I finally got my second G1 vintage Powerdasher today. It's been long enough since the release of the Generations Selects editions that interest in the vintage units has gradually subsided, I think. It just doesn't make sense to go after specific toys when I know there's going to be a lot of competition.

The three Powerdasher toys were sold by Hasbro through mail-order, possibly because they had already seen an American retail release when Takara was trying to market Diakron in the USA. (It's likely Hasbro changed the color schemes for Sunstreaker and Ironhide and Trailbreaker for the very same reason.) The bizarre, futuristic nature of the Powerdashers was at odds with the mostly Earthcentric look for the first year of Transformers, so they were marketed as reinforcements from Cybertron. The "F1 Dasher" is an F1 race car only by the most generous stretch of imagination!

In vehicle mode, he's so tiny. He's only about three inches long as a car, and would easily be Tonka GoBots sized if it weren't for the absurdly enormous vac-metal spoiler. The instructions show the spoiler parallel to the ground, but the toy seems to be designed so that it pivots slightly towards the front. There's an open canopy area for a Diaclone driver (which was included with the Diakron release, but not the Transformers version). The car has a louvered rear window, and looks a bit like it could be the pre-Earth version of Windcharger. He's also shaped a little bit like Technobot Lightspeed.

The rear wheels have rubberized tires, and the pull-back motor allows him to travel under his own power (the front wheels are styrene plastic, however).

To transform the toy, the spoiler becomes the robot feet (surprise!) with the robot legs extending a bit to give him some much-needed height. The front of the car unfolds into the robot arms a little bit like Powerdasher Meanstreak, and the engine rotates to reveal the robot head. (I didn't actually know the robot head rotated until I handled the toy in person. Most people don't seem to know it rotates, either, since all the eBay auction photos for this guy that I've ever seen have his face visible in car mode. The instructions do mention his head rotating, but they don't actually illustrate it ever doing so.)

As a robot, he's still so very, very small. About 3.75" in height if we're being generous. His legs can pivot forwards and backwards, and his toes can bend up but not down. His arms can only move out to the sides, as required for the transformation, and his head can swivel if you managed to figure that part out. He's one of the few Transformers who can't raise his arms forward at all, but he has no gun, so I guess he'll never need to.

The main difference between the Diaclone/Diakron version of the toy and the Transformers version is that Hasbro sold him in red/black instead of red/blue, and the Hasbro edition has a tiny little Autobot symbol near the top of his chest. His nose is the only sculpted detail on his face; the rest (eyes and cheeks and lips) are a factory-applied sticker. He's kind of a weird-looking guy.

The toy tends to suffer really bad chrome wear on the secondary market, which makes the toy considerably more ugly—all the vac-metal parts are made from the same yellow plastic as his motorized wheels. I was lucky enough to get mine from an eBay account I suspect is run by a little old lady, who explained that she bought this toy for her kid back in 1984 but it's been in her possession ever since. So, he had zero chrome wear. I think I got very lucky. (The Jet Dasher is the last Powerdasher I need, and he's going to be VERY hard to find with no chrome wear unless I want to shell out a hell of a lot of money for him.)

There's something about the early Takara robot toy aesthetic that I really dig. It's like this weird mix of vintage-looking and yet space age—or, at least, the 1980's concept of space age. It's a specific look that's hard to quantify (maybe it's the awkward body proportions; maybe it's the vaccuum metalized parts?) but the modern toys never quite manage to accomplish it. I absolutely love the look of this guy. He's just so... robotish. Robotty. Robotesque.

So I paid $40 plus shipping, which is maybe ten bucks more than he tends to go for, but I also got the instruction booklet and, as I said, a really nice-looking display piece without the chrome wear you'd expect from a thirty-eight... no, make that a thirty-nine year old toy. Man, those numbers just keep creeping up!

Zob (used to own a Diaclone pilot, but I have no idea what became of him)

On Thursday, January 5, 2023 at 4:11:10 PM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:
> I finally got my second G1 vintage Powerdasher today. It's been long enough since the release of the Generations Selects editions that interest in the vintage units has gradually subsided, I think. It just doesn't make sense to go after specific toys when I know there's going to be a lot of competition.

I most often see Powerdashers lumped in auction lots with other toys of the era and not necessarily Transformers. And of course nobody ever names them because they don't know what they are. And also maybe because until recently the TF versions really didn't have names. They fall into that category of you still can find 'em cheap if you're lucky but it takes a lot of looking. Bumblejumper used to be like that.

> He's one of the few Transformers who can't raise his arms forward at all, but he has no gun, so I guess he'll never need to.

He's a dasher, not a fighter.

> His nose is the only sculpted detail on his face; the rest (eyes and cheeks and lips) are a factory-applied sticker. He's kind of a weird-looking guy.

The Powerdasher faces all kind of remind me of Dr. Theopolis from Buck Rogers-that clock shaped face that Twiki wore around his neck. Especially the jet one.

> The toy tends to suffer really bad chrome wear on the secondary market, which makes the toy considerably more ugly—all the vac-metal parts are made from the same yellow plastic as his motorized wheels.

Yeah, especially since the spoiler becomes the feet. Finding one of these with good chrome is just short of a miracle so congrats.

> (The Jet Dasher is the last Powerdasher I need, and he's going to be VERY hard to find with no chrome wear unless I want to shell out a hell of a lot of money for him.)

I found one just the other day at a local antique store for 5 bucks but of course the chrome is all beat to hell. I really think it's worth getting a chrome marker if you don't want to spend the extra time and money. But if we still haven't bought these by now we're obviously okay with playing the long game.

> There's something about the early Takara robot toy aesthetic that I really dig. It's like this weird mix of vintage-looking and yet space age—or, at least, the 1980's concept of space age. It's a specific look that's hard to quantify (maybe it's the awkward body proportions; maybe it's the vaccuum metalized parts?) but the modern toys never quite manage to accomplish it. I absolutely love the look of this guy. He's just so... robotish. Robotty. Robotesque.

I vote RoboTakartic! But technically I think the name adopted for this particular aesthetic is 'Takara SF Land'. There's a good writeup on it here:

https://www.fanmode.net/2020/12/06/takara-sf-land-evolution/