Peru fan information from Maz and Frisco
Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 19:55:54 -0000
From: "Maz"
Subject: More Peru minibot information
Hey guys,
I had an email recently from another Peruvian Transfan with some
additional information about the Peru minibots. He had read the
article on TFsource and had some conflicting onformation. Here's
what Jose Luis Altamirano sent to me a month or so back:
"hi, first i want to say congratulations, the article you wrote was
fantastic, and most of the info was correct, but the are some
mistakes, and i want to contribute with some extra info:
the transformers arrived to peru on 1986, the series was airing
since 1985 and it had a huge success, so 2 companies decided to
bring some of the toys to this country, they were "bakelita & anexos
S.A" (BASA) who produces toys and plastic products until now, and
HUDE, who now only produces plastic articles for cleaning. (note the
similarities with lynsa, they all are industries involved with
plastic now)
both of this enterprises had a large history of working with
international toy brands and importing (some times producing) them
to peru, to name some examples BASA handled the barbie toys for
about a decade, and HUDE imported the "Saint Seiya" figures on the
years 1994-1995.
i'm not denying that lynsa was involved with peruvian minibots, but
i think probably what happened is that after one year or two of HUDE
& BASA distributing the minibots, it stopped being a good business
for them. so they transferred it to lynsa for the next 3 years,
after that the show wen't off the air, it returned for six months on
the year 1992, but then it dissapeared until this days.
there is a big problem with the toy industry in this country:
piracy, that's why i think this 2 enterprises stopped involving with
the importation of toys, it was impossible for them to compete. BASA
even got into bankruptcy a few years ago and has returned under a
different administration.
returning to the minibots, there is something that is totally wrong
with the article: lynsa did not appeared in the TV spot of the toys,
the spot ended with the exact phrase "de HUDE, bueno con B de BASA"
that is very clear on my memory, so i think that's something that
needs correction.
well, here is some extra info: BASA's website (although there won't
be much useful info about transformers there, so it's just a
reference)
www.basa.com.pe
hude's site is under construction. anyway, after the holidays i'll
try to contact someone from both this places so they can give me
some definitive info from their archives, i'll also try to get the
TV spot from some network that might still have it on their
archives, and one final thing, here's a TF related product produced
by BASA since the 80's, but they're still making it these days, it's
an Optimus Prime shaped set of beach toys, the pic is attached to
the mail. (you can also find the toy on the website)
bye, good luck, congratulations on the article again, i hope any of
this info helps you."
Since I am revamping all my articles for relaunch on my own site
(they're ALL converted now btw!!), I have included much of this
alongside what I have already written on the Peru minibots, and I
added the following as well after quoting much of the above:
"So, clearly some very differing opinions between the two main
sources of information from Peru itself. It's always my hope that
given time, the answers become available as they have with things
such as Black Tracks and other long-time TF mysteries. I must thank
both Jose Suarez and Jose Altamirano for their contributions. I am
of course reluctant to choose one story over the other, and to
administer corrections to any one person's information. I feel it
best to present both sides and let people decide for themselves,
then hopefully time will set us all straight."
Thoughts?
All the best
Maz
+++++++++++++++++++++++
From: "FJRisco"
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 5:38 PM
A conversation? Anytime. As far as toys, I'm trying to recollect all my
toys. If you must know, here are some points about 80's toys in Peru
(south america).
- B.A.S.A. was had the official toy licenses for a number of toy lines
A) Mattel for
1) Barbie - (looks a bit younger, like a teenager) very popular
arrived here shortly after it was released in the USA. It compares very
favorable with the American version and every doll is different in some
unique way which is why people preferred the national brand.
2) He-man and the Masters of the Universe - sold extremely well,
but somehow it was disappeared off the map, don't know why.
B) HASBRO
1) Tranformers - only a few,
- Bumble Bee(yellow, red, orange), Cliffjumper (red,orange?),
Hound, Ironhide (BB and Cliff were by far the most common)
- I do not remember BASA ever producing Optimus or Megatron. If
there was, it was definitely a knockoff from China. There were tons of
those.
- Packaging was same as the American counterpart, as well as the
product itself (as far as I remember). Quality was good, but then again
Bumblebee and Cliffjumper were
the crappiest transformers in the entire collection anywhere in the world.
C) Thundercats
1) Mini versions only (good paint job!)
2) No 7' inch version (unlike in Argentina)
D) Star Wars
One thing to keep in mind is that in Peru there are many smaller stores
and street merchants that sell imported toys from Japan or USA. If you
bought a transformer from the
street it was more than likely a knockoff or an import (original from
USA or maybe a Microman from japan). On the other hand if you went to a
department store, you only saw few
action figures from national companies so not many choices there. Also
most people in Peru are very conscious of what is authentic and not.
Companies in Peru realized that so they
avoided to invest and sell a product that might flop or that was
entirely inferior to their American or Japanese counterpart. For
example, look at the official Thundercats toys from
Argentina, it was a total joke and people knew that. In Peru, national
brands were fairly good but prices were not far from imports and it did
not offered all the characters so it ignited an
imports market. Still I wished I had kept my toys from back then, as it
is many of those companies do not exist anymore and it makes up for a
rare collectors item. The exciting thing about
living in South America during the 80's is that it had toys from
everywhere in the world. For us, TV in the 80's went like this,
MazingerZ, He-Man, GoBots,
(Transformers, Robotech, Voltron 1 & 2), Thundercats, Silverhawks,
Votron 3, Akira, Gundam, DragonballZ, Knights of The Zodiac,....... Well
I already went for too long.
I hope my rant wasn't boring.
Regards,
Francisco
P.S. You know anything about a toy line called " The Super Naturals"