Diaclone

Diaclone(ダイアクロン,Daiakuron)is a toyline byTakara Toyslaunched in 1980. It consisted of transforming vehicles and robots piloted by miniature, magnet-shoed figures spun off from the priorMicromantoy line.

The toys in the 1980 line were designed by futureMacrossdesignersShoji KawamoriandKazutaka Miyatake(both contracted fromStudio Nue), who designed themechaand thefiguresrespectively. Unlike Microman, which featured "full-scale" toys of its 10-centimeter-tall alien cyborgs, the figures in Diaclone represented full-sized human (and enemy alien Waruder) pilots, and were in approximately 1/60 scale.

In 1982, the line later featured theCar-Robotsset of transforming robot toys, invented byŌno Kōjinwith some initial designs by Kawamori and others. While the original series featured fanciful robots and vehicles, Car-Robots added the feature of the robots being able to disguise themselves as various late 20th century-era contemporary vehicles. In 1984,Hasbrolicensed the Car-Robots toyline along with the Microman'sMicro Changetoyline from Takara and merged the two series of toys to create theTransformers.Most of the originalAutobotvehicle-based characters came from the Car-Robots set of Diaclone robots. Other Transformers characters that came from the Diaclone line included the Dinobots,Insecticons(from the enemy Waruder toys), the Jumpstarters, the mail-order exclusive Powerdashers and Omnibots, theDecepticonplanes (originally from two "JetRobo" toys, produced in the colors of future DecepticonsStarscreamandThundercracker) and theConstructicons,who also came from the Car-Robots set. The Constructicons came from near the end of the series, at which point Takara was starting to abandon the Inch-Man pilot figures and being limited to the 1/60 scale. The six TrainRobo were also produced in the same sub-line as the Constructicons, but would only become Transformers (as the Trainbots) in Japan's 1987 line.

Takara eventually discontinued the Diaclone and Microman toylines in 1985 in favor of theTransformersrebranding. Takara has since revived the franchise, however; first announced at Tokyo Toy Show 2015, the first proper figure of the newDiacloneline was revealed atWonder Festivalof 2015. TheBotConstoryline for 2015 also features several concepts from the Diaclone series, and several figures were based on Diaclone characters.

See also

• Furman, Simon(2004).Transformers: The Ultimate Guide.DK Publishing Inc. p. 63.ISBN1-4053-0461-8.

External links

• (in Japanese)DIACLONE.NET
• Pre-Transformers
• Multiforce 14/Warudaros commercial
• Commercial for Battle Convoy, later known as Optimus Prime