scramble City characters.

The Combaticons had a whole set of earlier character models, which strangely have bodies based on the toys but heads that aren't, whereas the finished models have toy-accurate heads but the bodies take some liberties. Swindle's final model wound up being rather strange, in that his torso seems clearly designed to transform so the front of the jeep is formed from his waist and feet and the rear/windshield section forms his chest and back. He was consistently animated this way, but his toy does the exact opposite mechanically.

Isn't production continuity fun? Sometimes you run across some very interesting things, like this test image which was seemingly used to evaluate the Pretender concept. They let Twin Twist test drive Waverider's shell apparently.