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In the words of Maz: "Just for the sake of completeness, in the Diaclone line this mold was first issued in blue, then black-hooded, then in gold and silver as prize campaign cars. Later it was retooled in Diaclone as the Fairlady Z Racing type (later to become the TF "Smokescreen"), a Police Type (to become the TF "Prowl") and there was also a Diaclone gold Fairlady Z racing proto campaign car."
 In Italy, GiG released an all silver Fairlady Z and also the racing and police type molds. Most countries received the above as TFs. In Mexico, IGA did their own thing, releasing Bluestreak in mostly grey with an unpainted face, the Prowl was done in at least 3 different schemes with a mostly black look, and Smokescreen was just the original Fairlady Z mold in racing colours, not even the bumpers and spoiler were included. That was later corrected in Mexico.
In Europe they received Prowl as a 1990s Classic toy (you could think of this as the first reissue of the mold, I suppose):
Takara has since reissued Prowl, Anime Streak, and the silver chrome Bluestreak (2002). Hasbro (as of 2002) has released all three Z cars as Toys R Us exclusives (covered in the reissues portion of the PBS section).
 Blue diaclone fairlady *is* seeminly the most-sought after, I suppose, because the US-boxart is blue (so are the instrucs)...it seems to make people misremember that a silver unit was actually in the box. ;-) Which is odd, considering it's not as rare as the diaclone black-hooded Z...which ironically, while not released in the US until the Hasbro reissue silverstreak, *was * the cartoon-model in terms of accuracy...but I digress.
One Other Note: A silver dia-Z was not released in japan that we're aware of; only in italy. However, we still hold out hope... :-) |
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Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 16:45:15 -0000 From: "Himawari" (in response to steve) Subject: Re: Blue When I started in TFs again, and as a kid, there was always the question, why is bluestreak blue on the box but grey as a toy? Because my friend, alot of transformer artwork came from the artwork from the toy before. Example, megatron walther p 38 has similar artwork from the microman version (uncle set).
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Now Diaclones, here's where my query lies. Even on the diaclone boxart Bluestreak is blue. Fair enough, we have blue bluestreaks in the diaclone line. But why the hell are they so damn rare? I see TONNES more grey bluestreaks than blue ones. I see equal grey and black bluestreaks (diaclone) as blue. Both in my case are equally rare. The blue (anniversary color) came first. When you say grey, there were no grey in the diaclone series. Just silver with a clear black t bar roof (Editor's Note: With the exception of the Italian diaclone silver bluestreak, of course. :-))
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And if they did a much smaller run of blue Bluestreaks then why the hell did they use blue Bluestreak on the DIACLONE boxart?
He was the first release. Small run or not, has no relation to what picture they'd choose. |
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Is it because that was their original idea? Make them all blue? No, just he was the first color, and the silver and black one was sold in the same box. (Shy change the picture?) (Editor's Note: Hell, they even left the boxart blue on the Japanese transformer version.)
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I suppose the same question applies to the red Sunstreaker on all the boxes of yellow versions of which I see many more. No, this question doesn't apply at all. The yellow version was released as a Trasformer which is the same as the regular transformer version minus the Hasbro copyrights as far as I know. No yellow Sunstreakers were ever sold in the japanese Diaclone line. Trasformers use the same packaging as the Japanes Diaclone box with some small modifications hence the red Sunstreaker on the box of all the yellow Trasformers from Italy. As for seeing more silver Bluestreaks, of course you'll see more, he was produced all silver for Italy, Mexico, America, Canada, Japan, etc for the Transformers line, but blue only for Diaclone.
Thanks. -Himawari |
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But keeping that in mind, I STILL see more silver Fairladys in Japanese diaclone boxes by a looooong way than I ever see blue Fairladys or silver/black. So why ARE the blue ones so rare EVEN in Japan?
No, you see more silver Fairladys in Trasformer boxes than blue or silver and black Fairladys in Japanese diaclone boxes since there were never silver Fairladys for the Diaclone line period. Let's get it strait once and for all. Diaclone 2 colors: blue, or silver with black top. TraSformers or Transformers; silver. Both versions of the blue or the silver or black are rare in Japan. Why? Just the way it is. Why is the Japanese box of Swoop, Reflector, Trailbraker, white Astrotrain, and first released cassettes so hard to find in Japan? God only knows. Distribution problems? Maybe, perhaps one reason why there are shitloads of white astrotrains and cassettes in the phillipines, or at least there use to be... The point out my case, most of the rare Diaclone toys have popped up in N.A. and not from Japan! Hell, I had to get my red Tracks from a guy in HK. And I live in Japan, but have to buy some items from ebay from time to time because they don't show up in Japan. Most people wouldn't know that unless they lived here. I had a white Astrotrain that I bought from the Phillipines and wanted to see just for fun what would happen if I listed it on Yahoo auction, I started the bid a $500, and someone bid! What the heck, I sold it. Besides I looked at it compared it to the regular one, took my pics, read the box, I was a happy camper since thats probably all I would have done with the toy anyhow. It's funny to think that he was planned to be a good guy to fight Blitzwing, but then changed to a bad guy hence the color change. Notice how lots of Decepticons have purple... |
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BTW, I consider none of the Bluestreaks found in the Trasformer boxes Diaclone since they aren't even the same paint job as the original Diaclone toy. (Really?) TraSformer Bluestreaks came out AFTER Transformers right? therefore TraSformer corvette stingray came out...when? Oh brother...to start the Diaclone tracks (Japanese) was released in April of 84, now Transformers were already ready to be marked at this time and perhaps already being placed on shelves if not already, I figure the Italian Trasformers which came later were released only a few months later but did not get the licencing in time or at least not until the end of 85. I can only base my data on what I've seen from checking toys and dates from their release etc. As far as I know the diaclone dinobots were released in Japan during the months of march and april of 84, and that the Italian Trasformers had them just shortly after so I assume they started the Trasformer line after March of 84 at the extreme earliest. Heck, Powered Convoy didn't start selling until August of 84! During this time toys have already been molded or remolded for the N.A. Transformer line. Thanks No, Thank YOU =)
Your welcome. -Himawari |
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(Editor's Note: You know, it's funny...now, with the reissue Silverstreak in the USA, we'll have the problem all-over again. The box shows the black-hooded Streak, while the toy is silver. The anime Streak was only available in collector's edition Japanese-reissue boxes. Like people who mis-remember seeing a blue Bluestreak in an American box, kids in the future will mis-remember having a black-hooded Silverstreak in their box. Kids, litsten: only the photoshoot piece, as well as a few vendor's samples, would have been like this, if at all. When they hit stores, no black-hooded ones were mistakenly put into american boxes. So stop it! :-)
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Another interesting note, to put it all into perspective: you're never gonna see this! It doesn't exist. Someone stuck a blue dia-Z in an American box. Why must people believe? |