As many of us know, "Generation 1" was never called Generation 1 until after the advent of Generation 2. G1 was only ever just called "The Transformers," but as soon as the Transformers was rebranded as "Generation 2," everyone started calling pre-G2 stuff "Generation 1." And so that's what G1 means = pre-Generation 2.

But there was a part of 1993 that has long confused people; pre-G2 toys that were later package refreshed as G2 with no changes to the figures themselves. This makes it impossible to determine if these toys are G1 or G2 unless it's mint sealed. Even the eye/window colours of the Axelerators is no guarantee, because both G1 and G2 Axelerators had the pink/black eye/window variants; it's just that pink was more common among G1 and black more common among G2... so it's probable that your pink-eyed Axelerators are G1 while the black-eyed ones are G2, but it's not an absolute certainty unless it's MOSC.

This anomaly has long had collectors refer to these toys as Generation 1.5 or G1½. Unlike "Generation 1," which was also initially a fan term, G1.5 has never gained official currency; it's only ever been a fan term, and is sometimes incorrectly used by collectors to refer to other toys from the later G1 years that were never package refreshed as G2 (and are therefore purely G1). But I'm not here to talk about those toys, I'm only looking at the 1993 G1 toys that were package refreshed as G2; the proper "G1.5s," and why I've now come to believe that this classification doesn't need to exist at all. And I'm a person who has been using this classification for decades.

I think that they should just be classified as Generation 2. My reasons are...
  • 1. The faction logos. The 1993 G1 Transformers feature new Autobot and Decepticon insignia, which every refers to as the G2 faction logos. Nobody (not even me) calls them the "1993 G1 logos." This leads me to believe that these toys were intended to be released as G2, but the Generation 2 name hadn't been included in the packaging by the time these toys were first released; but then in later production runs, they received new packaging with the "Generation 2" title.

  • 2. 1995 G2 toys don't have the "Generation 2" title on their packaging, and yet everyone considers them to be Generation 2. Does the absence of "Generation 2" on the 1995 packaging mean that these toys have reverted to Generation 1? I don't think so. I don't know anyone who says "1995 G1 Gobots" or "G1 Laser Optimus Prime." And it would get really confusing to say "1995 G1 Power Masters" instead of "G2 Power Masters" etc. So if the 1995 Transformers can be classified as "Generation 2" despite lacking that text on their packaging, then I think that the 1993 Transformers that also did not have "Generation 2" on their packaging can also be G2.

Now the main counterargument to my reasoning is timing; and this was my rationale for a long time too... that because the 1993 G1 Transformers came out before the launch of Generation 2, that they cannot be classified as Generation 2 (and that doing so would be historical revisionism). Ah, but wait, I say to past-me...
  • 3. Generation 2 was launched before the 1993 G1 toys! In only a few parts of the United States, some stores managed to release Generation 2 toys in December 1992, just in time for Christmas. Assuming that the earliest 1993 G1 toys came out in January, this would mean that G2 came out a few weeks before. Which means that these 1993 toys came out after the launch of G2; and therefore they can be classified as G2 despite not having the text on their packaging for the same reasons as my 2nd point.


So what this means is that Generation 1 really ended in 1992, not '93. And I think that we can all agree that Generation 1 proper ended in 1992, as none of the toys released in this year were ever package refreshed in G2, and they came out long before that Xmas pre-launch. I consider 1993 to be the practical start of G2 (for the same reason that I consider 2004 to be the start of Masterpiece, even though MP1 came out in late December '03 for the Xmas gift season). "Generation 1.5" has always been an awkward and ungainly term, and both Hasbro and Takara have refused to use. Good riddance, I say.

1984-92 = G1
1993-95 = G2
Done.

1993's Axelerator Zap was later package refreshed as Windbreaker with the "Generation 2" title on his card

Note the while Axelerators that came on the earlier non-G2 text cards were mostly pink eye/windowed, and those on the G2-cards were usually black eye/windowed, both variants existed across both packaging styles.

All 1994 packaging had the "Generation 2" title on their packaging, like the G2 Combaticons.


1995 dropped the words "Generation 2" from their packaging. But everyone calls these "G2 Gobots."