G1 Dirge

The 1985 Seekers are an interesting example of toy company economics. Most toys molds get re-used throughout a toyline in someway. This is a way for the toy company to recoup the cost of designing and machining the mold. Sometimes the re-use can get a little crazy, like the first year of G.I. Joe and pretty much all of Masters of the Universe. Even Transformers couldn't escape this financial reality; many of the first-year TFs had "twins" (e.g. Bluestreak and Prowl). The worst offenders were the Decepticon Seekers...all three were an identical mold with the only difference being their respective paint jobs. I'm not being critical here, I actually really like the 1984 jets...all of them! Hasbro released three more Seekers in 1985...but this time, instead of merely getting repaints, we got remolded wings to further differentiate the characters. I suppose this was easy enough to do, since the complex "core" of the toy remained the same, whilst the relatively simple (and always completely detachable) wings got changed around, as did their weaponry. So, we sort of got 3 new toys that we kind of had seen before, but not quite :). The TV show took it a step further by making the 1985 jets "coneheads"...their nosecones remained upright in robot mode rather than swiveling to the back. This look can be recreated on the toys, although the cones are a little too tall. Thankfully, the "TF Classics" version of Ramjet rectified this.