Help needed. Chinese-made Diaclone???

[jjwankenobi]

Guys 'n gals...I need your expert insight.

I recently sold (what I thought was) a vintage Diaclone Powered Convoy and now the buyer wants to return it because the trailer is stamped "1984 Hasbro Takara Made In China"

Is this a KO or reissue?

I know "Made In Japan" is preferred but I recall reading somewhere that it wasn't peculiar to find vintage Diaclones made in China after 1989.

Help please?

[chewy]

Is it the reissue diaclone colored ultra magnus? There shouldn't be diaclone made around 1989. There is some overlap where diaclone was still made even after transformers started but maybe only until 1985 of which powered convoy was one of the last..

[jjwankenobi]

No it doesn't have a tampographed faction symbol like the 2001 C-96 "Yokokuhen Version" reissue of Ultra Magnus.

[thebobkat]

According to a site that explains the trademark/copyright stamping, the shared (Hasbro & Takara) stamping with the made in China indication is used on late 89 Micromaster, Euro-Classics and re-issues.

http://www.fredsworkshop.com/vstampings2.html


Hasbro/Takara-China (Plain)
Hasbro/Takara-china (Kanji and Dates)
-Standard shared stamping, however the location of manufacture is now China instead of Macau. Late 89 change for the Micromasters toys, Euro-Classics line, as well as being the stamping of choice for reissued toys.

-Can be standard, or 'In-Box' stamping (raised platform).

-Many people don't value a European Classic the same as its original counterpart in the same condition. They might as well be called what they are - G1.5 rereleases.

Japanese Diaclone should only have a Takara logo (usually in a circle or something similar).

Maybe yours isn't a Japanese Diaclone? According to some articles GiG had the license for Diaclone in Italy and apparently they were selling some Diaclone even after Hasbro had picked up the license to start making Transformers so that may have been a running change. Or could it have been repaired with parts that had that stamping?

[elburrito]

Great Scot! Need more information to answer this question definitively. Assuming that there was no box and that the trailer was grey (as opposed to chrome), it is possible that yours was the GiG Italian release. There is some information about that here:

<http://tfsquareone.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/diaclone-powered-convoy.html> - thanks Maz.

The short story is that there were several improvements made to the mold (for Transformers Ultra Magnus) and that the improved Powered Convoy was sold as a Diaclone release by GiG in 1984.

If that is the case, then yours was legitimate, albeit not the original mold of Diaclone powered convoy, but an improved Diaclone mold.

More support for that conclusion is that the toy didn't break. I've read some of the original diaclone toys are so rare because they were crap i.e., shoddy, crappy materials. I assume yours wasn't broken.

Still more support for that is that I can't find a KO Powered Convoy that bears the stamp you have pictured.

[jjwankenobi]

Thanks guys.

It was (is) all in one piece with no broken parts.

Indeed, more investigation is needed. Appreciate all the insight.