The Energon Pub

Help me ID these old KO's please! Most were bought in the late 80's or early 90's.
(I know what the Darkwing and Gobot are.)


KO Slag (Is this a Diaclone?)
Peacock Transformer (Where is this from?)
KO Oversized Darkwing (Made in China - From a flea market)
KO Snarl Imitation (Where is this from?)
Dumptruck Transformer (Where is this from?)
Go Bot Leader 1

Left to right:

Diaclone Slag - unknown - G1 darkwing KO - unknown - unknown(looks like a gobot) - Gobot Leader-1

The peacock is a Grandstand Coverters piece, called Feathers. Well, it;s a KO of that toy.

I don't know the name, but I used to have the Snarl imitation. He came in a set of 5, all with the same dinosaur mode as the Dinobots, IIRC, but I don't remember them all having similar bot modes and transformations. My parents ordered them out of either a Sears or JCPenney catalog in either '87 or '88.

Sorry I can't remember anymore.

I think that is real Feathers Convertor, it just has the chrome worn off.

I've been brushing up on miscellaneous transforming robots over the past year, so I'll take a crack at this:

#1: Slag- Looks like Diaclone, and a little too old to be from KOTOYS, but I'm not sure I'd rule out his being an old Four Star KO, though not the green, nutty remold.

#2: Feathers- Yep that's the real deal. If it was the recent Quick Change KO, the stickers would be different, and the tail would be all white plastic with no trace of chrome. Half the time these are missing their tails altogether, so it's not in terrible shape, since loose ones usually lack their swords anyway.

And this is from the American Select Convertors line, which were mostly around this size, and included tiny versions of Whirl, Roadbuster, some deluxe Insecticons, and a shocking amount of heroic Macross mecha as the main bad guys. Grandstand Convertors was a European line with a lot of Diaclone and Microman toys repackaged without drivers, plus a couple big vehicles and Omegator, the dark grey and red Omega Supreme which may have been both TF Omega's namesake and the reason he didn't get released in the UK. It's confusing that both lines of Convertors were in stores on different sides of the Atlantic around the same time, but technically had nothing to do with each other. Still, I like to imagine Feathers and his fellow Avarians pursuing their archenemies the Insectors to Cardiff or Amsterdam, only to find that they've enlisted the aid of Siclonoid, the GSC Warudoros.

#3: Darkwing- This is the same color scheme as the Darkwing I got in an Easter basket at Meijer 4 years ago, the last big TF KO I've seen packaged thus. That was roughly the same mold as the all white Darkwing and Dreadwind that haunted a lot of Big Lots prior.

#4: The Dinosaur- Stegatron, from the Buddy L Dinotron line, making him close kin of the Bug Bots, which had the same pullback motors as the tiny cars and trains in the main Robotron line. There were likely just 3 dinos, in 2 color schemes each. While their transformations were similar enough to Grimlock, Sludge, and Snarl, to be considered "rip-offs", they were technically original sculpts. The only true KO from Buddy L was one of the Gobot Royal-T.

#5: Grey/Blue Truck- Easily the most obscure of your lot, but you don't transform him as much as reassemble him, right? That makes him a Road Bot, from Marchon Inc. I had the yellow cement truck version in '85, which was cool because his head was shaped so much like Ironhide's cartoon model head. Can't remember if it had a pullback or friction motor though.

#6: Yep, Leader One.

Thanks everyone!

Bumblevivisector wrote:#1: Slag- Looks like Diaclone, and a little too old to be from KOTOYS, but I'm not sure I'd rule out his being an old Four Star KO, though not the green, nutty remold.

I think I got this one around 1990, so I know it is not from KOToys. I have one of the green nutty remold also, but it is in about 5 pieces.

Bumblevivisector wrote:#2: Feathers- Yep that's the real deal. If it was the recent Quick Change KO, the stickers would be different, and the tail would be all white plastic with no trace of chrome. Half the time these are missing their tails altogether, so it's not in terrible shape, since loose ones usually lack their swords anyway.

Thanks! I always wondered about this one. It had chrome on it when I first got it, but got beat up pretty good. The head doesn't really stay on anymore.

Bumblevivisector wrote:#4: The Dinosaur- Stegatron, from the Buddy L Dinotron line, making him close kin of the Bug Bots, which had the same pullback motors as the tiny cars and trains in the main Robotron line. There were likely just 3 dinos, in 2 color schemes each. While their transformations were similar enough to Grimlock, Sludge, and Snarl, to be considered "rip-offs", they were technically original sculpts. The only true KO from Buddy L was one of the Gobot Royal-T.

I actually really like this one. It is like an extremely simplified version of Snarl, and almost toddler friendly.

Bumblevivisector wrote:#5: Grey/Blue Truck- Easily the most obscure of your lot, but you don't transform him as much as reassemble him, right? That makes him a Road Bot, from Marchon Inc. I had the yellow cement truck version in '85, which was cool because his head was shaped so much like Ironhide's cartoon model head. Can't remember if it had a pullback or friction motor though.

Yeah, this thing just comes apart, and gets reassembled as a dump truck. he has little black fists somewhere too, but I think I somehow rigged them to be Optimus Prime hands when I needed them.