Vehicles and
alt-modes

Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle

The best-selling single-design car in history, and the alt mode that made the smallest Autobot the most recognisable o

Porsche 935 Turbo

A Group 5 silhouette racer with a flattened nose and a whale tail, copied from a specific real car down to its sponsor

Nissan (Datsun) 280ZX Police Car

A Japanese sports coupe wearing American highway patrol livery, a combination that never existed on any real road and

Lamborghini Countach LP500S

The wedge that defined 1980s bedroom-wall car culture, copied without permission twice over and steadily sanitised in

Ligier JS11 Formula One Car

A 1979 French Grand Prix car reproduced so faithfully, sponsor decals and all, that its toy carries a cigarette brand

Nissan Fairlady Z / 280ZX

The same S130 Z-car twice: once as a silver street coupe, once as a Group 5 Super Silhouette racer with the bodywork o

Chevrolet Corvette C3 Stingray

A late C3 Corvette with a flame on the bonnet and flip-out wings, and the rare G1 alt mode that eventually got a genui

Lancia Stratos Turbo (Group 5)

A homologation-special rally car turned Group 5 silhouette racer in Alitalia colours, worn by the Autobot who invents

Porsche 924 Turbo

Porsche's front-engined entry-level coupe, squashed into a palm-sized robot, and the reason a lot of collectors own a

Lamborghini Countach LP500S Fire Chief Car

A Countach with a light bar and fire-service markings, derived from a Diaclone police car, and the alt mode most often

Freightliner FL86 Cab-Over Semi

The blunt-nosed American long-haul tractor that became the most recognisable robot silhouette of the 1980s, and almost

Toyota Hilux 4WD (N40)

A workaday Japanese pickup, one wearing a camper canopy and one wearing a tow crane, and the only G1 Autobots whose al

Nissan Onebox Cherry Vanette

A Japanese one-box delivery van reissued as the Autobots' oldest warrior and their chief medic, and the only two 1984

Construction Vehicles

A front-end loader, a bulldozer, an excavator, a cement mixer, a mobile crane and a dump truck, six machines that comb

Mitsubishi Fuso Fire Engine

A Japanese aerial-ladder fire appliance, the one G1 alt mode whose real-world job and the character's job are identica

McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle

The undefeated American air-superiority fighter, recoloured six ways to build the Decepticon air force on a single too

Mitsubishi Jeep J59

Not a CJ-7. Hound is a Mitsubishi J59, the Japanese licence-built descendant of the Willys CJ-3B, in US Army green wit

Walther P38 Pistol

A real German service pistol reproduced at close to full size in die-cast metal, which is why it is the single most le

Microcassette Recorder

A dictaphone-sized tape recorder that actually opens and holds its own crew, the most literal 'robot in disguise' Taka

Microcassette Tapes

Flat rectangles of plastic that unfold into a jaguar, a condor and two piledriver-armed brawlers, and the only Transfo

Boombox / Ghetto Blaster

A shoulder-carried stereo radio-cassette player, the Autobot answer to Soundwave, and a toy that lost its working radi

Compound Optical Microscope

A working-ish compound microscope with real lenses, the most improbable thing Hasbro ever asked a child to accept as a

Dinosaurs

Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus and Pteranodon, alt modes chosen from a museum rather than a car

Cybertronian Hovercar and Pre-Earth Modes

The alt modes the cast had before the Ark crashed: wheel-less hovercars, six-wheeled haulers and futuristic gun platfo

Space Shuttle and Steam Locomotive

A NASA orbiter and a steam engine sharing one body, the first Decepticon triple changer and the Decepticons' only tran

Autobot Shuttle

The wedge-shaped Autobot transport from the opening of the 1986 film, best remembered for what happened to the four Au

Characters

Every chassis, every continuity.

Locations

Cybertron, the Ark, Quintessa and beyond.

The toy catalogue

The moulds these alt-modes became.

The 1986 movie line

The year the range changed completely.