Diaclone provided the vehicle-based robots for the original Transformers. Takara launched Diaclone in Japan in 1980 as a transforming-vehicle toy line, with small pilot figures and robots that could disguise themselves as contemporary machines.
Its 1982 Car-Robots sub-line was especially important to Transformers history. Toys from that range became the basis for many original Autobot cars, including Optimus Prime, Jazz, Prowl, Sideswipe, and others. Several Decepticon vehicles and groups, such as the Constructicons and Dinobots, also originated in Diaclone-related releases.
Hasbro licensed Diaclone and Takara’s separate Micro Change line in 1984, then combined selected toys with new names, faction identities, packaging, and fiction. That merger created the first Transformers product line in the United States. A common mix-up is answering Takara Tomy, but that is the company associated with the toys, not the specific earlier line. Micro Change supplied object-based toys such as Soundwave’s cassette player, while Diaclone supplied most of the original vehicle-based robots.