Yamabuki

Yamabuki is an Autobot Trainbot from the Generation 1 cartoon continuity.

Yamabuki (ヤマブキ), development code Yellow (イエロー Ierō), is the leader of the prototype Trainbots. She is an accomplished medic, being able to weld her own limbs back on in the case of involuntary amputation. She can combine with her fellow prototypes into the mighty G Liner or with the mainline Trainbots as part of Raiden.

Fiction

Train Wars

Yamabuki was one of the prototype Trainbots created by Doctor Fujiyama, initially called "Yellow". After three of the finalized Trainbots were activated, Nightbird managed to break out (thanks to the rogue AI, Shadow) and upgrade herself with the technology at Fujiyama's facility. Called into action, Yellow and her Trainbots met with Nightbird before she could run away with the three remaining unactivated Trainbots. After Nightbird escaped her grasp, Yellow combined with her fellow prototypes to form G Liner, but the combiner was taken over by Shadow's cerebro-shell program. The three remaining Trainbots did a last-ditch effort to literally crash into the combiner, breaking him free of the brainwashing. However, Yellow wasn't too happy about the resulting damage to herself and the other prototype Trainbots. The Train Wars: The Origin

Toys

Masterpiece G Series

When Mello Yello gets her doctorate.

• Trainbot Yamabuki (2024)

• Release date: 2024 October 26
• ID number: MPG-08
• Accessories: weapon, rail A, rail B, Shiden head piece, joint part
• Known designers: Kōjin Ōno (TakaraTomy), Dai Ono (Tomytec), Yuki Ohshima (concept artist)

Retooled from Yukikaze, Masterpiece G Series Yamabuki is the eighth release in the Masterpiece G Series. Produced in collaboration with TOMIX, the train department of TakaraTomy's scale model oriented subsidiary Tomytec, the figure converts into a fully HO scale compatible incarnation of her Class 922/0 S1 Shinkansen train mode. Yamabuki's third mode can replace Yukikaze as the left leg of Raiden, forming "Raiden Special Formation Shiden Y" (ライデン特別編成シデンY). In conjunction with Ginou replacing Shouki, Yamabuki can form "Raiden Special Formation Shiden" (ライデン特別編成シデン) with the remaining Trainbots.

Yamabuki includes a retool of Raiden's head (called "Shiden" in this instance), which she has the ability to stow in her backpack in her individual robot mode. The figure includes two modular railway sections slated to combine with segments included with the other Trainbots a la the team's original Diaclone plastic tracks. This track can be converted into a base for a stand armature (sold separately), and an adapter is included for a "flying train," a staple of the Headmasters cartoon.

Notes

• Yamabuki's name is the Japanese term for the yellow Kerria japonica flower (山吹), known as the Japanese rose (among other names) in English. It is also part of yamabukiiro (山吹色), a word referring to the amber color.
• Yamabuki is based on the yellow "Dr. Yellow Shinkansen, Combined Rail Inspection" deco of the Diaclone mold whose original coloration would later become Yukikaze. Her prototype name comes from the Doctor Yellow trains used to analyze track conditions, as well as the "Yellowliner" (イエローライナー) designation of the Diaclone Train Robo.
• In actuality, the 0 Series Doctor Yellow locomotive used for Yellowliner is shaped differently from the 200 Series locomotive used for Yukikaze. Back in the 1980s, Takara could get away with no retooling because the toys were small and simple enough that the lack of detailing could pass for both. As such, Masterpiece Yamabuki uses the life-accurate deco for the 200 series. Her original deco was instead given to Ginou.
• Yellow's dialogue in "The Train Wars: The Origin" can be read as referring to herself using the proper name "Doctor" (ドクター Dokutā), but this is ambiguous.
• Yamabuki's head for the combined mode is pulled not from Raiden's Diaclone moldmate (later characterized in Transformers as G Liner) but rather from Raiden's markedly different preproduction character model as seen in Diaclone catalog artwork.
• It's not explicitly confirmed that the manga character "Yellow" is the same character as Yamabuki, but they look way too identical (feminine face stylings and all) to not just he the same character, just with color-changes for accuracy reasons stated above.