The Energon Pub

Hey folks. I've been trying to figure out what faction symbols are used by the Japanese "Car Robots" line of toys. By faction symbols, I mean the little neato-keen autobot/decepticon pictographs that you generally see on the packaging for the toys. In other words, these things:

http://www.shmax.com/Faction_Guide

As far as I can tell by squinting at various package photos I find on this and other sites, the "Car Robots" line is fairly unique in that they don't seem to put any faction symbols anywhere on the packaging (I don't count the little "points" coupon on the back, or the blurry autobot watermark on the front). I'm sort of stumped, but I figured maybe one of you know-it-all types has actually opened one of these up recently, and might have some insight for me.

So, what do you suggest?

- shmax

Only the Predacons and Decepticons (aka the Destrongers for both groups) have faction symbols on them, as they don't need a "disguise" aspect for their alt mode. Nothing's more of a dead give-away that you're an alien robot than a big-ass symbol on your hood

As for the packaging, the designation's enough to show the toy's allegiance (that's with any Japanese line): C for Cybertrons/Autobots and D for Destrons/Decepticons.

Here are the symbols used btw:

for Cybertrons/Autobots
for Animal Destrongers/Predacons
for the Combaticons and Scourge/Black Convoy

The last one is the inverted G2 Autobot symbol The anime shows that Scourge and the Combaticons were Autobot protoforms, stolen and turned evil by Gigatron/Megatron.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Only the Predacons and Decepticons (aka the Destrongers for both groups) have faction symbols on them, as they don't need a "disguise" aspect for their alt mode. Nothing's more of a dead give-away that you're an alien robot than a big-ass symbol on your hood

As for the packaging, the designation's enough to show the toy's allegiance (that's with any Japanese line): C for Cybertrons/Autobots and D for Destrons/Decepticons.

Here are the symbols used btw:

for Cybertrons/Autobots
for Animal Destrongers/Predacons
for the Combaticons and Scourge/Black Convoy

The last one is the inverted G2 Autobot symbol The anime shows that Scourge and the Combaticons were Autobot protoforms, stolen and turned evil by Gigatron/Megatron.

The faction are generally also known as renegades.

The reason for using the symbol is more or less because of Black Convoy's/Scourge's use of the G2 Laser Rod Optimus Prime mold, as the firing discs have the logo imprinted on it. So they just turned it upside down, and gave it to the Renegades.

The reason why the symbol wasn't used in Robots In Disguise comes from the fact that Hasbro in the U.S. do not have the rights to the G2 symbols. They were designed by Hasbro U.K., which under international laws are actually seen as a seperate company from the Head Hasbro company. So only the paper work was done for Scourge to carry the / symbol, and use the symbol for the rest of the line.

Thanks for the comments, guys, but I guess I should have been more clear. My question wasn't "how do I know which faction such-and-such a toy belongs to", or "which symbols appear on the toys themselves".

My question:

With the exception of "Car Robots", there are a few principal faction symbols that are associated with each Transformers toyline, and generally have a uniform appearance as found on the packaging (ie. in G1, the symbols are rendered in chrome). Given the structure of my website (which is currently overwhelmed, apparently--working on it), and my practice of using a toyline's packaged faction symbols to identify the figures, which symbols should I use for "Car Robots"? If the answer is "none", then that's okay, too.

Is that more clear? The question still stands!

- shmax

shmax wrote:Thanks for the comments, guys, but I guess I should have been more clear. My question wasn't "how do I know which faction such-and-such a toy belongs to", or "which symbols appear on the toys themselves".

My question:

With the exception of "Car Robots", there are a few principal faction symbols that are associated with each Transformers toyline, and generally have a uniform appearance as found on the packaging (ie. in G1, the symbols are rendered in chrome). Given the structure of my website (which is currently overwhelmed, apparently--working on it), and my practice of using a toyline's packaged faction symbols to identify the figures, which symbols should I use for "Car Robots"? If the answer is "none", then that's okay, too.

Is that more clear? The question still stands!

- shmax

Like the Rabbit said, the packaging of Carrobots didn't really show the symbols, but rather showed the designation of the figure, which either started with C for Cybertron (Red) or D for Destronger (Purple).

Best to use





And turn that last one upside down and greyscale it.

Thanks for the suggestion, Raymond. I've decided to break convention for "Car Robots" and use the faction symbols as they appear on the toys:

http://www.shmax.com/Database/190?tab=1&page=1

Not perfect, but I guess it'll do for now.

I do have more questions, as always:

1. Sometimes I see "Destron", and other times I see "Destronger". What is the difference, if any? I've been using "Destron" everywhere, but of course I'd prefer to have it right.

2. As you can see from the previous link I posted, my collection of "Car Robots" figure photos is pretty spotty, particularly the robot form photos. I was wondering if I can get away with using the photos from their "Robots in Disguise" counterparts, for which I generally do better:

http://www.shmax.com/Database/227?tab=1

I try to be pretty strict about photos, and I know there are often subtle differences here and there between the American and Japanese versions of toys, but I thought maybe there might be some guidelines regarding this I can follow.

Thanks much, as always, guys...

- shmax

Raymond T. wrote:Like the Rabbit said, the packaging of Carrobots didn't really show the symbols, but rather showed the designation of the figure, which either started with C for Cybertron (Red) or D for Destronger (Purple).

And turn that last one upside down and greyscale it.