Transformers Character Card
When longtime TakaraTomy partner e-HOBBY returned to the Transformers brand sans action figures in 2022, the crown jewel of its extensive line of ancillary Transformers merchandise was Transformers Character Card (トランスフォーマーキャラクターカード), a series of trading cards providing bios and tech specs for characters from across the brand. The series unsurprisingly leans towards characters from e-HOBBY's own exclusive Transformers fiction, with additional focus placed on Generation 1 characters never before seen in Japanese markets such as the Action Masters and late-wave Pretenders. While these bios are largely summaries of existing fiction, they occasionally provide supplemental story tidbits in the interests of fleshing out more obscure characters.
Merchandise
Notes
- About half the real estate of each character profile is allotted to schematics strongly reminiscent of Generation 1 Power Plans, though they are not referred to as such.
- While we cannot definitely credit each card's art, there seem to be patterns: Shin Sasaki does the Precursor World-related characters; Hayato Sakamoto does most of the well-known Generation 1 characters; and Makoto Wakabayashi does Cloud characters. Other identified artists include Hidetsugu Yoshioka and Shōji Imaki.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Beginning partway through Wave 14, e-HOBBY began dropping the word "set" from its listings for whatever reason.
- ↑ A new design distinct from the 2022 binder.
- ↑ "e-HOBBYさんにて販売中のトランスフォーマーキャラクターカードのデフォルメイラストに参加させてもらっています。 現在第4弾まで販売中です。現在第5弾予約中！よろしくお願いします。 絵柄はわかりやすいので誰が何を描いてるかはバレバレですね"—Shin Sasaki, Twitter, 2022/10/09
References
- Complete archive of Transformers Character Card bios
- Transformers Character Card at the e-HOBBY website
