It's funny to me how Chevy was hesitant to do Transformers because it might portray their cars as low quality, only to several years later use Transformers to reimage their brand after people discovered their cars were low quality (at that time). If anything, Transformers saved them.

I think the perfect example of alternators is Skids, because it's robot mode is, despite being solid, really dumpy and goofy, but then his transformation and car mode are superb and outstanding.

@jaidenglass4421

2 жыл бұрын

He was strangely posable too

@IsiahTomas

2 жыл бұрын

I'll most definitely second that. Awesome figure.

I adore the fact that almost every figure was intended to be for a different character, came out as the second very of that mold or completely weird choices.

@hotwheelsbrothers687

2 жыл бұрын

I think soo

I'm definitely wearing full nostalgia glasses, but man, as a kid, Alternators were my favorite Transformers, second only to Beast Wars. I was so excited by the licensed vehicles, I loved the intricate transformations, and even when I was going through my "growing up" phase they stayed on display until I came back to my senses. That said...what an absolute mess of a line, I never knew it was this convoluted!

Contrary to popular belief Alternators Windcharger's gun barrel was _not_ omitted for safety reasons. It was omitted because Honda's US division didn't want their car associated with guns, so the barrel was removed and the accessory relabeled as a shield... even though the toy already came with a shield.

I'm still absolutely bewildered by the fact they kept Sideswipe's Japanese name for the Japanese release... even though his name is frickin' _LAMBOR_ and he's a _DODGE VIPER._

releasing Optimus as Ginrai instead of Convoy is... a wild take and a cool way to reconcile Prime as a civilian pickup truck. I think I may use mine (the only Alternators figure I have) as Ginrai

As a massive car and Transformers fan,the Alternators are still one of my favorite Transformers toylines,despite its problems.

Shelf warmers? Those things were BARELY on the shelves here. You were LUCKY to see 1-3 of these on a shelf at a time.

I love the Alternators line. I have at least one of every mold as well as their Binaltech equivalent. Despite all the problems it faced, I think it was the best TF line ever. I really wish they would reboot it and keep it in the same style. 1/24 scaled, modern licensed designs with fully detailed interiors and realistic opening doors and hood. A real "Adult's" Transformer. I would buy the crap out of it again.

I owned the Ravage as a kid, it's so good I miss it... it's still so unique as a concept of vehicle to beast. I also had Swindle and Shockwave both great figures.

I remember Alternators being just ever so slightly before my time but also one of the first G1 inspired lines to catch my interest, making them both a mystery to me and fundamental part of my fandom. Alternators Wheeljack was the first version of my favorite character I owned and was my first "white whale." They're probably never going to be revisited, but I'd love to see Hasbro include some of those Alternator designs into future lines, like I'd kill to get a deluxe version of that blue & white mustang Wheeljack.

I still think that this was the best line of Transformers. but there was one opportunity that was sadly missed, no humans. I would have loved to see 1:24 scale poseable humans who could sit in the drivers seats, and if possible, it would have been amazing if they were GI Joes. It would have been a very cool way of linking the franchises.

@imm311

2 жыл бұрын

Mega Construx Call of Duty figures fit well in many of the alternators and can pass as Gi joes.

@darrenbent7601

2 жыл бұрын

@@imm311 That's good to know. I've never had any Construx toys, so I'll have to see if I can find them.

@MaxRawhide

2 жыл бұрын

Actually, there are humans, although not in Alternators but in BT. Not covered in the video save for the last one (Argent Meister, Blue Streak and Arcee), but in Japan Binaltech got several reboots. The first reboot was BT* that included Alert, Sunstreaker and Broadblast (a Skids repaint). Those three came with litle humans, all girls based on existing human characters in TF. The second reboot was Kiss Players in which three Alt/BT figures were released: Convoy, Rodimus and Autorooper, and those three again came with little female figures. These little human figures aren't posable save for swapping out limbs, but do fit with the altmodes. You can also use Human Alliance humans.

Alternators were what got me back into Transformers collectimg. They're probably also why I limit myself only to MPs.

I've only ever had alternators ricochet, he's still on my shelf actually. Whenever I'm looking for older figures I always include this line in my search. Honestly I love the alternators solely for the detail in the vehicle modes. I hate transforming my ricochet and I think many of the robot modes look flat out bad but I'm still drawn to the line for some reason or another

Here's an idea for a drinking game. Take a shot every time he mentions when a toy was meant to be someone else or was given a different name than originally intended due to trademark reasons.

Megatron being a Cadillac is just so perfect for some reason.

@jaidenglass4421

2 жыл бұрын

Megatron? more like Mega-drip

The Ravage beast form / Jaguar alt mode is my favorite Alternator. I also like the bipedal Ravage / Corvette figure, because the bot mode reminds me of how Ravage appears in the Beast Wars animation.

Still some of my favorite figures in my collection. Shockwave, Smokescreen, Tracks, Prowl, these figures are just so cool for what they attempted to do. And their robot modes don't look terrible either, they're quite chunky but it sort of works. A shame that a lot of red tape prevented this line from taking off but I love it for what it accomplished. A shame that I wasn't able to get Wheeljack or Mirage, I would love that blue mustang and blue GT40.

Wow you're like a Transformers historian! Loved hearing about one of my most cherished lines. I had no idea there were so many problems!

Smokescreen was the one that got me back into collecting Transformers as an adult. They were a pain to transform but they looked great in both modes.

TF Alternators is the most underrated toy line of all time.

The story about Windcharger's gun barrel is actually even funnier than safety laws: what happened is that the company didn't want him to be shown using such a conspicuous weapon.

Jaguar Ravage is still one of my favorite TF figures ever. Gotta dig it out of storage now.

I really like this video and I hope you continue this as a series, 👍I respect the experimentation with the channel recently.

Whether you hate or lo---- just slightly hate Kiss Players, I still gotta say I like how that infamous series was one of the few lines that actually integrated detailed mini-figures that go in scale with the cars to a point you can put Atari on the passenger seat while Kreemzeek drives Autorooper.

Wow there was a lot going on behind the scenes, great video! I miss this line so much. I understand licensing is hell, so that's most likely why we will never see them again...but man, I'm still sad that I wasn't able to snag a mazda mold back in the day.

Very comprehensive video! I enjoyed learning about all this. I also feel like I should do a shot or something every time you mention copyright haha.

Man, talk about timing. I just got Alternators Hound in the mail yesterday. Really good toy for the time & line it came out in. Glad I picked him up. Thanks for the very relevant-to-me video. 😅

"You can't make a Scion look cool" Excuse you TJ? Animated Soundwave says different!

Was the Alternity line cancelled? I remember being shocked at seeing the product photos of Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp transforming into sports cars.

@TJOmega

2 жыл бұрын

Alternity happened, it just didn't last very long. I think there were only three molds total and about a dozen figures from that?

@TFfangeek

2 жыл бұрын

@@TJOmega Got it, thank you.

@torturedkfpemployee883

2 жыл бұрын

@@TJOmega the best mold is definitely the bumblebee and cliffjumper ones

Thanks for the good video on this line! There was a purposed 'high end line' closer to the G1 era which would have given a kind of upscale look to TFs. I actually owned (for about 2 decades) an official certified mock up (from Takara to Hasbro) of a red Lamborghini w/ Optimus Prime's legs, a Superion head & few other parts. I don't think it ever went beyond that. Anyway keep up the good work!

This takes me back. I have all of the Alternators. Mostly as they released, but it took me a while to get Swerve though. Those stock photos you used were painful to look at.

I loved these. They were far from perfect, but the idea of them! I remember seeing them at Walmart and was blown away by the alt mode. That Subaru rally is a gorgeous car, even as I am a truck guy. This also was a great time as the first Mp Prime came out!!! The end of the line got real interesting and some of their best work, in my opinion. I never knew about many of these repaints too!!

I have Hound, Grimlock & Battle Ravage... On the rare occasion I transform them I still lose 5+ minutes figuring out how to fold up Grimlock's arms so as not to break them Best thing to this day is that I can put them in line with the rest of my 1:24 Cars and from across the room/ in the proper lighting they fit right in, with only the seams betraying them when you get closer

That was an impressive history lesson! I had no idea the Alternators line was such saga.

Never knew there was this many problems with the line. And that Sideswipe looks ridiculous.

The first 2 alternators were cool!! U can have em displayed like an modeled car!! Sick

@hotwheelsbrothers687

2 жыл бұрын

Sick man

All the alternators sound like nightmares

Take a shot everytime "trademark reasons" comes up.

Thank you for that, always wanted to know what happened to the line. I had Smokescreen and Sideswipe, I stopped there.

The Jaguar/Ravage thing is what I thought they should have done with Grimlock (IE turning from vehicle into T-Rex). Actually, I think they should do that with all the animal based transformers. (Such as the first film version of Scorpinok)

been loving the new content, still gotta make my way down to the shop at some point =] If you make it to the beast wars reviews I will have to watch the series again and follow along

I loved Alternators back in the day, and still have most of the major releases. They are admittedly a bit clunky by modern design esthetics, but for the first attempt at a collectors line, I still think they are pretty cool, even if only with nostalgia goggles on.

Noice! I have alternators sideswipe I’ve always been a fan of alternators!

I have Alternators Tracks with its original box and Windcharger. When I was a kid, I always went crazy over these toys. Windcharger and Tracks are the only Alternators that I transformed without losing any parts. Good gravy, Smokescreen was pretty difficult. But, he is still stunning as a Subaru rally car. I wish I had one that was complete. I last transformed Tracks and a piece tried to come off. I kept him in the car mode while displayed on my shelf cuz I'm afraid that one of the pieces might come off. Granted, he is very fitting as a Corvette so I can kinda see why they would use a Corvette as the basis for his alt mode in the Alternators line. Whereas Windcharger, I could always transform him again and again without losing any pieces. I'm not sure how easier some of the others are like Skids. But, I've heard that Hound, Rollbar and, Swindle are also some of the more simpler alternators. Alternators are great Transformers toys. But, they are obviously not meant for kids. You can tell that they were made with collectors in mind.

I may have to hunt down that Shockwave. He’s always been my favorite and my dad is known for racing Mazdas so it’s like it was made for me 🥰

Excellent video. Thank you.

You know everything about this line. Good job!

@lysist

2 жыл бұрын

Not everything. Lots was missed. Clear Mirage, wonderfest Blackbconvoy, BT* Sunstreaker and Blaster, not to mention all the Kissplayers repaint. (Though I do understand why those may have been avoided)

What's stupidly funny is that later on in some versions that red alert got redone as he should as prowl while the other was part of the other line......goes kinda the same for shockwave (also redone from skids mold) and another bizarre one is Megatron (redone from grimlock in silver with a basic head despite other grimlock copies had a basic head too)

Fun fact: the Omnibot Camshaft technically got another new figure, this time for the Universe 2003 line. Said toy was just a rerelease of a color variation of the Spy Changer W.A.R.S. What is it with Camshaft and getting new toys that look nothing like his original toy?

This was the line that brought me back to the Transformers. I have a ton of love for those toys.

I loved Alternators. The line suffered a sad fate and series of problems. In a way, it was ahead of it time. If it had come out a few years later, most problems would haven't been an issue as so many car companies took a shine to the idea of Transformers using their brand due to the Bay movies.

Off this SPECIFIC topic, but I'm still eagerly awaiting your review of "The Perfect Decepticon" finale of Cyberverse, TJ! Please get it off the back burner as soon as you can.

I love alternators and the charm they have. I got a lot of alternators about three years ago and use Mega contruct figures to drive them like MASK vehicles! God bless!

Kiss Players? No worse punishment than being associated with that.

21:45 Well you've definitely given me some ideas.

I managed to grab Alternator Shockwave (ShockBlast, if you must) when they first arrived on UK shores. Damn, was he finickey to transform!

I can't believe you want to kill your free time, and permanently go insane for the Beast Wars Review.

I remember getting that Smokescreen as a kid and really disliking transforming him because he was so complex. My parents probably bought it not knowing it wasn't meant for my demographic at the time given it was aimed at collectors and I was still a newbie to the series. I still have it in storage so maybe it won't be as much of a pain to transform going back to it. Though hopefully nothing's broken on it. The only transformers toy I remember breaking was Energon Ironhide with one of his hinges. And considering how complex Smokescreen was I don't know if I accidentally broke something trying to transform it. Won't be surprised it was the clear plastic pieces.

I din't know Swerve was a pain to get ahold of, would have kept my one that broke itself in alt mode for bragging points. Though I'd love to see this concept happen again especially as a car guy though I'd hope they wouldn't try to be just heavily G1 and take more cues from the real world car and intergrate that into the bot design kind of pull a bee movie in terms of design and it'd work

It amazes me that to this day, despite almost every other official source suggesting otherwise, that the colors of Rumble and Frenzy should be flipped. The cartoon got it backwards due to a dubbing error, which they just went along with for the rest of the show. There's an episode where Rumble is scanned and his schematic comes up on a computer - it's actually a literal photograph of his production bible control art, and it has a note next to it that reads as "RUMBLE (red one)". And Japan has kept it consistent ever since, with the red one being Rumble and the blue one being Frenzy.

You know? With the timing this came out I would've thrown mp01 into the alternators line. He scales almost perfectly.

I remember seeing these even before I knew what transformers were.

I wish they would bring back Alternators. If Hasbro is going use G-1 like a crutch they might as well do it right by revamping them for the modern. They can only get away with "Just like the toys you played with as a child,but with more posability".

Missing Red Meister aka Zoom Zoom. Other than that very very good rundown of the line.

19:56 Yeah about those jets and tanks, the tank prototype is obviously megatron, and the jet prototype i'm pretty sure is Bruticus judging by the head, though i'm not completely sure

I had Silverstreak and Swindle. I did like how they all had at least somewhat realistic interiors, though some of them I felt that the proportions were a little off, though I suppose that's the tradeoff when you don't have as much space in the alt mode to stuff robot parts when transformed.

Oh I want to get into the RIBFIR argument so badly right now

I believe Alternators started out really strong, but dwindled out by the end. The best designs were the first few, but then we had the likes of Optimus Prime and that weird, chunky Skids and it seemed like they had run out of ideas to get decent robot shapes out of those cars.

Mirage works but won't make me believe Skids wasn't supposer to be Ironhide that got the Tracks treatment and had to be blue. Look at that head! Also some official 3D animations for conventions had a 3d model of a red skids as Ironhide

Alternators were amazing. I'm very happy I began collecting with them. Plus, $20US for a toy of that size, complexity, and licensed vehicles? Amazing. Swerve is one of my biggest regrets - I used to him ALL OVER THE PLACE, but I had BT Tracks, and I wasn't in the habit of picking up recolors. Wow, that was dumb.

I love that alternators ravage. It looks awesome

Interested to hear your take on the (generally considered) failed Titanium line. The last of the Toys R Us exclusives were Titanium. There's a story in there, somewhere. Full transparency: I love the die cast 5" - 7" Titanium figures, big time.

“Can’t make a scion look cool” 😂 there a scion version of the BRZ/GT 86 “mold” have a look - great vid TJ

It sucks that they had so much difficulty with this line because I loved it! Classic G1 characters as licensed accurate vehicles, and relatively inexpensive at US$30.00 each here in Indiana anyway. I ended up getting Hound first because it was the first one I saw on shelves and was blown away by how amazing it looked, then went from there. I ended up getting Hound, Grimlock, Jazz (Meister), Windcharger, Silverstreak, Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, Smokescreen, Prowl, Ricochet, Sideswipe, Optimus Prime, Corvette AND Jaguar Ravage, Tracks, Swindle, Shockwave, Rollbar, Skids, and even the rare Rumble one! (20 of them.) I still have all the original boxes for them in excellent condition too. Around here though, I never saw Dead End (who by the way, looks A LOT more like Wildrider in design), Mirage, Rodimus, Red Alert or Nemesis Prime. Swerve was the only one I saw in stores but didn't get at the time. I guess I couldn't relate to the same as the others. I think Jazz would have looked better, even as a Mazda, if it had the striping and the #4 on it. As for Decepticharge, I agree... Since they already had Dead End, why not make this one Drag Strip? I think he's really the only yellow car Decepticon out there. The Mini Cooper I think would have made a good modern alt mode for Cliffjumper.

6:04 what car was this? Dodge Viper 10:45 i always get the Honda S2000 mold confused with that because both had red and yellow figures

I like how that jazz picture is mistransformed

In my perfect world, there would be highly detailed G1 releases like Alternators using the original alternate modes and be in scale. So, Warpath would be much larger than the Autobot cars. Devastator would be huge. I don’t know how you could get a Shuttle and jeep to be size compatible for Bruticus, so there’d have to be some compromise.

The first gen Scion Xb is a really cool car actually, stylistically ahead of its time... and there is a huge aftermarket community that often paints up with flames and other wild custom paintjobs... I would say that aside from being practically twice as big as the Honda City Turbo, the Scion Xb was a pretty outstanding choice for skids.

the Human Alliance line and Alternity line are somewhat spiritual successors to Binaltech/Alternators in feel.

in 2009 to like 2011, i had Alternators prime , pretty okay figure imo, though i had a lot of missing parts. and i kept pointing out the fact that the dodge logo looks like...well we all know the joke

I for one always wanted a Scion xB as a kid, so making a Scion look cool IS possible if you have the right mindset. TJ may not like Scions, but that's his preference and opinion. The car is not cool to HIM. It's a dream car to ME. Just wanted to say my piece in a friendly manner without being a troll. Also, I am a Mini Cooper owner as well.

It's feels odd to have a whole new Transformers toy-line WITHOUT having Optimus Prime (or some derivative there of, i.e. Optimus Primal) as the flagship figure.

Thank you.

that mirage binaltec alternator is the mold of classic generations 2.0 red alert

I really like Tracks!!!

10:13 I believe he was repainted as Wheel jack

Takara: Only agrees to front the cost of the Dodge Ram figure if Hasbro makes it Optimus Prime. Also Takara: Doesn't release the figure in their markets as Optimus Prime.

I have almost 20 Alternators figures and most of them have Toyhax labels on them. The label set for Ricochet made him Divebomb. Some of the other sets gave the Autobot cars their G1 vehicle mode details.

The jaguar Ravage was released in Europe or, at least, in Spain. I saw it twice at Toys R Us, and I remember it well because I wanted it badly, but couldn't buy it, and never saw it again. And yes, Optimus warmed the sh*t out of the shelfs over here. I remember it being on clearance at around 10€.

Imagine being one of the people working on this line and just slowly losing your minds.

I remember having jazz and tracks alternators cool figures

Hey TJ, what was the car mode for Rumble, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, and Dead End?

I’m surprise Alternators Dad End hasn’t been homaged in Selects through ER Suntreaker.

Thanks to Christmas, I know own an In box, Alternators sideswipe, and I really wanna take it out, but I don't think I should.

I think the Bayverse Human Alliance are the kid-friendly cousins of Alternators. Big full-scale cars with interiors, but extra cramped ones to accomidate robot mode stuff.

take a shot every time he says "due to trademark issues"

Could be wrong about this, but weren't alternators designed to scale with MP-01's vehicle mode?

@KibbloMkII

2 жыл бұрын

I'm not sure, but I do know that Alternators were all 1/24 scale

Can you do a Short showing off your Mini Cooper? Any Transformers mods on it?