Takara introduced the Diaclone toy line in 1980, building upon the transforming robot ideas they had been toying with in the Micro Change line. To help them develop these toys, Takara called upon the designing skills of Shoji Kawamori, who gained fame when he later created the Macross Franchise. The other designer who helped develop the line was Kazutaka Miyatake. With the assistance of these two designers and Studio Nue, Takara successfully brought Diaclone to the market.
Takara Diaclone action figure toy line
They decided to design these toys to correspond with a pilot who was created at a 1/60th scale. Thus, most toys from the Diaclone toy line featured seats and opening cockpits for these pilots. This practice continued until the line was discontinued in favor of a more popular line that Hasbro helped develop.
Diaclone’s storyline featured an enemy group, the Waruders, who wanted to plunder the Earth’s resources. These plunderers were particularly interested in the Freezon Gas discovered on Earth in 198X. In response to the Waruders’ invasion, they created the Diaclone army of robots. The name was a combination of Diamond and Cyclone, indicating the prowess of these robots.
The logo was created from the face of the largest toy from the launch of the Diaclone toy line, the Robot-base. The other experimental original toys included the early combiner, the Dia-Battles. There was also the Dia-train and Cosmo-Roller. Otherwise, the toy line featured four small Power Bases.
When Takara introduced the first Waruder toy, Warudaros, they used its head to create an emblem for that group. This figure combined three smaller toys: the Mosquider, the Arinder, and the Sasorander.
The Car-Robots join the Diaclone toy line
The line expanded to feature the Car-Robots in 1982. Ono Kojin invented the concept behind the Car-Robots. Most Autobots were pulled from the selection of Car Robots from the Diaclone line. However, the Constructicons also had their roots in the Car Robots line.
Diaclone had several sub-lines, including Car Robots. There was the Construction Vehicle Robo line, which featured six vehicles and a gift set. There were also three Dashers toys and five Dinosaur Robo figures. Moreover, Takara created three action figures for the Double Changers line. Consumers could choose to buy either the three Insecter Robo toys separately or in a gift set. Otherwise, there was a selection of 12 Train Robo toys, which also featured a six-robot gift set.
The Diakron and Kronoform toy lines
Diaclone appeared in America before Transformers as the Diakron and Kronoform toy lines. Then, the French company Jousta also imported Diaclone toys to the European market.
Hasbro takes note of Takara’s Diaclone action figures
Hasbro became interested in Diaclone when they witnessed the toy line at the 1983 Tokyo Toy Show. This event led to the creation of the Transformers brand, which also pulled on toys from Takara’s Micro Change line and other Japanese toys. Even though Hasbro did not include the drivers in their new toy line, the opening cockpits and seats for these drivers remained.
When Hasbro’s new toy line became an undeniable success, Takara canceled all future production of Diaclone toys in 1985. Rather than scrapping the planned toys, they integrated them into the new Transformers toy line.
Special Edition rereleases of Diaclone toys
Diaclone returned as a special edition recolors of G1 toys in 2002. These toys were offered through the Japanese retailer e-Hobby. This format continued into the Masterpiece line, with mail-away Diaclone recolors like Tigertrack available to interested customers.
Meanwhile, Fun Publications in America offered the chance to purchase these Diaclone recolors. Many of these recolors were used to create Shattered Glass variants of the characters. They offered the chance to buy Diaclone recolors from 2009 until they lost the license in 2016.
Reimagining and new toy lines
Hasbro and Takara began to offer Diaclone-inspired toys and reimagining within the Generations Selects toy line in 2018. Like Fun Publications, they recreated some of these toys as Shattered Glass characters.
Takara Tomy also officially relaunched the Diaclone brand in 2016. These toys were designed for adult collectors with more expensive, premium parts.
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