1964

[primenova]

What if ...?

The Transformers where released 20 years before


I'm sure Transforming robots toys back in the 60's wound be like comparing the 80's toys to new mobile phones to 80's mobile phones.

But what modes would everyone have. Ironhide could still be a van - but VW camper. What jets where out in the 60's?

At this time in the comics we had Spiderman, Uncanny Xmen & Avengers for a year. Also Dr Who for a year - but 2 years before Startrek.

[Philip Ayres]

More trains probably. Lots of different steam engines.

[primenova]

Windcharger, Huffer, Gears as trains - that would be good.

[Stomski]

Assuming US development, Decepticons would have been representative of the Russians, likely being some kind of Russian made tank.

[The Doctor]

I like to think some of the toys would be wind-up affairs!

-Ralph

[blueshift]

We would all grumble that Transformers should be made from TIN like they were in the good old days!

[Stomski]

Tin and lead paint toys are a lost art. Except in Mexico.

[primenova]

See the might Optimus Prime tin truck stand up on its end faceing down the forces Of Megatrons rolling tank & the axis powers.



Free plasters with each toy. Try transforming a tin toy without cutting yourself. Those new tin transforming toys out now do at least have plastic to cover the edges. But in the 60's they didn't have that level of technology. When was it we first got the ball joint? guess it would ahve been in the 70's ?? I'm sure the mass production of starwars toys could have helped the development of microman & gijoe - leading to the first Transformers toys.

[blueshift]

Tin toys were great. There was something magical and a bit spooky about going round my grandparents and getting out the old lepkuchen tin which contained a lot of tattered tin wind-up toys.

[Stomski]

Looking at www.timewarptoys.com/toptoys.htm I wonder if there was some scope for cross overs with Big Loo Moon Robot or Gaylord the Walking Bloodhound??

[legios]

An interesting question. What is around in the way of alt-modes.... I don't pretend to know what was available in the way of cars, that is so far out of my realm of expertise that I couldn't really imagine.

As to some of the other stuff... Blitzwing's tank mode would look fairly similar, being as the T-62 Tank was already very much around. His aircraft mode would be ok too. If he is a Mig-25 then they are just going into service (and believed by Western Governments to be so capable as to be magic).

If you are looking for Russian alt-modes for the jets then the pickings become slimmer. The Su-7/9 and Su-11 and the Mig-21 are around but, with the exception of the Mig-25 pretty much everything looks a bit milk bottle-shaped really. The Mig-25 would likely result in them looking very similar to the F-15 design (similar intakes, twin V-stabs...different looking cockpit though).

If you were looking at the US inventory for forms then things become a bit more varied. The glamourpuss, and closest equivalent of the F-15 altmodes would be the F-4 Phantom II. But there are also the F-104 Starfighter (pencil with razorwings), F-100 Super Sabre, and the F-105 Thunderchief which would be familiar to folk from the media coverage of the ongoing war in Vietnam.

Now Jetfire wouldn't exist - being as the mechanical designers of Macross have not met yet due to one being only four...... However, if we assume that someone creates the character independently of needing to stuff another lines toy into Transformers and go looking for something advanced and cutting-edge for him to turn into... The SR-71 has been unveiled by the US President in a campaign trail speech, so maybe we get a Blackbird version of Jetfire forty years earlier. The XB-70 Valkyrie is under development with North American aerospace and made its first flight in September 64 so that is also a possibility (ending up with an altmode with the same name but a radically different appearance).

Whirl should count himself lucky that he won't be out to 1965 - there won't be any dedicated gunship helos for him to be until then, and when he does come out he will be pretty much the same - given that the Gazette is based on the AH-1 Cobra right down the line. If they did him in 64 though he would definitely be a UH-1 Iroquois (or Huey to all and sundry) making Blades pretty much redundant....

Megatron might still be a P-38 but probably doesn't have the barrel extender or stock - The Man from U.N.C.L.E has started but only just. and hasn't been a sensation long enough to turn around a toyline as radical in design as In '64 I'm pretty sure that Dictaphones were still pretty big, so Soundwave is going to be very different - perhaps he's a Decca record player instead? (Which means no cassettes obviously, so maybe he is a reel-to-reel player with the two tape reels detaching as companions - a more curvy, deco-ish Ravage and Buzzsaw perhaps).

Interesting to think about though, and would give us a rather differently looking line. (And if it had been a success makes you wonder whether it would have caused other odd knock-on effects. A Japanese market influenced by American imports rather than vice-versa? A more heavily-entrenched Super Robot genre squeezing out the first attempts at the Real Robot movement in the late 70's?)

Karl

[Bogatan]

Astrotrain would be really different I assume. Shuttle to rocket.

Fiction wise the early cold war, space race and Vietnam would have made for an interesting background.

Andy

[legios]

Oct 8, 2010 17:36:19 GMT Bogatan said:

Astrotrain would be really different I assume. Shuttle to rocket.

Flash Gordon style rocket-ship perhaps, giving him a bit of a retro look harking back to the style of the previous decade?

Karl

[Deleted]

Bumblebee would retain his VW bug mode while the Apollo space missions, Vietnam war and all of the spy films / books would have created enough background material to base other characters on. WW2 was also still fresh in people's minds so maybe the Combaticons would retain their vehicle modes.

[legios]

Oct 10, 2010 10:02:31 GMT @zudobug said:

WW2 was also still fresh in people's minds so maybe the Combaticons would retain their vehicle modes.

Vortex, Swindle and Onslaught would probably be alright. Blast Off would definitely need a new mode, and Brawl probably wouldn't be a Leopard given that it was a year away from entering service with the German army. He'd probably have been an M-60 or T-62 I suspect.

Karl

[Shockprowl]

What a brilliant idea for a thread! I don't have any ideas, mind, but I'm enjoying other people's ideas! One thing is for certain, Prowl would have to be some sort of a police car!