Optimus prime generation 1

It's your railroad so go for it!

-Greg

I did some online research about primes trailer dimensions. Looks like it is 2 3/4" wide by 9" long. It's a bit wide for "O" gauge but .....I have plenty of bowser road railers that I could decal as Optimus's trailer. $25 bucks on epay. And then have Optimus on another flat.  Astrotrain would be pretty funny with some added battle damage.

Thats great! Love the idea.

 

Tyco  made a HO scale G1 Transformer train back in the 80's ( and a G.I. Joe A.R.A.H. Train). I think the Caboose even transformed.

Here is the Tyco Transformer set. I also posted the G.I.Joe, Mask and A- Team set. The A-Team got a Shark and everyone else got a rinkey dink switcher. I guess Face sweet talked his way in.

I have a 25th Anniversary Optimus Prime new in the box, basically a reissue of the original. Mine from when I was a kid is long gone.

You can use the silver trailers from New Ray too.

I like the Transformers comics,cartoon and toys but the Micheal Bay stuff I was not a fan of. I dutifully watched them and wish I could have had my time back. That said I still occasionally will pick one up at the store if it appeals to me. The Masterpiece series of them are made for adult collectors and seem to fall into a few different scales. The car based ones seem to be 1/35 scale and the planes/seekers are 1/48 and very nicely done. The Japanese edition Thundercracker in the picture was modified/simplified by my son. Thanks son.

 

The Masterpiece series Grimlock and Thundercracker seem close to O scale

The newest and Oldest Jetfire are close to scale as well. So you can fight off the Invid invasion as well

       

       


You wouldn't happen to have it opened up and would be able to place it on a scale flat car would you? Maybe snap a quick pic too....maybe??

If autobots were really that size I think I would stick to our armed forces! I'm gonna seriously work on this project to get-r-done and make it look as scale and real as possible!

This is one of those...."OK-Fine"....moments. 

 

If you have them? Play with them.

I dont think my Lion voltron  fits 0  scale ... Then again its in its box....

I like to set up transformers with my trains at shows and see if anyone notices.   While I like the originals better,  mine are long gone as well.   The newer Bumblebee isn't a bad size and one of the new cars is a convertible that you can easily install two seated people with some tacky putty. The last movie was not only painful to watch, it didn't yield any good layout items either.  If my originals had survived, most of them would be on display with the trains.  I do remember being really disappointed as a kid that the triple shape decepticon didn't fit on Ogauge track. I would have begged until I got one for sure if it had

 

Thanks to Google, I actually kind've sort've understand what this thread is about!

 

Jon

Seeing all those boxes reminded me of how much I miss Tyco. 

Westinghouse, you've got to make this happen! What a great idea.

I get most of it, including the desire to run something like that sometimes.

 

 But some editing by the posters would sure go a long way towards easier piece ID-ing seeing how most folks further over the hill, wont have a clue, hint hint

Heck, there aren't even road numbers on them .

Or B.A. burst in saying, "I pity the fool that thinks I'm driving a switcher!"

 

Besides the Shark looks more like the A-Team van than a switcher does.  LOL

 

 

To get back on topic, the Optimus Prime on a Flatcar idea is great!

Autoworld just released a 1/43 General Lee.  The price is ridiculous (about $60).  But once they've been out for a while and show up on the secondary market, I plan to acquire four to populate an MTH auto carrier.  On rails, they will be enroute to an episode shooting location for stunt use...

Transformers were made by Hasbro based on the diaclone/takara  characters in Japan.  They were never meant for "O" gauge railroading but their scale is close to 1/43 as far as I can see.  Optimus prime was leader of the Autobots ( good guys ).  I believe they were first released in 1984.  My thoughts for using optimus is because of he is a tractor trailer which could relate to railroading by being utilized as either a flat car load, or road railer. Optimus or any transformer ( except maybe astrotrain ) would not have a road number to reference. 

I had the Transformers Tyco set when I was a kid, but its long gone like my old transformers.  Fun idea incorporating other childhood toys into your railroad!

When i was a kid I used to always put my G1 Autobots on my train layout in their car forms. I always thought they were a good size in comparison.

 

If you have a subway line you can recreate this scene from All Hail Megatron (IDW comics) with Astrotrain

 

 

W.EMDdguy, Nice expansion, thank you. Your original post was self explanatory with only one item in the photo.

Others are not so easily figured out with a few lesser known bots in one shot.

 

I doubt "outsiders" would even pick up on G1 being the first generation of these toys.

Do you remember thinking "gee what does PW mean?"

 

 I have a first run Bumble Bee in my VW toy collection.(sellouts)

 He has seen life on the rails before, but not in about 25years now.

I sold comics, and collectables for years. I know more than I let on, but others dont  

Astrotrain! That's the one I was thinking of!  I would love to have one of those if it fit o gauge rail. I would probably push it with a second unit or a boxcar with a hidden drive. 

Unfortunately the G1 Astrotrain was a little undersized when he was in his locomotive mode. Probably closer to S scale.

I was just looking at them on the bay and they are definitely smaller than I remember. There was a different version that looks a little larger but there were no dimensions listed. Also the original did not have rolling wheels in train form, the other one looks like the wheels roll but they are not flanged.  I think I will leave this project to a boyhood dream.

Wow, never expected to see this thread here!  Before O gauge, it was Transformers.  At the height of my collection, I had about 7500.  Most are sold at this point.

 

I'd intended to catalog all of them online, but my energy for editing/posting the pictures gave out partway through a couple years back.  Here's what's currently up, and I may get back to it one day.

 

The Hybrid Style G1 Convoy would probably be the best suited to sit on an o gauge flatcar, but it is fairly expensive.

I am actually surprised it hasn't come up before - So here in Phoenix we have AZ Collectors Mall and they are going to try to get me some graphics to send to a printer I work with that can scale down the Optimus decals to fit on my Bowser Trailers.  I am taking them a flat car to see how Optimus himself fits and to see how he looks like next to the bowser trailer.

In the original animated movie he was able to fit all of the Decpticons inside himself and there was enough room for the Constructicons to form Devistator 

don't forget about optimus's disappearing trailer or megatron shrinking in size so soundwave can fire him in his p38 mode - so many inconsistencies but fascinating none the less.

Maybe I will have to look through my Transformers to see if one will fit with my layout or maybe find some O scale cars and add Autobot decals

The scary giant alien robots will leave your railroad alone long as the gondolas full of energon cubes keep flowing.

Energon cubes, sold by tfsource.com- these would look great in a gondola or well car. This could seriously be a cool consist!!! But what road name would the autobots pic?

       

Great stuff

You could color the ice blocks from a Lionel Icing Station purple and then paint and detail the Icing Statin to be a Decpticon Energon Cube loading station.

That thing is sweet!!!

Also just to note, I've started the paint process of a bowser roadrailer conversion into optimus's trailer. I'm looking for a reasonably priced cabover semi to convert into prime.