Earthhog

Earthhog is an Autobot-allied Beastformer from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Please tell me he wasn't created by Dave Sim.

Earthhog (アースホッグ Āsuhoggu), Emperor of Hamanan, is incredibly proud of his country, to the point of being disparaging of other nations on planet Beast. Working under King Slo, he uses his powers of weather control, focused by his Earth Scenery trident, to make their nation a verdant resort for all to enjoy... for a small fee, of course.

While he might be a little stuffy and greedy, he has a strong sense of justice and will go to great lengths to do right by his homeland.

Naturally (hah!) his weather control abilities make him a dangerous opponent. Properly riled, he can even create tornadoes and cause floods.

Toys

Transformers: Beastformers

• Earthhog (Beastformer, 1987)
  • Beast ID number: 67
  • Accessories: Trident

Released in the third series of Takara's Transformers-branded Beastformers assortment, Earthhog is an anthropomorphic aardvark wearing high-tech orange armor, with a two-pronged claw in place of a left hand. He has a rubsign on his chest, revealing the elemental power of Fire, Wood, or Water.

Reportedly, some releases of Earthhog have a more red-hued purple trident than the usual bluish-purple; this kind of weapon variant has also been found with other purple-weapon Beastformers (but only the Beastformers, no Hasbro Battle Beasts have been found with this weapon color).

As he was only released in the third series, he only had the third style of Beastformer bio card, with the forest backdrop and the comic-style line-art used on the Hasbro Battle Beasts checklist-poster. Depending on what "Pack" box 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.

• Burst Sun Special Set (Multi-pack, 1987)
  • Accessories: Trident

The first Beastformers multipack (still using the Transformers logo and factions) contained nine normal figures, then one of two special editions of the faction leaders, a clear-plastic version of either Alligatoron or White Leo with the "Burstsun" rubsign. The box contained no windows, so you didn't know which of the leaders you got until you opened it up.

The other nine standard Beastformers in the set were Black Jaguar, Būpink, Crowmax, Dog Hunter, Dream Eater, Earthhog, Mingo Kid, Muskhorn, and Slo.

Beastformers

• Earthhog (Beastformer, 1988)
  • Beast ID number: 67
  • Accessories: "Earth Scenery" MVP Weapon

Re-released in the Transformers-less Beastformers sequel series, Earthhog 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 "Earth Scenery" (アースシーナリー Āsu Shīnarī).

The initial early releases of this series had the chance for any Beastformer to have the rare Burstsun symbol; we'll probably never know if Earthhog was ever actually one of them. Later 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

• "Earthhog" is a calque of tsuchibuta (土豚 or ツチブタ), the Japanese word for the aardvark.
• His 1988 Beastformers bio card gives him the nickname "Hog" (ホッグ Hoggu).

Foreign names

• English: Ardent Aardvark