Classics (Europe)

Europe is a strange place.

Classics is a European-market subline from the later days of the original Transformers line.

In 1990 and 1991, the toy market in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe saw many re-releases of earlier Transformers toys. The new packaging was gold-coloured and featured a "Classic" prefix before the respective subgroups' name for the UK, Scandinavian, Dutch, and French markets (Spain and Italy omitted the title "Classic" from the packaging).

The toys released in 1990 even still bore rubsigns, even though the "standard" lines had ceased this practice by 1988. The 1991 releases removed the rubsigns, and many (but not all!) toys with specific indents for rubsigns were retooled to fill those in.

It has been suggested that the toys produced for this line originate from the same production run and facilities as the early-1990s Chinese Generation 1 toyline. This is supported by all the toys having been slightly retooled to block out the original Takara manufacturing details, leaving only the Hasbro details. Additionally, Australia saw the limited release of several toys in their original packaging - not the gold "Classics" style - but the toys were likewise retooled to block out the original year and country of manufacture. Due to the timing of these releases and the similarly changed mold stamps, fans have typically lumped the two sets of reissues together under the "Classics" umbrella, and so we include them here too.

Releases

1990

Classic Heroes Inferno Ironhide Jazz Prowl* Sunstreaker Wheeljack

Classic Aerialbots Air Raid Fireflight Silverbolt Skydive Slingshot

Classic Stunticons Breakdown Dead End Drag Strip Motormaster Wild Rider[sic]

Australian vintage-packaging releases Blaster Cyclonus Ramjet Scourge Soundwave (with Buzzsaw) Starscream

Classics Prowl, the only 1990 release with a notable change from the original.

1991

Classic Throttlebots Goldbug* Rollbar* Wideload Chase* Freeway* Searchlight*		Classic Protectobots Blades* First Aid* Groove Hot Spot Streetwise*		Classic Combaticons Blast Off* Brawl* Onslaught Swindle* Vortex*		Classic Heroes Sideswipe Tracks*		Optimus Prime Classic style
Classic Triple Changers Astrotrain Octane Sandstorm* Springer		Classic Dinobots Grimlock Sludge Snarl*		Original Autobot Leader Optimus Prime

Fiction

• While not officially branded or recognised as Classics fiction, the Earthforce stories in the Marvel UK comic were inspired by, and responding to, the reissues.

Notes

Linguistic discrepancies.

• The Classics reissues were released at a time when Hasbro had arguably reached its peak of packaging variations between various markets, with packaging in three different single languages and (arguably) two different bilingual versions confirmed to exist:
  • The United Kingdom (as well as various Scandinavian markets and Germany) got toys in English packaging.
  • France, Belgium and the Netherlands got toys in bilingual French/Dutch packaging.
  • Spain got toys in Spanish packaging.
  • Italy got toys in Italian packaging, distributed by Hasbro licensee GiG.
  • Additionally, bilingual French/English packaging for some toys has surfaced, which appears to have been intended for the Canadian market. However, according to Canadian fans who were around at the time, the Classics were never actually available in Canada, and since all the known specimens feature small stickers in Chinese language on the packaging, it seems that this packaging might have only ever available in China.

External links

• Information about Australian and European G1 releases at Cliffbee.com
• TFSource article on Euro Classics