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Originally posted by: Shin Densetsu @ TFW2005.com

Quote:

Jim Shooter has posted a new article on his blog focusing on the secret origin of The Transformers. Did you know that another company aside from Hasbro was planning to bring over a line of Japanese transforming robots under the name Mysterions? This company was named Knickerbocker Toys.

Initially Knickerbocker Toys went to DC Comics to make a Mysterions comic. Then they went to Marvel Comics. Here's an interesting excerpt from the article, documenting Hasbro's involvement:

The next day we learned that, just before our meeting, Hasbro had announced that it was acquiring Knickerbocker. Shakeup, indeed.

The deal with Knickerbocker fell victim to the takeover by Hasbro. The Hollywood term for similar events is “turnaround.” Projects begun by previous administrations are automatically put into turnaround, that is, on hold—usually permanently.

Here endeth the story of the Mysterions.

That’s a good break point, but I promised some of the TRANSFORMERS tale, not just the prequel, so I’ll press on for a while.

Some months later, the Hasbro exec who was Marvel’s main contact, Bob Prupis, came to my office. He pulled a few toy vehicles out of his bag and proceeded to open and unfold them into ROBOTS.

They were bigger and much more complex than the Mysterions. Different Japanese technology, same general idea.

Hasbro, he said, had the rights to the technology and toys based upon it. The problem, he said was story. He said that the Japanese storyline associated with the toys wasn’t useful. Japanese kids, apparently, don’t require much justification. Cars become robots, robots become cars. Well, of course they do. What do you mean, “why?”

Read more after the jump!

Original Source: Jim Shooter And The Secret Origin Of The Transformers - Transformer World 2005