Toy Bender

Talk about serendipity. When I asked for clarification on just what the Lunch Time Special Optimus Prime was last week, little did I know that we had a mega-qualified expert in our ranks. Evil King Macrocranios (who has one of the best names ever) left this super long, yet highly interesting and informative comment:

The term “lunchtime special” was coined by a bunch of guys on a yahoogroup about Transformers in October of 2002. On October 5th of that year an ebay auction popped up for an Optimus Prime cab much like this one, except it had no packaging and it was missing accessories-no trailer, no gun, no hose or nozzle and no fists if I remember correctly, but Roller was there. Also, it had short stacks exactly like the TRU reissue commemorative Prime. It had the group and much of the online Transformer community buzzing.

It wasn’t the first Transformer of dubious authenticity to be cast in clear plastic and sold on eBay. A year previous a bunch of clear Starscreams popped up that eventually were explained as test shots for the E-Hobby ghost Starscream. But nobody knew that back then. At the time the origin of all these clear plastic Transformers was shrouded in mystery. Nobody knew where these came from or what they were and the seller’s description of the Prime cab as a “prize” item was so ambiguous everyone was left guessing.

Well one guy on the group speculated that it was probably a “factory bootleg made by an employee on lunch break. Then another member joked that this employee should be promoted to head of Takara’s special promotions and his line of clear Transformers should be given a name. Then a third member chimed in and suggested “lunchtime Transformers because of the first guy’s theory. That evolved in later topics into “lunchtime specials after clear Prowls and Jazzes and pretty much everything else that was reissued popped up in clear plastic.

Eventually we got an explanation confirmed by sources connected to Takara that these weren’t bootlegs made on lunchbreak at all, but were something else entirely. If you choose to believe it, the story I heard was that these clear versions are actually factory produced test pieces for circulation within Takara. Clear versions were supposedly produced for all of the commmemorative reissues and many have ended up in collectors’ hands. Even more intruiging is the claim that it is a practice dating back to the G1 days, the insinuation being that there are clear versions of G1 toys that were never reissued. Can you imagine a clear Fortress Maximus? But that’s another subject.

The Yahoogroup had members that spread the “lunchtime special moniker far and wide. Although in reality there was no evidence to back up the claim that factory employees were producing variant colored toys on the side, the “lunchtime special label stuck and is still used today. Most people use it to describe any unlicensed Transformer bootleg cast from either the “lost” Takara molds or by any other means in clear plastic or wildly different colors. This ebay item is just the latest in a line of plentifuly produced bootlegs done up in the style of those Takara factory pieces whose existence was never supposed to be revealed to the public at large.

I don’t expect anyone to believe all this but I know the story because I was one of those guys from that Yahoogroup. I was the one that suggested the factory worker get promoted. Some of the pieces to this puzzle I picked up at various Botcons and from friends who specialize in these sorts of items. I doubt I’m revealing any sort of sensitive information but if I never comment here again just know that I was probably done in by the Transfan Illuminati.

If you didn’t think that was enough, he linked to ToyBender on his site and he went into even more detail there. I’m sure as hell glad I asked about this thing, at least now I can move on with my life. Viva la Evil King Macrocranios!