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
Cards
Card Binders
Wave 1 (February, 2022)
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Wave 2 (September, 2025)
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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
