Remember When “Deluxe Autobot” Actually Meant Something?
There are years when my brain is pretty slow. These days, a “Deluxe Autobot” (Amazon.com search*) is officially a size (see the TFWiki) and breed of Transformers toy from Hasbro that’s a mid-range toy. But there was once a time, thirty years ago, when “Deluxe Autobot” meant that the toy was only one of two different characters.
This morning I ran across Brr-Icy’s look at the 1985 Deluxe Autobot toys and for some reason my brain triggered: “Hey,” my brain said, “remember when ‘Deluxe Autobot’ actually meant something?”
Now to be fair, the term still holds meaning. I think what my poor brain was trying to do was point out to me that I still do not own the original Deluxe Autobot toys from 1985. I have the recent versions of both Roadbuster* and Whirl*, but not owning those original toys these days is a sin against the me of thirty decades ago. I can afford the two toys, so why haven’t I tracked them down?
I’ll have to fix that soon. For now, though, I’ll just have to be satisfied with enjoying the designs through posts like Brr-Icy’s look at the two toys.
“Deluxe” used to mean you were getting your money’s worth in a toy. Now what you get could be barely passable for what used to be considered a “Scout” class figure a decade ago.
I think current deluxes are pretty rad for the most part, but deluxe is a word that should indicate more to it than a basic figure. My wife keeps mixing up the classes for deluxe and voyager. I think she is the one thinking logically about it though.