A small number of tfs came from lines other than microman and diaclone(such as Toyco in korea, among others). These include Shockwave, the Deluxe Autobots Whirl and Roadbuster, and of course the Insecticons. Below is a sampling of the pre-tf versions of the insecticons, both the deluxe versions, and the small ones featured in the tv series(also released as a giftset). Takatoku toys was responsible for the large insects, while Takara still gets credit for the small ones ;-) A great read on the pre-tf Deluxe Insecticons can be found here.
--- In autocon@yahoogroups.com, "Himawari" wrote: (on the subject of the AP sticker on Pre-whirl vs the Beetras, and where they came from....) K, let's get this sorted out, takatoku made both toys, but dorvack and beetras came from different studios, hence the different stickers and different company markings in Japanese on the boxes. Beetras was from ArtMic, the others which I mentioned before from that old message Maz dug up was from Asahi Pro. Thanks. -Himawari
An interesting note on the Dia-Insector giftset above :-) It's been reissued as an e-hobby exclusive...sort of. The 2004 recolor comes close to matching the color, but not the style or molding. For more information on that, please see the Reissue Insecticon page.
catalog pic of pre-tf insects...look how different they look
