The number 9104 is given to both of MB’s spy cassettes (Laserbeak and Ravage), which means they were probably sold together as part of an assortment, meaning a retailer could place an order for 9104 and would get a case of 12 or 24 Laserbeaks and Ravages. Sometimes it is used to indicate a specific language version of a product, but in this case it is used to individually refer to a Transformer within an assortment. This 2-digit suffix represents variations. The second segment is a 2-digit number, which is often printed in a smaller point size than the 4-digit number. It usually represents a specific item or assortment of items. The first segment is 4 digits long and is the main identifier. MB International’s SKU codes in Europe in the 1980’s (and early 90’s) were usually 6 digits long and could be broken down into two segments. Here’s a list of all the Transformers that MB initially only planned to release (i.e. Lots of 1984 Transformers like Optimus Prime, Starscream, most Autobot cars and many more were unavailable to MB. It consisted mostly of 1985 Transformers 3, which were free of licensing issues. Due to licensing issues a lot of well known, early Transformers were not available to MB so a limited line up was released at first, which we can retrospectively refer to as “wave 1”. This occurred in the fall of 1985 and in most European countries the introduction of the toy line was handled by Hasbro’s newly acquired subsidiary MB (Milton Bradley), well known manufacturer of puzzles and board games. After a very successful introduction in 1984 in Hasbro’s primary markets (USA, Canada and UK) it was time to introduce the Transformers toy line in Europe 2. In 1983 Hasbro bought the rights from Takara to release these toys in its home markets. And they were not called “Transformers”, but “Diaclone” and “MicroChange”. In short, the story goes like this: Transformers were originally invented by a Japanese toy manufacturer called Takara. ![]() There’s an interesting back story to the introduction of Transformers in continental Europe and this particular Laserbeak release is inextricably part of this story. Budiansky 1 “1985: More Than Meets The Eye!”īefore we continue, I’d like to introduce a little context now. Contrary to the US, where the collectibles market is much more developed and goes back waaay further, in Europe very few people collected toys in the 1980s, and even less people preserved the original packaging of said toys! It was just not a “thing” most Europeans did in the 1980s as much as it is a thing in today’s more globally connected world. Completing a run of vintage G1 Transformers in their original packaging is hard, but trying to collect a complete run of the European releases in their original packaging increases the mission difficulty by a very significant margin. I started this unholy mission of trying to collect every single retail MB Transformers release in its original packaging back in 2009, totally not knowing what I was getting myself into. But for completist idiots like me there’s also a couple of hard-to-find variations in the MB line that push the total number of unique retail releases up to 57 (MB Thunderscream and variants of MB Optimus Prime and MB Megatron). MB released a total of 53 Transformers in 1985 in Europe. ![]() You can read much more about this in an (as of yet) unfinished series of articles I wrote here. Generation 1 Transformers were initially released in 1985 not with Hasbro branding, but with MB branding on the packaging. “What Is This ‘Milton Bradley’ You Speak Of?”Īs most international Transformers collectors will know, MB stands for “Milton Bradley”, and here in Europe the O.G. Again, apologies if this post is somewhat incoherent, but I’m just excited to share this with you, because what you see here is the result of my personal mission of 13+ years of collecting, hunting, curating and obsessing over a very niche corner of G1 Transformers, that maybe wasn’t that popular or well known when I began collecting, but has always been very important to me personally. I took some off-the-cuff snapshots of my current MB Transformers collection (sorry for the glare on some of the photos) that I will share with you below, interspersed with some of my reflective ramblings. Both European lines (MB and Hasbro) are visible in the photo above of my collection. My main mission was to complete all the MB branded releases, although I have long since also branched out into collecting the Hasbro branded European releases that started appearing from 1986 onwards. I collect Transformers in their original European packaging (as they were released in mainland Europe in the 1980s) and the MB branded Transformers were the very earliest releases we saw here in Europe. All original, no re-issues or knock offs.
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