Junior Dragon

Junior Dragon is a Beastformer from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Sam, did you know the male seahorse carries the young until they suddenly issue forth from the belly like confetti?! Just another of nature's "Tales To Make The Hair Stand On End."

Junior Dragon (ジュニアドラゴン Junia Doragon) thinks pretty dang highly of himself, believing he's the best underwater fighter on planet Beast. And he is an incredibly skilled combatant both in and out of water, being supremely nimble in either environment, dodging enemy attacks with ease. When submerged, his MVP Weapon, the Screw Spinner (スクリュウスピナー Sukuryū Supinā) trident, can rotate its spearhead at super-fast speed to create water funnels to pummel foes with. He's also a meticulous planner, careful with the tiniest of details. He works especially well with Night Owl, keeping targets focused on him so they never even see Night coming in to blast them to smithereens with his micro-missiles.

But with that ego comes a big fall when his carefully-laid plans don't work out. He doesn't get mad, he gets sad, and goes to find a nice deep part of the ocean to sulk in. He's also generally paranoid about what others say about him, worried they're talking smack.

Following the Great War, he returned to his home island of Agos, where he rules at its Emperor under King Night Owl. He continues to plot and plan, always working to show the rest of the world just how good he is.

Fiction

Legends comic

Junior Dragon was part of the final battle between the Beastformers and the Laser Beasts on Beast in 2023. He looked on as a portal in the sky opened to reveal 2021-based Transformers and their allies fleeing the destruction of the Legends World. The Road to Legends' Revival Chapter 1

Toys

Transformers: Beastformers

• Junior Dragon (Beastformer, 1987)
  • Beast ID number: 45
  • Accessories: Trident

Part of the second series of Takara's Beastformers toys, Junior Dragon is an anthropomorphic seahorse in light blue robotic armor. The rubsign on his chest reveals one of three symbols; Fire, Water or Wood.

He came in a green-grid generic "Destron Beastformer" box, with a bio card with a painted character image on a jungle backdrop. Re-released in Series 3, the box was unchanged, but the bio card replaced the painted image with a simpler line-art image, first used in Hasbro's Battle Beasts cast poster. In both Series, depending on the "Pack" he came in, there was a chance of his bio card being replaced with a rare "Secret Photo", "Bewitching Serpent Seal", or "VS Holography Mirror" card.

Beastformers

• Junior Dragon (Beastformer, 1988)
  • Beast ID number: 45
  • Accessories: "Screw Spinner" MVP Weapon

Re-released in the Transformers-less Beastformers sequel series, Junior Dragon was given a straight re-release with new packaging and a new, more filled-out bio card with corrected coloring. This new card also gave his weapon, now branded an "MVP Weapon", the name "Screw Spinner".

He was sold in two similar-but-different styles of boxes. One wholly-generic version, sold in large display boxes like the Transformers releases, advertised the chance for the included bio card to instead be a rare holofoil card of White Leo with a "Burstsun" rubsign in a baggie taped to the back, so you could apply it to the Beastformer of your choice. The more common version has a slightly different box with a peg-hole in the top flap, and has a sticker on the bottom with his name and role on it.

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.)

Notes

• Junior Dragon's name comes from the Japanese word for "seahorse", "tatsu no otoshigo" (竜の落し子), which roughly means "lost child of the dragon" or "dragon's illegitimate child".
• His 1987 checklist-poster art incorrectly gives him a silver weapon. His recolored 1988 art corrects this mistake.
• His 1988 bio card gives him the nickname "Ryū" (リュウ), the Japanese word for "dragon" (竜). It also notes he was born in Agos Bay.

Foreign names

• English: Slasher Seahorse