Decoy (G1)

Optimus Prime and Megatron Decoys.

Decoys are drone replicas of Transformers used to distract the enemy. If Ultra Magnus's decoy is any indication, they're about half the size of the Transformers they represent. They seem to have the ability to fly, or at least fall with their arms outstretched.

They're also delightfully squishy.

Fiction

Toy pack-in mini-comic

"In fact, I'll do the Autobots one better: I'll destroy all my troops so my army is NOTHING but decoys!"

In response to the Decepticons stealing the Creation Matrix, Ultra Magnus had Ratchet First Aid build an army of decoys to keep the Decepticons occupied while the main Autobot team would infiltrate their base. First Aid claimed that there was a decoy in every Autobot's image.

As Magnus set the plan in motion, the decoy army flew into position and successfully distracted the Decepticons. An Autobot squad was able to get inside the base and take out the Sharkticons guarding the Matrix. Moments later, Galvatron fumed at the Autobots' ruse and declared that the Decepticons would develop their own set of decoys, presumably to try exactly the same trick later on. Start Your Own Decoy Collection It is unknown if this flawless plan was ever carried out.

Etymology

Western fans typically use the word "Decoy" to refer to any and all sizes of rubber figurines from the 1980s G1 lines; type the word into the Transformers category on eBay, and you'll undoubtedly get many hits back full of figures you've probably never heard of, with descriptions calling them "Japanese exclusive" and so on. This is not strictly incorrect, as there were many of these types of figures that were only released in Japan, but those made to the specifications of what Hasbro called "Decoys" only make up a portion of them.

Decoys are what are known in Japan as keshigomu (消しゴム, "eraser gum"), a form of small, collectable soft-rubber figurines that had emerged in the country during the 1970s and had attained great success through tie-ins to popular brands like Ultraman and Kinnikuman (the Kinnikuman figures, in particular, would become well known in the West when they were imported by Bandai as M.U.S.C.L.E.). Takara has made and/or licensed several lines of Transformers keshigomu, all of which tend to be lumped by Western fans under the banner of "Decoys", which sort of obfuscates their various origins.

• The first Transformers keshigomu were Kabaya's Transformers Milk Caramel figures, which were sold as candy toys with chocolate-covered caramel candies. This series ran from 1985 to 1988, through to Super-God Masterforce, starting out as quite flat and under-detailed but steadily improving, and trying out a few different gimmicks as it went, like translucent material, ink stamps and super deformed proportions.
• The figures that Hasbro would later term "Decoys" were the next, larger and more detailed, but lacking an over-arcing line name. They were sold with games, in boxsets and individually in capsule machines, as covered under "Merchandise", below, running through 1985 and 1986.

• A line of eight Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010-themed keshigomu were released by Kabaya as part of their Transformers Ramune line (see image at right). These figures appear to have been deliberately designed to stand alongside the existing Decoy figures in terms of proportion, detail and aesthetic, so they're the ones its probably least erroneous to call Decoys.
• Takara's small Forms Robo line from 1987 consisted of oversized keshigomu of ten characters from Transformers 2010, which are frequently referred to as "giant" Decoys by fans. These figures were sold in individual baggies, and stood around twice the height of a normal Decoy.

For more details on the other lines involved in this terminology tomfoolery, check out their individual articles.

Merchandise

Takara

The figures that would be Decoys stood at 1.5" tall, and followed the iconic color coding of the Transformers franchise, with the Autobots molded from red rubber, and the Decepticons from purple. They were not simply developed by Takara as collectable figures: they were also designed as game pieces. Each figure had a number sculpted into its back that was the sum total of the character's Tech Spec stats, so children could play simple games with them (randomly select one of your figures, produce them at the same time, highest number wins), and on an even more basic level, their durable rubbery construction allowed them to be shot from translucent red plastic launchers that came in several boxsets with the figures, with the aim being to knock down as many other figures as possible. Exploiting this playability, eight figures came as player tokens with the Defeat Trypticon Strategy Game, a 1986 Scramble City-themed Transformers board game: Optimus Prime, Bluestreak, Cliffjumper, Bumblebee, Wheeljack and Mirage, with two randomized Decepticons (reported figures have included Megatron, Soundwave, Thundercracker, Shrapnel and Blitzwing).

Naturally, Takara were not so unwise as to limit themselves to releasing these figures with the game alone: three large box sets were also released encompassing all fifty-three figures that made up the series. These three sets were:

• Cybertron Hero Collection 22
  • ID number: Collection No. 1

Blaster, Bluestreak, Brawn, Grapple, Hoist, Hound, Huffer, Ironhide, Jazz, Mirage, Optimus Prime, Perceptor, Ratchet, Red Alert, Sideswipe, Skids, Smokescreen, Sunstreaker, Swoop, Tracks, Wheeljack, Windcharger

• Destron Hero Collection 22
  • ID number: Collection No. 2

Astrotrain, Blitzwing, Bombshell, Bonecrusher, Devastator, Frenzy, Hook, Kickback, Laserbeak, Long Haul, Megatron, Mixmaster, Ravage, Reflector, Scavenger, Scrapper, Shockwave, Shrapnel, Skywarp, Soundwave, Starscream, Thundercracker

• Cybertron Hero Collection 9
  • ID number: Collection No. 3

Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Grimlock, Inferno, Prowl, Slag, Sludge, Snarl, Trailbreaker

This collection also included a set of small playing cards, that had 2 suits of Autobot and 2 suits of Decepticon cards (52 in total) with 2 jokers and a blank card.

All the colors of the rainbow

The figures were also available individually, through "gachapon" capsule machines, in a variety of different colors including red, blue, yellow, green, orange, sky blue, pink, tan and white. Given the random nature of their purchase and comparative paucity on the secondary market, we can't say with certainty that every one of the fifty-three figures was available in every single one of the different colors—but, hey, this is Japan we're talking about, so chances are pretty good they were.

All 53 figures were released in a uniform peach coloration by the Takara subsidiary Seven in a variety of multi-packs that, by all appearances, packed the figures at random. Bundles of the figures were released in small groups on blister cards, or in groups of nine as "Mini Mini Collection" box-sets with orange launchers, and also came in gift sets with other pieces of Seven merchandise like vinyl figurines of other Transformers characters and role-play guns and water pistols. See the Seven article for more details.

Accounting for the red and purple figures from the boxsets, the eight further colors from the capsule releases, and Seven's peach range, this makes a potential total of over 580 differently-colored Decoys to collect.

Hasbro

In 1987, Hasbro imported the figurines and branded them as "Decoys", randomly packaging them with the smaller carded toys of the time: the Throttlebots, Aerialbots, Stunticons, Protectobots, Combaticons, Technobots and Terrorcons. The Throttlebots could come with either Autobot or Decepticon pieces, while the combiners only had Decoys of the faction they belonged to. The mathematically-minded fan will note that there were more Decoys available than there were toys for them to come packaged with, making it impossible to get a full set of them at the time without buying duplicate toys.

Hand-painted BotCon 1997 dinner exclusive Tracks Decoy.

The Hasbro figurines featured one notable modification from the Takara originals: the numbers on their backs were changed to a simple "checklist" number corresponding to a list on the leaflet included with them. One further major variation centred on the Decepticon figures alone: an early run of the figures cast the villains in red rubber. These versions were only available with the Throttlebots, and only very early in the promotion, hence they are extremely rare, and considerably more expensive on the secondary market. The Autobots, meanwhile, were only ever available in their standard red.

Of the original fifty-three figurines offered by Takara in their three multi-packs, Laserbeak was the only one not released by Hasbro. Or more accurately, he was the only one not included in the checklist; collectors extraordinaire Karl and Jon Hartman believe he was made available by Hasbro, and if anyone can offer photo proof of Laserbeak on a Hasbro card, contact them!

A selection of 100 Decoys was later given away as exclusives at the BotCon 1997 dinner; each was hand-painted in full color by fan Dave Van Domelen, and came on a display base commemorating the occasion, along with a laminated panel from the original storyboards to The Transformers: The Movie.

Decoy information at TFU.info

GiG

In 1988, GiG also released the Decoys in Italy, naming them "Exogini Transformer" ("Exogini", for your information, is the Italian name of the M.U.S.C.L.E. figures). They were released in random packs of 5 figures, packed as a freebie with the Devastator, Superion, Bruticus, Defensor, Computron and Abominus giftsets. The assortment was the same as the Hasbro release, except that thanks to toy catalogs we are sure that Laserbeak was indeed released. Also getting a full collection was kinda impossible for Italian fans, since you couldn't get more than 30 figures without buying multiple copies of every combiner giftset.

Nonetheless, some Italian stores sold those same Exogini packs separately at 2500,00 lire each.

Curiously, since they were cast in a single color, they were marketed as paintable miniatures.

Notes

• The one decoy drawn clearly is a copy of Ultra Magnus, yet that decoy toy was never available in the US. It is therefore unclear whether the fictional decoys correspond at all to the toys.
• Although the comic that advertised the decoys in the US claimed that there was a decoy for every Transformer, this wasn't the case: the Decoys were based on characters available in Takara's Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers toyline - a line which didn't include Gears, Jetfire or Omega Supreme, and which preceded the 1986 characters the Decoys were released alongside. That said, the Decoy lineup didn't quite match that of the Japanese toyline either: Ironhide got a Decoy despite not being released in Japan; the '85 Mini Vehicles and Coneheads were released but never got Decoys. Rumble and Buzzsaw were also absent, but it's hard to tell the difference between them and their mold-mates Frenzy and Laserbeak if they're all cast in solid purple plastic anyway.
• This wasn't the first time that "decoys" showed up in Transformers; the concept goes all the way back to the original The Transformers cartoon episode "More than Meets the Eye, Part 3".

Foreign names

• Italian: Exogini Transformers ("Transformers M.U.S.C.L.E.")