Binaltech Asterisk

Alternators is a line of Transformers that started in late 2003. The toys in this series transform into fully-licensed, 1:24-scale accurate representations of real cars from automobile manufacturers around the globe, complete with opening doors, hoods, trunks, plus "realistic" open driver/passenger compartments.

Pre-release development

It's not certain what exactly originally led Hasbro and Takara to the concept of a line of Transformers based on licensed vehicles. An interview with Takara's development team confirmed that both companies initially had different ideas (for example, a different intended scale for the toys) that ultimately resulted in a compromise. It's possible that Hasbro's motivation stemmed from the Robots in Disguise line, where they were required to alter X-Brawn's headlights in order to avoid legal trouble with Mercedes, and had to acquire a license from Dodge for all iterations of the Side Burn beginning with the RiD "Super Side Burn" redeco. What is certain is that in addition to what was eventually released, a lot of toys were planned that never came out, or were significantly changed in various ways prior to their release.

• The first toy planned for the line was Jazz (probably to be named "Autobot Jazz" for trademark reasons) as a Porsche 986. A prototype was made, but Porsche refused to grant Hasbro and Takara the license, stating that "are not worthy carrying the Porsche trademark. They are war machines and the toyline in no way represents the lifestyle and ideas which Porsche represents." Transformers are war toys and do , therefore the toy never went into production. Photos of the prototype were depicted in the Japanese book "The Transformers: Binaltech & TF Collection Complete Guide".
• The second prototype produced was Tracks as a Chevrolet Corvette Z06. Although the toy eventually came out, Chevrolet initially denied Hasbro and Takara the license as well, presumably fearing that "these car panels that separate apart conveys an image of being broken". This led Hasbro and Takara to conceive an alternate concept for Tracks as another "well-known American sports car", namely a Dodge Viper.
• The third design was for Bumblebee as a Volkswagen New Beetle, with Cliffjumper as the redeco. Unfortunately, VW had similar concerns as Porsche, what with not wanting to be associated with "war toys", therefore the design never made it past the control drawing stage. Control drawings for both Bumblebee and Cliffjuper have been published in the aforementioned Japanese BT guide book.
• Possibly the fourth design, and the last to be a "direct update" of the respective characters' G1 alt mode, was Hound, originally planned as a Jeep Rubicon, sporting a slightly different transformation that would have somewhat reduced the back kibble. The change from the Rubicon to the Wrangler model ultimately came out as was presumably due to Jeep wanting their more common model featured.
• The redeco of Hound (as a customized Jeep Wrangler TJ) was originally intended to be Trailbreaker, with the head sculpt being a hybrid design between the original toy's helmet and the cartoon model's face. Ultimately, however, the remold ended up as the Decepticon Swindle, in different colors. A proposed color guide for Trailbreaker was depicted in the Japanese BT guide book, next to a color guide for Swindle (unfortunately only in black & white, however).
• After Chevrolet had initially denied Hasbro and Takara the license for the Corvette Z06, they came up with an auxiliary plan for Tracks as another "well-known American sports car", this time as a Dodge Viper SRT-10. It's quite possible that Hasbro's previous experience with Dodge's licensing department played a part in this decision. Additionally, Chevrolet's concerns that had led them to reject the design for Tracks as a Corvette were addressed by not having the hood of the Viper mold splitting in two halves. The redeco of the Viper was intended to be Sunstreaker, as a Dodge Viper GTR (which later became the Dodge Viper Competition Coupe). Eventually, though, Chevrolet had a change of mind and granted Hasbro and Takara the license for the Corvette design after all. As a result, the Viper mold was slightly redesigned, was given a new head sculpt and ultimately ended up as Sideswipe instead (called "Side Swipe" for trademark reasons). Sunstreaker, meanwhile, would ultimately and up as the Decepticon Dead End, in different colors, with a proper Sunstreaker repaint only being released more than a year later, due to huge fan request.
• The Subaru Impreza mold was apparently the first design that went without any major difficulty at any stage in its production process. It should be noted, though, that the Silverstreak (the WRX street model) was originally designed first, with Smokescreen (the WRC rally model) being intended as the redeco, but Takara's licensing department decided to reverse the release order of the two versions, thinking that the rally model would have "more visual impact" as the first relase of the line.
• The Mazda RX-8 (which ultimately ended up as Meister) was originally intended to be named "Camshaft", according to various early store listings and a premature reply from Hasbro's customer service. This would also fit with the early idea of making the Alternators toys "direct updates" of their characters' G1 predecessors. A prototype was leaked to the public in early 2004 sporting the same basic colors as the later Alternators "Autobot Camshaft" toy (the Acura RSX), although it's uncertain whether the prototype colors for the RX-8 were supposed to be indicative of the proposed colors for Camshaft (since the Acura redeco was originally intended as a G1 Bluestreak homage before being renamed into "Autobot Camshaft"). The reason why the RX-8 Alternator was ultimately not named "Camshaft" was apparently because the real-life Mazda RX-8 car doesn't have a camshaft. Furthermore, there have been at least two different reasons stated why Hasbro toy was named "Meister" rather than "Autobot Jazz": For once, Hasbro were still hoping that Porsche would have a change of mind and grant them the license after all, like Chevrolet had done; also, Aaron Archer has been quoted stating that he thought a third toy named "Autobot someone" following "Autobot Hound" and "Autobot Tracks" would have been somewhat "redundant".
• A working name for the Ford Mustang mold (which ultimately ended up as Grimlock) was "Freeway", according to various early store listings. The redeco was originally planned to be Windcharger (presumably in red), but ultimately ended up as Wheeljack instead, with a new head sculpt, while the head sculpt originally intended for Windcharger ended up being used for the redeco of the Honda S2000 mold instead, named "Decepticharge".

Alternators

The future of Alternators is highly questionable right now. After Rumble and Ravage are released in early 2007, the line is going on "haitus" while the product for the 2007 movie (which also happens to include licensed representations of real-world vehicles) takes the spotlight. It is unknown if Hasbro will revisit the line afterwards, though it doesn't look all that promising. As a result, a planned Alternators Megatron figure, based on the Cadillac XLR, may never see the light of day.

Binaltech

In Japan, the line is known as Binaltech, with the primary difference being that Binaltech figures are more "collector"-oriented, featuring fully-painted car bodies and die-cast metal parts, in comparison to Alternators' color-molded plastic construction. Additionally, various Binaltech figures have variants that Hasbro did not release (though there are numerous redecoes and remolds in Alternators that never saw release in Binaltech). Also, Binaltechs cost twice or thrice as much as a standard Alternators figure.

The Binaltech line proper was effectively cancelled (or, to put it politely, put on "indefinite haitus") in early 2006 after the release of Skids, apparently due to slow sales. Reportedly two more releases were cancelled; "Blackwidow" (a silver and purple redeco of Decepticharge as the Beast Wars femme fatale) and Ginrai (Optimus Prime) had been solictited, but only the first was shown in any capacity.

In late 2005 (not too long before it went on "indefinite haitus"), Binaltech gained a sub-series called Binaltech Asterisk, using old molds in new decos as previously-unreleased Autobots, but also including small PVC figurines of human girls, each one based on a female human character from a previous Transformers series. These figurines had alternate arms and lower bodies so they could "drive" the Autobots in car mode. These toys were also packaged in robot mode as opposed to the normal car mode (presumably to encourage transformation to car mode so the girls could drive). Reportedly, the addition of the PVCs was to try and reach a broader market to help the line's flagging sales... though the higher price tag probably didn't help. This series only had three releases before it was cancelled; a "Black Convoy w/ Marissa set was solicited as the fourth set but never released as originally planned... it got changed for the latest incarnation of the 1:24 line, Kiss Players.

Fiction

There is no actual fiction for the Alternators line, and it is highly unlikely there ever will be, the line's questionable future regardless. According to Hasbro representatives, they never persued the licensing rights for "2D" representations of the car models. Though the reasons were never stated, it is not hard to extrapolate numerous reasons not to; additional costs for securing rights for an indefinite period, debatable ability to utlize those rights ina timely manner, plus clearing whatever fictional protrayal is made with every car company involved, which would massively bog down any publication.

Unlike Alternators, Binaltech has its own storyline written by Hirofumi Ichikawa, though it is only told in small text chunks within each toy's instruction booklet. Taking place during the 'lost years' between the Generation 1 cartoon's second season and The Transformers: The Movie. The story heralds the return of the Cosmic Rust virus, which infects both Autobots and Decepticons alike, and forces them to team up with various name-brand car companies to create new bodies for the infected, which would be immune to the plague. A sub-plot of the story involves Ravage's Beast Wars incarnation returning in another attempt to change history, and the Autobots' attempts to stop him and reverse the damage.

Binatlech Asterisk has its own fiction that appears to be utterly unconnected to any other Transformers timeline.

Toys

Alternators

(Note: Since Alternators do not come out in waves so much as in groups of one-to-three roughly every season, they'll simply be listed in order of release without differentiation as to when that release happened.)

• 01. Smokescreen (Subaru Impreza WRC 2003)
• 02. Sideswipe (Dodge Viper SRT-10)
• 03. Autobot Hound (Jeep Wrangler Sport)
• 04. Silverstreak (Subaru Impreza WRX)
• 05. Dead End (Dodge Viper Competition Coupe)
• 06. Autobot Tracks (Chevrolet Corvette Z06)
• 07. Meister (Mazda RX-8)
• 08. Swindle (Jeep Wrangler TJ Custom)
• 09. Grimlock (Ford Mustang GT)
• 10. Battle Ravage (Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Convertible)
• 11. Windcharger (Honda S2000)
• 12. Shockblast (Mazda RX-8 Mazdaspeed Version II)
• 13. Wheeljack (2005 Ford Mustang Street Tuning)
• 14. Decepticharge (Mugen Honda S2000)
• 15. Swerve (Chevrolet Corvette Z06)
• 16. Prowl (Acura RSX)
• 17. Autobot Skids (Scion xB)
• 18. Sunstreaker (Dodge Viper Competition Coupe)
• 19. Rollbar (Jeep Wrangler TJ Custom)
• 20. Ricochet (Subaru Impreza WRX)
• 21. Optimus Prime (Dodge Ram SRT-10)
• 22. Mirage (Ford GT)
• 23. Camshaft (Acura RSX)
• 24. Nemesis Prime (Dodge Ram SRT-10)
• 25. Rumble (Honda Civic Si, upcoming release)
• 26. Ravage (Jaguar Sports, upcoming release)

Binaltech

• BT-01. Smokescreen (Subaru Impreza WRC 2003)
• BT-02. Lambor (Dodge Viper SRT-10)
• BT-03. Streak (Subaru Impreza WRX)
• BT-04. Hound (Jeep Wrangler Sport)
• BT-05. Dead End (Dodge Viper Competition Coupe)
• BT-06. Tracks (Chevrolet Corvette Z06 yellow version)
• BT-06. Tracks (Chevrolet Corvette Z06 blue version)
• BT-07. Smokescreen GT (Subaru Impreza WRC 2003)
• BT-08. Meister (Mazda RX-8 white version)
• BT-08. Meister (Mazda RX-8 red version, aka Zoom-Zoom)
• BT-09. Swindle (Jeep Wrangler TJ Custom)
• BT-10. Grimlock (Ford Mustang GT)
• BT-11. Ravage (Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Convertible)
• BT-12. Overdrive (Honda S2000)
• BT-13. Laserwave (Mazda RX-8 Mazdaspeed Version II)
• BT-14. Wheeljack (2005 Ford Mustang Street Tuning)
• BT-15. Prowl (Honda Integra Type-R police version)
• BT-15. Prowl (Honda Integra Type-R blue version)
• BT-16. Skids (Toyota bB)
• BT-17. Black Convoy (Dodge Ram SRT-10)

Binaltech Asterisk

• BTA01. Alert meets Ai (Subaru Impreza WRX)
• BTA02. Sunstreaker meets Junko (Dodge Viper Competition Coupe)
• BTA03. Broadblast meets Lumina (Toyota bB)

External Links

English transliteration of the Binaltech story, with images and footnotes