User:Nevermore/Sandbox/Transformers: Beast Wars (Japanese toyline)
 |
| |||||||||||||||
Transformers: Beast Wars is the overarching title given to Takara's Japanese release of the Beast Wars toyline, omitting the more ostentatious title "Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers" given to the dubbed version of the accompanying cartoon.
Beast Wars would not hit Japan until over a year after its Hasbro-market debut, most likely due to waiting for the full first season of the show to finish production so it could be run in its totality in a single stretch, as is the norm for Japanese kids media with toy tie-ins. The show's long production time also resulted in the need for "filler" after that first year, resulting in two Japan-original cartoons and associated toylines before the line returned to the Mainframe show setting. However, even though those two series were given their own titles, "Beast Wars II" and "Beast Wars Neo", those brandings never appeared on the toys' packaging. Instead, similar to how Takara's Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers version of the original Generation 1 toyline maintained its title for six years despite constantly changing cartoon titles, the Japanese 'Beast Wars toys were all branded simply Transformers: Beast Wars for three years, until 1999 saw the toys adopt the Beast Wars Metals branding given to the dubbed version of seasons 2 and 3 of the American cartoon.
1997-1998 (Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers)
Starting in summer 1997, the Takara Beast Wars toyline began very similarly to the Hasbro version, with only a handful of minor color differences appearing in the first wave of product. However, by wave 2, several toys had considerably different decos, as well as an all-new villain character (created to fill out the VS-packs evenly). On top of that, several of the first-wave toys got more "show-accurate" running changes in January 1998, though the level of "show accuracy" varied pretty wildly. But as the back end of the line began and Takara started bringing over non-show-character molds, most of the releases returned to being nigh-identical to their Hasbro counterparts.
| Wave 1 (July 1997) | Convoy VS Megatron White Claw VS Scorpos Cheetus VS Waspeeter |
Dinobot VS Tarans Rattle VS Terrorsaurer Convobat VS Megalligator |
  | |||||
Wave 2 (October 1997)
|
Wave 3 (November 1997)
|
Wave 4 (December 1997) | Wave 5 (January 1998)
| |||||
Wave 6 (February 1998)
|
Wave ???
|
(Convobat & Megalligator + CD-ROM) Armor VS Snapper (includes volcano playset) |
- Exclusives
| BotCon Japan 1998 | Comic Bom Bom
|
Tele-V Magazine
|
Toys"R"Us |
- Imports
To combat their dwindling supply of domestic Beast Wars product (which sold like hotcakes) at the end of 1997, Takara resorted to importing toys made for the American market and slapping localized stickers on their packaging, although this resulted in prices double that of domestic product. And badly spelled names.
|
|
1998 (Beast Wars II)
The first of the two Takara-"original" Beast Wars lines, Beast Wars II began in March of 1998. It is a very strange beast, so to speak; an eclectic mix of yet-unused Hasbro Beast Wars molds, Generation 2 vehicle-bot molds that had not yet been sold in Japan (and some that never even saw Hasbro release!), some molds scavenged from the eighties Transformers toyline (!), and a handful of all-new molds and extensive retools, with a few supplemental toys apparently intended for release in Microman. We'd like to say it all fit together cohesively, but... no, not really. It's weird.
The toyline was backed up by a cel-animated anime series and a short-lived monthly manga in Comic Bom Bom, though neither one exactly set the world on fire or helped move many toys.
Technically, the Beast Wars II toys were not sold under that banner, but were branded with the normal Beast Wars logo... despite the complete change in packaging style and use of Beast Wars II on checklists.
