With
BotCon 2010 breathing new life into
Transformers Generation 2, I wanted to take a moment to revisit the original
G2 and lay out some background information for many people coming to
BotCon this year who may not have been around during the
G2 days.
Generation 2 was launched in America in 1993. I remember it well. Having been born in 1983, and gotten into Transformers shortly after the '86 animated movie came out, I had been sad to see them go. Also, I had gotten into Transformers too late to have
G1 figures of
Optimus Prime,
the Seekers,
the Autobot cars, etc.
G2 contained many
G1 molds in new colors, such as
Optimus Prime (now with a black trailer)Jazz (who sports, for the most part, his
G1 colors)
Sideswipe (now black instead of red)Inferno (with a new watergun)Autobot Minicars (Bumblebee, Seaspray, Hubcap, and Beachcomber) with chrome paintGrimlock (blue, and later turquoise)Slag (green, and later red)Snarl (red, and later green)
Aerialbots (new color schemes, some more offensive than others. Air Raid and Skydive look good, but Slingshot is gold, and don't get me started on the blue and orange Silverbolt)
StarscreamRamjet (in black, purple, and a touch of teal)Constructicons (in yellow, and later orange)Combaticons (featuring camo paint jobs in a variety of colors)
Additionally,
G2 offered up many new characters and designs. With the inability to rerelease
Megatron as a gun, a new figure had to be made. The
green tank Megatron was an impressive figure, despite being a brick.
Other
G2 originals included
Rapido,
Skram,
Windbreaker, and
Turbofire. These four Autobot cars had simple but fun transformations and chromed weaponry that became the engine block in alt mode. It is interesting to note that while
Rapido was mostly red with teal as a secondary color, the inverse is true of
Turbofire. Also, the same is true of
Skram and
Windbreaker's blue and orange schemes. This habit of complimentary color schemes was common in
G2 figures.
Opposing
Rapido and his friends were four small Decepticon jets named
Afterburner,
Terradive,
Windrazor, and
Eage Eye.
G2 also gave us...
Color Changers (Autobots
Drench and
Gobots, Decepticons
Deluge and
Jetstorm) - Portions of the toy would change color under warm water. Each figure was armed with a small watergun.
Rotor Force - Transformers whose spring-loaded weapon fired a spinning rotor. These included
Leadfoot,
Manta Ray,
Powerdive, and
Ransack.
Laser Rods - Transformers with light-up swords and engines! And BALL JOINTS.
Electro,
Jolt,
Sizzle, and
Volt may have been funky colors, but they were hot rod cars anyway.
Laser Rod Optimus Prime. Your collection is incomplete without him.
A few smaller figures (
Go Bots,
Cyberjets,
Laser Cycles).
Combat Hero Optimus Prime &
Combat Hero Megatron with big air-powered missile launchers.
Dreadwing and
Smokescreen, an impressive stealth jet and smaller plane, sporting a huge gatling gun that fired six missiles, three more missiles on each wing (with a button on top to deploy them), and two spring-loaded rifles.
European exclusive Obliterators
Spark and
Colossus, using molds that had been available in Europe as
G1 figures named
Pyro and
Clench after the end of North American
G1.
Generation 2 also had a comic series in the US as well as the UK. The 12-issue Marvel (US) series was written by Simon Furman and showcased several very talented artists. Derek Yaniger did great work on the covers, and many will recall Geoff Senior's work, as well as that of other artists, on the interior pages.
Generation 2 featured cgi animation in its toy commercials, during a time when cgi was still very uncommon. The likes of Reboot and
Beast Wars were still several years away. The only TV series
G2 offered was merely
G1 episodes being re-aired with a new cgi title sequence, and a cgi-animated "Cybercube" replacing the flipping faction symbols for scene transitions.
Well folks, I hope this has been eye-opening for you. It's been fun for me to revisit. See you at
BotCon!
)
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