Bot a Day: Daily Drawings

Continuing the line of inaugural Autobot Pretenders, here is Groundbreaker, ground troop support. His outer shell is an armored human wearing a lion-faced battle suit. His inner robot turns into a Cybertronian race car with a big V-shaped spoiler. He was available in 1988. 

From the 1988 Pretenders comes Sky High, Autobot scout. His outer human wears armor with a bird-like face on its chest. His inner robot turns into a helicopter.

The next in the Pretender line up is Cloudburst, Autobot space defense specialist. His outer human shell is a space explorer, and his inner robot turns into an "interplanetary space cruiser." He was available in 1988. 

The next in the Pretenders line is Splashdown, Autobot naval commander. His outer human shell resembles a deep sea diver, while his inner robot turns into an aquatic hovercraft. He was available in 1988. 

The 1988 line saw the launch of a major new gimmick: Pretenders. The premise was that spacesuited humans (for the Autobots) concealed robots within that would transform into vehicles. This, of course, creates all sorts of scaling dilemmas (a human with a jet fighter inside?) that the fiction sometimes addressed or sometimes ignored. The Pretenders would be a major play feature for the next couple of years of the Generation One line. First up, Autobot asteroid miner Landmine. His inner robot turns into a Cybertronian all terrain vehicle. 

The 1988 series of toys kicks off with Powermaster Optimus Prime, who introduces a new play feature to Transformers. The Powermasters follow on the heels of the previous years' Headmasters and Targetmasters. In this incarnation, the smaller partner turns into an engine block that "unlocks" the transformation from vehicle to robot. In Japan, this play feature was called Godmasters, and was rooted in a different mythology than the US storyline, which at this point was only continuing in comics as the animated series had stopped producing new stories.  Powermaster Optimus Prime is the first new Prime toy since his death in 1986's animated movie, a demise that was undone with his resurrection in the animated series. Powermaster Prime still turns into a cab over engine semi truck and trailer, with his ultimate mode being a combination of truck and trailer into a massive robot. His Powermaster parter (inset) in this release is Hi-Q. In Japan, this toy would be released as  ...

And one final Decepticon from 1987, Counterpunch, who turns into a blue Pontiac Fierro just like the Autobot spy Punch does. That's because Counterpunch is Punch's Decepticon disguise;  a third mode for that particular Autobot . This drawing is from 2017.