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Over the years, a question that would not die is if Pre-TF overstock was used for the first batch of Generation 1 Transformers. More specific, if Diaclone and Microman overstock was sold in the USA and the rest of the world as Transformers. To answer that question we must first decide on what overstock is. According to the dictionary, the definition of overstock is something like "to stock more of (something) than necessary or desirable" or "an excessive supply". Hasbro bought the rights to use many molds that Takara used for their Diaclone and Micro Change toys. So when Takara started manufacturing Transformers for Hasbro, did Takara place left over Diaclone or Micro Change toys in Transformers packaging? Another definition of overstock that is often used, is whether or not Takara used the same molds to produce more units of a certain toy, but this time for Hasbro's Transformers line instead of Diaclone. That is not actual overstock. In this last definition, new toys were produced. That is not what we're talking about in this article. We should also look at why we are talking about overstock in the first place. Where does this theory come from? When Hasbro started their Transformers line, time was short. Catalogs had to be created, a storyline needed developing, packaging had to be designed etc. In the first Transformer catalogs therefore, a few of the toys pictured were different from the final product probably due to the fact that the final product simply wasn't available yet. More specifically, some of the toys pictured were pre-Transformers. The blue colored Bluestreak being the best example. As we would learn over the years to come, it was common practice to show prototype toys inside catalogs or on toy packaging. More examples are the red Tracks shown on the back of 1985 Transformer packages or the Diaclone police version of Sunstreaker pictured in the early Japanese catalogs. Back in 1984, the instruction booklets of some of the 1984 Transformers showed Diaclone sticker sheets with the Diaclone logo carefully hidden. Due to these catalogs and pictures, and the fact that knockoff Pre-TF and genuine Takara Pre-TF were sold all over the world, people often believe that Pre-TF were also sold inside Transformer packages. Variants are sometimes explained by the overstock theory. A few Optimus Prime toys had metal plates inside the trailer which were later replaced with stickers and plastic. The Diaclone version had these metal plates to go along with the Diaclone drivers which had magnetic feet. This doesn't mean however, that these Optimus Primes were overstock. It simply means that Hasbro, at first, adapted the Takara designs and switched later on during production. In my opinion, there never was overstock. At least not on a large scale. Hasbro sold Transformers all over the world. It simply isn't likely that Takara had so much stock. Maintaining stock is expensive. It is possible that only certain parts of toys were overstock. After all, how can you keep a bin full of fragile Prowl toys without breaking them? It is unlikely that Takara had a warehouse full of packaged toys that they opened only to place the toys inside Transformer packages. Transformers in Japan didn't start until a year later, in 1985. In the meantime Diaclone was still on the shelves in Japan and it would make more sense for Takara to fulfill pending orders and finish plans for Diaclone. This would explain for example the red Bumblebee and yellow Cliffjumper toys that were sold on Transformer cards. Copyrights on these toys differed from their Micro Change counterparts. It is also possible that Hasbro simply hadn't decided yet on the colors for Bumblebee and Cliffjumper and that some different colored ones made it to the production stage, a practice that also explains the red Tracks variant that was sold in Europe for a while. Safety laws in the USA also prevented entire units from being re-packaged. The missile launchers used for Diaclone toys were very powerful which is illegal in the USA so these launchers had to be modified. If there was overstock, there are a few markets that were much more likely to receive it than the USA. Takara sold their toys in a few other countries besides Japan. The Italian market is a likely candidate to have received overstock. The Italian company Gig imported Diaclone and other Japanese transforming toys under the brand name of Trasformer. Gig released Diaclone toys roughly in the same order as Takara did in Japan. Somewhere in 1984/1985 Takara stopped producing Diaclone toys which ment a change for the Italian Trasformer line. No longer were Trasformers packaged with Diaclone drivers. In addition, unique Italian catalogs were created instead of the previously used translated Diaclone catalogs. Also the toys themselves changed which is why we now saw Transformers inside Italian Trasformer packages. Examples are the yellow Sunstreaker and red Ironhide which were never available in these colors for Diaclone. Gig did get many actual Diaclone toys though. Gig sold most Diaclone molds in Italy, including most Diaclone toys that never made it to the Transformers line. So during Takara's transition from Diaclone to Transformers it's not unthinkable that Gig received left-over Diaclone goodies. After all, Trasformers started as Diaclone so Takara did their best to fulfill these orders and sold as many Diaclones to them as possible. After 1985, Gig changed to Hasbro Transformers just like the rest of the world. The French Joustra company was in a situation similair to that of Gig. Joustra sold Diaclone toys throughout Europe. They created their own unique packaging and the toys came with small comics. Just like Trasformers some Joustra Diaclone toys were equal to Japanese Diaclones while others were Transformers, an example being the carded Mini-Cars which came with Autobot insignia's. Also in Europe, the first few Transformers were sold by Milton Bradley and some of the Autobot cars came packaged with Diaclone inserts. It is likely that these inserts were overstock. There was still a space for Diaclone drivers and specially folded cardboard was used to keep these toys in place because Transformer packages were larger than Diaclone packages. As I mentioned earlier, Diaclone toys were still on the shelves by the time Hasbro started selling Transformers. Because Takara couldn't just switch from one toyline to another with the snap of a finger there was no need to open up Diaclone packages and place the toys in Transformer packages. When Takara did finally switch to Transformers, many of these Japanese Transformers were similair to their Pre-TF counterparts. Megatron for example fired bullets and Soundwave came with extra parts such as earphones. Had there been overstock than Japanese Transformers would have been a more likely candidate than USA ones.
I'm open to the fact that there *might* have been overstock. After all we don't have any solid evidence against the theory. Thinking logically though, overstock made no sense... |