Transformers Topspin Instruction Booklet
There’s a big plastic bin here at home that’s packed with toy catalogs, marketing inserts, instructions, and assorted other documentation that I’ve collected over the years. The bin is packed and should really get separated into multiple bins, but for the moment, it’s what it is.
This morning, as I was putting away some papers, I happened across the instruction booklet for the 1985 Transformers Jumpstarter, Topspin, and since I had a few minutes I thought it would be fun to scan and share the booklet. These classic Transformers instructions are fun to browse, and in looking back at the design I still argue that the original instructions for Transformers far exceed the utility and quality of today’s instructions. Look, descriptive text and diagrams. The two together are far superior to either on its own; today’s Transformers instructions try too hard to do everything without words, and today’s instructions often fail and are less clear than they would be with a sentence or two.
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I agree–those little booklets are a window into a world of marketing, design, and illustration that we’ll likely never get back to.
Topspin was one of my favorite Transformers–he just had such a cool spaceship design. He was the first one I though really looked Cybertronian and I loved the forked Gradius/Buck Rogers look.
He’s one of the few that I don’t think I’ve seen an improved design on over the years or by 3rd parties.
@Jay – The only Topspin/Twintwist third party toys had monkey arms. Neat designs, but the overly-long arms were a bit much.