Bowdog

Bowdog is a Beastformer from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Bowdog (ボードッグ Bōdoggu), nicknamed Bowg (ボーグ Bōgu) for short, is one of the many Beastformers who joined White Leo's resistance forces as Galvatron's Decepticons began to conquer the formerly-peaceful planet Beast with their army of cold-blooded insurgents. A theorist and the most intelligent scientist on all of Beast, his role in the Autobot-allied Beastformer forces is a science warrior. He personally invented his MVP Weapon, the Dog Fighter, and is the only one who can make use of its special ability to track enemies when thrown. Bowdog is a perfectionist who hates doing things half-assed, which causes problems when he has to work outside of his fields of expertise. He holds the rank of King of Bowdonia, over his best friend Emperor Violethorn, and was born in the country's Dog City.

Fiction

Beastformers comic

Bowdog traveled to underneath the dried up Lake Sagan to search for the Three Wise Ones' Water Gem of Stillness together with White Leo, Badshark, Bluehorse and Deaspider. The mission had several possible outcomes and the Beastformers may have either succeeded or been forced to retreat by a giant scorpion or the mysterious enemy Sur, who would battle them for the gem if they found it. In one outcome Bowdog defeated the scorpion with his MVP Weapon, while in another he tried and failed to use it to tear down a wall between the party and the gem. If he attempted to destroy the wall with his bare hands, he caused too much noise and attracted the scorpion, causing the mission to fail. The Water Gem of Stillness

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

Bowdog was among the many Beastformers squabbling on their home planet when Megatron arrived to fetch the Predacons. Welcome to the Jungle

Toys

Beastformers

• Bowdog (Beastformer, 1987)
  • Beast ID number: 21
  • Accessories: Blade-weapon

Part of the first series of Takara's Beastformers toys, Bowdog is an anthropomorphic dog of indeterminate breed in pale green robotic armor. The rubsign on his stomach reveals one of three symbols; Fire, Water or Wood.

The Hasbro Battle Beasts release of the figure can vary in the tone of the green paint used on its armor, with some samples being a more desaturated and matte olive; it's uncertain if the Takara version has similar (minor) paint variation.

He was re-released in the subsequent second and third series; while the toy proper was not changed, the packaging and packed-in bio card was. The Series 1 release comes in a generic red-grid "Cybertron Beastformer" box, with a red-grid bio card with a painted character image on the front, though there was a random chance of his card being replaced by the rare "Holography Mirror" card. Series 2 came in a green-grid generic "Cybertron Beastformer" box, with the bio card putting the painted image on a jungle backdrop. Series 3's box was unchanged, but the bio card replaced the painted image with a simpler line-art image, first used in Hasbro's Battle Beasts cast poster. In the green-box releases, depending on the "Pack" he came in, there was a chance of his bio card being replaced with a rare "Secret Photo", "Bewitching Serpent Seal", or "VS Holography Mirror" card.

Beastformers

• Bowdog (Beastformer, 1988)
  • Beast ID number: 21
  • Accessories: "Dog Fighter" MVP Weapon

Re-released in the Transformers-less Beastformers sequel series, Bowdog was given a straight re-release with new packaging and a new, more filled-out bio card with corrected coloring. This new card also gave his weapon, now branded an "MVP Weapon", the name "Dog Fighter" (ドッグファイター Doggu Faitā).

The initial early releases of this series had the chance for any Beastformer to have the rare Burstsun symbol; we'll probably never know if Bowdog was ever actually one of them. Later in the run, the "mood ring" styled rubsigns were replaced with new rubsigns that revealed full-color Fire/Wood/Water images on black backdrops. (These rubsign variants also happened at the same time in the Hasbro Battle Beast version of the line.)

• Bowdog (Gashapon/candy-toy Beastformer, 1988)
  • Meiji ID number: 5
  • Accessories: "Bomb Scissors" weapon

A small, super-deformed, articulation-free version of Bowdog was sold both as a gashapon capsule prize by Takara, and as a candy toy with "chocoballs" through the candy/ snack company Meiji. The candy toy version came with a bio/data card with its own role-playing rules, using the old Transformers-era painted character art.

This stumpy lil fellow could be found in red, blue or green plastic, representing the Fire, Water and Wood elements (even though he still had a rubsign). All of the Meji Beastformers comes with a different Beastformer's weapon attached to their left shoulder by a snippable sprue, common for inexpensive toys of that nature. Bowdog came with Bombsheep's "Bomb Scissors" weapon, but it is currently unknown who came with Bowdog's "Dog Hunter"; it's either Flying Attacker or Zebra Ball.

Notes

• It's unclear what breed of dog Bowdog is based on. His two bio cards simply call him a "dog" (いぬ inu), nothing more specific. The toy appears vaguely pit bull-like, while the painted character art used on the various bio cards gives him more of a boxer look. Good luck figuring out what the comic-style art is meant to look like.

Foreign names

• English: Danger Dog