AEON
JUSCO (ジャスコ, short for Japan United Stores Company) was once the largest "hypermarket" style retail chain in Japan. They have had several Transformers exclusives over the years, primarily in the form of promotional freebies given away with qualifying purchases, but they also carried "USA Edition" toys otherwise unavailable in that market.
A subsidiary of AEON Co., Ltd., all JUSCO supermarkets in Japan changed their names to AEON in 2011.
JUSCO exclusive toys
Car Robots (Robots in Disguise)
JUSCO is perhaps best known for their initial Car Robots exclusives, particularly the "Original Spychangers" ("original" as in "unique", not "the first"). These six clear-plastic toys were direct-mail premiums to members of their "Peppy Kids Republic" (元気キッズ共和国, Genki Kidzu Kyōwakoku), a sort of subsidiary/offshoot for selling baby goods and children's clothing. Since membership was open only to kids 12 and under and the toys were individually shipped blind-packed, getting the entire set of six was extremely difficult.
| Original Spychangers | Promotional Flip Changers |
Legends of the Microns (Armada)
The other thing JUSCO is known for is their Legends of the Microns promotion... and mostly it's known for how ridiculous it was to obtain the set. One Micron was blindpacked inside Convoy Super Mode's box. In other words, if one wanted to get all three Mini-Cons, they'd have to buy at least three Super-Base Optimus Prime toys, the biggest and most expensive toy in the line (at the time), and even then they weren't guaranteed to get three different Mini-Cons. It was, veritably, the most evil store promo ever, and thankfully never repeated again.
| USA Edition Deluxes | Promotional Microns |
Superlink (Energon)
Like most retailers, the promotional freebies for Superlink were focused on Energon weapons rather than Microns. But JUSCO also got a unique piece of merch on top of that.
| Promotional Energon weapons | Promotional Super Real Figure |
