Astro Magnum
4 Changable by Toy Co toys Japan
 Yes kids and collectors, there WAS a pre-Shockwave toy gun. Transformers afficianodos have maligned gray Shockwaves as a "Poor man's Radio Shack knock-off", however Radio Shack deserves the last laugh. Their gray Shockwave-like Transformers gun was actually close to the first version of our favorite battery powered robot gun.
ToyCo of Japan deserves more credit for making the toy we know today as Shockwave. Shockingly it wasn't produced in purple or blue, but instead a realistic gunmetal gray. My gray-matter memory thinks that the electronics and sounds are about the same from this first incarnation to the later TF toy. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the electronic sounds are the same.
 You will, though, notice a more primitive trigger design, different stickers, and then of course a more elaborate packaging on the Astro Magnum. Once again the toy market has two different schools of thought-- one is that a Transformer must be a Transformer made by Hasbro with a groovie head sticker. All others are crap and not worth a good price.
Then there are others like myself that get a kick out of the "earliest or most primitive" toy that was later adapted into the Transformers line. I love Shockwave, but give the Astro Magnum the collectors edge. It has more value to me than Shockwave because of the older age, realistic colors, and less refined design variations. Heck, I'll admit that they are both tops in the Transformers-like toy scene. Who can resist a toy gun and killer electronic robot.
Ed
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