There are a few different categories of Mexican Transformers variants which need to be kept in mind when you're trying to categorise a certain toy from said country. The first category contains the 'major' variants, toys which have distinct and noticeably-removed colour schemes or moulding from the original Hasbro/Takara US template. The second category contains toys with variations which are typical Mexican traits, such as lower quality stickers, lighter red paint, sparkle where there was no sparkle before...standard differences, yet not really distinguishable from US Transformers to the untrained eye. The third category involves toys with noticeable variations (like the first category) which were then re-released but with the major variation 'corrected' or at least changed to resemble the original US release a little more closely. This Mexican Grapple falls into that third category and you have probably already noticed the major variation on this particular piece. As it is from the latter category which underwent 'correction', there is also a regular Mexican Grapple release that was very close to the US version, and you can see a packaged sample of that below followed by a US Grapple box front for comparison here:

The box contains all the usual characteristics of packaged Mexican Transformers, but there's no harm in going over them again for newcomers to the Mexican Transformers scene. Looking firstly at the box front, in the bottom left-hand corner you can see the manufacturer's logo, but it isn't the common white house on black background logo of Hasbro. It is instead the mostly white yet similar logo of IGA, who were responsible for manufacturing and distributing Transformers in Mexico. Another difference is that all the text on the box (except for the "Heroic Autobot" bit on the main flap) is in Spanish instead of English. You might also notice that the red colour on the Mexican box front is lighter and less glossy than on the US box, another common attribute of Mexican TF packages. Another thing you might notice that the US Grapple's Name/Function bar ("Autobot Architect | Grapple") is slightly longer than the black "Transformers" bar above it, but on the Mexican box they are exactly the same length. Finally, the case assortment number found just below Grapple's character art is different for the two boxes. I imagine that if you look closely enough at the Mexican box in the flesh, you'll see the Mexican case assortment number printed over the US numbers, or at least a visble blocking-out of the US numbers if the location on the box isn't exactly the same. Other small differences exist too like cellophane window shape etc but they're a little less noticeable. It just goes to show how much corner-cutting was involved with the IGA releases. Onto the box backs, Mex first then US:

There are no big surprises here either (I'm saving those for later!). The Mexican box has no Robot points as there was no mailaway promotion in Mexico, the text is in Spanish on the Mexican box and again, the colours appear a little duller and lighter. The Mexican Grapple box back does however have the techspec bar as most did from Series 2 onwards. You might be able to see at the bottom of the Mexican box back below the techspec it reads "(c) 1985 HASBRO INC.". Now that may imply to you that Mexican Grapple was released by IGA in 1985, but in actual fact the copyrights on Transformers boxes only started saying "HASBRO INC" in 1986 after the complete takeover of Milton Bradley by Hasbro. Previously in 1985 most TF boxes said "Hasbro Bradley Inc." or something to that effect. So, like all Mexican TFs, Grapple came out a year later in 1986 than the 1985 US release. I imagine the inner packaging on the Mexican version also used a less secure and more prone-to-separating cardboard/plastic bubble combination.

Now as I said before, Grapple falls into the corrected-major-variant category and the packaged Grapple above is the corrected version...so what about the variant?

By now the major variation on this earlier un-corrected release of Mexican Grapple should be obvious to all those familiar with G1 Grapple. That's right, the rear sections of the vehicle which are also Grapple's robot feet are not the same uniform orange we're used to...they are in fact red! A very noticeable, eye-catching and quite glaring red at that. There had been rumours of such a variant but I had seen so many Mexican Grapples which were all orange that I was beginning to wonder if it was just a kitbash someone had seen but this is now the second or third example of this variant I have come across.

That picture above shows that not all of the back section is red, just that diecast region. It had been said that the feet were just parts used from Inferno and therefore maybe this was a LATER release as IGA might have run out of orange Grapple parts/paint and used whatever else was close at hand.

Now it is not entirely clear from the last picture above, and that is a real shame, but the red used on Mexican Grapple's feet is in fact different to the red used on US Inferno. Apparently this is indeed the red used on Mexican Inferno though. The variations however do not end there. Here is Mexican Grapple's robot mode:

The joints on this Mexican Grapple were actually pretty tight and everything clicked into place very well, which I found to be something of a new experience as far as Mexican TFs go, although trying to separate the head from the cab can be really hard when going back to vehicle mode. Being Mexican, Grapple has no rubsign and the fists/missiles fire and project the accessories a decent distance. On initial inspection, he seems pretty good. He still has the wide shoulders, complimentary chrome and cool cab sculpting that make this mould nice in my opinion. That's when you notice what IGA have done to his head. Here's a close up of the Mex Grapple's head followed by a close-up of a US Grapple head:

Now I don't mind the fact that the eyes and ears have been changed from yellow to red at all, it's just that the paint application is awful. So much so that you'd have a really hard time convincing someone that it was indeed a factory job and not a custom job. There are a number of Mexican TFs that had their eyes painted red (Optimus Prime, Astrotrain, Inferno...) and their paint application was equally as bad. So the evidence mounted up and it was accepted that this awful paint job was in reality factory applied. The red really makes Grapple look evil (perfectly suitable for an Autobot I'm sure you'll agree). You might also have noticed the face is slightly darker than the US silver face, and the mouth on the US Grapple seems smaller than Mex Grapple's mouth. I think if it wasn't for the bad paint application, the Mexican face sculpt would look better. Red feet, red eyes and red ears so far. That's still not the end of it though...

In the above picture, the Mexican Grapple is on the right and a US Grapple has been placed on the left. If you look at the striped sticker that runs across the bottom of the crane/head section, the US TF has an orange and black colour scheme to match the rest of the figure's colour (derived of course from the original Diaclone release of this toy) but the Mexican Grapple on the right has a WHITE and black sticker. In addition, the Mexican sticker is papery unlike the clear plastic-like sticker on the US TF. This kind of variation is very typical and occurs very often when comparing US and Mexican Transformers. Looking at the packaged Mexican Grapple at the start of this article (the 'corrected' one without the red bits), that too has the white and black papery sticker. So despite the main variations being corrected, the sticker quality remained sub-standard. That pretty much covers all the main noticeable differences between this Mexican Grapple and its US counterpart, but there are a number of other minute things which are easier to miss.

In the above picture there is a comparison of the crane section for three Grapples. The one on the far left is the first US TF release of Grapple which was only Takara-stamped. The middle one is the more common Hasbro/Takara stamped US release and the one on the right belongs to the Mexican Grapple. Now the hook on all those cranes is attached to a trapezium-shaped head (which is part of the extendable crane section) and that in turn is connected to the cuboid head (the end of the non-extendable crane section). The difference I am trying to highlight here is that the distance between the cuboid section and the main shaft of the non-extendable crane varies between releases. Usually Mexican TFs share late-release rubsign US TF characteristics, but this particular characteristic is more in common with the earlier US release, i.e. Mex and early release US TF have almost no gap between the aforementioned sections. That could just be down to the Grapples in this article though, I've not researched this too much.

Here though is another example of sub-standard construction in Mexican Transformers. This chrome part of the crane should sit nice and vertical, but as you can see the moulding on the parts is less than perfect, hence the strange angle of suspension when it is clipped into its holder.

Looking at the guns, there are differences here as well. It may not be so obvious, but the black on the Mexican accessories was lighter. One things that might be clear is the moulding on the triangle on the handgun. The US indents on the triangle are deeper and thicker. The Mexican handgun has shallower and thinner indents making for a triangle with less definition. This sort of difference is evident in all the indentations made on the Mexican Grapple gun. The Mexican gun also has tabs on the peg to help it stay in the hands better. Both US Grapples I've got have trouble holding the gun as the fit is not snug. Later US Grapples had the tabbed gun as well. The sticker sheet that came with the set is just a regular US stickersheet, just as with all Mexican Transformers (Only factory stickers show variations).

That's probably all there is to say about the differences between the Mexican Grapple and the US Grapples. What's left is to try and place the Mexican mould somewhere in the US timeline based on characteristics it shares with the various releases of the US Grapple. I'm going to start with mentioning the chrome grills on the front of every Grapple/Inferno toy because that is the very first Transformer moulding variation I ever spotted!

If you have a look at the top picture in the above series, it contains the two US Grapples. The earlier Takara-only stamped US Grapple has a perfectly smooth chrome section underneath the main grill/headlight bar, but the later Hasbro/Takara-stamped US Grapple has four rectangles moulded into that previously-smooth section of the grill piece. The second picture shows that the Mexican Grapple also has the indented grill and that section is therefore based on the later US mould. The last pic shows that the same grill variation exists between early and later US Infernos as well. The chrome on the Mex Grapple is also a shade darker and I'm certain the moulding is a little less detailed. Now for a look inside the cab:

The order of Grapples is the same in the above picture as before. The main things to point out here are the two points in each cab where the chrome grill is secured to the main plastic of the cab. The 2 US Grapples have black plastic to secure the chrome in place but inside the Mexican cab you can see the two chrome circles which are the grill pegs. No black plastic there. This probably isn't a Mexican-exclusive trait though as I used to own a US Grapple that also had no black plastic inside the cab. Still worth a mention though. Moving in EVEN closer...

Now if the previous differences were a little hard to notice, this one is REALLY hard. The top picture is the early US TF, middle picture is the later US TF and bottom picture is the Mexican TF. Just to the right of the seat (originally intended for Diaclone Grapple's Diaclone driver) there is a lever/stick moulded into the black cab section. The early Grapple has a stick like a very thin rod, almost tube-like. The other 2 Grapples (later and Mex) have a thicker bar-like stick/lever. A variation exists on Inferno which is similar. Most would consider it too small to mention, but I did notice it. Finally the copyright:

The top copyright is the Mexican Grapple's and the bottom one is the later release US copyright. They are both identical except for the fact that the Mexican Grapple has the "JAPAN" section blocked out as Japan was clearly not the country of manufacture. About half of the Mexican Transformers releases have that section blocked out, and it's a very simple way of spotting a Mexican Grapple if say it didn't have the red parts or the stickers had been removed.

As an aside, here are some interesting facts related to this Mexican grapple:

• This Mexican Grapple was found in Germany, one of the countries known to have received Mexican toys in the 80s along with the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and maybe Austria and Russia.

• Mexican Infernos have been seen with the arms reversed. The launching tab is actually on the inside of the arm!

• You have probably noticed that this particular Mex Grapple is missing one of the silver stacks by his feet. That's just my luck with Grapples I'm afraid. The Later US release Grapple I use in this article is missing a wheel...although Devvi is rumoured to know of its whereabouts ;)

It's time to take a small step back and have a look at the Mexican Grapple next to its cousins in all their glory...

Later US TF and Mexican Grapple

Early US TF and Mexican Grapple

Early US TF, Later US TF and Mexican Grapple

Early US TF Grapple, Mexican Grapple, Later US TF Inferno

Early US TF Grapple, Later US TF Grapple, Mex Grapple, Early US TF Inferno, Late US TF Inferno

Quality-wise, you have to look pretty closely at the Mexican Grapple construction-wise to find the usual issues that exist with IGA's releases and already that places Grapple a little ahead of most Mexican Transformers. He transformed well and was easy to pose, and apart from a slight drop in quality on the hand gun, the accessories were decent and interfaced with the main body well enough. Since Grapple doesn't have many factory stickers anyway, he is not noticeably less displayable than his US counterpart. However the few stickers he did come with from the factory are significantly lower in quality, and that brings us nicely back on to the subject of the face. There's no getting around how awful the application is but I have been told that this was due to the lead paint issues related to Mex TFs. The paint underneath was apparently scratched off and the new red paint hastily applied to all of the imported Mex TFs in order to meet the safety laws of various countries. A shame because if it had been done well, the red facial features would have been a nice addition to an already quirky release.

As for the major variation, the red feet, I like how they look. That is probably what adds the most character and identity to the Mexican Grapple...or at least the identity that I like to remember! And as much as I've gone on about the paint apps on the face, he does still look cool in figure mode and is far from undisplayable. This particular red-features Mex Grapple was the first one I had found for sale but I had seen a number of regular 'corrected' Mexican Grapples. It's probably not the rarest of Mexican variants, but if you do like collecting Mexican Transformers, there's no way you can sidestep this particular release. It's easily different enough, strange enough, unique enough and rare enough to hold a variant-hunter's interest and it fits in nicely among the growing list of stand-out G1 1984/5 series Mexican variants, especially the Autobot cars. It's certainly no Black Prowl, Yellow Windcharger, Silver Starscream or Hoist w/Trailbreaker head but I do like this piece and were I still a collector of Mexican TFs, I would be very proud of it and pleased with it. It's certainly one of the most obscure if nothing else...

A great many thanks to Brian's Toys for being so generous as to let me use their pictures of the packaged regular 'corrected' Mexican Grapple. You've made so many comparisons and explanations possible in this article that would have been an absolute nightmare otherwise. Thank you!!

All the best
Maz