Thrilling 30 Sandstorm (2013)

About mid-way into 2013, Hasbro started (perhaps prematurely?) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Transformers franchise (which started well into 1984) with what they called the Thrilling 30. Toys were released as part of already-established Generations line, revisiting characters from all of the various aspects of the franchise to this point (not just "Generation One," although it's undeniable that those characters were given a bit more attention than other specific lines that came later, and which had been on toy shelves more recently).

Thrilling 30 Sandstorm was actually not the first new toy featuring this character since the original from 1986 (in fact, there were two toys released between them!), but it was the first to restore Sandstorm's "triple changer" status, borrowing a mold created for Springer (specifically, the then-recent IDW re-imagining of Springer) but featuring heavy remolding to make Sandstorm a distinctively new character.

Perhaps G1 Sandstorm's most iconic mode was the dune buggy, and while this version is significantly more robust than the original, it is nonetheless a pretty faithful update.

In 2013, the idea that the franchise would return to heavily featuring the characters from the original "Generation One" run of the 80s was still comparatively new (I argue that it only began in earnest with the "Classics" line of 2006). Thus, rather than attempting to offer new toys that replicated the originals (only with better articulation), the tendency was almost always to reimagine those characters in new forms. Thus, while Sandstorm's dune buggy might be considered a mere "upgrade" from his original form, his flight mode is significantly different, having changed from Sandstorm's traditional helicopter to a VTOL (vertical take-off & landing) aircraft. 

This is perhaps a bit ironic, because the Springer toy from which Sandstorm borrowed a mold actually was a helicopter in its flight mode, and thus remolding wouldn't have been necessary if the intention had been to make a toy more faithful to the original. But, again, this really wasn't the trend back then as much as it has been more recently. Fan opinion is divided (even among those who appreciate the preponderance of G1 characters we get today) as to whether such "reimaginings" are preferred over the opportunity to get the characters more or less as remembered from back in the day. What are your thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment!