ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

With an image blurrier than a bigfoot sighting, Takara lets us know that they’ll be re-issuing the coolest of all Transformers: the cassette guys.

I’m not the biggest Transformers fan, but I’ve always found it neat that the Transformers came into being at a particular time where becoming a cassette tape was socially acceptable and topical. I mean, it would be pretty tough to squeeze all of your robot parts into an LP or a CD, and really, rearranging yourself into an MP3 is downright impossible.

The $50 ‘Encore #5 Cassette Set’ set includes Eject, Rewind, and the less-appropriately monikered Ravage and Laserbeak – unless your walkman happened to have a ‘laserbeak’ button. In true Transformers fashion, these re-issues of classic toys should come in proper scale, and each turns into a robot of some kind. The sticker / decal decos are directly from the very least eye-pleasing part of the 1980s too, so the retro-chic is dead on.

Call me a sucker for household items that turn into other things, but these just might be the first Transformers that I actively hunt down.