Beastformers (franchise): Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 08:08, 2 September 2021
| This article is about the franchise. For the species, see Beastformer. |
Transformers: Beastformers (ビーストフォーマー Bīsutofōmā) (later just Beastformers, dropping the Transformers branding in its second year) is a sub-line/spin-off of the Takara Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers toyline released in 1987, concurrent with the The Headmasters series. The series focuses on the titular Beastformers, a race of alien anthropomorphic animals from the planet Beast, whose struggles intersected (briefly) with those of the Transformers.
The toyline at the center of this series had been released in Hasbro's markets the previous year, as 1986's Battle Beasts; the toys were developed jointly by the two companies, as most of the Transformers line was at this point. Battle Beasts had no fictional ties to Transformers whatsoever (it barely had fiction at all), but as the toys are overwhelmingly identical between the two markets, most western fans consider them to be functionally the same thing as Beastformers, and don't care if their "White Leo" is technically a "Pirate Lion". But since Beastformers is the one genuinely tied to Transformers, this wiki defaults to using the Takara names, and only covers the Hasbro iteration of the line in brief for comparison.
Fiction
Beastformers
Transformers: Beastformers got its big fictional push with a backdoor pilot episode early in the Headmasters cartoon, "Rebellion on Planet Beast". In it, Galvatron helped the evil Alligatron in his attempted takeover of Beast in exchange for prisoners of war, and the heroic Beasts put out a call for help from the Autobots, with of course the good guys winning in the end. After this episode, the series never returned to planet Beast again. A few toy-based Beastformers appeared as prisoners in a later episode, and a cartoon-original Beastformer played a small but vital role in yet another, but otherwise, that one episode makes up the bulk of original Transformers-era Beastformers fiction. The Autobots and Decepticons would return to Beast in that continuity, in a special installment of the Headmasters manga, "The Decisive Battle of Planet Beast!", but just as before, these events were pretty quickly memory-holed.
Outside of these handful of Transformers appearances, the main story of Beastformers was told through text stories included in numerous pack-in pamphlets and catalogs, which fleshed out the world of Beast a bit more. These stories also had increasingly less Transformers content over time, ignoring the events (and original characters) of the cartoon and manga.
When the series was given a soft-reboot sequel and rebranding as just Beastformers in 1988, the lore of planet Beast got even deeper, finally properly tying in the toys' Fire/Wood/Water theme that the previous fiction had all but ignored. The series introduced the Three Wise Ones, ancient entities who founded planet Beast and were the progenitors of the Beastformer race. The six gems balancing the powers of Fire, Wood and Water they left behind had become unbalanced due to the prior war (now ended) and were causing natural disasters. Worse still, said disasters flooded the subterranean home of the Wise Ones' first creations, the Laser Beasts, who moved to the surface and started a war of conquest. Once again, this story was mostly told through packaging blurbs and pack-in materials, with the characters' included bio cards expanding on the various societies of planet Beast. There were two "big" pieces of new fiction, in the form of two issues of the Hero Special mook series (magazine/book): Hero Special 4: Beastformers and Hero Special 12: Laser Beasts. Aside from character bios and setting text, these also featured fumetti "photonovel" comics assembled from photographs of the actual toys set up in diorama environments, telling the tales of major moments in the Beastformers' past and present (minus those pesky Transformers).
And after that, a whole lot of nothing as the Beastformers line ended. While there would be a few unnamed cameos in Transformers media here and there (mostly in Hasbro-backed media, amusingly enough), these rarely amounted to more than a single panel or obtuse reference in text. However, in 2017, the Beastformers story was picked up again in the Transformers Legends manga, in "Vol. 47: LG51 Doublecross Prologue", picking up on the non-ending of the Beastformer/Laser Beast war that had been untouched for the better part of three decades... notably tying it back to Transformers pretty extensively (though seemingly -and a bit unusually- ignoring the existence of a major manga-original character).
Battle Beasts
By contrast (and really only here for comparison/completion's sake), Hasbro's Battle Beasts was uncharacteristically light on any form of fiction for toylines of the time, especially Hasbro's. The cardbacks largely just advertised the Fire/Wood/Water play gimmick with a slight in-universe flavor. The characters' names were not even readily available to kids, with the only source to name them all being a mail-away poster... in fact, the cardbacks even said that each beast had two identical doppelgangers with different elements, so were all three carp beasts named "Killer Carp", or...?
Comics publisher Blackthorne, the people responsible for the very short-lived Transformers in 3-D comics, put out a black-and-white Battle Beasts comic which was more successful than their Transformers one, in that it made it to four issues before being canceled. Good luck finding copies.
The comic is set on an unnamed planet inhabited by sentient, armored animals, each imbued with the power of one of the three elements: Water, Fire and Wood. Their powers and the health of their world are maintained by the Soulspirit, a ghostly figure that—strangely for a planet of talking animals—appears to be human. By keeping her animal charges and their nature totems in harmony, the Soulspirit helps maintain a balance that prevents the return of her ancient enemy Ruhin, the sludgy lord of chaos. An evil plot by the totem-switching, mind-controlling crime lord Chameleon, and his minions Blitzkrieg Bat, Rocky Rhino, and Cutthroat Cuttlefish, disrupts the Soulspirit's planetary totem renewal ritual: the subsequent psychic totem disruption drives every creature on the planet insane and makes them start viciously attacking each other. The only beasts spared from this madness are Chameleon's forces and a small group of heroes (Horny Toad, Knight Owl, and Gargantuan Gorilla) who had already tried and failed to stop him. With their world now plunged into madness and nonstop war, the heroic faction must journey to find the one being on the planet—the near-mythical Sunburst Warrior—who can restore the harmony and sanity of the Battle Beasts. But they must hurry, because the disruption of the balance of nature has also revived the evil Ruhin!
Not too unlike the 1988 Beastformers setup, by pure coincidence.
Toys
Battle Beasts/Beastformers are soft plastic figures of anthropomorphic animals in high-tech armor, each about 1.5 inches tall, with swivel-jointed shoulders and a unique weapon accessory. Both beast and weapon have an ID number molded into them, making matching easy. This fist-holes and weapon handles are 3mm wide, making them compatible with numerous later Transformers toys, particularly the Cyberverse/Legion-class toys.
Each figure features a rubsign that shows one of three "elemental powers": Fire, Water or Wood. (A fourth power, Sunburst/Burstsun, was a rare special power introduced later in the line.) Since the symbols were heat-activated, it was (mostly) impossible to determine what each toys' symbol was until they were freed from their packaging. These rubsigns were key to a simple rock-paper-scissors-style battle game: Fire burned Wood, Wood floated on Water, Water put out Fire. (This game would later get a lot more complicated in Takara's post-Transformers Beastformers releases, see below.)
As Beastformers, they were packaged in individual boxes with bio cards; the design of both would change multiple times over the course of the year (detailed below). These were typically set out in large display boxes. Battle Beasts packaged them as two-packs with semi-randomized pairings (we're not about to try and suss out all the patterns) and no personal information whatsoever, with only a mail-away poster providing names for the beasts once the first three series were released. Both companies also put out multi-packs and larger vehicles; Beastformers vehicles came with specific pack-in characters, while Battle Beasts simply tossed in a random figure.
Battle Beasts released three assortments of figures, but Beastformers made it to four, with a fairly large showing in the final "Laser Beast" series, though that final assortment would not be under the Transformers banner... but we're including it because it is a direct sequel series.
Transformers: Beastformers (1987)
Series 1
The initial assortment of Beastformers were packaged in Transformers-style boxes, with Autobot-allied beasts in red boxes and Decepticon-allied in purple, with the familiar grid pattern below. These boxes are otherwise generic, with no individual names or marking on the packaging whatsoever, with a plastic window to show the beast inside.
Like the other Headmasters toys of the time, each one also came with an individual bio card, with a painted character image on a red or purple grid on the front, and character data and line-art of the toy on the back. The cards were held in black sleeves to keep them hidden while in-package, as there was a chance the card would instead be the rare "Holography Mirror" card instead, with a hologram image Platinum Tiger's toy on the front.
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Many of the Series 1 figures were also made available in gashapon capsule machines for about the same price (200 yen). These toys lacked bio cards, and could come with seemingly-random weapons, though it's up in the air as to whether this was intentional or just poor quality control. More importantly, there were rare all-white/cream versions of all(?) of the gashapon Beastformers, which nowadays go for a couple hundred dollars a pop.
Series 2
At this point, Beastformers boxes changed to using green behind the grids for both sides, but kept the Autobot/Decepticon markings. The upper-right "flap" of the box also added a "Pack" letter, each one indicating a different randomly-packed prize card and associated mail-away campaign:
- C — The "Secret Photo" card featuring White Leo
- D — The "Bewitching Serpent Seal" card featuring Cobrander
- E and F — The "VS Holography Mirror" featuring Platinum Tiger and Green Chameles
As near as can be told, any Beastformer could come in any style of box; the Series 1 Beastformers were also rereleased in this packaging. These mailaway contests also offered the Transformers toys Sharktron and Repug as prizes, toys which were not available at retail in Japan.
The pack-in bio cards also got a redesign at this point. The front of the card replaced the grid background with a forest backdrop framing a yellow sky, with the painted portrait in the middle. The nametags and cardbacks were otherwise the same style as before.
Individual figures (new)
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Series 3
With the third wave release, the line expanded slightly, with a new multi-pack (including exclusive variations of the two leader figures), as well as a transforming "Battle Base" that unfolded into a large playset.
The packaging for this series did not change at all, C D E and F Pack types and all. However, the bio cards did change in one significant way: they no longer used the fully-painted character images, instead using the comic-style line-art used for the Hasbro Battle Beasts checklist-poster. All of the Series 1 and 2 Beastformers were released in this way, with new cards. So no, none of the new Series 3 beasts got that spiffy painted character art. Bummer.
Individual figures (new)
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(Black Jaguar, Būpink, Crowmax, Dog Hunter, Dream Eater, Earthhog, Mingo Kid, Muskhorn, Slo, and either Burstsun White Leo or Ghost Alligatron) |
Battle Bases
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Beastformers and Beastformers: Laser Beasts (1988)
In 1988, Beastformers became its own line, all Transformers branding excised from the packaging, now branded with the tagline "Role-Playing! Animal Army!!" (ロールプレーイング!アニマル軍団!! Rōru Purēingu! Animaru Gundan!!, rendered as "Role Playing Animal Team" in English on the packaging). All the previous Beastformers were re-released in all-new packaging, showing a map of the Beastformers' world, made up of thirty-eight kingdoms, each ruled by two Beastformer warriors in a post-Transformers-war setting. These boxes are again generic, now across the entire line. Early versions of the boxes advertised the possibility that the included bio card inside could instead be a rare holofoil card with a "Burstsun" symbol rubsign packed into a small baggie on its back for you to give to the Beastformer of your choice, but later (and more common) releases dropped this promo and added a sticker on the bottom-front with the toy's name on it.
The pack-in cards were similarly reworked. While they still used the line art from Series 3, it was completely recolored to be more accurate to the actual toys, plus some characters who were drawn with incorrect weapons got edited art with the correct ones. The back of these cards have a lot more character information, and details on the powers of their "MVP Weapon" including rules and point values for the new "role playing game" for the line. Pack-in catalogs contained rules for the dice-based battle game... which we have not translated yet, sorry.
At some point in this series, the Beastformers' rubsigns underwent a change. Later samples of the toys (as well as late-run Hasbro Battle Beasts releases) could have rubsigns that revealed full color Fire/Water/Wood illustrations rather than the mood-ring-style black outlines against a multi-hued backdrop. (It does not appear that there was ever a full-color Burstsun symbol.)
The standalone Beastformers line saw a major expansion of available product. The Battle Beasts motorized "Battle Chariots" and remaining two transforming "Transport Stations" were released in Japan as the "Head Hunters" and "Battle Bases" respectively, plus a re-release of the prior Battle Base in this new packaging style.
But most importantly, this series also introduced the Laser Beasts (tagged the "Role-Playing! Neo Animal Army!!" (ロールプレーイング!ニオアニマル軍団!! Rōru Purēingu! Nio Animaru Gundan!!, rendered as "Role Playing Neo Animal Team" in English), a new faction of evil warriors who emerged from an underground kingdom when the planet's three elements were out of balance and destroyed their home. Rather than having rubsigns, these beast warriors have clear marbles that would reveal their randomly-installed Fire/Wood/Water element when looked through into a light source. And instead of melee weapons, they came with large rifles. A number of new mini-vehicles and multi-packs were also released for this series. Laser Beast packaging was different, with a shadowy-blue theme and strange alternate versions of the planet's continents shown on the hidden inner box-flaps.
The Laser Beasts were intended to be released in Hasbro's markets as the Shadow Warriors, but they never made it to a wide release: packaged samples of the first twelve toys listed here have been found, plus some even rarer samples of "Battle Chargers", individually-sold Shield Battlers that included characters who weren't sold as Shield Battlers in Japan. Because of this, as well as the somewhat short lifespan of the line at this point, Laser Beasts routinely go for hefty amounts on the secondary market even in Japan, easily demanding hundred-plus price tags apiece.
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Battlecruisers
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Head Hunters
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Multi-packs
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Notes
- Beastformers is a line where the toys by themselves have been extensively documented... but the hows and whens of their releases haven't gotten nearly as much archival attention on either side of the globe. As such, our understanding of this line's release structure is still something of a work in progress. For example, it was assumed for decades that all 76 Battle Beasts figures were released in the Transformers-branded portion of Beastformers; after all, Takara named and showed all of them in numerous posters and such! But we now know that at least four of them weren't, and are still trying to verify some of the other 72, mostly by trying to find their pack-in bio cards.
- As of this writing, we still have not found 18 Transformers-era cards, and 25 of the RPG-era cards. However, we have found at least one card for every Beastformer (with the obvious exceptions of the two that were never released in either version of the line), so we know they all got released at some point in Japan.
- Due to the manufacturing processes of the time, there are a lot of very minor variations for many toys in the Hasbro Battle Beasts line, particularly in the first Series; most of these boil down to "slightly lighter/darker plastic tone" and "slightly glossier/matte paint". This is on top of the more immediately-obvious larger variants (largely found in Series 2), like changed armor colors. It's uncertain how many of these variants were also present in the Beastformers run, not helped by many of them appearing in Beastformer catalogs and other materials.
- At the 2009 Comic-Con, it was announced that Diamond Select, the producer of Minimates, bought the Battle Beasts trademark. [1] In 2012, IDW Publishing released a Battle Beasts miniseries based on the Minimates, completely unrelated to Transformers... or the original Battle Beasts, for that matter.
- TakaraTomy's Beast Saga toyline shares many similarities to Beastformers, including being set on Beast and featuring several returning characters, but is not considered a direct continuation of the latter. A manga began serialization in Saikyo Jump in early 2012, and was adapted into an anime in January 2013, though the story is again unrelated to Transformers.
Foreign names
- French: Les Dragonautes, Comba Nimaux (Canada)
- Portuguese: Bestias Combate
