Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

[mweeuser]

I am considering some gen1 reissues and was curious if anyone has both originals and reissues and can talk to any differences, good or bad?

Thanks

[Arucard]

Depends entirely on the reissues. Some are very similar/identical, others have differences depending on if they're Takara or Hasbro reissues, and which series of reissues they are. I'll go by original Hasbro releases as the ones I'm comparing to, since that's the kind most of us have from childhood. For example, Takara have stronger missile launchers compared to original releases. Takara's Jazz has AGENT MEISTER instead of PORSCHE MARTINII on his stickers, some rereleases are coloured more like the cartoons (Galvatron). Hasbro has had to make their missiles much longer for re-releases, and cut smokestacks short.

[waaaaghlord]

Ones that I'm aware of with the TRU Commemrative Series reissues are:

Optimus Prime - shortened smokestacks
Ultra Magnus - shortened smokestacks
Powermaster Optimus Prime - retractable fists and comes with God Bomber/Apex Armour (essentially a reissue of the kitted out Japanese God Ginrai rather than the US PM Prime)
Seekers - lengthened missiles
Skywarp - defective moulding on the nosecone
Soundwave - change of tooling on cassette door buttons and double cassette door rather than single (cassette door comes from the Soundblaster mould)
Jazz - lengthened misiles, think there was a changed head sculpt as well
Prowl - non firing launchers
Tracks - non firing launchers
Inferno - non firing launchers
Grapple (pretty sure that he was in Commemrative, sure someone will correct me otherwise) - non firing launchers.

I'm sure that there are a few more, but those are the ones that spring immediately to mind.

There are some differences in some of the Japanese reissues too:

TFC Starscream - anime colouring, holes in fists and comes with a suitably sized gun mode Megatron
TFC Bumblebee - retooled head
TFC Hot Rod - metal feet, comes with both original Hot Rod guns and Firebolt (modified so that both will fit the same hands)
Galvatron - anime colouring (ehobby did an acurate G1 toy colour version)
Encore Jazz - retooled head
Encore Omega Supreme - retooled head
Encore Bumblebee - believed to be a retooled head, may be the same as the TFC release, not 100% about that

Again I'm sure that there are a few more.

With the Hasbro reissues most of the changes are due to the toys as they were originally released not meeting today's stricter US toy safety laws. In Japan this doesn't seem to apply and changes are usually more about 'tweaking' the toy for the collector market.

[kirbenvost]

Also the Hasbro ones tend to have less Chrome, especially with the launchers on the Autobot cars.