Diaclone Black New Countach LP500S (Sideswipe)

DIACLONE BLACK NEW COUNTACH LP500S (SIDESWIPE) - "PROJECT VANGUARD"

In this day and age of vintage Transformers and Diaclone collecting, an age where websites, forums, Facebook, blogs, publications and a strong knowledgeable community have helped expose almost every secret of those venerable toy lines, we don't expect to see anything completely new any more. Maybe the odd Finnish Diaclone packaging variant, a foreign Ceji Joustra release of a favourite with exclusive box artwork or even an Italian GiG pre-Transformer with a mish-mash of Diaclone and Transformers colours or moulding that finally gets confirmed. But to find something completely unheard of and new that nobody knew existed, something that has never been seen by the wider collecting community in approximately 30 years, that is impossible to imagine nowadays, right?

Wrong. 2012 has been the year of Earth-shattering Diaclone discovery, and not from some far-flung country where a distant experimental Diaclone past has been uncovered thanks to an ancient but brief pre-TF era agreement with Takara, but from Japan. The first surprising discovery was made just before 2012 began with the appearance of a red-cabbed Japanese Powered Convoy with chrome trailer in factory-fresh condition, clearly a relic from the dying end of the Japanese Diaclone line, possibly even an unreleased sample or variant that never made it to the stores. What you see pictured at the head of this article is another such Japanese Diaclone secret that has finally reached the surface, the all-black New Countach LP500S.

What is your brain and your experience telling you about this information? How is it trying to attach logic, rational interpretation and coherence to a toy and variant that simply shouldn't and didn't exist in this format? If it is anything like mine when I first laid eyes upon it then you are currently telling yourself that a black New Countach LP500S (pre-Sideswipe) was only available in a Powered Convoy DX set originally, mostly black but with significant blue sections. It was never released in single-car packaging such as this. Only the original red New Countach and the later repainted yellow New Countach came in such a box.

Then maybe you spot some details such as the lack of blue parts on this black New Countach, or the fact that there are no gold Lamborghini stickers on the side. The Diaclone black Countach was of course reissued by Takara and E-Hobby as "Deepcover", and there is a G2 black and red Sideswipe from the US and Europe, surely someone has just used parts from those and a regular Diaclone New Countach plus box/insert to create this package?

The eagle-eyed among you may also have noticed that the product number on this black Countach's box matches the first red release of the toy (461320-0-1500), not the later yellow repaint's product number (159705-0-1500), so how could it even be a repaint of the original toy since the box is clearly wrong? Customisers have been creating all-black or all-white Sideswipes out of junkers and reissues for years, and even a good collector friend of mine once placed his PCDX black/blue New Countach in a single-pack box for shits 'n' giggles, which you can see here:

Just looking at this false image above, if you were to stick the blue outer packaging around it to cover the Diaclone driver and the launcher and remove the exclusive gold Lamborghini door decal, how would it be distinguishable from the black New Countach just found? It wouldn't, and it was because of all these sceptical thoughts that I found it so hard to accept that we had a brand new Diaclone Car Robot variant on our hands. The knowledge that resides within the collecting community these days is such that any new discovery must be met with such questions, demands for proof and caution thanks to counterfeits and scammers. Anyone familiar with 2012's $3000 Black Diaclone Tracks fraud will know the importance of details and airtight information.

Speaking of proof, before any detailed analysis or research could take place, we had to be sure that all of the basics were in place to avoid wasting our time in case something obvious could be identified as fake or custom. We also realised quite early on that pre-conceptions and long-built assumptions about Diaclone and its Car Robots had to suspended if this was to go anywhere. The first assumption to dispense with would be that this was a later release around the same time or after the Yellow New Countach LP500S or PCDX. The box and product number place it firmly around the same time as the red release in 1983.

So, taking this to be a proper single-packed No.15 New Countach LP500S variant, the contents of the package were as you would expect. The driver was the correct yellow type, the missiles and handgun were white, the launcher was black-bodied with a black tab (red Countach had red tab, yellow Countach had yellow tab), instructions and stickersheet were vintage and correct as was the catalogue. Nothing missing, nothing suspicious, but the fact still remained that on a surface level all of this could be achieved with the most basic of Diaclone knowledge and access to the appropriate toys, parts and paperwork.

Once we had seen and agreed that the toy appeared legitimate on the surface, it was time to carry out a more thorough investigation of the moulding, appearance, history, accessories and compare it as closely as possible to every available Diaclone and Transformers New Countach mould we could get our hands in in order to verify or disprove its authenticity as a previously undiscovered variant Diaclone Car Robot. There's really no room for assumption or half-baked theories here, when you consider the gravity of such a discovery and what it means to the accepted history and extent of the Diaclone Car Robot toy line, no stone can be left unturned. While I believe it is impossible to know the full truth and prove to everyone beyond any reasonable doubt, I can say that what we found left us in no doubt about the genuine nature of this toy.

Let's start simple, the colour of the toy and its parts. The first black Diaclone New Countach from the PCDX set was a black car with blue highlights, robot extremities and innards. Distinguishing features include a blue front bumper, blue robot head, hands and shins and a blue rocket launcher with black tab.

The PCDX black New Countach, as mentioned before, has a signature gold Lamborghini factory sticker on each of the doors. Comparing this to the E-Hobby reissue Deepcover toy, we see that the gold factory sticker on the side contains stars instead of a licensed Lamborghini logo, but the colours are the same:

Clearly the Autobot and shield stickers on the hood have been applied off Deepcover's stickersheet. Notice again the blue bumper and innards visible in vehicle mode for both the PCDX and E-Hobby Deepcover black Countaches. Deepcover would also have a blue-bodied launcher with a black launching tab, much like the PCDX black Countach. We will discuss accessories in detail a little later.

The Generation 2 Sideswipe may seem a million miles away from the more understated Diaclone and G1 Countaches, but there are numerous black body parts here that could have been used to create our Diaclone new boy, and every possibility had to be explored. If you can see past the gaudy stickers, we have another black New Countach but with a red front bumper, red innards, red robot head and extremities. The launcher for the G2 Sideswipe was completely different so we will neglect to include that in our discussion.

Now with all this in mind, let's look at the mystery Diaclone black New Countach LP500S again:

There are no blue parts and no red parts anywhere to be seen. It is just a straight-up black version of the standard red Diaclone New Countach LP500S. Where previously this toy was red, it is now black; hood, doors, roof, innards and rear. The robot parts are exactly the same as the standard red Diaclone New Countach too; black head, black hands, black waist, black shins, white legs, white abdomen. This toy is the most exact interpretation of the phrase 'Black Sideswipe' in existence. Very significantly, the front bumper on this toy is also black, like the standard red release. You may be thinking that none of the above is important because it can all be faked/customised with the correct bits at hand, and you'd be right, except for the bumper.

This mould's front bumper is not clipped on, it was originally fed through the nose of the car via 2 small pegs and then melted on the other side to stay in place. It cannot be removed or replaced by clipping, pulling or unscrewing. Serious work would have had to go into uniting a black PCDX New Countach hood, a black Deepcover hood or a black G2 Sideswipe hood with a black bumper. This kind of work usually leaves marks, and this black New Countach is utterly pristine with no evidence of the screws having been touched. So that's our first piece of positive evidence, a black hood/bumper combo.

Due to the widespread creation, use and distribution of reproduction toy labels, this is perhaps the weakest area of evidence that we will study. However, if as requested you have been able to suspend your disbelief, you will see that there are interesting facts here to observe too. Once again, there are distinguishing features that allow us to separate various release groups from one another within the New Countach toys.

Earlier New Countach toys from the Diaclone and vintage G1 era had proper factory stickers as we know, with the E-Hobby and later reissues sporting tampographs. The headlight stickers on Diaclone New Countaches read "rallye racing", but reissue Deepcover's tampographs say "rally racing", the word "rally" no longer misspellt with an 'e' on the end. This is something of a moot point though as we're talking about the difference between a sticker and a tampo, but again it's just one more detail that the black New Countach scores well on.

The inclusion of the above photograph of a yellow New Countach LP500S is meant to demonstrate another distinguishing feature of the Diaclone moulds. You will notice that the factory-applied door stickers are quite lopsided and not even positioned correctly within the moulded door recesses. This is extremely common in Diaclone Countaches both red and yellow, and all four of the yellow and red Diaclone New Countaches I have owned exhibited this kind of door and roof factory sticker application causing peeling and visible wear on otherwise case fresh contents. Sometimes the roof sticker was so badly applied that the two holes moulded into the roof recess were visible.

Our beautiful black Countach shows similar careless factory sticker application on the roof. If someone was going to the trouble of using reproduction labels, surely they would apply them properly. That is unless the cynics among you believe that it was a cunning ploy to further convince us of this toy's authenticity! I'll admit that it still wasn't enough for me, so let's move onto the door stickers.

Well, that's interesting. There are no door stickers at all, and if we are to believe that this is a straight black version of the red and yellow Diaclone New Countaches down to the minute features, this comes as something of a stumbling block. Annoyingly, the PCDX Black New Countach and E-Hobby Deepcover do not have any stickers or tampographs on their doors either. But maybe we should take a closer look before dismissing anything...

Can you see the residue and factory sticker-shaped marks? At some point in time there WERE stickers there, and they were mis-applied! From a recent experience with my own Diaclone yellow New Countach which I took out of storage for the first time in years, a simple removal from the styro can cause the door stickers to move and peel. We believe that in its past, this Diaclone black New Countach had the authentic factory-applied door stickers, that they were as badly applied as with the other contemporary Diaclone New Countaches, and they were either removed or lost. You do have to ask yourself, why would you need such black factory labels on an already black toy if they are so prone to wear and peeling? Once more we were forced to ask ourselves if anybody was so meticulous as to go to these lengths in order to assure collectors were fooled.

Just to cover all things under the banner of "Stickers", the stickersheet included is, as you would expect, precisely the same as that of the red and yellow version. So to summarise, our second piece of positive evidence comes in the form of mis-applied factory roof and door stickers.

Even though the evidence is mounting, it's far from conclusive at this stage, so onwards we go...

While it may seem that we are continually concentrating on increasingly smaller pieces of evidence, I can assure you I've saved the best for last, but for now let's take a look at the Diaclone black New Countach's accessories, specifically the rocket launcher. With every incarnation of the Diaclone and G1 New Countach toy, the launching tab has reflected the main colour of the vehicle in question. The first Diaclone New Countach and G1 Sideswipe had a red launching tab, the yellow Diaclone and reissue "Tigertrack" had yellow tabs, the Police Diaclone New Countach and Red Alert had white launching tabs and the PCDX black Countach and reissue Deepcover have black launching tabs. It follows, then, that this freshly discovered black New Countach has a black tab.

What makes it different from the PCDX Countach and Deepcover launchers is that those had a mainly blue body with only the tab being black, but this toy has an all black launcher as it should if the colouring scheme was to be correctly observed for the single-pack Diaclone New Countach.

Let's first have a look at the PCDX black Countach launcher, and then Deepcover's launcher:

A few things to pay attention to here, first of all we must take note of the PCDX launcher's different moulding on the chrome ring that circles the front of the launcher. It is much closer in mould to a Transformers Red Alert launcher (also being from 1985 Takara stock), but the black New Countach and Deepcover have the more common chrome ring with the two hollow 'dimples' around the launcher mouth. Of less import (and harder to prove without more specimens) is the amount of plastic flash on the top of the black launching tab piece on both Diaclone black Countaches where it was separated from its parent sprue/tree compared to Deepcover's tab, which seems quite smooth there.

The black Diaclone New Countach launcher screws also showed absolutely no sign of removal or tampering in case we are to believe that someone simply dropped a black launcher from Deepcover or a PCDX Countach into a standard Diaclone red Countach launcher. Here is the black Countach's launcher and handgun alongisde those of G1 Sideswipe and G1 Red Alert:

This image demonstrates the difference in chrome ring moulding on early Diaclone Countach launchers and Red Alert (and also PCDX) launchers. It also shows that the handgun for black Countach has the correct long handle and noticeably more plastic flash on the top of the tab.

More and more the feeling we were getting was that someone would had to have gone to quite extreme and expensive lengths to recreate all of the subtle distinguishing features we have covered so far in order to assure an air of authenticity for this toy, but we were also certain that the aforementioned points would not have convinced all and sundry of the true nature of the Diaclone black New Countach. It is our last section of evidence that places this toy's authenticity beyond reasonable doubt...

It's time to put any lingering doubt about this toy's authenticity to bed. One can look at stickers, paperwork, accessories and surface features as much as one desires, but the truth is almost always found in the moulding and copyright details of any given toy. As we said earlier, the New Countach LP500S mould makes this even easier for us because it has gone through many changes in its lifetime of use down the decades.

These kind of minute facts and the placing of toys (they are just toys after all) under the microscope can often turn some collectors off, but it depends how deep your interest and need for confirmation goes. How much does this mean to you? Are you willing to just accept the existence of this black Diaclone Countach because we say so, or are the foundations of your belief in the completeness of our Diaclone knowledge feeling shaky enough for you to hang on through this final part? Your reward is proof, so hang on!

Exhibit A: the chest pegs. These photographs clearly shows the moulding on the Diaclone Countach's chest pegs, those circular black plastic bits on the ends of storks protruding from the top of the robot chest that frame his head. They are very obviously and almost perfectly circular, but a reissue Deepcover's chest pegs are a different shape and not as perfectly circular, the curves of the pegs just merge into the straight stork-like sections. Hopefully this is demonstrated in the following picture of a reissue Tigertrack's chest:

All that proves is that our black Diaclone New Countach's hood and chest piece are not from a reissue, but it still shares the same chest peg moulding as a PCDX black/blue New Countach and a G2 Sideswipe. So how do we further distill its identity from those two? We must flip them all over, that's how.

Exhibit B: the copyright stamping. One thing that people find hard to believe is that the Diaclone PCDX black Countach is almost a Transformers toy in regards to its moulding. It was manufactured in 1985 around the same time as rubsign-edition Sideswipes and Red Alerts, hence the late-style launcher mould we saw earlier. It is different in many ways to its earlier red and yellow Diaclone New Countach cousins. Further cementing that fact is the location and content of its copyright found under the hood. PCDX black Countach's copyright has dates, Kanji and Takara Co.Ltd. That is a very late Diaclone stamping. Earlier Diaclone New Countach copyrights were not found under the chest/hood, they were on the back of the robot's waist, so what does PCDX black Countach have on the back of its waist?

Nothing of course, not even the raised bumps of pre-rub Transformers or Italian GiG Diaclones. Let us now look at the copyrights under the chest/hood of G2 Sideswipe and E-Hobby Deepcover:

While both are different in terms of content and appearance, they share a Chinese manufacturing origin and of course, the stamping itself is still under the chest/hood as with the PCDX black Countach. The rear of the Deepcover reissue shows the two raised bumps over where the origin mould would say "TAKARA JAPAN", so if nothing else, you've learned a nice way to distinguish between Deepcover and PCDX Countach blue waist parts! You can also see from the picture below that the G2 Sideswipe roof has a very big hole in it for where the G2 gun attaches, another way to eliminate its use on the Diaclone black New Countach.

Enough beating around the bush, here is the copyright from the Diaclone black New Countach LP500S, and it has the precise same content in exactly the same location as the No.15 red and yellow Diaclone New Countaches, as you would expect:

Are you convinced now? Well, you shouldn't be because this piece could have come from either of those Diaclones or even an early pre-rub G1 Sideswipe. What seals the deal resoundingly and completely in terms of copyright lies under the Diaclone black Countache's chest/hood:

It is completely blank! This mould's chest and hood assembly is a single piece, and that includes the chest pegs! So it is impossible to replicate this combination of black Diaclone-mould chest pegs and a smooth black chest/hood underside because it is totally unique to this early Diaclone mould. Those accepted black cars, the PCDX Countach, G2 Sideswipe and Deepcover all have a stamping under the hood without exception. The *only* versions of this New Countach mould to have a back-of-waist stamping and a perfectly smooth underside to the chest/hood are the 1983 Japanese red and yellow No.15 single-packed red and yellow Diaclone New Countaches, the 1983 Japanese Diaclone Police New Countach and the very early 1984 early pre-rub G1 Sideswipe. The hood on this Diaclone black New Countach is neither sprayed nor customised, it is moulded in black. For me that is conclusive proof of its authenticity.

Exhibit C: the foot ridges. Now, this is a hard one to explain but equally conclusive. If you turn a New Countach/Sideswipe toy in vehicle mode so that the rear of the car is facing you, you may notice that right underneath where the car's rear licence plate would sit, where you would expect to find its exhausts, there are gaps where the folding robot feet pivot. In those gaps you will find moulded ridges which are part of the die cast moulding of that section. Depending on which mould version you have, be it Diaclone or Transformer, there are between 1 and 3 ridges in each gap.

In the above picture of the PCDX Black Countach you can see these ridges between the blue parts of the robot feet and the black die cast rear of the vehicle. The PCDX Black Countach has 2 ridges in each gap. They are easy to see on this toy because they are against a blue background.

They are even easier to see on a G2 Sideswipe as they are on a red background, and apparently as Takara/Hasbro revised the mould throughout the continuing releases, more ridges were added to strengthen the mould. It follows then that the G2 Sideswipe above and the E-Hobby Deepcover reissue below (harder to see) both show 3 ridges in each gap.

As a matter of interest, Transformers Red Alert tends to have 2 ridges like the PCDX Countach, so they share more than just launcher moulding. What about Diaclones? Well seeing as the Japanese Diaclone versions of the New Countach mould are the first releases of this toy ever, it follows then that they should have the fewest foot ridges moulded into each gap, and it's true. Japanese Diaclone red and yellow New Countach have only a single ridge moulded into each gap (as do some early G1 Sideswipes). Our Japanese black Diaclone New Countach is no different.

One ridge per gap, another completely unique section in black and a very significant piece of positive evidence to place alongside all the others we have uncovered.

As an aside, it was intreresting to find out that the rear section of the E-Hobby reissue Deepcover also had a unique moulding feature. Deepcover sports a cylindrical peg between the two halves of the rear (legs) that no other black Countach does:

So let's pull all of this information on the moulding together in a series of possible questions one might ask in order to verify the authenticity of what they believe to be a Diaclone black New Countach.

Q1) Could the black chest section be from a PCDX Countach, E-Hobby Deepcover or G2 Sideswipe?

No, all the others have a copyright stamping under the chest, our Diaclone black Countach does not. All the others also have coloured bumpers, our Diaclone black has a black bumper. Deepcover also has different shaped chest pegs.

Q2) Could the black roof section be from a E-Hobby Deepcover or G2 Sideswipe?

No, the G2 Sideswipe roof has a bigger single hole for its weapon and Deepcover has no sticker on the roof.

Q3) Could the black die cast rear of the car be from a PCDX Countach, E-Hobby Deepcover or G2 Sideswipe?

No, PCDX Countach has 2 foot ridges, Deepcover and G2 Sideswipe have 3 foot ridges. Our black Diaclone Countach has a single foot ridge per gap. Also Deepcover has a cylindrical peg between both halves of the rear section.

So as far as the actual verification of the toy itself and the correctness of all the given features are concerned, be they appearance, moulding, copyright, stickers, packaging, paperwork or accessories, the evidence clearly suggests that it is 100% authentic and real. But that does not tell us anything about the toy's source, purpose or release, and why nobody has ever seen one before.

Our first question should be if it actually saw mass release and made it to store shelves, or whether it is some sort of prototype, production sample, market test or prize toy. The latter is easiest to discount as there is no literature or evidence that Takara ever offered a black New Countach as a campaign prize. It's clearly Japanese too so we can forget about a similar story to the Finnish R-Kioski Diaclone variants. The presence of the packaging and absolutely every piece of documented paperwork for this No.15 release suggests a toy that was beyond the initial prototype or mock-up phase.

However, quite often it is easier to just request a batch of toys in a new colour from the factory and allow the process to go all the way from beginning (moulding, casting, painting) to end (packaging) than to stop the whole procedure in the middle and just walk away with the loose toy itself in a different colour, and that is probably what has happened here. This is supported somewhat by the fact that the source of this toy is known for having cases of Takara Diaclones and Transformers from factories/warehouses unopened amongst his stock, not least of which was a full factory case of Japanese Diaclone Marlboor Lancias (Wheeljack). This in turn supports the almost case-fresh condition of this amazing piece and the buyer's belief that the source could simply have plucked this specimen from a factory case, all part of the same experimental batch maybe.

The source, now that we've mentioned him, is the owner of the Hero Gangu vintage toy and collectible store in Japan. The owner of that store is renowned for his incredible depth of stock, especially factory cases of sealed vintage Transformers and Diaclones that have never seen the light of day or a store shelf. Some even believe that a part of his stock has come straight from Takara. The buyer was told that this item was going on auction that very week, so whether this article was written or not, it was going to make the headlines!

But why would this gorgeous thing have never seen release? To answer that you have to take yourself back to the very top of the article and the first picture of the boxed black Diaclone Countach. If you can revert to a stage where you are disconnected from your certainty (I hope) regarding its authenticity and take it at face value, you may see a very bland looking dark-coloured vehicle in an already relatively non-descript dark blue box. It's hardly eye-catching is it? Much of the toy's details are shrouded and camouflaged by the overall colour. On a yellow or red car, those features like the signature Lamborghini Countach windows, doors and angles are easy to distinguish and appreciate.

Then there's the toy itself. Now we all adore a good Countach and the Sideswipe mould is much loved and celebrated, but Takara had a habit of releasing many moulds in black as it was (Cherry vanette, Honda City Turbo, Fairlady, 4WD Hilux, Corvette) so was this possibly just not interesting enough for them to consider a mass release? To further put this into perspective, let us remind ourselves of the PCDX New Countach seen a couple of years later, that toy was covered in blue highlights and a rocking great gold Lamborghini logo on the doors (which no real Lamborghini Countach ever had). Did Takara add all of those distinguishing features because their original idea for a black New Countach was not eye-catching or visually stimulating enough?

Whatever the reason for its lack of mass release, one thing is for certain, within weeks of its first widespread appearance this toy will become the stuff of legend amongst Diaclone collectors. It will rocket to the top of every Diaclone Car Robot collector's wishlist and the hounds will be set loose in pursuit of another such spectacular specimen in the name of all those now-incomplete Car Robot collections. Maybe it's not different enough from a PCDX Countach or a Deepcover, and maybe with the will and ability a customiser could whip up a few specimens for those who cannot bear the ridiculous rarity or lifelong hassle involved in trying to track down another one of these Diaclone Black New Countaches, but for true fans of Diaclone and for those collectors that care about authenticity, that will never be enough.

I spent what felt like a lifetime tracking down my holy grail of a yellow Diaclone New Countach LP500S, a toy still missing from many collections, I wouldn't even want to contemplate starting a search for another one of these black New Countaches, considering I have never even been able to secure a black PCDX Countach. However, the sadness of knowing you may never own the final member of the New Countach dynasty should be balanced with the joy and wonder of witnessing the unveiling and discovery of a completely unheard of and previously hidden relic of this brilliant toy line. The more you look at it the more beautiful it becomes, aided by an appreciation of its origin and significance. It seems the greatest work is only appreciated long after its time, but this toy deserves to have its time having been buried for so long while its contemporaries shared the limelight, and that time is now.

Project Vanguard has been brought to you in association with Brandon "Heroic Decepticon" Yap, Gordon "VF1" Yip and Colin "Specimen-17" Pringle. Thanks to Ben Munn and Himawari for supporting PCDX Countach images.