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 paint
Grimlock (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)
Starscream
Ramjet (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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