Transformers: SAYBERTRON 6 doujinshi

Finding decent Transformers doujinshi fan comics isn't so hard these days. That wasn't the case 12 years ago. I had known of a few doujinshi created by Transformers fans in Japan when I first took the trip over there. I had hopes of finding some of these and maybe get an idea of what the Japanese fan had envisioned Transformers as. Sadly, I looked and looked and found almost nothing over a 2 week stay. I say "almost nothing" cause while I found nothing in a story based format, I did find a great fan created art book.



I picked up a copy of "Saybertron 6" in a doujin shop in Akihabara. I don't know if this was the 6th in a series, or a six member team creating the art. Probably for legal reasons, details are sparse in the book about the creators. The one thing I did know then, as I do now, the art is amazing. All drawings are done in inked drawing style, sans computer assisted ease, this book shows a wide variety of Transformers from G1, Europe, Japan and even the Action Masters. Here is a very small sample of the art in the book:

Transformers: Boss Original G1 Figures

A trend has been underway in Japan for the last six years, the inclusion of small gift items with the purchase of a beverage. Buy a 20oz. Pepsi, get a free Pepsi Man cap-figure, buy a Coke get Final Fantasy mini figure. A wide array of little toys and trinkets have been made available for years, but none that I wanted to collect as badly as the Boss Transformers collection.



Boss is the Suntory brand of coffees sold at markets and convenience shops. A beverage not likely linked to promoting a kids line of toys, these were more suited to the adult collector. And with that marketing direction, these fell into more limited venues of sale, cutting out toys shops, department stores and the like. The limited availability, and the fact that product not sold quickly would be disposed due to expiration has made these quite a bit more rare than other Transformers themed novelties.




The Boss line has three distinct varieties. One part was for two unique full size Mini-Con figures, another for three golden colored plastic G1 style sculpted figures. The third, and I feel the best, was a set of ten G1 animation styled figures in color with some limited articulation. Each of these figures came sealed in a baggy and stored in a small plastic capsule. The capsule doubled as a stand for the figure. A catalog was included with each figure and could be used as a backdrop image. The backdrops each had an Autobot and Decepticon choice, with a total of five different catalogs, making ten different scenes.




The figures ranging from 2 inches to just under 2.5 inches are not very tall, but they do hold a lot of personality in their sculpts. The list of characters is your typical run down of G1 favorites; Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee, Jazz, Starscream, Soundwave, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Shockwave, and maybe the lesser popular, Astrotrain. Personally, I feel this is the best set of novelty figures made for Transformers since the decoys of the 80's.

My Little Pony Japanese t.v. spot

In 1985, Takara worked in partnership with Hasbro to release the My Little Pony line in Japan. The initial line showcased a completely new look to the Ponies. Extremely rare these days, these Ponies are quite sought out by Pony collectors.



This ad aired in 1985 even features a snippet of the classic MLP jingle.

Beastformers: Takara "Gumball Beasts"

There's been a lot of speculation about certain aspects of the Japanese Beastformers toy line from Takara. I don't know if any part of the line has had more discussion about what was produced than the vending sales products. These toys nicknamed "gumball beasts" due to their method of distribution were completely exclusive to Japan. These vending sales toys came in two styles, "Real Type" regular beast sculpts and "Deformed" style designs. The deformed type beasts were original designs to Takara, Japan and sold nowhere else. The regular sculpt vending beasts were the same molds used in Hasbro's Battle Beasts lines outside Japan. These regular beasts came in two ways, colored, or in a creamy off-white color.

There is no indication as to how many beasts were inserted into bubbles for the vending machines. Catalogs included with the toys had originally stated that 15 types of regular beast figures were produced. The issue that has plagued the Beastformers collectors has been this initial catalog. It states one thing, then says that what they show may not be correct. The dispute that is most often brought up is about the white colored Beasts. Being the much more valued toys in the vending line, it's stands to reason that people want to know for fact what was released. That first catalog doesn't do anything but confuse.

*Note: Real type vending beasts do not come with weapons.

Thankfully, Takara issued a second catalog with their white vending beasts later on. This catalog not only shows the line of beasts produced in white, but why they were produced in that color. The whole gimmick behind the white beasts is that you are supposed to color them and create your own Beastformers warrior. This wasn't a new concept in toys when Takara issued these figures. Bandai had offered monthly prizes to kids for some of their toys using the same paint-it-yourself gimmick. Takara was even using the same idea in their Transformers line right about the same time. So here we have a look at the actual official list of Takara's white vending machine Beastformers figures.

White Leo
Big Serow
Flykick
Goldar
Battle Bear
Bonga
Beafox
Yellow Giraffe
Aligatoron
Killer Fish
Devilbat
Black Turtle

Transformers: TF The Movie promotional items

In the mid to late 90's the popularity of Transformers was coming back into media. The release of Generation One videos was a much-anticipated event. The re-release of the Transformers Movie in Canada saw great demand for the film, and shortly later it was going to be re-released in both the United States and Japan. To go along with these releases quite a bit of promotion was done. Here are a few items that were used.

Rhino Video had a tie-in with Suncoast and Media Play video stores that gave away a free "Classic Collectible Card" with any pre-order of the film. Suncoast had issued these types of cards for other releases as well. They are in essence a seri-cel of sorts taking a single frame of a movie and printing it on a clear celluloid like plate to mimic a piece of film. The cards were simple, but cool for a freebie.



With Beast Wars airing on t.v., Japan was also looking to re-press the Transformers shows on laser disk as well as push video releases. This banner poster emphasis the Beast Wars connections as they promote the re-release of Transformers The Movie.

Kin Niku Man: Phone Strap Figures

I was walking by a mobile phone shop on a trip to Japan in 1999 when a package caught my eye. As I was walking by a stand I thought I had noticed a KinNikuMan item. I went back and found a display of newly released phone straps that had figures attached. Released by the company UNIFIVE, and priced at just under $10. I bought Robin Mask, who is if one of my favorites from the KNM series.



The package includes on strap that features the attached character's name on it. The figure is a re-issue Kinkeshi with a full paint apps and a hook drilled into it for the strap loop. The cool thing about these releases is the addition of a bonus figure. These "mystery" figures were unknown at the time of purchased incased in a small box inside the sealed package. The bonus figures were original colors of re-issued first generation sculpts. There were premium chase gold versions also included. I got a clear purple Mongol Man figure in my pack. Which was cool as I am also a Ramen Man fan.



These sets were not produced in great numbers, and don't show up for sale a lot. When they do surface, they are luckily not too expensive.

Battle Beasts: Hasbro Prototypes

When I first saw the character art that adorned the Japanese Beastformers cards and the collectors poster (by mail away or included with the Burstsun Special set) I wondered why some of the art was so drastically different than the toys. Why was Minor Mole orange and black? He already had two other versions released, what's the deal with this drawing? Just an artist's mistake? Nope, it turns out it was in fact the original Hasbro color design for that character. And he wasn't the only one who would get changed before the toy was released. Thanks to a Toy Fair catalog I found a great 2 page spread showing the entire figure assortment of the Battle Beasts in their earliest form. Sadly, only 5 were really any different, and one of those, Cobrander was just a minor color highlight. But four were very different, and quite cool.



First up, Miner Mole, who seems to carry the most drastic change. Not only is his fur black where it is now purple, but here he has orange armor, which is nothing at all like the black and purple his toy featured. The Mole is my favorite of these proto-beasts. Next is Tanglin' Pangolin who is kind of a boring one. His armor was changed from the early black to that awful peach the toy has. And his skin was really darkened up. Maybe sporting the simplest change, we have Torrential Tapir. Instead of being white skinned, the original had him with a black skin color. Either way I think he looks cool. This version would have made a cooler villain choice. Pew-trid Skunk rounds out the the batch with a very interesting switch. His colors were reversed before production. I like the prototype much better the the final toy.