About.. 20 years ago, I think, Hasbro released G1 Transformer Reissues along side the Takara Tomy Encore series. Around here, these Commemorative Series figures were available only at Toys R US and were sadly upgraded to meet modern safety laws, so missiles were no longer spring mounted, and the size of projectiles and other such pieces were generally made larger. This, combined with the high price tag for $50 CAD a piece (remember this was 2000) and lower QC than the Takara versions basically resulted in the series not doing that well - I know I would have went full Takara had I actually been into the line.
I bring this line up because Hasbro is at it again - this time they're doing the G1 figure reissues as part of their Transformers - The Movie: Retro Collection, which in USA/Canada are Walmart exclusives. Unfortunately, they're still child safe, and are utilizing the Toys R US designs. What's also happened is that all the chrome is gone, as are the stickers (which sadly includes the rubsign), but as a trade off we get decos that are closer to their animation counterparts. Thankfully, at least on Hound here, the die cast content remains.
I'm not going to waste anyone's time and try to convince them these are good toys. By modern standards, they're terrible, with the exception of having really strong alt modes. Your modern day Legends scale probably has a more satisfying transformation and robot mode. In fact, I only got Hound as it was $38 on the Walmart website, which somehow has now turned into $48, all before taxes.
Accessories include three missiles, a launcher (non functional), a Jerry Can, Spare Wheel, Tailgun, and Blaster. Interestingly, if you look on the back of the box, the grey plastic originally had a more silver look to it, with the final product being a very flat grey.
Tech Specs on the back are funny - the used to require a red plastic "decoder" strip, which is why they were all red. Now, it's just red for fun, and they might as well just have printed out the numbers.
Vehicle mode is TINY, but to be fair most of the Diaclone imports were all pretty small to begin with. The good news is that from what I can see, there was negligible mould deterioration, with everything looking sharp and fitting together nicely. I don't recall people ever complaining about QC issues with this mould, unlike the Porsche mould used for Jazz and Riccochet. I also don't recall anyone doing a deep dive on how different this reissue was compared to the vintage figure.
Transformation into robot mode is pretty straight forward and unlike the figures of today, doesn't really change the size of the figure, so Hound is still pretty tiny in this mode. Colour matching between the die cast and plastic parts is decent. With regards to articulation, well there's basically none the arms pivot at the shoulder and that's it. As I said, a very sharp looking toy, especially in the 80s when everything else was basically a He-Man type figure.
They're also relatively fragile, again compared to modern toys, so you probably wouldn't want your kids to be smashing these around like we did back in the day.
Ultimately, this isn't one of those toys you can recommend objectively. If you're buying this, it's because you either likes the 80s aesthetic, or you grew up with these. The fact it is a G1 Hound is the only reason you need, because if you tried to do a proper analysis, you should probably be laughing at this toy. Personally, I know if the $48 price tag is in fact what it should be, I'm probably going to pass on this line unless they release a proper G1 Optimus Prime with the trailer (they did just the cab a few years back).
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