Beastformer (species)
The Beastformers toy-line, developed jointly by Hasbro and Takara in 1986, was released as part of the Japanese Headmasters series (in 1987) and even made appearances within the series' cartoon and manga.
The US/European version of the line, called Battle Beasts was --until recently-- fictionally unconnected to Transformers.
French name: Les Dragonautes
French-Canadian name: Comba Nimaux
Portugese name: Bestias Combate
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 initial Takara releases, they came in Transformers-style boxes.
Their 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 ("Burstsun" in Japan), 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, only White Leo was available as a "Burstsun" warrior in Japan.) 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. Numerous multi-packs --with exclusive variations-- were released in Japan as well.
Towards the third wave release, the rubsigns were reworked so they featured full-color ilustrations, 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 Battle Beasts Shadow Warriors, 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 all their ties to Transformers (and, as such, will not be covered extensively on this wiki).
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