TF Collection #11: Reissue White Astrotrain + History of Astrotrain

TF COLLECTION #11: REISSUE WHITE ASTROTRAIN + HISTORY OF ASTROTRAIN

As part of their ongoing book-style Transformers reissues, in early 2004 Takara released a reissue of Astrotrain which was #11 in the series. It wasn’t released in the colours we’re all used to from the 80s cartoon though, it was instead released in black/white which was how he was originally released in Japan as a TF back in 1985. All of the book-style Japanese reissues tend to be very close to the original Japanese release configuration, even down to rubsign placement for some reissues. Before I go into the details of the reissue, I’ll go over Astrotrain’s history as a Transformer first.

Astrotrain was one of the very first Transformers that had 3 distinct recognisable modes, a triple-changer. It is believed that the Astrotrain mould was originally planned to be a Diaclone release just as the other famous triple-changer Blitzwing was. Whether or not he was planned for the Diaclone line, the first time the mould saw release was in 1985 as part of Hasbro’s Series 2 of the Transformers line as the triple-changing Decepticon. His colours were very much representative of the Decepticons since he had a lot of purple on him. His modes include a space shuttle, steam locomotive and robot, hence the name “Astro-Train”.

Now, in the earlier Transformers catalogs which were available around the time of Astrotrain’s first release, the toy itself was shown as being a dark grey/purple/black toy as opposed to being a creamy-white/purple/black toy. It was the dark grey catalog-only representation that was carried over into the cartoons and the Transformers Movie as you can see in his bio right at the top of this article.

The toy in the catalog must have been a very early proto since he wasn’t even holding Astrotrain’s signature long handgun, he was shown holding Blitzwing’s handgun and sword instead! He also has extendable arms. Not at all an accurate representation of what was actually released in the stores. However Astrotrain was not the only toy to have a distinctly different catalog representation, the “Blue” diaclone-coloured Bluestreak is probably the most famous example of a similar inconsistency. Astrotrain’s colours were of course fixed for later catalog releases. One thing that was not fixed, however, was Astrotrain’s colour on the actual boxart. That remained dark grey instead of creamy-white.

There were two different moulds for the Astrotrain released in the US and Europe in 1985. There were slight differences to the main wings on the shuttle as the first release’s wings had little bits that jutted out causing some minor obstruction during transformation, this was altered for later releases. There were other minor mould changes but they’re a little too insignificant to mention. The pictures above are of the later-release “snubbed-wing” Astrotrain.

The first Transformers in Japan were released in 1985, with Series 1 and 2 toys being released at roughly the same time. As if there wasn’t enough confusion already created by the differing colours of Astrotrain in the catalog and in real life, the first Japanese Takara release of Astrotrain (designated ’48 Astrotrain’) was black/white! Not only was the colour of the toy different but the boxart used was completely different as well. The character had a totally different pose to that used on the US/European boxes with a completely different colour scheme. Many of these have turned up in the Philippines also.

Other than the obvious colour differences, the Japanese release came in a much smaller box than the US counterpart and the inner packaging was Styrofoam as opposed to a clear plastic bubble glued onto a backing card.

The toy itself was the later 1985 subbed-wing model and its colours were very representative of the real life American NASA space shuttles.

This was a very striking colour scheme with a stark contrast in colour between the shuttle mode and the steam locomotive mode. The robot also has red eyes as opposed to the US/Euro version which had yellow eyes. The red eyes are also just about the only thing that this first Japanese release has in common with the TV/cartoon representation of Astrotrain! This Japanese release also had a black handgun whereas the original Astrotrain had a purple handgun.

One other major difference between the US/Euro Astrotrains and the White Japanese Astrotrain is the sticker sheet. The White Astrotrain had “United States” and “NASA” stickers whereas the US/Euro release had the following sticker sheet:

There are a number of possible explanations as to why the Japanese release was so far removed from the US/Euro releases. One is a lack of communication between Hasbro and Takara, but Takara were probably well aware of what colour the US release was going to be as they used the later mould, and by that time the earlier US mould (complete with cream/purple colours) was already on general release. Another possibility is that the white/black version was a lot closer to reality and that is a feature common in the Diaclone line. Seeing as how the Diaclone Blitzwing was much closer in colour to a real life war-plane/tank but the TF version was purple etc, if Astrotrain was planned for Diaclone, then the white/black version would have fit much better. After all, the Diaclone line had nothing to do with Autobots or Decepticons so neither Blitzwing or Astrotrain would have to be purple. That lends a little weight to the white/black scheme being a carry-over from the original Diaclone plans. Maybe Takara in Japan would have had less licensing/copyright issues with using a NASA livery for the toy?

Whatever the reason for the white/black release, later on, Takara re-released Astrotrain in Japan in the correct creamy-white/purple colour scheme, and also used exactly the same boxart as the US/Euro release. Maybe they no longer had the right to use the NASA livery or maybe toy sales weren’t good as the white Astrotrain didn’t match the show colours. In the Netherlands when Tracks was released in red, it didn’t sell so well because the version of Tracks in the cartoon was blue, so possibly a similar thing happened with Takara in Japan with Astrotrain. The picture below shows the two Astrotrains released in Japan:

Just as an interesting aside, in 1986 Astrotrain was again released in the US at around the same time as all the Movie toys. This particular Astrotrain was a poster box version which meant it came with a Movie poster (glow in the dark I believe). It was an extremely rare release however and was not available everywhere.

Also in 1986, Astrotrain was released in Mexico by IGA. This Astrotrain had lower quality materials used, such as papery factory stickers and a bad paint job. On some of the Mexican Astrotrains the eyes are red and the white plastic is even more creamy and looks faded/yellowed. Mexican Astrotrains were also available in the UK, Netherlands and some other European countries.

In the late 80s/early 90s in Europe, some of the Transformers were released again in gold boxes and rebadged as “Classic Transformers”. Astrotrain was one of these. In the UK Classic release the toy had a rubsign, but the Spanish release of Classic Astrotrain had no rubsign. The copyrights on the Classic releases were also slightly different.

And more recently, in 2004, Astrotrain has been reissued not only in black/white like the original Japanese release, but for the first time in the dark grey/purple colour scheme seen in the cartoons and the original catalogs! The dark grey “Anime” Astrotrain was a limited edition E-Hobby exclusive release available through their online store.

- 1984 Astrotrain possibly planned as Diaclone triplechanger
- 1985 Astrotrain shown in Transformers catalog as grey/purple
- 1985 Astrotrain in Transformers cartoon shown as grey/purple
- 1985 Astrotrain released as cream/purple toy in US/Canada/Europe by Hasbro
- 1985 Astrotrain released as white/black toy in Japan by Takara
- 1985/1986 Astrotrain released as cream/purple toy in Japan by Takara
- 1986 Astrotrain released as creamier/purple toy in Mexico by IGA
- 1986 Astrotrain released as cream/purple toy in poster box in US (limited)
- Late 80s/Early 90s Astrotrain released as cream/purple in gold Classic box in Europe (some w/rubsign, some w/out depending on country of release)
- 2004 Astrotrain released in white/black as reissue #11 in Japan by Takara
- 2004 Astrotrain released in grey/purple as E-Hobby exclusive reissue

From here on in, we will concentrate on the #11 reissue of the white/black Astrotrain.

The box front shows more of the stunning artwork that’s exclusive to these reissues. The box back shows the contents of this particular release and a small selection of what other reissues were available at the time of release. On Astrotrain’s box, the other reissues featured are #9 Anime Starscream, #10 Soundwave + Buzzsaw and #12 Minibot giftset (Anime Bumblebee, Huffer, Gears, Powerglide, Cosmos, Warpath).

Just like all the other Dreamwave-style Takara reissues, Astrotrain’s box opens like a book:

The pages include a bio/datafile for Astrotrain (shown at the very top of this article), bios/datafiles for Powerglide, Ravage, a Dreamwave poster of Devastator towering over Prime and other Autobots, a small catalog section containing the Predacons, Cyclonus, Scourge, Ramjet, Thrust, Octane and the Goodbye Megatron giftset.

The toy itself comes inside a plastic bubble secured tightly by wiry twisty-ties. The plastic bubble comes in a cardboard tray that can be transformed into a display stand (see later). You can also see the instruction sheet, sticker sheet, collector’s card and consumer satisfaction/opinion card.

The collector’s cards are one of the nicest features of the Japanese release Takara Transformers. Even though many original Japanese TFs had collector’s cards, Astrotrain was amongst the first releases in Japan back in 1985 (the collector’s cards were introduced in Japan in 1986) so it didn’t have a card, which makes this the first release of its collector’s card, and as a nice touch, it has the original white Astrotrain boxart on the card.

Now here’s something of some slight interest, the reissue white Astrotrain’s sticker sheet. It is of course totally different to the original US/Euro Astrotrain’s sticker sheet (seen above), but it is also slightly different to the original white Astrotrain’s sticker sheet. The stickers that say “ASTR” for Astrotrain originally said “NASA”, but it appears that Takara no longer have the rights to use the NASA logo on the toy. However, all the pictures of the white Astrotrain on this reissue’s packaging still show the “NASA” stickered version. That just means that Takara are using the same old stock photos from the 80s instead of taking new ones. This is nothing new at all for either Takara or Hasbro.

Just in case you were wondering, the tiny text above the stickers containing the red triangles (stickers #7 on the sheet) says:

I’m not sure whether or not those misspellings are deliberate or not, maybe they are. I don’t have an original white Astrotrain handy to check at this moment just in case licensing issues have come into play.

I personally think that the white plastic on the reissue is a slightly different shade to the original, a little less brilliant. There have always been questions about the quality of the moulding on the reissues compared to that of the originals and I have to say those questions need to be raised with regards to this Astrotrain. The moulding on the face doesn’t seem as sharp as on original Astrotrains, and when you try to transform it from a shuttle to a locomotive, the panels that swing down and form the side of the train do not click into place and as a result, they are slightly angled and the train doesn’t roll so smoothly. Other than those minor complaints, it’s an absolutely beautiful reissue. The toy itself has always been a favourite of mine and this colour scheme is easily the most striking and eye-catching of the three released so far.

The following pictures show the reissue in all 3 modes before the stickers were applied, and after the stickers were applied:

Not a tremendous difference between the stickered and non-stickered versions, and I can’t really decide which I like better personally. The train mode doesn’t really look at all different when stickered up, except for a tiny blue circular sticker that goes somewhere near the front of the locomotive.

Even comparing the reissue to the original white Astrotrain, there isn’t that much to set them apart unless you count the “NASA” vs “ASTR” sticker change. The reason some of the stickers look different is because the original white Astrotrain pictured way above had experienced some sticker fading. The reissue is made in China whereas the original was made in Japan. This is evident on the toy’s copyright stampings underneath the wings.

It’s a nice way of displaying the toy, but it probably takes up more space than collectors would like and I doubt many people actually go so far as to form and use the display stand, especially seeing as how Takara now insist on using tape to hold the sides of it together. That’s a shame as you can only reshape the tray/stand if you take the tape off and risk tearing the cardboard.

Overall I think that Astrotrain, with the possible exception of Blitzwing, was easily the best triple-changer to come out of the Takara factories. All three modes are very distinct and resemble their true counterpart very closely. Astrotrain’s appearance as a toy was reasonably close to the cartoon version too which counts for a lot among fans. Transforming the toy is enjoyable as well as there’s a lot of satisfying clicking to let you know you’ve completed any given transformation sequence. There’s enough die-cast metal on the toy as well to give it a good weighty feel.

The only downsides to the original design of the toy were that the legs became loose rather quickly and made standing him up in robot mode a bit tricky and the arms always seemed a tad too short especially considering how huge his handgun was! One other consideration was that in the cartoon when Astrotrain changed into a shuttle, all the other Decepticons would fit inside. If you look at the toy, it’s kinda small so that’s not really a possibility. As a robot, he’s not at all poseable either, with only the arms showing any articulation at all.

Another funny thing I’ve noticed with this particular toy, a few of my own friends only ever owned one transformer when they were young, and that one TF tended to be Astrotrain. As a result I’ve actually given my last two Astrotrains to my mates as a souvenir of their own childhood and they absolutely love it.

Takara have not actually reissued the widely-available cream/purple Astrotrain, only the white Japanese release (which was actually considered something of a rarity before the reissue) and the catalog/cartoon-coloured grey “Anime” or “Proto” Astrotrain. This might be because Takara, who do monitor the second hand TF market, realise that the original cream/purple release is not at all difficult to find and does not cost much at all on the second hand market. It remains to be seen what colour the Hasbro Toys’R’Us reissue of Astrotrain will be if indeed they ever reissue him in the States. After all, the US reissue of Bluestreak was the all-silver one…

To conclude, this reissue costs next to nothing compared to the original white release and comes with many neat extras like the collector’s card and datafiles. Astrotrain itself is the king of all fiddle-with TFs. It’s extremely hard to put down once you start messing with it and is highly displayable in either of its modes. For someone who stopped collecting G1 some time ago, I absolutely had to have this reissue as I always liked Astrotrain and was a massive fan of this colour scheme. I’m not at all disappointed with it, despite the slightly negative points I’ve outlined above. Heck, he waseven occupying the wallpaper spot on my cell phone at the time I first bought the reissue!

Many thanks to Rickie for the use of his original White Astrotrain for the photoshoot.