Battle Beasts Special
Battle Beasts were created back in 1986 by Takara Japan, and originally envisioned as a Transformers spin-off, appearing in the Japanese series Transformers: The Headmasters. Originally they were also called Beastformers, the two opposing sides were even called Autobots & Decpticons.
The toys took the form of anthropomorphic animals adorning battle armour and specialised weaponry, most of the characters had a missing hand replaced by some kind of weapon. For example the imaginatively named Sledgehammer Elephant had a sledgehammer for a hand, whereas Blitzkrieg Bat had a hook.
Each character had a heat sensitive panel which would reveal a symbol representing either fire, water or wood. Which could be played in a game similar to rock, paper, scissors. Later a limited sunburst symbol was added which could beat all three.
The toy line really picked up though when it was licensed to Hasbro, who distributed it across America, as well as other parts of the world outside Japan. Hasbro also changed all the names of the characters, some were improvements, but many were unnecessary. For instance the previously mentioned Sledgehammer Elephant was originally just called Elephan, a much more otherworldly name you'll agree, whereas Blitzkrieg Bat had the considerably less cool sounding name of Devil Bat.
It was quite common in Eighties Britain for existing publications to bring out a Summer Special magazine which didn't necessarily tie-in with any ongoing story lines, it was also an ideal format for an extra bit of publicity for a toy line which didn't have an existing TV Show or comic series, such as Monsters in My Pocket or in this case Battle Beasts.
It's worth noting the cover price as well. While these specials were often more expensive than an issue of an ongoing series, they are still considerably cheaper than comics today. The 75p cover price when adjusted for inflation becomes £1.91, whereas most kids comics in Britain today tend to be around the £3.99 mark. More than double that of 1988.
The only advert in Battle Beasts Special No. 2 is for the Visionaries toy line, another of Hasbro's properties. Surprisingly though there isn't an ad for the Battle Beasts themselves.
Were you a fan of Battle Beasts? How many did you have? and who was your favourite? Let me know in the comments below
I had a few of these, they were cool but too small to interact with other toys and seem menacing. they were the size of pets for G.I. Joes
Too small for G.I. Joes sure... but they held their own in the three way wars I waged between them the Muscles, and the Guts.
I never had the guts toys...had a lot of Muscle things though. I think , in the mind of the child version of me, the monochromatic toys felt like they were in a different category/universe than the full color toys and should not mix. It was a different time. I was less enlightened...also the Muscle things couldn't move thier arms nor had weapons so it wasn't a fair fight.
In Britain we called them Muscle Men, we didn't have The Guts toys though.
I had several, I can't remember the exact number. It might have been six. (How many were there?) I loved them, I remember I got the first four for Christmas and went the day the stores opened to buy the rest. Come to think of it I probably had eight, because I think I bought four more, and that was all they had left in the store. I grew up in Norway, and I can't remember anyone else having them, maybe except my cousin.
I never saw the comic, though, but I would have been a fan back then for sure. Both the creative weaponry and the animal characters appealed well to my imagination. I'm not sure if I had any favourite, they were all awesome :D
Great post, it made me all nostalgic :) Thanks!
At my count there were 106 altogether released in four stages.
Wow, if I had known... :D I remember seeing some others than the ones I found in the store in some paper following the toys, but only a few, and they never became more than a dream to me. I guess the Norwegian market didn't take off.
I may need to track this comic down!
There was a recent modern revisiting of the Battle Beasts, I picked up a couple issues in a cheap comic bin and was later delighted when I discovered they had early artwork by one of my favorite artists, Valerio Schiti.
But for awesome nostalgia value the issue you're showing wins hands down! I had quite a few of the beasts, but sold them on eBay years ago. There was a fairly solid market for them to my surprise!
It's literally the only comic I still have from my childhood. While it is cool, I have no idea why I held on to it above all the others I had over the years. I might have to track down the IDW version though.