User:Nevermore/Sandbox/Transformers: Beast Wars (Japanese toyline)
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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 |
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Wave 2 (October 1997)
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Wave 3 (November 1997)
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Wave 4 (December 1997) | Wave 5 (January 1998)
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Wave 6 (February 1998)
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Wave ???
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(Convobat & Megalligator + CD-ROM) Armor VS Snapper (includes volcano playset) |
- Exclusives
| BotCon Japan 1998 | Comic Bom Bom
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Tele-V Magazine
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Toys"R"Us |
1998 (Beast Wars II)
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The first of the two Takara-"original" Beast Wars line-ups, the toys collectively associated with the title Beast Wars II were released beginning in March of 1998. It is a very strange beast, so to speak; an eclectic mix of already-existing sculpts that had previously not been used in Japan yet, which not only included more toys from Hasbro's Beast Wars line, but also Generation 2 vehicle-bot figures that had never before been sold in Japan (and some that had previously never even been released by Hasbro!), plus a few figures scavenged from the original Generation 1 toyline, many of them redecoed and retooled (some of them extensively so), plus a few supplemental toys apparently intended for release in Microman. Ultimately, only three characters received new toy sculpts: Moon, Lio Convoy, and Galvatron. 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.
As mentioned in the introductory paragraph, the toys related to the Beast Wars II fiction were not actually 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.
Wave 1 (3-??-1998)
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Wave 2 (4-23-1998)
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Wave 3 (4-30-1998)
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Wave 4 (5-21-1998)
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Wave 5 (5-25-1998)
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Bigmos VS Autostinger Powerhug VS Autocrusher Tonbot VS Autojetter Mantis VS Autolauncher |
Wave 6 (7-??-1998)
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Wave 7 (8-??-1998)
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Wave 8 (9-??-1998)
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Wave 9 (10-??-1998) | Wave 10 (11-??-1998)
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| Special releases | Puzzle pack-ins
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| Role Play | Playset |
Exclusives
| Comic Bom Bom | ToysЯUs |
1999 (Beast Wars Neo)
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The second of the two Takara-"original" Beast Wars line-ups, the toys collectively associated with the title Beast Wars Neo were released in 1999. Takara apparently put the time saved by the previous year's rampant recycling of existing sculpts to good use, as the follow-up's biggest feature is probably the fact that it is positively heavy with all-new sculpts, plus a handful of retools, and only a very small number of straight redecos. Some of these toys would later see release in Hasbro markets, while others remain unreleased in Western markets to this very day.
The "Cybertrons" (i.e. Maximals) kept the mostly-mammals theme, while the "Destrons" (i.e. Predacons) had a theme of dinosaurs and other big scary prehistoric animals. Every new mold also had a pseudo-third "attack mode", typically a weapon or trap, though quite often they can be simply described as "pile of animal parts with a gimmick sticking off it".
However, these new toys are also notoriously complex and far too complicated for the intended age group. Despite the Japanese Beast Wars media being aimed at the lower single-digits ages, even grown adults were finding the transformations utterly frustrating, as they require multiple panels on ball-jointed struts to be positioned precisely right for the beast mode to lock into place. On top of that, several of the toys are infamous for being "shellformers"—Break, in particular, could have all of his beast-mode panels/parts removed and still leave a fully functional robot mode behind!
The Neo line-up is also notable for being extremely short-lived at retail, with the majority of its product released over the span of a mere five months, quickly making way for Beast Wars Metals. Supposedly, this is related to the fact that these toys did not fare well sales-wise. Japanese fans at the time cited the overly-complex toys being too difficult for the younger age group Transformers had been traditionally aimed at in Japan. On top of that, the Cybertrons lacked appeal to kids as they largely had benign, not-exactly-combat-ready beast modes (likely why Hasbro has left those molds alone). Reportedly, Neo sold so bad it actually poisoned the well for the incoming Metals line, as kids largely left Transformers alone… which would force Takara to make some drastic changes a little later on.
Like Beast Wars II, Neo had a cel-animated cartoon and Comic Bom Bom manga to shill the toys. Despite this, the toys were still just branded Transformers: Beast Wars, even though the packaging was redesigned again.
| Wave 1 (01-??-1999) |
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Wave 2 (02-??-1999)
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Wave 3 (03-??-1999)
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Wave 4 (05-??-1999)
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Wave 5 (07-??-1999)
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Canceled |
Role Play
- Matrix Cannon
- Spyshot & Claw Gun
- Retrax
- K-9
- Manterra
- Transcute
- B'Boon
- Lio Convoy Destron (Predacon)
- Galvatron
- C-16 Lion Convoy
- X-4 Magna Boss (including Lion Junior, Skyhawk, and Mammoth)
- D-12 Megastorm
- D-13 Starscream (with BB)
- D-16 Galvatron ("Garba Tron")
- D-17 Auto Stinger
- D-18 Autoslasher ("Auto Crasher")
- D-19 Autojet ("Auto Jetter")
- D-20 Auto Launcher
- D-22 Giga Storm
Related releases
Takara 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.
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Hasbro online distribution
In the late 1990s, Hasbro imported a few of the figures and made them available on their website.
Cybertron (Maximal)
Sonokong Beast-War Korean series
In Korea, Takara licensee Sonokong released a selection of Beast Wars II toys, under the Beast-War (비스트-워) name.
Cybertron
Destron
