The huge expansion of Generation 1 designs in 1986 included a great number of combiners, most of which came from previously unused “Scramble City” Jizai Gattai designs. However, a totally new design was forwarded in the Predacons - a predatory animal themed team that deviated in some key ways: each figure was roughly the same size (as opposed to a larger leader figure), and that the figures are all quite large. Divebomb is a black, orange and yellow robotic eagle of family Accipitridae.
Origins
Divebomb was designed by Teruo Kitamura. Divebomb’s US Patent, titled Reconfigurable animal toy eagle (aka Transformers G1 Divebomb) was filed on December 13, 1985 (U.S. Patent No. USD298562 S).
Description
Divebomb transforms into a bulky robotic eagle. His body is primarily black, with a yellow chest, and he features a large orange “backpack” that attaches his wings to his body. The wings are hinged at the backpack and the middle of the wing, where the hard rubber “feathers” can be extended. He also features small two-toed talons at the ends of his blocky legs. He is primarily decorated with gold foil stickers such as those on his wings, with black lines to highlight the individual plate-like feathers. His two rifles can attach under his wings near their middle hinge to form an attack mode. His transformation involves folding his legs out from the eagle legs, pulling his arms out of the sides of the torso and extending them, and opening the bird’s beak to frame the robot’s face. He is less stocky than his comrades, but still quite boxy in design. He features a red-painted face, but otherwise little adornment not visible in his eagle mode. He can wield any combination of his two black rifles and his gold sword. Rampage can transform into Predaking’s left arm by folding his eagle head down, removing his backpack, and extending the small rectangular connector behind his shoulders. He includes a left fist which attaches between the legs, but he can theoretically form either arm of Predaking. His backpack has a long rectangular connector that connects it (loosely) to Razorclaw’s back to form Predaking’s wings.
Collector Notes
Divebomb’s stocky design makes him quite sturdy. However, there are two small tabs that limit the motion of the combination connector that are easily broken by forcing the combination connector down too far.
Variants
Divebomb has two primary variations, like most 1986 toys. The earlier version has a die-cast metal waist piece, painted red, and the elongated raised area on either side of his sword blade was sharply defined by a sculpted indentation. At some point, the raised area was blended smoothly into the blade surface, and later in 1986 production switched to an all-plastic waist. All versions of Divebomb feature a rubsign on the eagle’s tail.
Availability
Divebomb was available worldwide (except the United Kingdom) in 1986. In Japan, he was available in a Predaking gift set in 1986. He was available in the US again in 1987. Divebomb was re-issued in Japan in 2004, nearly identical to the 1986 metal-waisted giftset version. He recieved a second Japanese reissue in 2010, branded with the “Welcome to 2010” logo. This version again uses the metal waist, and features a redesigned sticker sheet, as well as metallic gold replacing his yellow parts, a gold face (instead of red), and metallic shades of his other plastic. A similar version was released in the US in 2013’s Platinum Edition Predaking.
Redecos & Retools
Divebomb’s mold has not been re-used.