In 1983, Japanese toy manufacturer Takara displayed their Diaclone Car Robot sub-line at the Tokyo Toy Show. Representatives from Hasbro in North America, Ceji Joustra from Europe and GiG from Italy were there and took an interest in obtaining licences from Takara to release these incredible toys in their home territories. The rest is considered toy history, with Hasbro releasing many of Takara's finest Car Robot, Microchange and Real & Robo toys as part of The Transformers in 1984. Success breeds success and demand breeds supply, therefore after the successful inaugural wave of 1984 Transformers, Takara and Hasbro released a second wave of Transformers in North America in 1985 containing even more of the Diaclone and Microchange toys, as well as licenced items from Toyco, Bandai, Matsushiro and Toybox. Among those Transformers released in 1985 was the toy originally known as Diaclone Car Robot No.11 Fairlady Z 280ZX Turbo Racing Type, this toy became recognised globally as the Autobot Tactician "Smokescreen".

Over the last few years there have been three major occasions where a significant quantity of Hasbro prototypes, samples, test shots and pre-production material have surfaced. On all 3 occasions the source who sold to collectors was different, yet it became clear that they all originated from the same place as one lot had accessories belonging to the previous lot's figures. There were resin hardcopies and harcopy parts such as the second series G1 jet wings, packaged and loose Transformers production samples, both seen here and here. There were also handpainted G2 mock-ups for unreleased toys with associated prototype artwork seen here. Also among the treasures discovered in more than one of the major finds were boxed Japanese Diaclone toys, some hand-altered, some repainted into Transformers colours but still with pre-safety Diaclone moulding and stickers. Some of these packaged Diaclone items also had a similar "SAMPLE" stickers on the box and were undoubtedly sent by Takara to Hasbro for evaluation as possible additions to the line. The Diaclone Fairlady Z Racing shown in this article is one of these samples.

The Ligier/Mirage seen above is the only 1984 Transformers release sample I've seen from the various Diaclone items sent, most have been 1985 items like a Diaclone Truck Crane (pre-Grapple), Diaclone Pteranodon (pre-Swoop), Diaclone Construction Robos (pre-Constructicons), Diaclone Triple Changer Aero in TF colours (pre-Blitzwing) and of course the Diaclone Fairlady Z Racing (pre-Smokescreen). I also have a set of blue Diaclone Corvette Stingray (Red pre-Tracks) launchers and a black Diaclone Powered Convoy waist piece, hand-painted white as an Ultra Magnus waist piece mock-up from the same find.

Here are the Construction Robo samples (these actually have the Transformers names written on the boxes) and a Diaclone "Swoop" sample:

Now the Blitzwing was very special as it was a Diaclone Triple Changer Aero Type moulded in Transformers colours within a Japanese Diaclone box, and still had the sharper sword point and faded Diaclone stickers. That was the most obvious transitional piece from all of the Diaclone sample finds, and this Fairlady Z Racing sample is equally special, but you have to dig a little to reveal why.

If it wasn't for the "SAMPLE" sticker on the top of the box and the ex-Hasbro source from which this item originated, by looking at the toy in its Diaclone packaging you would never have realised its true nature. The Diaclone Fairlady Z Racing Type in my opinion is not only the most beautiful of the Fairlady Z moulds, but also comes with the most vibrant and interesting Diaclone packaging and boxart of the three. I am, as always, partial towards racing cars but the lack of a lifeless mecha look to this figure's artwork really appeals to me. The cellophane window from this sample has come off completely from the cardboard, which is a little odd considering how tremendously mint the contents are. However, the box itself has some noticeable wear.

This is of course a production Fairlady Z Racing box, so there's not a great deal to point out besides the obvious. The other non-Diaclone racing cars used on the box back photography and the Diaclone Car Robot group shot are of course interesting, especially the J59 Jeep mock-up and the print-corrected white/blue Corvette. What most of us would give for a Diaclone Car Robot collection group shot like that, I wonder.

The box top is where the action is at, proudly displaying a Takara "SAMPLE" sticker identical to that found on the Truck Crane, Triple Changer and Pteranodon packaging samples. Not too far from that sticker you can see the tearing caused by the removal of another sticker, but considering the fact that this sample was never actually on a store shelf and came straight from Takara, it's not likely to be the result of price sticker removal. My guess, from the size and positioning of the tear, is that it was probably another "SAMPLE" sticker, or possibly tape similar to that seen on the Ligier sample towards the start of the article, maybe containing a message to the recipient regarding toy condition/specifics.

The top of the Diaclone box shows the main transformation steps of the toy with an unintentional "Start/Finishe (sic)" racing theme. Notice also the stickers shown on the robot's shoulders, much thinner yellow chevron than on the final production stcikersheet labels and an added red chevron too. Vehicle specs are displayed on the bottom of the box. This kind of thing is so much more appealing and enjoyable to see than plain stock photography.

It's amazing how much historical (and monetary) value and significance one sticker can add to a figure. Of course it's easy to be sceptical and accuse someone of faking such a sticker, but at the time of this item's first appearance, the source of this item and the samples found along with it and previously, not to mention the details of the toy inside, I never doubted its authenticity.

The sides of the Fairlady Z Racing Type's box show much more clearly the interesting prototype stickers on the upper arms/shoulders. The close-up of the boxart below shows that the artwork used for the Fairlady Z Racing may have been produced later than this stock photography as the artwork shows the correct colouring for those shoulder stickers. Notice also that one side of the box has "Fairlady Z Racing-Type" and the other side has it in Kanji.

The above close-ups of the Diaclone packaging reveal the original product number system used for the Car Robots before they started adding the price in Yen as an extra 4 digits. You can also see the older Takara logo, the Diaclone specific "Datsun", "280 ZX Turbo", "RR" and, "Nos - REAL & ROBO - Car" stickers. "RR" stands for Real & Robo and "Nos" is the logo for Nitrous Oxide Systems.

So we've established that the packaging is production, what about the contents? Let's have a look at a full production Diaclone Fairlady Z racing:

Nothing surprising here, exactly the same outer packaging, a catalogue/instruction sheet, stickersheet, all weapons and Diaclone pilot. But when we look at the contents of the sample Fairlady Z Racing's package, there are some notable omissions.

No stickersheet, no Diaclone driver and no catalogue. All weapons are present though. I do not believe this to be a result of lost paperwork and items over the years while this was sitting in Hasbro's archives or the possession of an ex-employee, I just do not believe those items would have been relevant to the nature of this sample or its purpose. Think about it, this was a toy sent from Takara to Hasbro in order to demonstrate its suitability for the Transformers toy line, so why include Japanese Diaclone literature when Hasbro would be creating a brand new sentient personality and character for the toy? Why send a Diaclone driver when The Transformers were not intended to ever include small driver or pilot figures? Why send a stickersheet featuring "Nissan", "Nos", "Real & Robo" and "Datsun" stickers when the Transformers Smokescreen would not display any such sponsorship or Diaclone branding?

The unused nature of the toy and its accessories, the fact that the toy was probably never transformed such was its pristine condition, also leads me to believe that the lack of Diaclone identifiers was entirely intentional. There is more evidence to support this thoery later on, but as you'd expect, the missile launchers from a Diaclone Car Robot are fully functional.

The inside flap still has the Diaclone Licence ID card including the 3 rules of Diaclone, space for a photograph etc. Some of these could be used as a competition entry form for items such as the gold campaign cars. Once again, the significance of that in regards to the Diaclone Fairlady Z 280ZX Turbo Racing Type will be touched upon later in a little more detail.

On the subject of that name and rather large mouthfuls, let's take a look at the inspiration for this highly memorable and recogniseable mould and colour scheme, the #83 Electramotive Datsun 280ZX Turbo raced in the early 80s IMSA GTO Championship. Don Devendorf won the 1982 IMSA title in the car shown below.

For years I thought that Takara and Hasbro just ran with a reversed car number of #38 for their toys compared to the original #83, maybe due to some kind of licensing agreement, much like the deliberate misspellings of well known brands Marlboro, Martini and Gitanes on other Diaclone Car Robots. However, the next picture proves that on at least one occasion, Electramotive Racing ran with a #38 livery.

This occasion was the 1982 Fuji Speedway 6 hours round of the IMSA championship, and the #38 Electramotive Datsun 280ZX was piloted by Don Devendorf and Tony Adamowicz. This is the exact car that the Diaclone 280ZX Turbo Racing Type is based on, further evidenced by the black windshield strip sticker with the gold and silver rectangles at either end. All the pictures of the #83 Electramotive Datsun I found do not contain those decals, and of course we all know that the Diaclone and Transformers Smokescreen always had that sticker. So the toy we have come to know and love was an homage to that special one-off liveried racing car from the Japanese round of the IMSA GTO championship.

We've had a look at the original inspiration for the Diaclone, let's now study the Japanese Diaclone itself:

When you've had a chance to look at the original vehicle, you begin to appreciate just how good a representation of that car the Diaclone is. While it doesn't feature a majority of the sponsorship logos, the factory stickers do reveal basic Datsun and model specification labels, and the stickersheet would further augment that with more "Nissan" and "Datsun" stickers. The "RR" logo on the car's hood isn't visible on any of the photos of the #83 Electramotive car, but on the above photo of the #38 Fuji-spec car you can just about make out some blue in the same area, so it must be a Diaclone-ised version of that original decal. As mentioned previously, "RR" stands for Real & Robo.

The stickers highlighted above are the Diaclone exclusive factory stickers, also seen on the real car, that did not make it to the Transformers Smokescreen. They are probably the easiest way to distinguish a Japanese Diaclone or Italian Trasformer from a TF Smokescreen. Now if all of the Diaclone stickersheet stickers are applied, but the "RR", "DATSUN" and "Turbo 280ZX" factory stickers are missing, chances are you have an extremely rare Joustra Diaclone Fairlady Racing. Returning to the Fairlady Z sample, we can understand a bit more the importance of those Diaclone factory stickers in this story by looking at the focus of this article out of its packaging...

This beautiful figure is much closer in appearance to a Transformers Smokescreen thanks to the removal of the aforementioned factory "RR", "Datsun" and "turbo 280ZX" stickers. Of course in a historical context this makes perfect sense as "Smokescreen" never featured those car manufacturer stickers, possibly to save further licensing costs. So clearly, they were manually removed from the production Fairlady Z figure in order to resemble the desired final look of the Transformers Smokescreen as closely as possible.

Reviewing this sample so closely has reminded me exactly why as a child I chose Smokescreen as my first ever Autobot car, purchased for me at Argos in the UK. In this condition it's utterly stunning, a lovely blend of red and blue, punctuated perfectly by the white stripes and chrome wheels. The unmistakeable #38 and beautiful shape of this gorgeous 280ZX silhouette mould must have made this an incredibly popular toy in its day.

You will undoubtedly have noticed the hand-scribbled markings on the Fairlady Z Sample's chassis. The reason for those will become clear very shortly. You may also have picked up on the hand-coloured stickers on the front and rear bumper of the car as well as the hood. Where the Diaclone factory stickers were removed, someone at Takara has coloured sections of the front bumper in blue where it would have said "280 ZX Turbo", just below that there is a section of the white sticker missing where it would have said "DATSUN". Looking at the rear bumper, there is hand-colouring where it would have said "turbo 280ZX".

Below you can see where the blue "RR" sticker would have been, that top section of the hood sticker has been removed and has been coloured in red by hand. All of this has clearly been done to remove the Diaclone/Datsun-specific factory labels and create the look of the upcoming Transformers Smokescreen for Hasbro to evaluate. Also, the following close-ups of the rear of the Fairlady Z Racing sample and the hood show paint marks on the surrounding areas, maybe implying that this was done in something of a hurry or that precision just was not as important as getting the general message across.

Having removed the Diaclone paperwork and references on the toy, then hand-coloured the offending areas to resemble the desired TF Smokescreen, the item was then placed back in the styro, the box labelled as a sample and it was shipped off to Hasbro, probably with a load of the other Diaclone samples....but not before the Fairlady Z sample left some fingerprints on its styro insert!

Returning to the hand-made markings on the toy, here are some close-ups of the letters scribbled on the sample's hood, roof and rear window in blue:

The markings drawn are the inititals "BR" on the hood, "BI" on the roof and what appears to be "D" on the rear window, possibly an "O". I have yet to find out what these initials stand for exactly, but the astute among you will already have formed a theory as to their purpose.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the Fairlady Z Racing sample (left) and the Diaclone Fairlady Z production toy (right) clearly showing the factory stickers that were removed from the production toy for the purposes of the sample:

The last photograph above clearly demonstrates how the licenced Datsun branding was removed from the sample's front bumper and hand-painted over. The following two images show the difference in rear taillight and bumper factory stickers, again drawing attention to the handpainted sample stickers. What's also interesting to see is that with both toys, the painted red section just beneath the actual spoiler on the left-rear window piece is slightly more translucent than the one on the right, this is more obvious a contrast on the production Fairlady Z (right):

Putting both items next to each other was essential in actually deducing the precise purpose of the removal of certain sections of original factory stickers, and without an actual production Diaclone toy to hand, this would have been much more difficult. The following pictures are aimed at highlighting the removal of the "RR" sticker and the subsequent hand-painting of the region on the sample.

Looking at the roof section, this was the only spot where I found an actual variation between the two toys which should both be a standard production Fairlady Z design. The roof tab which sits just under the rear window sections when in vehicle mode has actually not been painted on the production Fairlady Z Racing Diaclone, but it is painted red on the sample. This is not the first time this sort of variation has been found between production Diaclone Fairlady toys, I believe you can find a similar variation on the Diaclone Blue Fairlady Z toys and also between roof tabs on blackhooded Fairlady Z Diaclones as well. This is more than likely an indication of how late a Diaclone Fairlady was released in its production run as all Transformers Smokescreens (including Mexican) have coloured roof tabs. It's really no surprise that the Diaclone Racing Z sample sent to Hasbro for evaluation and integration into the Transformers like was a later run version.

To round up the vehicle mode section of this article, here are a few detailed pictures of some of the Fairlady Z Racing sample's key features; the wheels, vents and spoiler:

Unsurprisingly, both the earlier production Diaclone Fairlady Z Racing and the slightly later, but still production-based, Fairlady Z Racing sample have a Takara Japan-in-circle copyright stamping. The only difference between the two toys to be seen here is the unworn treads on the Racing Z sample's tyres.

Putting aside for the moment the fact that the subject of the article is a unique Takara Diaclone sample, hand-altered to suit Hasbro's needs and requests, let us for a moment enjoy the beautifully striking robot mode of this mould in this stirring livery...

As breathtaking as it ever was, completely timeless and having not lost an ounce of charm or shine, the Fairlady Z Racing sample in robot mode is delightfully well-proportioned with the perfect amount of red, white and blue visible. With the tyres acting as wide and high shoulders, the robot mode has a paradoxical feel of compact bulk, and ever since the Diaclone Car Robot No.6 Honda City R used its doors as robot wings, figures like this Racing Z sample have benefitted from that pearl of a design detail. Such is the beauty of this toy that even without any accessories or signature factory stickers, it is a fiercely strong display piece...

...and yet adding the head-mounted missile launchers and highly recogniseable Fairlady mould handgun only enhances the appearance. More than any other Fairlady mould toy, the Racing Z and Transformers Smokescreen are synonymous with these accessories, especially the launchers. This release is the second time a Fairlady mould has included white launchers, the blue Fairlady Z being the first. This robot mode with its extra flashes of chrome weaponry is such a roaring success that the hand-scribbled initials on the highly prominent hood/chest and rear windows/feet of this sample do not detract even a little from the displayability.

The production Diaclone Fairlady Z Racing Type in robot mode is also a very pretty sight, and the racing decals on the Diaclone are a very large part of the figure's robot mode. Fully stickered up this figure would have quite a colourful look (you can probably tell from the Diaclone stickersheet featured earlier in the article) but some of them are quite susceptible to friction and peeling due to the transformation of the toy. I would say my preferred look for the robot mode on this toy would be full Diaclone factory stickers as well as the "Nissan" and "Datsun" stickers off the sheet, but nothing else.

The No.11 Diaclone Fairlady Z Racing Type has one of the most iconic robot head sculpts ever seen in action figure history, because as with its No.7 Diaclone Fairlady Z predecessor, this robot face was the one upon which the Transformers Autobot symbol was based.

I have mentioned the Transformers Smokescreen many times throughout this article, and so far we have established that for Hasbro's benefit, Takara removed all the Diaclone-specific stickers from the sample toy and all Diaclone-specific literature from the sample's package as a whole in order to illustrate the final overall look of "Smokescreen" as closely as possible. The only thing left unanswered, although some of you may have already guessed, is the purpose of the hand-scribbled initials on the Fairlady Z Racing sample.

Placing the three toys (Diaclone - Sample - Transformer) alongside each other helps solve the mystery of the scribbles to some degree, especially if you look specifically at the location of the writing on the sample and compare it directly to the Transformers Smokescreen.

We can see that the "BR" on the hood corresponds to the Transformer's "38" factory sticker, the "BI" on the roof corresponds to the Autobot rubsign and the "D" on the rear window corresponds to small Autobot sticker on Smokescreen's rear-right window. But the "38" on the Transformer's hood was already present on the original Diaclone Racing Z as a factory sticker, so why go to the trouble of removing that factory sticker and indicate that something else was going to go there, but then just use the #38 anyway?

To answer that, we need to look at the Transformers Smokescreen packaging, especially the stock photography and the boxart:

Look at the hood! It appears that when the Fairlady Z Racing was being mocked-up for the Transformers line, the original intention was to replace the giant "38" on the Diaclone's hood with an equally large Autobot symbol as seen on the Transformers packaging and on Smokescreen's boxart. So all the hand-scribbled initials on the Fairlady Z Racing sample indicate the intended future location of Autobot symbols!

The actual letters used, "BR" "BI" and "D" must in some way correspond to the big factory Autobot hood sticker, the Autobot rubsign on the hood and the small Autobot symbol on the rear window respectively. I have not been able to fully decipher what each set of initials stand for, despite a number of theories. One of which includes "BR" standing for "Bot Red" and "BI" standing for "Bot Incandescent", the former indicating a large Autobot symbol in red, the latter meaning an Autobot symbol that glows with applied heat or rubbing, but that's quite a stretch and leaves a blank over the "D". Maybe it isn't a "D" at all, and just a circle to indicate exact placement? Maybe the "I" stands for Insignia? They could equally be references to something completely meaningless like arbitrary letters/designations given to prototype stickers on a design sheet or even code for colours and orientation of stickers. At this stage it's just guesswork.

Whatever the actual meaning of the letters drawn onto the toy, it has become abundantly clear just how important a transitional step this Fairlady Z sample was in the history of the Transformers Smokescreen. A production Diaclone toy that was hand-altered by Takara and sent to Hasbro, and probably one of the immediate, if not the immediate predecessor, to the actual Fairlady Racing Z figure photographed on the now-famous Transformers packaging used worldwide in 1985 and beyond.

Alternatively, it could be from just after, because if you study the G1 Smokescreen box and 1985 catalogue pictures, the toys are not generally shown with rubsigns, and Smokescreen has nothing on the roof. So could it be that this sample was altered initially to remove Diaclone markings, then a mock-up produced from another sample for the stock photography, and then Hasbro returned to this one to indicate where a rubsign might go after that concept was piloted within Hasbro?

However, when trying to place significant historical pieces from Transformers or Diaclone, it is important not to jump to conclusions and overestimate the importance of particular specimens. We can see from the above section of the 1985 UK catalogue that this particular sample is not the only Diaclone Racing Z sent from Takara to Hasbro. In fact the one used in the UK catalogue appears to be a completely unaltered Diaclone toy complete with Datsun factory labels. It is hard to imagine that Takara would have sent just a single Fairlady Z Racing sample to Hasbro for their purposes, so the specimen in this article is no doubt one of a few samples sent and used at various stages of prototyping, mocking-up and pre-production.

Just sticking with that UK catalogue for a second, taking a look at the surrounding items you can clearly some some strange things going on with Trailbreaker, Hoist (Trailbreaker stickers) and Tracks who appears to still have a Diaclone-coloured face.

Before wrapping up, I'd like to once again run through some material and items slightly peripheral to the article, but still related and quite interesting. We'll start with another Diaclone sample sent to Hasbro from Takara, a Diaclone Fairlady Z Police car with Japanese Diaclone copyrights and factory stickers, but with added mock-up Autobot stickers and hand-painted sections on the shoulder stickers to mask the "Diaclone" text on those labels:

The above item is from the aforementioned first gigantic find of prototypes, samples and pre-production material from Hasbro, undoubtedly originating from the same place as the Fairlady Z sample. This leads us nicely to the Joustra Diaclone Fairlady Police released in Europe in 1985:

The Fairlady Z Racing mould would also have been released in similar Joustra wave 2 packaging in 1985 in mainland Europe, but has yet to be found and documented. It is probably the rarest production version of this mould ever released and would have featured exclusive Joustra artwork. The toy itself would have been quite unique too, it would have had a Takara + kanji + dates copyright, no Diaclone factory stickers like "Datsun" on the front bumper, and yet it would have had a Diaclone stickersheet. I dream of finding one every day!

Here is a curious Italian advertisement for the GiG Diaclone Fairlady Z Racing Type, spot the oddity...

...that's right! Somehow GiG got their hands on what appears to be a chromed red Diaclone Fairlady 280ZX Racing Type! I've never seen this variant or mock-up anywhere else. Not in Japan, Europe or on any packaging or Diaclone literature, only in GiG adverts such as this.

I couldn't resist a little black and white photography of the magnificent head sculpt on this Racing Z sample, or giving my Binaltech Smokescreen a bottle of Mountain Dew...

The Binaltech Smokescreen recreated the feel of the original Fairlady Z Racing type with its striking racing livery homage and excellent head sculpt, not to mention the nods to the original Diaclone's rocket launchers and handgun. Articulation aside, it just shows what a timeless design the original had that a modern action figure released 20 years later could be so popular and relevant.

Speaking of relevant...

This absolutely unbelievable item is a pre-production mock up of a never released Diaclone Fairlady Z 280Z Racing Type campaign prize car. As promised earlier in this article, I would relate the Diaclone ID card found on the Racing Z sample's inner box flap to campaign prizes, well it appears that Takara planned to release a fourth prize car after the gold Porsche 935, gold Fairlady Z and silver Fairlady Z. You can tell this is a mock-up as it has No.7 Fairlady Z parts like the T-bar roof with the Racing parts (bumper and spoiler) added on. For whatever reason, this item never made it to production, possibly due to the impending end to the Diaclone Car Robot line in Japan and the rising popularity of The Transformers globally. It is one of the crown jewels of the Diaclone Car Robot legacy and a genuine pre-Transformers legend.

It is still quite fantastic that nearly 30 years on, it is still possible to unearth historical items from the Diaclone and Transformers story that can hold such significance. To know that what you have in front of you helped shape the future and legacy of a Transformers character known throughout the world, owned and enjoyed by millions of people then and by a significant percentage of those even now. The true joy in finding a specimen like this is that every single feature and nuance of its condition and purpose are traceable and discoverable by carefully looking left and right.

A motorsport heritage, a Transformers legacy and an unmistakeable historical gravity, this Fairlady Z 280ZX Racing Type sample is an absolute treasure, a museum piece in my opinion. There are more of these samples out there and undoubtedly a fair few that have yet to see the light of day, but for every photoshoot and catalogue sample, for every hardcopy or famous prototype that has found its way into a Transformers or Diaclone publication or urban legend throughout the decades, there is a hidden and unknown piece like this sample Fairlady Z Racing which deserves its day in the sun.

My sincerest thanks to Ras for sample Prowl pics, to Himawari for gold Fairlady Z and sample Truck Crane images, to Alessandro Musconi for Diaclone Racing Z pics, to Jimmy for his Pternadon and Construction Robo sample shots, to Tim Bannerjee for the use of his Mexican Smokescreen, to Jesse Chen for US Smokescreen pics, to the owners of the Electramotive Datsun 280ZX images whoever they are, and finally to Paul Hitchens for making this all possible.

All the best
Maz