Oh, Mexico... Land of...um...

Good-old Hasbro. After Transformers conquered the US and UK, they invaded Mexico via a company called IGA...with some interesting results. Different plastic, paper-stickers, odd paintjobs (lead-paint, no less)...some tfs looked the same, others were out in left-field. :-) Speaking of left field, what didn't sell in Mexico (most of it) was shipped to other countries...so you end up with Mexican variants in the UK, among other places. More... Another excellent read on Mexican tfs is Nevermore's article. In the mean time, I will highlight some of my favorites below(somewhat complete listing follows after).

Mexican Hoist with Trailbreaker head. Mexican Prowl with cool black paint job. Optimus Prime. The evil-recharge version. :-) Mexican Bluestreak. See the grey and smokescreen versions! Mexican Skywarp with purple nosecone. Mexican minibots. No, seriously... Thundercracker - The Ultimate Maz Review! Astrotrain. You'll note, again, the sloppy red eye paint. Like most of the other Decepticons released in Mexico, the plastic is a of a different material, and of-course the colors don't quite synch up (different shade of green on Devastator, for example). The Mexican Decepticons we're familiar with at the moment are the first 3 jets. (Starscream, in-particular, looks like a knockoff) and Ramjet that we know of, Devastator, Blitzwing, and it's been theorised that Megatron, Soundwave, and several other Decepticons were released in Mexico as well, though it's not confirmed at this time what variations, if any, exist.) Hound. Don't lick him. :-) Actually, like most of the other deluxe Autobots released in Mexico (Ironhide, Ratchet, Prime, Bluestreak, Hoist, Prowl, Sideswipe, Trailbreaker, Wheeljack, Grapple, Inferno, Red Alert,Metroplex) they came with noticeable color-changes, and paint problems. Early ones suffered from lead paint, white TFs (Red Alert, Ratchet, Metroplex) were creme-colored, colors were all-around dull...you get the picture. :-) Though it is interesting to note that initial versions of Grapple had red feet (like Inferno) and Metroplex, in-particular, had nicer looking red guns. ;-) It's theorised that a few other Autobots were released in the Mexican line, but not yet confirmed. Dinobots: Ee're told that the all-silver versions (or at least, *some* version of all-silver ones) came from here, but as we've seen knockoffs with the same properties, it's a toss-up (the issue of sticker quality comes to mind as well). It is unknown if the copyrights match the Mexican pattern at this time. Coming soon: Mexican Jumpstarters!

There are a number of others in the Mexican line. Most are different plastic, colors, etc. The moldings themselves, with the exception of the blocked copyright in the first series, are identical to their american counterparts. The differences (as stated here), are things like the lead-based paint (for example, don't lick Hound, no matter how tasty he looks. :-) (You will note that they still had to slap the red paint on many of the TFs eyes.) :-) What the heck is with that...maybe Transformers are all el-diablo in that country). Later runs are imported from the USA.