Diaclone Black Corvette Stingray (Tracks) + LD Reissue Black Tracks

DIACLONE BLACK CORVETTE STINGRAY (TRACKS) + LUCKY DRAW REISSUE BLACK TRACKS

For years the original Black Tracks has been a legendary piece. In fact for years, most collectors never even knew it existed until the following blurry photograph was taken of Fumihiko Akiyama's Diaclone Car Robot collection at BotCon Japan 2000 by Himawari:

Among a sea of gorgeous standard and recoloured rare and super-rare Diaclone cars there sat one piece that immediately caught the eye. There were so many theories as to what it could be. Was it another Campaign prize like the gold cars? Was it a foreign exclusive Diaclone? Was it a factory gift to Fumihiko? Was it a one-off? Production sample? Prototype? Test shot? Fake? Custom?

Further fuel was added to the fire with the above "History of Diaclone" feature in issue #2 of the Japanese magazine "Gangu Jinsei". The Black Tracks was featured alongside other premium Diaclone items like the gold Campaign cars, lending more weight to the theory that it was indeed a Diaclone item. In the magazine article beside the Black Tracks it says, roughly translated "Corvette release in black (regular is red). Item was not sold in Japan. Original foreign colour. Head and other body parts and weapons are different colour". However, the owner of the toy itself had told collectors and fans at a subsequent US BotCon show that he had purchased the item from a "Botcon event" in the UK and that it was not 'Diaclone'. He had shown digital camera images of the packaged toy to some at the show and one person claimed it was an Italian GiG Diaclone release having seen the (albeit small) image on Fumihiko's digicam, and maybe that is what he meant by saying it wasn't Diaclone seeing as many collectors do not view the Italian pre-TF releases as true Diaclones. That was denied. And so ensued years of discussion about the possible origins and true nature of this tremendously mysterious and now-legendary item. I myself wrote many things about it, including an essay I posted to various groups about the apparent moulding of the toy implying a Japanese release (long stock handgun). Would we ever know the truth? Would we ever see another one?

The answer was a resounding "YES!". In June 2004 Morgan Evans, a good friend and then-online TF dealer, was contacted by someone in Finland about whether or not he wished to purchase a G1 Diaclone Black Tracks which he had owned since childhood. I wasn't collecting or keeping up with Transformers at the time but Morg emailed me anyway to see if I wanted to buy the thing, and seeing the above picture (plus the others in this article), I was brought back in from the wilderness.

Now by this stage, Takara had already reissued the Tracks mould in Japan and had also made available through a Lucky Draw campaign a brand new reissue Black recolour of Tracks. However, that toy (which will be covered a little later in this article) is different from the original in many ways. The original has a light blue face as opposed to gold, it has grey legs, arms, gun, hands and launcher mount compared to the black of the reissue. The original has a white neck area, the reissue has grey there. Also, the handgun on the original is the long-stock version which means it cannot be held facing directly forwards. This gun mould was only available in Japan with the Diaclone red Tracks (hence that toy having artwork with the gun facing down unlike the TF).

Well, it is stamped only "TAKARA JAPAN", a trait which is shared only with the Japanese Diaclone red Tracks seen below:

All other versions of Tracks and pre-Tracks have date-stamps too. Other evidence includes the "D" on the wing stickers that stands for "Diaclone" instead of the square on TF Tracks releases, the "CS" sticker on the hood flames that stand for "Corvette Stingray" instead of an Autobot symbol and the fact that he comes with a Diaclone pilot (Italian one didn't have a pilot) of the correct colour for this mould.

Alright, so it has been established that the original Black Tracks was not a one-off or production sample as the owner of the above toy said it was bought for him at a store back in the 1980s. It is also definitely a pre-Transformer mould, exactly the same as the Japanese mould in fact. So how on Earth did this thing turn up in Finland?

When I saw these pictures, and started thinking of all the things we had heard and seen concerning this release so far, I started asking a few questions about the UK show that Fumihiko claimed to have purchased his from. There was a "Botcon" event in the UK back in 1998 run by George Morgan and I asked Paul Hitchens of The Spacebridge (a UK collector/dealer) about the event. Indeed Fumihiko Akiyama was there, as was a toy dealer...from Finland. I've had this independently verified by another ex-UK Transformers dealer as well. It all started to add up.

In addition to that, earlier in 2004, a packaged Diaclone Grapple had surfaced in Japan but the box and paperwork had FINNISH text on it. The toy itself was Japanese mould with a diaclone pilot of the correct colour. The box also looked remarkably like the Italian GiG releases thanks to the "Auto Robot" text in the yellow boxes, which would explain why those who saw the small digicam pic at BotCon thought it was a GiG release. Devvi showed this to members of the NTFA (Nordic TransFans Association) and a few members of that group did indeed verify the existence of Diaclones in Finland! They were released in Finland in around 1984, and one of the toys released was a black version of Tracks, according to one of the regulars on the NTFA boards. The toys were only available through a chain of small kiosk retailers called "R-Kioski". Obviously some people knew about the existence of the Diaclone Black Tracks all along!

So not only was the Black Tracks real, it really was a Diaclone of sorts...from Finland...AND a store exclusive to boot!

The box shares all the same characteristics of the Finnish Diaclone Grapple box; "DIACLONE" and "AUTO ROBOT" in yellow boxes, but this one has more English text on it, the most surprising being "TRIPLE CHANGE!".

The Finnish instructions were also present, as if any further evidence or verification was needed. This particular black Stingray also had the missiles and launchers:

An absolutely magnificent find and a degree of finality to a long-enduring mystery, one of the most famous in the whole Transformers/Pre-Transformers universe. But did we really want it solved? There's always a slight feeling of emptiness when a major mystery is solved.

However, just because we now know where this legend hails from (some always knew of course), it doesn't mean that finding one is going to be an easy task. In the years since Fumihiko's was first shown to the public, only six have surfaced and most have been broken and incomplete in some way. This is still a tremendously rare item. This is a store-exclusive foreign pre-TF, by no means at all available in large quantities at any time. R-Kioski also released a Diaclone Ironhide in red, a Mirage, an Inferno, a Grapple and possibly a few more. Ceji Joustra pre-TFs were also available in Finland at the time. At least now in 2011 we have pictures of the first truly complete and undamaged boxed specimen thanks to Gordon Yip:

Takara reissued the Transformers blue Tracks in 2002 as well as the red version through E-Hobby. In addition to those, a special black version of Tracks was made available as a mailaway Lucky Draw competition through Million publishing's "Transformers: The Comics" book sold in Japan in late 2002. That book brought together the Transformers manga shown in the Japanese Telebi magazine over the years. There were supposed to be only 300 of these available to win. The following picture shows the slips that came with the aforementioned book advertising the promotion:

Despite the 300 that were kept aside for prize winners, a few more slipped out well before the January 2003 prize draw. Those that slipped out early hit eBay and started selling immediately for around $300 each. They too were packaged, but those boxes did not contain the exclusive winner's congratulations sticker shown in the above picture. Here is the official prize version pictured with the pre-prize leaked version:

The pre-prize version's exterior is just plain white. That is where the differences end though. Absolutely everything else is identical between the two releases, even the number printed on the inside flap of the box:

"020902". Interestingly, the number printed on E-Hobby Red Tracks' (or "Road Rage's") inner flap is "020903", just one up from this release.

Tracks in black, just fantastic. This version did not come with any sort of collector's card but it did come with the same stickersheet and instruction sheet as the regular Tracks reissue, hence the "44" on the stickers and instructions as that was Tracks' original Takara designation in Japan back in 1985. The insert contains the same generic layout as all the E-Hobby released cars. The contents are incased in clear plastic within a white tray and the accessories are stored underneath where the collector's card should be.

Here are two pictures of the prize version along the pre-prize version, and as I mentioned before, there is no way of differentiating between the two once you have got past the outer packaging:

Stunning from absolutely every angle, the Lucky Draw reissue allowed widespread ownership of this beautiful mould in black, and therefore the first opportunity to photograph the Black Tracks to the degree to which it deserved, and the fandom deserved. A Transformer this striking could not be kept hidden away in the collection of a select few or its exposure restricted to a few blurry stills from a toy show.

Sleek, stylish, shadowy, sexy, stealthy, scorching, you name it, this is definitely where it's at. The curves of this car and the toy just give it a sublime look, making it highly photogenic. The vehicle mode of this Lucky Draw Black Tracks is only slightly different to the original in that the arms which are tucked underneath the sides are as black as the car itself, giving a slightly more uniform look than the black/light grey of the Diaclone.

The rubsign and chrome wheels contrast with all the black excellently and add to the overall succesful look of the vehicle mode. This version of Tracks also has a unique greenish tint to the windows, and that in itself is another nice touch.

The attack mode introduces a lot more grey into the overall mix with the addition of the launchers and missiles. The original of course would have had much more grey on show as it had a grey launcher mount and robot arms as well. The grey on the two figures is not the same with the reissue having darker grey of the same appearance as that seen on Anime Streak.

In a couple of pictures above, the handgun has been attached underneath in order to elevate the toy a little in attack mode. As usual, this being a Japanese issue Transformer, the missile launchers are potent.

One of the all-time greatest G1 figure modes made all the more impressive in this famous colour scheme. So much more than just a black repaint, the Black Tracks' legendary status and infamy secure its place in the Transformers hall of fame, and the fact that the latest incarnation of this toy is yet another rare and hard to track down exclusive just cements its status.

The wings, the launchers, the emotionless and almost un-Autobot-like face make Black Tracks in robot mode a formidable sight. I've always thought Tracks was one of the few Transformers that had excellent rubsign placement and it was one of my biggest gripes with the E-Hobby red Tracks that it had the rubsign on the back of the car instead of on the chest as this Black Tracks does. A very special Transformer indeed. Here are a couple of close-up shots of the new head:

Thankfully, unlike some of the other reissue releases, the robot head has retained pretty well-defined features and the gold colour brings them out nicely. The colour of the face is of course one of the biggest differences and distinguishing factors between this recent release and the original Finnish Diaclone whose face was turquoise. Here's a comparison shot:

I'm honestly not certain which I prefer, but both colour schemes suit their respective releases quite nicely. You can also see the difference in upper-chest colour in the above picture as well. Here is the copyright stamping on the reissue Lucky Draw Black Tracks:

Very different from the original as you can see. There is a Hasbro stamping, dates, and a block over where it would have said "JAPAN". Also you might have noticed that the reissue has a grey back whereas the original has a white back.

Here's a picture of the pre-prize Black Tracks, prize Black Tracks, TF Collection #3 blue Tracks and E-Hobby exclusive red Tracks "Road Rage" in-packaging:

And here's a shot of all 3 colour variants in E-hobby style inserts, with cards and without:

This really is one of the nicest moulds to come out of G1, and they look superb together. Poseability wasn't high on the agenda, but aesthetics certainly were. With the following pictures you can see the way Takara (unfathomably) changed the location of Road Rage's rubsign:

That's pretty much all there is to say on the story of the Black Tracks. There are of course mysteries in Transfandom that have lingered on for longer than this legend, but there was always something very particular and special about the Black Tracks. Maybe it was because it found its way into the mainstream fandom at a time when Diaclone car variants were at their most popular and expensive, whatever it was, the sheer hunger for facts and frequency of discussion surrounding this particular toy was something else entirely. It's probably a combination of a very popular mould, an item shrouded in mystery and an item which actually looked unbelievably good. Well, for those of us who didn't know the full story from day one!

Even now, Black Tracks is far from available to any collector who wants to own one. The Lucky Draw items number 300 and possibly 50 more pre-prize pieces. They don't show up all that often but you don't have to go TOO far to find one available for sale. The problem is, the price tag of $300 has never dropped, that's still the standard value of one of these pieces. And as for the original, well even though we know of about 7 genuine Finnish Diaclone Corvette Stingrays, only 2 people have been succesful in convincing the original owners to part with theirs, meaning that one is in Japan and 5 are in Finland. Even then, two of those were broken. And STILL fans refuse to part with it, they know it's a special piece and well-nigh irreplaceable as a collection centrepiece. We await more to crawl out from the woodwork, but it could be years.

Limited as it may be, the reissue has at least allowed parts of the fandom to finally own Tracks in black, completing many a collection no doubt which would otherwise have remained incomplete indefinitely. It's a stunning piece and as far as these things go, worth the money. Until more Finnish Diaclones become available, it's more than a worthy placeholder, in fact it's a collection centrepiece in its own right. I'll never forget the furore surrounding the original or the reissue when it was first announced/revealed. A definite contender for the best G1 Transformers release of the decade in my opinion.

I wish to extend my deepest thanks to Teemu Hirvilammi, Antti Viklund, Morgan Evans, Himawari, Gordon Yip, Martin Lund and Phil Staszkiw, without whom this article would have been simply impossible, and the mystery would have remained unsolved.