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I'm just pleased that there is only a finite number of true G1 characters, otherwise I think it'd never end (Furmanism alert!)

It's been a while and I have worked hard on my website so any comments are welcome, but below is my fairly rigid collection criteria which helps me steer clear of unnecessary purchase. I might just point out beforehand that I am very anal.

The Three Laws of Inclusion

I have had to be quite strict with what constitutes a 'G1' character while putting this collection together, as I didn't want to flood it with loads of new characters which have come into existence since the original line from many years ago. Therefore, any characters I include have to fulfil at least 1 of the following criteria:

1) Was featured in either the (original) UK or US G1 Comic
2) Was featured in the US G1 Cartoon
3) Was available as a toy in Europe or the US within the G1 toyline

This is why Black Shadow has been removed from this collection, because he did not exist outside of Japan. Events after the Movie split into a completely different continuity in Japan, with too many differences to rectify it back into G1 proper. I do enjoy some of the Japanese cartoon episodes, but in my 'personal canon' I do not strictly see the (Japanese) post-movie events as 'Geewun'.

Drift sucks anyway, which is why I smashed him to bits and used various bits of his anatomy to make customs out of; but even if he wasn't the single worst character ever, he would not be viable for inclusion because he did not exist in any form until IDW made him up, years after G1 was over.

With the criteria above in mind, Roadbuster makes it in on points 1 and 3. Straxus on point 1. Dion on point 2. Overlord makes it in on point 3, by the skin of his metal teeth, because he got a European toy release in the early 1990's. That said, the majority of the figures make it in on all 3 criteria.

I have also decided to exclude Acid Storm. Why? Because he was not referred to by name in any contemporary media and was only retconned into the continuity. I'm not a big fan of retconning and my disdain for Drift only cements that. He also bears no resemblance to the character's paintjob. Using the 3 rules above, he does not meet the criteria for either rule 1 or 3. As far as rule 2 is concerned, he wasn't featured in the US cartoon either, considering he was never even named until 2008 - some 25 years after the episode he was in. He is simply a modern character based (rather loosely) on a generic who was fleetingly seen in a single episode. So bye bye Acid Storm. Dion still gets to stay because he is a named character from the cartoon, which also means if I can get my hands on Ariel or Orion Pax I will do. But, alas, the Rainmakers do not have a place in this database.