Nissan Onebox Cherry Vanette

The Nissan Vanette, sold in Japan from 1978 as part of the Cherry dealership network, is a cab-over 'one box' light commercial van: engine under the front seats, flat nose, sliding side door, and as much load space as the footprint allows. Petrol fours of 1.2 to 1.5 litres, front bench seating, and a job list that ran from parcel delivery to family transport. It is the least glamorous vehicle in the 1984 assortment by a wide margin.

Which is the point. Ironhide is the veteran bodyguard and Ratchet is the field surgeon; neither is a racer, and both are supposed to look like they carry equipment. The van's blunt front becomes the robot's chest and the rear cargo area opens into a roller-equipped battle platform in Diaclone form, the same 'vehicle unfolds into a base' gimmick Optimus Prime's trailer uses.

The famous quirk is the head. Neither toy has one. The robot mode is a torso and limbs rising out of the van's rear section with the cab still attached at the front, and the designers simply left the head off, presumably because a Diaclone driver was meant to occupy the space. The cartoon gave both characters proper heads and faces, so for a generation of children the toy looked broken. Later reissues and the e-Hobby releases added optional heads; Masterpiece MP-27 Ironhide finally resolved it.

Diaclone Car Robot No. 2 'Onebox Cherry Vanette' (Takara, March 1982), designed by Koujin Ohno, originally released in black, later in other colours. Ironhide and Ratchet are the red and white redecos of it.

Fan lore about these vehicles is unusually unreliable. Where a popular claim does not survive checking, it is recorded here rather than repeated.

• Whether Ratchet's red cross deco was withdrawn specifically because of protections on the Red Cross emblem is widely repeated but not documented by Hasbro.