Battlecruiser

Cruisin' USAAAAAAIIIIEEE

The product of modern Laser Beast super-science, the Battlecruisers are a set of one-beast mini-chariots that utilize gravity manipulators for insanely fast flight and powerful attacks. They were specifically designed as "Hunter Killers", a counter to the Beastformers' powerful Head Hunter vehicles; their incredible speed and maneuverability are used to evade the Hunters' powerful forward-facing armaments and strike from behind, above, or even below.

Each one is optimized for a different form of terrain, and under the command of an elite, high-ranking Laser Beast:

The aerial Battle Eagle, operated by Skybat
The aquatic Battle Buzzsaw, operated by Dinogator
The overland Battle Savanna, operated by Slag King
The underground Battle Drill, nominally operated by Skullgrotes, but often used by Emperor Tigerburn

Fiction

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Toys

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Released in the "Laser Beasts" portion of the post-Transformers-branded Beastformers toyline, each Battlecruiser is a small mechanical animal-chariot with a pull-back motor, allowing them to rocket forward on smooth surfaces. The "handlebars" actually act as a securing clip around the waists of Beastformer and Laser Beast figures, though many figures end up kind of dangling there, feet off the platform.

Beastformers

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The Battle Savanna
  • Battle Buzzsaw (Battlecruiser, 1988)
    • Pilot: Dinogator
  • Battle Eagle (Battlecruiser, 1988)
    • Pilot: Skybat
  • Battle Savanna (Battlecruiser, 1988)
    • Pilot: Slag King
Three of the Battlecruisers were sold in individual boxes, like their rival Head Hunters. Each one came with an exclusive pilot figure with bio card, but the vehicle itself had no bio card.


  • Beast Planet's Greatest Confrontation Set (Box set, 1988)
    • Pilot: Skullgrotes
A gold-chrome version of the Battle Drill was packed in the "Beast Planet's Greatest Confrontation Set" (ビースト星最大の対決セット Bīsuto-sei Saidai no Taiketsu Setto), a sizable box set that also included its pilot Skullgrotes, Laser Beasts Kingbuster and Salmomancer, Beastformers Platinum Tiger, Yellow Giraffe and Golder, and the Tiger Hunter vehicle.
While the Beastformer-side items in this box were all re-releases of toys previously available individually (although Golder and Giraffe only in the previous Transformers-branded part of the line), the Laser-Beast-side toys were mostly exclusive to this set (see below). And with it being such a late release in a flagging toyline, it is easily one of the most (if not the most) expensive Beastformers items to obtain on the secondary market.


  • Battle Drill (Battlecruiser, 1988)
    • Pilot: Kingbuster
Three different color variants of the Battle Drill were available only as prizes in various Beastformers contests. The first, in yellow with a red drill, was part of the standard pack-in mail-in lottery advertised on a slip that came with every single-packed Laser Beast. The tiny illustration indicates it was meant to come with Skullgrotes, but this has not been confirmed.
Two others were the top prizes in a pair of Beastformers "punch-box" giveaways in various stores. Basically, kids would punch through a paper front on a multi-compartment box, each containing a random Beastformers toy prize.
  • The first promo had 24 spaces, with a grand-prize exclusive-colors red Battle Drill with Kingbuster in one of them, two spaces with the normal colorless-clear Crystal Killer Fish figure, and then 21 random standard Beastformers boxed toys, with a small baggie of assorted Beastformers weapons taped to the top of their boxes.
  • The second punch-box promo had a blue Battle Drill and Kingbuster as the grand prize, two exclusive Crystal Killer Fish with mottled-brownish stripes, and 21 baggies of random Beastformers weapons, kind of a downgrade from the first one's normal prizes.
Naturally, these Drill variants don't come cheap.

Notes

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  • The Battlecruisers' gravity-based powers are detailed only in the Hero Special 12: Laser Beasts mook. However, the Battlecruiser page has a persistent error where only about half the bullet points on the technical diagrams have lines leading to the specific parts of the vehicles.
  • These toys were planned to be part of the Hasbro Battle Beasts "Shadow Warriors" line, but it is currently unknown what they were going to be called in this release, having never made it to even limited release or packaging sample stage. According to the 1988 Pre-Toy Fair Catalog (released in 1987), they were going to be released as an assortment of twelve, each with a unique Beast (released in Beastformers as the back half of the second Laser Beast assortment and the Battlecruiser/Greatest Confrontation Set pack-ins), and each of the four molds coming in three color schemes: red with yellow, yellow with red, and blue and light-blue.
    • Yes, those are the three color schemes that the Battle Drill was in for its three different prize releases. The Battle Buzzsaw and Eagle also got their main decos from this assortment (with slight changes to the accent colors), leaving the Savanna and normal-retail Drill as new decos made for Beastformers.
    • Sadly the only image we have of this, the name of the assortment is blurry and curved into the center crease of the book. Sorry.
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