So, uh, hey guys. Remember waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back on Page 80 when we got our first look (though, by now the pics are broken) at the packaging of the 2015 Legends LGEX Black Convoy (the Deluxe class RtS Optimus Prime redeco) and I pointed out the box's referring to Black Convoy's faction in English as "Predacon" instead of "Decepticon"?
No?
Well, it led to
this very mild back-and-forth between me and JelZe, in which I tried to make a case for Takara having gone with "Decepticon" for Black Convoy's box than over making more sense than their going with "Predacon" would, but I conceded to JelZe's point about "Predacon" working fine since A) Black Convoy's original
Car Robots toy still bore the "Destronger" faction name and B)"Destronger" was changed to "Predacon" in the English
Robots in Disguise dub.
So, if I conceded back then, why am I digging this up again? Well, I recently learned something more about this that I didn't know before. JelZe's point about Black Convoy's original toy being labeled a Destronger has even
more weight to this matter than I previously thought.
Basically, all of the bad guy toys in the original Car Robots line were Destrongers, including the Combatrons. But more importantly, what I learned recently is that the Destrongers, even back in 2000, were Beast Era Predacons! Not just by use of the
symbol (as that could be, and has been, interpreted as just a mere reuse of the symbol), but there is actual
Car Robots material from back then, the year 2000, that specifically states that the Destrongers belong to the very same faction that all of the Beast Era (non-Unicronian) bad guy toys belonged to: The Destrons.
Though the word "Destron" was originally just the Japanese name for "Decepticon", it was also used as the Japanese name for the Beast Era "Predacon" faction. And back in the year 2000, the word "Destron" was completely synonymous with "Predacon" when paired with the
symbol. And that very symbol was also applied to the Destrongers.
The aforementioned material that links the
Destrongers to the
Destrons is none other than the Japanese bio of the
Car Robots Gigatron toy:
Gigatron D-001
Destronger Dark God of Destruction
A god of destruction who rules the Destrongers, the elite forces of the cosmic devils the Destrons. As a top Destron soldier, he has participated in numerous battles over the years. Under those severe conditions, he gained the technology for his six step transformations.
10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
There you have it. The Destrongers were
Destrons all along, never their own unique faction (as the English
Robots in Disguise dub would have us believe). Just a single platoon with a fancy name and which belonged to the greater-known faction of the time.
Were you aware of this, JelZe? It enhances your original point more than ever.