Jungaroo

Jungaroo is a Beastformer from the Generation 1 continuity family.

You don't just eat—you Jungaroo!

You'd be hard-pressed to find a beast as outgoing and friendly as Jungaroo (ジャンガルー Jangarū), Jun (ジャン Jan) to his friends... and just about everybody is his friend, at least as far as he's concerned. Endlessly boisterous, always ready to talk the ears (or similarly-functioning sound receptors) off anyone, he's an incredibly social fellah who's always looking to have a good time, and it seems a good time always follows him around. Even if he doesn't know you, he considers you a pal and is up for a hearty conversation. In fact, one of the only ways to get this rowdy 'roo upset is to rudely interrupt his social time. He's also a bit on the brash side, ready to leap into action without a lot of thought, which has led to the occasional problem when he bounded off before White Leo could finish explaining the entire plan.

A sports enthusiast and track-and-field champion since he was a joey, Jungaroo's powerful leg muscles can propel him fifty meters in a single leap... or kick someone into low orbit (or at least make them feel like he did). It was during his student days when he met Sea Iron, and the two have been the truest of friends since. The two eventually became co-rulers of their homeland of Chibara, where Jungaroo serves as its King. And he's a popular King at that, encouraging a vast sports scene and friendly competition throughout the country.

In battle, aside from his amazing leg strength, he wields the Garoomerang (ガルメラン Garumeran) MVP Weapon, a blade that he can hurl with such force that it moves at a fraction of the speed of light, curving around obstacles to strike down his target before returning to him.

Fiction

Beastformers comic

Jungaroo was among the allied Beastformers who stood in defense of Bistoram during the Laser Beast invasion. Beastformers VS Laser Beasts

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

Jungaroo was among the many Beastformers squabbling on their home planet when Megatron arrived to fetch the Predacons. Welcome to the Jungle

Toys

Transformers: Beastformers

PROTEIN.

• Jungaroo (Beastformer, 1987)

• ID number: 35
• Pack: D
• Accessories: Boomerang-sword (usually)

Part of the second series of Takara's Beastformers toys, Jungaroo is an anthopomorphic kangaroo in aqua robotic armor. His left hand is a large boxing-glove-like fist. The Battle Emblem on his chest reveals one of three symbols when warmed up; Fire, Water or Wood.

He usually comes with a gold boomerang-sword weapon marked with the same ID number as on his back. However, Beastformers is notorious for toys coming with someone else's weapon; it's unclear if this was just originally poor QC, but in the sequel series, this semi-random weaponry was actually turned into a "gimmick".

He was only available in the "D Pack" assortment, and came in a green-grid generic "Cybertron Beastformer" box. He came with a bio card with a painted character image on a jungle backdrop, though there was a chance his bio card would instead be replaced with the rare "Bewitching Serpent Seal" card featuring Cobrander.

Beastformers

• Jungaroo (Beastformer, 1988)

• ID number: 35
• Accessories: "Garoomerang" MVP Weapon (usually)

Re-released in Beastformers's post-Transformers sequel series, Jungaroo was given a straight re-release with new packaging and a new, more filled-out bio card with comic-style character art on the front. This new card also gave his weapon, now branded an "MVP Weapon", the name "Garoomerang". Speaking of, once again he could instead come with someone else's weapon.

He was sold in the second assortment of individually-packed Beastformers, with a peg-hole in the top flap, and a sticker on the bottom with his name and role on it. This series did not have any kind of "rare card" random pack-in promotion.

Late in the run, the "mood ring" styled rubsigns were replaced with new rubsigns that revealed full-color Fire/Wood/Water images on black backdrops. (These rubsign variants also happened at the same time in the Hasbro Battle Beast version of the line.)

Merchandise

Meiji candy toys

• Ramune Beastformers Battle Card (1988)
  • Meiji ID number: 37

A gold-foil "Battle Card" of Jungaroo, featuring his painted character art from his original bio card, was available in randomly-packed sets of cards that came with ramune-flavored candy tablets, sold by candy/snack company Meiji, during the post-Transformers "RPG" sequel series. The back of the card features a severely truncated bio, with data for the game from the Meiji chocoball SD figures' packaging.

Though this card shows line-art of a super-deformed Jungaroo toy, no actual toy was ever produced.

Notes

• "Jungaroo" is the official romanization of his name taken from his Meiji Battle Card, but it's very likely the intent is actually "Jumgaroo", a portmanteau of "jump" and "kangaroo". In katakana, ン (n) is used to denote the short "m" sound preceding harder consonants... such as in "jump" ジャンプ (janpu). And "jump" makes a lot more sense as the source of the first part of his name.
• Jungaroo's 1987 comic-style checklist-poster art shows him with a gold axe weapon rather than his actual boomerang blade. The 1988-series version of the art corrects this mistake.
• Though Jungaroo is paired with Sea Iron in his "RPG"-era bio, Sea Iron was not available in that part of the line. He and Cuttledeep are the only Beastformers in this assortment whose partners were not released alongside them.

Foreign names

• English: Kickback Kangaroo