With such a huge list in the sub-line I decided to do two parts, this one will deal with year one and the second will be for year two.

In 1988, Transformers took a slightly different take on their toys while still giving fully transformable robots they were hidden in a shell, giving children a new way to play. These shells resembled humans with limited articulation in the arms, monsters and even vehicles.  So lets get to the full line up of these crazy guys:

known simply as large Pretenders have a single robot with a single humanoid shell. The shells split into front and back halves. These are basically statues, articulated only at the shoulder with swivel joints. The inner robots tend to be highly articulated with generally thin limbs and simple transformations.

HASBRO Large Pretenders Wave one: (three Autobots and three Decepticons)

• Autobot Cloudburst: A human shell in red and grey space armor, his inner robot transforms into a red and black Cybertronian space ship. (not shown are the blue helmet, belt and whip) He was released concurrently by Takara as Phoenix in their Super-God Masterforce line with no notable differences between the two.

• Autobot Landmine: A human shell in yellow with red and two toned grey space armor, his inner robot transforms into a mostly two toned grey with yellow and red Cybertronian all terrain vehicle. He was released concurrently by Takara as Lander in their Super-God Masterforce 

• Autobot Waverider: A human shell in three toned grey with some red and gold space armor, his inner robot transforms into a mostly black with some gold and grey Cybertronian submarine. He was released concurrently by Takara as Diver in their Super-God Masterforce

• Decepticon Skullgrin: A humanoid looking ram monster shell in purple with light grey head and two toned grey armor, his inner robot transforms into a grey and purple Cybertronian tank. He was released concurrently by Takara as Dauros in their Super-God Masterforce line with no notable differences between the two.

Large Pretenders Wave two: (three Autobots and three Decepticons)

• Autobot Groundbreaker: A human shell in orangish red and grey space armor, his inner robot transforms into a grey and Cybertronian race car.

• Autobot Skyhigh: A human shell in red and two toned grey space armor, his inner robot transforms into a grey, red and Cybertronian helicopter.

• Autobot Spashdown: A human shell in blue, black and grey space armor, his inner robot transforms into a grey, and red Cybertronian hovercraft.

• Decepticon Bugly A humanoid looking insect monster shell in purple, black, purple, lime green and light grey, his inner robot transforms into a two toned grey and purple Cybertronian jet.

• Decepticon Finback: A humanoid looking fish kind of thing monster shell in Yellow,brown, and light grey, his inner robot transforms into a two toned grey and red Cybertronian hovercraft.

• Decepticon Iguanus: A humanoid lizard monster shell in Purple with gold and black armor bits, his inner robot transforms into a purple and red Cybertronian motorcycle.

HASBRO Pretender beasts: (two for Autobots, two for Decepticons) 

• Autobot Catilla: A saber tooth tiger animal shell in yellow, red armor, a removable silver helmet and a silver tail, (the shell legs do not move) his inner robot transforms into a grey, and yellow robotic version of his outer shell. (He is roughly the size of He-Man’s Battle Cat and the two can swap helmets.)

• Autobot Chainclaw: A grizzly bear animal shell in brown, a cream and a removable silver helmet, (the shell legs do not move) his inner robot transforms into a grey, and yellow robotic version of his outer shell.

• Decepticon Carnivac: A timber wolf animal shell in grey, a black flack vest and purple backpack with blue shoulder pads and tail, (the shell legs do not move) his inner robot transforms into a purple, brown, and blue robotic version of his outer shell..

• Decepticon Snarler: A unicorn boar animal shell in blue, a silver and slightly lighter blue shoulder pads, tusks and tail with a yellow horn on his forehead, (the shell legs do not move) his inner robot transforms into a purple, brown, and blue robotic version of his outer shell..

Pretender vehicles: (one each for Autobots and Decepticons) 

• Autobot Gunrunner: A Cybertronian car shell in brown, orange, black and grey with a large jet pack on top. His inner robot transforms into a orange and black cybertronian jet with the addition of the jet pack. The robot can ride inside the cockpit of the car or inside the shell.

• Decepticon Roadgrabber: A Cybertronian car shell in purple, orange, pink and blue with twin pincers on the front of it. His inner robot transforms into a purple cybertronian jet and the twin pink cannons from the car shell unplug and become wings for the jet. The robot can ride inside the cockpit of the car, inside the shell or can man a third form of a war chariot.

TAKARA – Super-God Masterforce: Along with reusing the original six “large” pretenders of wave one I outlined above, there were two others:

• Autobot Grand: Takara repainted Headmaster Fortress Maximus into Grand Headmaster Transtector Grand Maximus and the head master robot Cerebros (that also had a headmaster) was turned into Grand who was given a pretender shell that was more robot looking in two toned grey and some yellow.

• Autobot Cloudburst: A human shell in red, white and blue  space armor, his inner robot transforms into a red, gold, grey and blue Cybertronian jet. This was whole new mold all the way around and featured die cast metal parts for the robot. (and a creepy doll like face for the shell.

With such a large entry I decided to cut it in half so see you soon for part 2.