Transformers 1986 Generation 1 Metroplex

As the scale of the average Generation 1 Transformer continued to shrink in 1986, compatible playsets for the figures became much more feasible. Going far beyond 1985’s Omega Supreme in terms of play value and interactivity, Metroplex was the Autobot’s new triple-changing headquarters, and one of the largest robots at the time not made of multiple vehicles.   Origins Metroplex’s novelty and apparent newness disguise his roots (like so many Autobots before him) in Takara’s Diaclone series. Diaclone was no stranger to transformable playset robots, sporting the likes of Robot Base in 1980 and Fortress Robot X in 1982. The relationship is closer than that, however. Just as Diaclone was originally developed as a smaller scale of Microman (itself a scaled-down version of the 12” Henshin Cyborg) in order to allow more complex vehicles to be feasible, the earliest titanic playset robots were scaled for interaction with the inch-tall Diaclone personnel. During the course of Diaclone, the featu