Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I collect vintage Transformers and ran across this on eBay. For those not in the know, Diaclone was one of the Japanese toy lines later repurposed into the original Transformers toys. Anyway, this one looked a little familiar to me...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/transformers-g1-vintage-diaclone-diakron-dia-train-diatrain-the-great-diaclone/192393210927?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20190212102350%26meid%3D514b347259b24b658f11a1d15c592b62%26pid%3D100012%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D143157288638%26itm%3D192393210927&_trksid=p2047675.c100012.m1985

Given that the original look of the thunderhawk was nothing like the flying brick it is now (it looked more like a flying castle, complete with crenellated battlements) I'd say that there's apparently some borrowing happening - but GW never do that, their models are drawn entirely from the aether of their designers' minds.

 chromedog wrote:
Given that the original look of the thunderhawk was nothing like the flying brick it is now (it looked more like a flying castle, complete with crenellated battlements) I'd say that there's apparently some borrowing happening - but GW never do that, their models are drawn entirely from the aether of their designers' minds.

no resemblance here. move along, move along

I think that's one of the old Diaclones from Takara, basically a copy-cat random Japanese company. Used to come with a chrome nose on the front. Definitely shares a look, but could have just as easily been inspired by GW art as vice-versa.

That company made a lot of clone Transformers figures etc. if I recall.

 Elbows wrote:
but could have just as easily been inspired by GW art as vice-versa.

I'd never heard of them, but they seem to immediately predate the Transformers line which would put them in the very early 1980s...

And during the 1980s the Thunderhawk looked like this:



So...

I used to have that toy ship thing as a kid :3

 Elbows wrote:
I think that's one of the old Diaclones from Takara, basically a copy-cat random Japanese company. Used to come with a chrome nose on the front. Definitely shares a look, but could have just as easily been inspired by GW art as vice-versa.

That company made a lot of clone Transformers figures etc. if I recall.

You have it backwards. The Diaclone line by Takara predates Transformers, putting it around 1982. The first epic scale game (Adeptus Titanicus) came out in 1988 so the Diaclones most definitely predate any Thunderhawk model. The first attempt at importing Diaclone to the US failed so Hasboro created the Transformers cartoon to help sell them. The original Transformers toy line had no original figures. They were a mixture of Diaclone, Micro Change, a handful of singles from other random companies, and even Robotech. The Robotech Valkyrie (itself not even originally Robotech) design has been used in at least 4 different properties and is its own essay. The disparate and unrelated toy lines initially used is why the initial line of Transformers didn't match each others scale and in some cases had only a passing resemblance to their on-screen versions.

Anyway about this particular Diaclone. It has to be the inspiration for the Thunderhawk, right? At least the redesign. There are just way too many similarities. The overall shape, the engine placement, the heavy guns on top. I'm not ragging on GW for taking inspiration from something else cool. It wouldn't be the first. The Adeptus Arbitus are pretty clearly Judge Dredd (something GW even had the license for). Many fantasy races made it into the early incarnations of 40k, several of which are even still around. The Last Chancers are the Dirty Dozen, Preatorian Guard are from Zulu, and I'd be pretty surprised if Catachans would still exist without Rambo. The list goes on.

I'd be really interested to hear from anyone knowledgeable or part of the design process of the Thunderhawk gunship on this.

 Riquende wrote:

 Elbows wrote:
but could have just as easily been inspired by GW art as vice-versa.

I'd never heard of them, but they seem to immediately predate the Transformers line which would put them in the very early 1980s...

And during the 1980s the Thunderhawk looked like this:



So...

During the 80s, Thunderhawks didn't look like anything. That thing came out in 1991.

Also, calling Takara a "random copy-cat company" when they're still essential to modern Transformers as well as tons of other property lines is mind bogglingly uninformed.