Nissan Fairlady Z / 280ZX

The S130 Fairlady Z replaced the 240Z lineage in 1978 and ran to 1983. In Japan it was the Fairlady Z and Z-T; in the US it was the Datsun 280ZX. It was heavier and plusher than its predecessors, with a 2.8 litre inline-six, a T-bar roof option, and from 1981 a turbo model. Nissan also campaigned a Super Silhouette version in Japan's Group 5 category, and that car has almost nothing of the road car left: enormous box arches, a hanging front splitter, a rear wing the size of a table, and a turbocharged four-cylinder engine making over 500 horsepower. Its Tomica-sponsored livery is one of the most recognisable in Japanese motorsport.

Bluestreak got the road car in silver, which suits a character whose bio describes him as a compulsive talker hiding trauma: ordinary on the outside. Smokescreen got the Super Silhouette, and that fits too. He is the Autobots' diversionary tactician and a gambler, so of course he is the loud one covered in sponsor decals.

Both are the Prowl tooling underneath. Smokescreen's version has the racing bodywork moulded on, which makes his robot mode visibly bulkier at the shins. Bluestreak's earliest Japanese and European releases came in a blue-over-silver deco that explains his name, a detail Hasbro dropped almost immediately.

Diaclone Car Robot No. 3 'Fairlady Z' (Bluestreak) and Diaclone Car Robot 'Fairlady Z Racing Type / Super Silhouette' (Smokescreen), Takara 1982 to 1983, both by Koujin Ohno, both sold with drivers.

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

• Some sources describe Bluestreak's donor as a 280ZX and others as a Fairlady Z; these are the same car under different market names.