Fitz’s Toy Chest #9: Superion

Hey guys welcome back.

This week I’m going to break format slightly.

Up until now every installment of Fitz’s Toy Chest has showcased an item that’s been in my collection since childhood. But this week will be a little different…

Every year around Christmas I’m reminded of the one that got away. My “Moby Dick” if you will. This year was no exception, and so I thought for this edition of the Toy Chest I’d share one of the few, possibly ONLY, item I had my heart set on as a child that Santa didn’t deliver on.

I’ve mentioned before what a hardcore Transformers kid I was between ’84 and ’87. It’s hard to believe that all of those Transformers memories took place in 3-ish years.

Transformers were awesome. And yet in 1985 they figured out a way to make transformers robots even AWESOMER.

How could they accomplish that you ask? Simple. By taking transforming robots and giving them the ability to combine together to form and EVEN BIGGER robot. Genius.

The first of these “combiner” teams was the evil Constructicons who, naturally, transformed into various kinds of construction equipment. Dumptrucks, cranes, cement mixers, etc. They could then combine together to form the titanic 50 foot tall Decepticon, Devastator!

When they debuted on the cartoon our minds were completely blown. How would the poor Autobots be able to fight off such a behemoth? And more importantly what would the toy look like? It didn’t take long to find out.

Hasbro release the constructicons both seperately and boxed together in a complete set gift box. I can still see the bright green and purple Constructicons singles hanging on the pegs at Sears (yes at one time Sears was an awesome toy store).

Is it bad but I can’t recall for sure whether I got the gift set or if I got them individually, but either way I got them and even though the toys didn’t quite fit together as nicely as they did on the cartoon, they were still badass and towered above the puny autobots. (Stay tuned for a future Toy Chest where I dig out my Constructicons…)

Then not long after the Constructicons were released, the answer to my second question came and as usual it came via the cartoon. How would the autobots defeat Devastator? Easy. By creating a combiner team of their own. The Aerialbots.

Aerialbots (Superion)
Company: Hasbro
Acquisition Year: 1985
Acquired via: n/a
Years In Possession: 0

Air Raid, Fireflight, Slingshot, Skydive, and their leader Silverbolt (who I shit you not transformed into the Concord)

These robots in disguise (as various airplanes) could combine together to form Superion, the natural enemy of Devastator.

I wanted Superion SOOOOO bad. The anticipation for this toy’s release was crazy high. My friend and I would call both Toy Chest AND Children’s Palace multiple times a week to pester the poor clerks there about whether they had Superion in stock just so we could go look at it.

Every time we were met with confusion, irritation, and an inevitable “no”-click.

See the thing is, that first year they were available, it was almost impossible to find them. Like the constructicons, the aerialbots were released as a gift set containing all 5 planes and the pieces to form Superion.

But UNLIKE the Constructicons, they weren’t release as single toys until later. They were also (if memory serves) released late in the year which made them one of the hottest toys that Christmas.

I think I managed to see the bundled set once in the store. Ever.

But it didn’t matter. I knew Santa would come through. (Yes, I know I was 12, stf up).

Christmas came and I did not. There was no Superion for me.

It sounds really terrible to talk about how disappointed I was. I got plenty of great stuff that year, and every year. We were lower middle class, we weren’t made of money, but my parents always made sure we never wanted for anything (well, for the most part we never missed out on stuff). So it feels really shitty to still be lamenting this after 30+ years (albeit in an exaggerated way to be humorous)

But still, this was a real bummer. And to make matters worse, my best friend DID get one. Jealous.

So at least I got to play with “a” Superion even if it wasn’t “my” Superion. It was better than nothing.

With the exception of maybe the Kenner Return of the Jedi sarlacc pit skiff (which was pretty much advertised and never produced meaning it would literally have been impossible to get) I can’t think of anything I wanted for Christmas and didn’t get other than this stupid hunk of metal and plastic.

Looking at it now, that toy is pretty awkward and kind of ugly as hell. I can also remember it being even harder to keep put together than Devastator. The design of its connections were definitely not well thought out, and the big robots body (which was Silverbolt) always had loose joints and stuggled to stay standing upright. Of all the many combiners they would eventually make, I think Superion had the most issues with this and was by far the most fragile.

To this day, from time to time I circle ebay like a creepy old dude in a van, scoping out prices for a complete Superion. Out of the box it’s really not that pricey relatively speaking. Especially compared to MIB specimens.

One of these days I’m going to pull the trigger on one and fill the hole in my collection.

But for now I’m content just occasionally day dreaming about of one that got away.

Well that’s all for this special edition of the Toy Chest gang. Possibly the last entry of 2018. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to more vintage toy talk in 2019!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays. May you all get the Superion you were wishing for!