Beastformer (species)
The Beastformers toyline, developed jointly by Hasbro and Takara in 1987, was released as part of the Japanese Headmasters series and even made appearances within the series' cartoon and manga. The US/European version of the line, called Battle Beasts was --until recently-- unconnected to Transformers.
Fiction
Headmasters cartoon
Headmasters manga
Dreamwave Generation 1 comics
Blackthorne Battle Beasts comics
The Battle Beasts did get some outside fiction in the US, in the form of a short-lived (four issues) Blackthorne comic book. Good luck finding it.
Toys
Battle Beasts/Beastformers are soft-plastic figurines of anthropomorphic animals in robotic armor, each about 1.5 inches tall, with posable arms and a unique weapon accessory. Their primary gimmick is the use of rubsigns. In the original Takara releases, they had Autobot and Decepticon insignias and came in Transformers-style boxes.
At a currently-undetermined point, however, the line shifted to Hasbro's play-pattern, where the rubsigns were used to play a variation of "Rock-Paper-Scissors". Each Beast could have one of three "elements" revealed by the rubsign: Wood, Fire or Water. Wood beats Water, Water beats Fire, and Fire beats Wood. A rare fourth element, Sunburst, could beat any other, though this symbol was introduced late in the line. Since the symbols were heat-activated, it was impossible to determine what each toys' symbol was until the toys were freed from their packaging. (Reportedly, there was only one Sunburst toy released in Japan at all, a version of White Leo from a giftset.) The Hasbro line packaged them as two-packs with randomized pairings, while the Takara series had individual boxes with bio cards. All Beastformers who came in Transformers packaging were re-packaged to fit with the new Beastformers brand.
Towards the third US series, the rubsigns were rewroked so they featured full-color issultrations, rather than the black-on-mood-ring-colors of the old signs.
Vehicles were also introduced to the line, motorized "Battle Chariots" and transforming "Battle Bases" that unfolded into large playsets.
An evolution of the gimmick was planned for both sides of the world, replacing the rubsigns with clear marbles that would reveal their element when looked through into a light source. The US/Europe version of these toys, dubbed the Shadow Beasts, never made to it wide release, though packaged samples of the toys have been uncovered. In Japan, the entire range made it to retail, under the name Laser Beasts, likely named as such due to the combination of their light-based gimmick, and that the melee weapons of old were replaced with blaster-rifles. However, the Laser Beasts came out well after the Beastformers had removed their ties to Transformers.
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