This is the March 1984 Japanese Takara Diaclone Ferrari BB, pre-TF predecessor to the Transformers Omnibot mailaway "Overdrive". The Diaclone Omnibots were released under the banner of "Double Changers", which is slightly strange as they could easily be considered as having three separate modes. In truth, the "double" refers to the base vehicle having 2 OTHER modes it can assume. This "No.2" pre-Overdrive is based on the Ferrari 512 BB (Berlinetta Boxer) and the other two Omnibots have Diaclone Double Changer predecessors as well, Camshaft's being the No.1 Mazda Savanna RX-7 and Downshift's the No.3 Toyota Celica XX. The Diaclone versions of these toys are the same colour as the later Transformers releases, but the packages are unique and that will be covered in the article. The superb Diaclone boxart is a good example.

I absolutely love the packaging for these Double Changers, I think they have been superbly presented, much moreso than the later Transformers in their mailaway packaging (or lack of in the US and Canada). The cityscape motif for the box really works for me, as it does on the Diaclone Prowl packaging as well. The boxback has some lovely artwork seen in the catalogs as well, although some of the character colours may seem unfamiliar, I will come back to that. The first thumbnail shows the top of the box where the "Double Changer" tag starts to make sense. The central image on the box top is of the vehicle mode, and either side of it are the flight attack mode and robot mode (notice the "Change" text in the background), implying that it can change into two other things, a 'double-change' in other words.

The second thumbnail shows the bottom of the box where the technical specifications of the vehicle are shown. This vehicle is shown as having a 4943cc engine, which cements it as the Ferrari 512 BB as opposed to the 365/GT4 BB which looks very similar to this model but has a smaller engine capacity.

The final thumbnail above is a close-up of the text on the box front. You might have noticed the large "W", that is synonymous with double or 2 on Takara release toys. The later Transformers Dinocassettes also had the "W" on their packaging to imply a set of two cassettes combining into one robot (Legout and Decibel).

The unique character boxart is probably my favourite feature of the Diaclone Double Changers, and the Ferrari's doesn't disappoint. It's very prominent on the box and it's a huge shame that neither the North American nor Japanese releases of Transformers Overdrive featured the excellent boxart.

The package comes with the instruction sheet, tiny stickersheet and mini-catalog. As you can see, the Double Changers did not come with Diaclone drivers. You might also notice that in the styro underneath the weapons, there is a large "F" moulded into the styro space. Now this could be for "Ferrari", but I didn't know what the other Double Changers had moulded there. I asked Himawari about this and he had the following to say:

"The Japanese mailaway does have this. As a side note, the RX-7 has an "R", and the other car (Celica) has nothing! "

Here are a few pictures from the mini-catalog:

The top picture features what must be prototype toys as you can clearly see the pre-Overdrive is in yellow with a weird handgun and the pre-Camshaft is in green with a very Bluestreak-like head! The second picture which is the same as the boxback artwork also features these figures in those unreleased colours. I suppose if you're going to release a Ferrari, it's going to be very hard to avoid red. Very interesting nonetheless.

Here's the very red production Diaclone Ferrari BB toy itself in vehicle mode:

Regardless of everything else, this is a red Ferrari and that's bound to cause some stirring inside. In this condition the toy is extremely attractive with a perfect red/black/chrome contrast. This model of Ferrari was a show-stopper when it debuted in the early-to-mid seventies and would still turn a significant number of heads now. The Diaclone is a faithful reproduction of the actual vehicle and is very striking indeed. Extremely photogenic and highly displayable in this mode. From the rear, the chromed leg sections look like exhausts so it's all good. My only complaint would be the fact that the sticker on the rotating hood section does not match the overall colour of the toy too well and stands out even at a distance. That is nowhere near being an issue for me though, I still think this toy looks great.

Easy on the eye from just about every angle, it could be a little boring for those of you who are used to the Transformers Overdrive which hardly gets glowing press, but this isn't a toy that I've been particularly familiar with throughout my childhood or collecting so it still has a large attraction for me. I am quite fond of Ferrari road cars as well so it works on many levels for me.

Here are some close-ups of a few standout vehicle mode features from the classic Ferrari 5-spokes to the signature Pininfarina-designed air vents:

Here is the Diaclone Ferrari BB in its aerial-attack mode:

This mode is not too unlike Transformers Tracks's third attack mode but the pre-Overdrive's is much less subtle and probably a shade less convincing as all four wheels are still very visible and the wings just sort of jut out from the side. The parts that end up being his feet are also flipped up on the roof and look a bit like police sirens. I do like the chromed double-barrel gun at the front even though it upsets the aerodynamic Ferrari look quite significantly. This toy could however very easily have been a simple robot-car transformer so the addition of the extra mode is hardly to its detriment, it feels more like a bonus addition of sorts even though it's very much part of the toy's intention and design.

The Double Changer's final mode is the robot mode:

A pretty good robot mode, but by no means the best from a Diaclone car robot. He has a recogniseable-enough face and reasonably good proportions although it does sometimes look as though he's struggling to get his head above his own chest and shoulders. Poseability is very limited and I tried very hard to get him to hold a running-man pose, but it wasn't happening. The feet and legs are really not designed for much beyond static poses.

The packaging and instructions depict the Ferrari BB as having the wings retracted in robot mode but I think it adds a little more depth and dimension to the robot mode to have them extended, and later on as a TF it seemed as though Overdrive was usually depicted with extended wings in robot mode as well. The robot mode again shows a good contrast of red, black and chrome. I also like how the unmistakeable Ferrari front-end is so prominent in robot mode. This is how he looks with the wings retracted:

And with the guns extended:

The extended guns actually look pretty good in robot mode and don't disturb the overall look anywhere near as much as they do in vehicle mode, in fact it could be argued that they add well to his robot mode. The weapons were all sprued, so for a fully armed picture of the TF Overdrive, see a little later on.

Speaking of the Transformer, Overdrive was of course available only as a mailaway in the US and Canada as part of the "Reinforcements From Cybertron" Robot Points campaign. In Japan he was also a mailaway but he came in a box with styro, both with and without artwork/specs. Here is the artwork/spec version of the Takara release:

The artwork and graphics on the box are exactly the same style as the famous mailaway Japanese Ratchet. The other 2 Transformers Omnibots also came in plain box/styro and artwork/styro packaging in Japan. Overdrive in packaging with artwork could well be the rarest of the lot though. The stickersheet is the same as the Diaclone with the addition of the TF logo and Autobot stickers, so it's not quite as tiny. As you can see, the artwork on the mailaway TF packaging is nowhere near as beautiful as the Diaclone artwork. The insert is exactly the same however.

Even though the Diaclone artwork for the Ferrari wasn't used on any TF mailaway packaging, it was used on mailaway paperwork in the US as can be seen in an example here:

Here's the US TF Overdrive:

The obvious difference is the addition of Autobot insignias. It does appear that the Japanese version of Transformers Overdrive had a rubsign on the hood right beneath where the robot head would be as you can see here:

Moving onto the Transformers Overdrive robot mode:

As you can see there's much more to him when he's loaded with weapons in both hands and his chest armaments extended. The addition of the stickers will make for a more varied look with a little more colour, but he is still very displayable in robot mode without the stickers, and even without the handguns.

The copyright on the Diaclone Ferrari BB is "TAKARA JAPAN" and is located behind the waist:

The Transformers versions are date-stamped with Hasbro markings as well, so that's a good way to tell sticker-less specimens apart. Here is the robot head close up:

I like this mould and this toy a great deal. I've always been partial to the car robots and Diaclone cars, especially the sports and performance cars. They don't come much more stylish than Ferraris so this was always going to be a big hit with me. I like all three modes, but I don't find the attack mode all that convincing. I feel the wings and chest-guns work much better in robot mode.

The mould on the whole feels quite light and fragile and would suffer quite a lot visually from wear (especially chrome wear and stickerwear on red hood sticker) that could affect displayability a great deal. The transformation is quite cool though with the wheels folding underneath the chest but care must be taken as it looks like the head section could damage easily.

The biggest selling point of the Diaclone for me is the presentation and packaging. Some Diaclone packaging can be very simple with a few colours used on the box and a photograph of the toy. The Double Changers though have exclusive and impressive artwork and excellent backgrounds on the packaging. This affords the Diaclone versions of the Double Changers a little extra personality and identity. If I was going to own a set of Omnibot moulds, I would definitely go for the Diaclones over the mailaway Transformers. And of those, the Ferrari BB is by far my favourite.

Many thanks to Himawari for providing pictures of the Japanese mailaway Overdrive, to Monzo for pointing me in the direction of the US mailaway scans and to Greg Gaub for letting me use those scans. Thank you very much guys!

All the best
Maz