259 replies to this topic

[Jabroniville]

 

#13: GARGANTUAN GORILLA

Japanese Name: Bunga

Animal Basis:

 

 

This one's not particularly tricky to figure out, obviously. Very little shenanigans here- he's one of the types of Gorilla.

 

-Mankind has long been fascinated with one of their closest relatives, the largest of the Apes and Primates. Gorillas were legendary for their strength and ferocity, though the latter was played up over the years to satisfy gawkers and because there weren't many zoologists back in the day, and most of the time they're rather peaceful. The Silverbacks are prone to aggression when they feel threatened, however, challenging with chest-slaps (with cupped hands, not beating fists like in popular legend- they're strong enough to cause serious damage by punching themselves), false charges, growls and more until they finally lash out.

 

-Their strength is crazy, though it's never been properly tested, as they're mostly gentle and hard to truly enrage, and they're more trouble to get to the gym than a pack of 4chan posters. Needless to say, they could easily tear the limbs off of a human being, and no animal in the jungle would mess with a big male Silverback. Even the females are about twice as heavy as they look, being comprised of sheer muscle. And those TEETH. It's a good thing they're not normally violent (unlike the Chimps, who as I've stated are bastards)- escaped Gorillas in zoos tend to only leave a handful of bites on people, or rought them up a bit.

 

Toy Description: The Gorilla is one of the earliest Beasts in the line, and has one of the most eye-popping looks, being black with sharp red armor. He has a very detailed face with an evocative expression- pronounced brow ridges, an indent above the nose, a large flared "gorilla nose", and a broad, expressionless mouth. His whole face is within a "mask" that is a dark grey, instead of the black used for the rest of him. He even sports a sagittal crest- the high point at the top of the head that anchors the huge jaw muscles male gorillas need for chewing on rough vegetation all day long. 

 

The gorilla is as beefy as his namesake, with very long arms, reaching past his knees. He has "muscle" indents on all of his limbs, and even his torso, indicating strength. His feet are completely flat, like a lot of early Beasts, and the copywrite info is printed across his back. Mine has a "B" printed on the back of his right boot. My orange one does too, I think (it's harder to see).

 

Colors: Four- his body is black, and his armor is red. His face mask is dark grey, and his eyes and secondary colors are yellow.

Armor: A very traditional, typical Beast armor- it's a one-piece, connected at the torso & codpiece. Very blocky and square armor, it has two big rectangular "vents" next to the Chest Symbol in the center, each vent with two rectangular holes. The codpiece has a little yellow trapezoid on the front. The front of the codpiece sticks out quite a ways, and there are little "fins" on the sides. The back of the armor is quite smoothed out and rounded off, with some raised lines on the sides, and tiny vents on the bottom. A pronounced circle and rectangle are the sole large details, aside from the copywrite info (most early Beasts have this info on the back, not the boot), and a pronounced "13".

 

Contrasting the armor, the shoulder-pads are very rounded, being fitted to the shoulders and barely sticking out. They have "rims" going around them, paired cirlces on each side, and short "fins" that project outwards a bit on top. The wrist guards are very long and squared, but have two raised bits and an indent on each side, and trapezoidal shapes projecting out as "fins", with the wide ends aiming towards the shoulders. The boots are VERY broad, with large projected kneepads with little upside-down "L"-shapes on them, and lots of little raised bits on the outskirts. Oddly, the backs of the boots appear to be fitting on top of the more tight-fitting front parts.

 

The gorilla also has a small headpiece, with circular ear-protectors being connected by a strap going around the back of his head, and triangles pointing towards his mouth.

 

Weapon: A very long, bronze polearm, with a long haft ending in a large, spade-shaped blade. It's very asymmetrical, with a very large, curved end sticking down past where the hand grips it, while the other end just has a tiny "swoop" upwards, while the whole thing comes to a point. There are three little divot lines on each side. A big "13" is on one end.

 

Hands & Feet: Big "mitten" hands with thumbnails and some kind of indent along the fingertips, resembling one large nail. Five-toed feet (with a sorta-thumb that's shorter than the other four toes on the inside), ending in a longer heel.

Easily-Broken Bits: None, though there is almost ALWAYS weathering on the tiny layer of paint on the facemask.

Had it as a Kid: Nope- though oddly, I had his weapon. Because I never owned him, this early-release Beast remains one of the more eye-catching ones to me.

Variants: One of the most pronounced in the entire line, there is a variant that's actually made of ORANGE PLASTIC, and has all of the black skin painted on (this becomes obvious looking at the feet, which typically aren't painted as carefully and have black covering parts of the armor). This orange armor comes with a much darker yellow Secondary Color. Like the Tortoise, this orange plastic is much more rubbery and mobile than the other colors.

 

Overall Score: 8.5/10 (maybe because I never owned him as a kid, but I always found him to be really cool-looking)

 

 

[Exactobeast]

Bunga Bunga

[Jabroniville]

Wow, only two Beasts left. Only took me two years to finish this, LOL. Though a lot of that is a month here or there where I just plain forgot to post anything. Hope I didn't disappoint anyone by keeping them waiting !

 

Once I'm done all 76, I'll probably do the first 12 Laser Beasts (ie. the affordable ones), and some notes on the remainder.

[Bratwurst]

Wow, only two Beasts left. Only took me two years to finish this, LOL. Though a lot of that is a month here or there where I just plain forgot to post anything. Hope I didn't disappoint anyone by keeping them waiting !

 

Once I'm done all 76, I'll probably do the first 12 Laser Beasts (ie. the affordable ones), and some notes on the remainder.

 

Running out already?

 

Please do cover the Laser Beasts.

[Jabroniville]

 

#42: MINER MOLE

Japanese Name: Undergroun

Animal Basis:

 

 

Miner Mole's species is pretty obvious, though the exact species is unclear. Moles are part of the Order Eulipotyphla (ugh, what?), formerly known as "Insectivora"- a "wastebasket taxon" (basically "these things are all sorta related, so now they're an Order", because scientific classification isn't really something that reflects NATURE- it just makes things easier for us to categorize). They are related to shrews and stuff, though many think they're rodents. Famously burrowing mammals, moles are quite small and proper diggers.

 

A few random facts (since I'm only researching them just now): Mole saliva can paralyze earthworms (their primary prey), and they've been known to store them in "larders" for months (over a THOUSAND earthworms have been discovered in a single larder!). They can handle more carbon dioxide that most animals. They have an "extra thumb"- a bone spur that develops alongside their natural thumb. Many animals called "moles" (because they're small and burrow) are more closely related to tenrecs, and are thus more close to manatees than they are "true moles"- the Talpidae family. The Star-Nosed Mole, a North American species, can find and eat food faster than the human eye can follow.

 

Toy Description: Miner Mole is a pretty neat little Beast, with some interesting gear and bits that make his species pretty clear from just one look- the light on his forehead and the goggles instantly evoke a "miner" aspect, and since Moles are by far the most famous animal for burrowing, you can extrapolate it pretty quickly. His head is really big and round, with a tiny lil' nose sprouting out- it's quite long and narrow, ending in two nostiles and a little slit of a mouth in a semi-frown. That and the goggles gives him a very serious expression.

 

One of the very few light purple Beasts, the Mole isn't terribly eye-catching in a large group, since both his armor and skin are variations of purple- there's not as much of a "clash" as other creatures, despite his complexity as a figure. To me, I often undervalued him because of his simple coloring, but he's really one of the most detailed guys in the entire line, and one of the more distinctive.

 

His copywrite information is on his feet, and the left one has a peg-hook. Oddly, there's a "42" emblazoned on the back of his head. Not many of these guys still have NUMBERS printed on them!

 

Colors: Four. His skin is light purple, and his armor dark purple. The lights on his chest and his goggles are a light blue/green. The light on his head is yellow.

Armor: His armor is quite traditional as a two-piece, and is very boxy, with TONS of lines and circuitry bits all over it- there are raised boxes and stuff everywhere. The Chest Symbols is surrounded by two raised circular lights (light blue/green), and his backpack is a very large "rolling pin" shape on top of a lined box of sorts. His shoulders are very boxy and two-tiered, with a line going around them. His wrist guards are also boxy, but with indented corners and raised edges on top and bottom. 

 

The codpiece features a very large, rectangular box with a full circuitboard inside, and its braced by two raised cylinders. The back of it is much more plain, with almost no detail save an empty "box" with the letter on it (my purple one has a "C"; my black one has an "A"). A few raised rectangles surround it. The boots are very large, multi-tiered and angular, with a lot of boxes and raised bits on them- almost every piece has one or two extra pieces attached, with lines or boxes drawn in them. 

 

His hand is a very large clamp, built like his wrist guard but with two identical, smooth clamp arms coming to a point, with the tip of one of them extending further out. Both sides of the clamp have a raised hemisphere as a "joint".

 

Unusually, the Mole has goggles- two tiny cylinders over his eyes, with bisected lenses. On the top of his nose, there's a small mechanical bit, leading to the large head lamp- a big flashlight thing that extends up to the top of his head.

 

Weapon: A long, bronze polearm with a very odd shape. It's kind of... wedge-like? Like a big paddle. One half of it is a very angular "spearhead" shape, while the other half almost mimics it, but features a part cut out, with a small cylinder sticking down and connecting the solid part to the base of the spearhead. It bottoms out with a point.

 

Hands & Feet: A three-fingered hand, complete with large nails (more like lines etched in around the tips and down the hand to resemble a big mitten with lines on it), and a large, mechanical clamp on the other. Three-toed feet with detailed toenails, and a "toe"-heel in the back.

Easily-Broken Bits: None.

Had it as a Kid: Yep, though he's missing one arm.

Variants: One of the most pronounced in the entire line- the alternative Miner Mole has the same skin color, but has BLACK ARMOR, giving him a much more eye-popping appearance. Black is a very underused color, especially for armor, and typically doesn't show up this dark. His goggles and chest-lights are the same light blue/green as the original design, but his headlight is now a very dark (because its printed on black) red. Next to the blue Jaded Jag, this is the most different-looking Variant in the entire line.

 

Overall Score: 8/10 (he'd be higher with different coloring, really)

Edited by Jabroniville, 03 January 2019 - 11:51 PM.

[Jabroniville]

 

#42: ICKY IGUANA

Japanese Name: Iguanamonss

Animal Basis:

 

 

The Iguana is pretty obvious, though they do a good job making it look like the creature. There's the crest, the scales, the dewlap under the chin... it even kind of has those cheek-pouch thingies (to use the scientific term)! Even though he's yellow, you can tell it's an iguana. 

 

Iguanas are made up of two species of large, Central American lizards- very long (up to six feet!) and herbivorous, they look scary, but are of no danger to people. Strong swimmers, they can "island hop" to better food, and make good "Zoo Animals", given that they're impressive-looking and easily-kept. Their jaws are much stronger than those of most lizards, owing to the fact that they have to crush vegetation.

 

Toy Description: Ickey Iguana is a good-sized, flashy Beast- the only yellow & orange one in the line. This makes him a stand-out creature, as none of the others are quite so bright. Hell, you don't see a lot of orange ANYTHING in this line! Solidly-built, he's covered in scales, and has one of the most detailed, unique faces in the line- he looks really cool.

 

He has circular/oval-shaped mottled scales all over his arms and legs, though oddly the upper ones are larger, giving them a very impressive look. The backs of his legs have the largest, but you wouldn't often look there. He also has scales all over his head, but they're in different shapes depending on where they are located- the underside of his face has a checkerboard pattern of them. The top of his head has a VERY slight form of rectangular scales (they're rather hard to see). The bridge of his nose (between his eyes) is three large, rectangular scales- two smaller ones beside a VERY large central rectangle, ending in his eyebrow ridges. His lips have some small detailing with straight-edged scales as well, but his nostrils are on a flatter plane. 

 

The iguana's distinctive cheek scales, caleld "sub-tympanic shields", are very simple raised circles, with an odd long, thin "scale" going back, ending in a smaller scale at the tip. Actually, looking closely at it, it looks like these bits were supposed to be MECHANICAL, and were perhaps left in due to looking weird when colored. Because none of the other scales look remotely like this- they're very straight and elongated.

 

His head has a crest with four scales- a large two-pronged one is preceded by a bump on the front of the crest (some small details are etched in between the prongs), two large ones swoop down, and a fourth ends in the armor.

 

He has copywrite information on his feet, and a peg-hole in the left foot. The right boot has a "B" on the back of it, and there's a "29" on the back right of his armor.

 

Colors: Three- tied for smallest amount in the line. His skin is bright yellow, and his armor is a bright orange. His eyes and secondary colors are red.

Armor: A very angular set of one-piece armor, with some interesting bits here or there. The upper part of his armor angles downwards towards the codpiece, with some nice details around his Chest Symbol (which sits a bit low), and red "headlights" are on each side. Above them are some boxy shapes, then larger boxes by the shoulders. His "backpack" is a rather large set-up with a vent running alongside the bottom of it, with the aforementioned "29" written on it (not a lot of Beasts have the number written on them like that). The codpiece is quite boxy, with a large red "vented box" on the crotch, and not a lot of detail on it. The back of it is somewhat interesting, as there's a "dip" in the middle, and it's bisected by a big, deep line.

 

The shoulder pads are very distinctive- rather small, they are triangular in shape, and have four spikes, reflecting the shape of his crest. The front and back both have large half-spheres with three rimmed holes etched onto them, and a pointy bit directed towards the corner of the pad, emphasizing their triangular nature. The wrist guards are very round, with large ovals with stuff etched into the centers on all four sides. The boots are VERY large and boxy, with bits jutting out at the knees. The fronts are rather non-detailed, and the sides are COMPLETELY blank, but there's a lot going on in the corners between them- little circles (like on the shoulder pads), lines, etc.

 

Weapon: A large, crooked golden sword, with edges on the cutting side resembling his crest spikes, and a single point in the middle of the other side. The hilt is rather plain and un-detailed (but for a "tip" and two ridges running around the hilt), but the "guard" is an oddly-organic, rounded plate with a flat circle put on the side. A big line runs down the middle of the blade, moving with the edges.

 

Hands & Feet: Four-fingered hands with nails on all four fingers and the thumb. Four-toed feet with toenails, and a slightly-extended heel in the back.

Easily-Broken Bits: None.

Had it as a Kid: Yep, with missing arms, too.

Variants: None known.

 

Overall Score: 8/10 (One of the most-detailed guys around.)

[ZebraLegion]

Is that all 76?!

 

Seems like there should be some fanfare, but it's probably a lot like when you finally finish collecting all 76 beasts.  Just left wondering what to do next...

 

Thank you for this great thread and congrats!!

[Jabroniville]

Yep, that's ALL SEVENTY-SIX!!!!

I'm VERY happy to be done this after all this time- October 2016 is when I started, so that's about two years and three months. A VERY long time for a continuous thread, but I stopped and started a lot there .

In fact, I'd probably have been done sooner, but various things kept happening- my computer was down for three weeks in 2017 and that stalled a lot of my projects. I would also periodically forget to check the site or upload anything (I was, in fact, finished writing about 50+ guys BEFORE I started this thread!), because after my first flurry of posts and finding stuff out... I found a lack of stuff being updated, so stopped checking. It stands to reason, I guess, that people would have finished talking about "New Beast Stuff" eons ago, but since I'd JUST found this forum, I was a bit disappointed, lol.

 

So yeah, if I go back, I often see 2-3 posts per day... and then I go blank for a month or two .

It's still funny to me just how long it took me to find this forum- I used to search for "Beasts Stuff" YEARS ago (before LRG), but periodic checking, like when I started using eBay and looking at that one site that listed all the Beasts, failed to produce this place. That's too bad, I guess- it seems like there were more active posters years ago.

 

I'm not 100% finished, of course- I own the first twelve Laser Beasts, and can at least make notes on the other bunch of them that were made.

 

Thank you for this great thread and congrats!!

Thanks, ZebraLegion! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading up till this point!

And thanks to everyone else here for their notes! Seeing nobody respond to a post at times was discouraging and made me go "am I just wasting my time here?", so everyone who DID comment has my gratitude!

[Exactobeast]

Awesome job! Fantastic addition to the site!

[Jabroniville]

 

So I made an attempt at keeping track of all the Beasts' colors, types and stuff like that. Of course I made some mistakes and probably didn't count things once or twice (I somehow have *77* classes and 75 "Animal Types", but it's pretty close.

 

COLORS: Tan 5, Light Brown 12, Dark Brown 5, Yellow 6, Grey 11, Blue 3, Green 2, Purple 4, White 13, Pink 4, Black 4, Orange 1, Turquoise 1, Red/Brown 3, Orange/Red 1, Red 2, Black & White 1

ARMOR COLORS: Light Green 8, Dark Green 3, Light Blue 8, Dark Blue 16, Purple 6, Light Brown 1, Dark Brown 4, Red 6, Grey 4, White 2, Orange 5, Black 3, Yellow 5, Pink 2, Peach 1, Turquoise 2, Light Blue/Green 1, Dark Blue/Green 2

TYPES: Natural Colors 46, Non-Standard Colors 16, Bizarre Colors 13

VARIANTS: 13 (Squirrel, Walrus, Shark, Mouse, Weasel, Bison, Porcupine, Tortoise, Rhino, Crab, Carp, Jaguar, Gorilla)

WEIRD HANDS: 28 (Walrus, Tarsier, Duck, Frog, Raccoon, Platypus, Mouse, Elephant, Giraffe, Aardvark, Bat, Spider, Weasel, Snake, Cobra, Kangaroo, Deer, Zebra, Tapir, Pangolin, Orangutan, Anteater, Tortoise, Octopus, Rhino, Crab, Sloth, Cuttlefish, Mole)

NUMBER OF COLORS: Three (41), Four (29), Five (6) (Five: Raccoon, Owl, Mandrill, Pointer, Beaver, Penguin)

ANIMAL TYPES: Rodent 4, Dogs 4, Cats 5, Marsupials 2, Birds of Prey 2, Owls 1, Waterfowl 2, Fowl 1, Pinnipeds 1, Large Herbivores 5, Bovines 6, Camels 1, Pigs 2, Apes 3, Prosimians 1, Sharks 1, Predatory Fish 1, Amphibians 1, Raccoons 1, Bears 3, Monotremes 1, Corvids 1, Bats 1, Xenarthra 5, Cervids 2, Arachnids 1, Mustelids 2, Horses 2, Snakes 2, Lizards 3, Rabbits 1, Seahorses 1, Crocodilians 1, Terrapins 1, Cephalopods 2, Shellfish 1, Penguins 1, Moles 1

ORDERS: Rodentia 4, Carnivora 16, Marsupiala 2, Birds of Prey 2, Owls 1, Waterfowl 2, Fowl 1, Corvids 1, Ungulates 18, Primata 4, Sharks 1, Amphibians 1, Monotremes 1, Xenartha 5, Bats 1, Arachnia 1, Snakes 2, Lizards 3, Rabbits 1, Seahorses 1, Crocodilians 1, Terrapins 1, Cephalopods 2, Shellfish 1, Carp 1, Waterbirds 1, Insectivora 1

CLASSES: Mammals 54, Birds 8, Fish 3, Amphibians 1, Arthropods 2, Reptiles 7, Cephalopods 2

 

Interestingly, blue is BY FAR the most commonly-seen armor, with 24 Beasts in total, with Turquoise and Blue/Green in general adding five more. More than twenty Beasts are one shade of brown or another, with there also being a lot of grey and white ones. 28 Beasts, just under half the line, have "Weird Hands" (though I include the Octopus in that). A slight majority of Beasts are only three-colored, while only SIX are five-colored- a true rarity given to some odd choices, like the Beaver & Pointer). I counted 13 "official" Variants (though I don't count "sometimes they're different shades of the same color" ones). Most of the Beasts use natural-ish colors (46), sixteen use non-standard (ie. not outlandish, but unseen for that particular animal) colors, and 13 are truly bizarre- stuff like the blue Horse or purple Mole. 

 

As for animal types, Cats, Xenarthra (a large group including armadillos, sloths, aardvarks and pangolins), Bovines and Ungulates as a whole are very well-represented. Only a small handful of fish, arthropods, and even REPTILES are seen- seven reptiles in the whole roster of 76! Kind of unexpected, but then... reptiles don't differ from each other's body plans as much as most mammals do. 

[Jabroniville]

LASER BEASTS:

 

Learning about these guys was one of my "wa-HUH?" moments as a 20-something on the internet in the late '90s or so. As I was a really huge fan of the Battle Beasts, and the only one I knew, I randomly searched for them online, and found one of those websites that listed all of the figures. "Wow- a Gorilla!" I thought. Seeing plenty of new Beasts I hadn't owned (Crow, Black Panther, Penguin, etc.), and some ones I'd seen but didn't own (Pointer, Flamingo) was an incredible, informative experience. But the biggest eye opener was... LASER Beasts?

 

Yeah, I had no idea these things ever existed. Growing up in Western Canada, they were absolutely not a thing. So seeing THESE weird things was a truly bizarre eye-opener. Some of them look incredibly cool. Others... a little lame. The body plan is largely similar to the Battle Beasts, and the detail MUCH better in terms of animal faces and bodies, but most of the same visual "tells" are there. Alas, their rarity means they were MUCH too expensive for me to collect in any kind of a regular way- only when I finished collecting my Battle Beasts did I even bother. And even then... I only grabbed the "first twelve" that hit American shores. Those were usually $12-30, in the wild and online. The other ones are RIDICULOUSLY expensive- $100 is what I paid for the 12-inch KRANG figure from the TMNT line- nothing two inches tall is going to be worth that. 

 

I was, at least, able to gather the first twelve. Most of them are pretty cool, anyways. One I found at a Comic Expo in town. Another couple I grabbed from the local Antique Mall (interestingly, they had cracked marbles in their chests. I have NO idea how you'd break just that one part, but I think it makes them look kinda cool). I found a Shool IN THE WILD, of all places, in a toy shop in Japan- the only place where I saw any Beasts at all (in Nakano Broadway- a very long, multi-tiered mall). The rest I got on eBay. The prices varied- anybody who knew what they were selling charged about $30 Canadian for them. The one in Japan was oddly the cheapest- barely $12 or something. The rest of the line... I can live without. I can't even justify splurging for the excellent Green Mountain repros.

 

Some of them are REALLY cool and very well-detailed. Others are just plain ugly (the Wolf and one of the monkeys look really bad to me).

 

The Rules:

Like the Battle Beasts, the Laser Beasts have a pretty similar body plan.

 

* Laser Beasts are anthropomorphic, two-legged, two-armed creatures wearing suits of armor- a torso covering, shoulder-pads, wrist-guards, and boots. They have odd numbers of fingers and toes- some just have "Mitten" hands, too. Unlike the Battle Beasts, the legs are often COMPLETELY covered by the boots.

 

* Laser Beasts have a centrally-located marble in their torso- unlike Battle Beasts (who sometimes had left or right-aligned Chest Symbols), it's always in the same spot, given how huge the marble is. The marbles carry on the Fire, Wood, or Water theme of the BBs, though you have to hold it up to the light, at which point a tiny projection will reveal the symbol. You can see a super itty-bitty image on the rear sight- a tiny pinhole exists on the rear of the Beast for the light to get through.

 

* The colors are usually more elaborate than those of the Battle Beasts- many of the ones I own feature FIVE colors, which was a true rarity with BBs. Unlike Battle Beasts, the armor is often (but not always) monochromatic. The body is usually the same, though the head or wings often feature different colors. The armor tends to be much less elaborate than those of the BBs- entire swaths of it will be completely smooth, and the marble taking up so much room blocks the chance for much detail on the front. Kind of a pity for those hoping for great armor details, but the Beasts themselves are much more elaborate.

 

* There are 36 Laser Beasts in total, with 12 being very rare, and 12 being Japan-exclusive. The choices for animals are a bit odd- certainly not following the "rules" the Battle Beasts did. While you see many mammals and reptiles on display, this one features way more arthropods than the BBs had- including two flying insects! The BBs only had a single extinct animal- the Saber Sword Tiger- while this one features an actual T-REX and a flying reptile as well. There is even a FANTASY CREATURE here- a Dragon! 

 

* In some odd cases, animals are duplicated. The Laser Beasts sport a Lion, Tiger, Mole, Alligator, Mouse, Rhino and Bear, just like the original line- in many cases, not being that much different. At other times, you'll see a very similar creature to a Battle Beast, but a bit different, such as the new Chameleon and Owl. Various new kinds of primate, cats, cervids and other creatures are seen as well. Some famous absentees from the Battle Beasts are finally seen- we get a Wolf, some insects, and some whales. 

 

* Every Laser Beast comes with his own unique weapon. Most are the same color- a metallic grey. The last twelve are bronze/gold. Unusually, these weapons are exclusively big, long GUNS, each with a shape evoking the Beast itself. 

 

* Their peg hooks are on the left boot's underside, just like the Battle Beasts, but their Beast # is located there as well, as well as a letter for the production line (my Mole has "80 D" there, for example). The copywrite information is on the other boot.

Edited by Jabroniville, 25 January 2019 - 01:49 AM.

[ZebraLegion]

I'm happy this thread is continuing!

 

I'm with you.  I had never heard of Laser Beasts when I was a kid.  I wasn't until two years ago or so when I started recollecting.  I found a full list of all 76 plus the Lasers and I immediately sent pictures to my brothers because it was like a whole world opened up again. I always loved my BB, but never even thought to research them.  I assumed my brothers and I had a full set.  There were several regular battle beasts I had never seen before either.  Zebra, Crow, Hawk, Jaguar, Panther, Pig, and Mandrill (That one looked the strangest to me).

 

I snagged two laser beasts in a large lot when I first started and immediately sold them to help complete my 1-76.  I'm regretting that now.  I don't currently have any, but I plan to at least get the first 12. I have to say, they just don't look right to my eyes.  Some are really cool, but I have no desire to spend serious money on figures I don't love.

Edited by ZebraLegion, 23 January 2019 - 05:26 AM.

[Beastformers]

Great read as always and good to see you´re continuing with the Laser Beasts. Looks like we all had a similar experience with them because also for me they´re completely alien and a complete surprise once discovered. And until I actually got one in hand I always felt they´re weird and didn´t belong to the BB line because for some reason seeing them alone on pictures they feel bigger in some way, probably due to the size of the orb. The moment I did get my first one in hand though I was hooked and there´s no doubt they belonged to the BB line and with that they also should be added here, so 36 more to go because you obviously can´t stop after only the first 12

 

 

 

* There are 36 Laser Beasts in total, with 24 being Japan-exclusive. The choices for animals are a bit odd- certainly not following the "rules" the Battle Beasts did. While you see many mammals and reptiles on display, this one features way more arthropods than the BBs had- including two flying insects! The BBs only had a single extinct animal- the Saber Sword Tiger- while this one features an actual T-REX and a flying reptile as well. There is even a FANTASY CREATURE here- a Dragon! 

 

 

For the record ONLY the final 12, so called high end LB, were Japanese exclusives.

[Jabroniville]

Great read as always and good to see you´re continuing with the Laser Beasts. Looks like we all had a similar experience with them because also for me they´re completely alien and a complete surprise once discovered. And until I actually got one in hand I always felt they´re weird and didn´t belong to the BB line because for some reason seeing them alone on pictures they feel bigger in some way, probably due to the size of the orb. The moment I did get my first one in hand though I was hooked and there´s no doubt they belonged to the BB line and with that they also should be added here, so 36 more to go because you obviously can´t stop after only the first 12

 

 

For the record ONLY the final 12, so called high end LB, were Japanese exclusives.

Wait, really? Where did the middle twelve get delivered, then? They're still a freakin' fortune by my standards, lol!
 

[Beastformers]

Wait, really? Where did the middle twelve get delivered, then? They're still a freakin' fortune by my standards, lol!
 

 

Yep, sorry.

The Mid 12 LB where available in Japan but also in some EU countries (6 of them even got EU EXCLUSIVE Shields which were NOT available in Japan) and there might even have been a very local release of them in the US although that´s unconfirmed and it´s based on packed LB which also might´ve been a test packaging for a possible release in the US (which obviously never happened on a large scale).

 

Price wise the Mid 12 LB are relatively less pricey in comparison to the 12 High end LB simply because those were indeed ONLY available in Japan.

[Jabroniville]

 

#79: SAILON:

Animal Basis:

 

 

Sailon is likely either a Javan or an Indian Rhinoceros, as indicated by his single horn. It's kind of... ugly, though. it ain't pointed the same way as a real rhino's horn. The Indian Rhino is often called the Greater One-Horned Rhino now, which confuses me because for my entire life I've known it by the other name, but zookeepers are all acting like it's the name they've always had. Super-annoying. They're big animals- about as big as Black Rhinos (which the Battle Beast Rhino is), and a super-herbivore of Asia, where they can routinely fend off adult tigers. They're notable for the exceptional amount of interlocking armor they have (a trait shared with the much smaller, island-based Javan Rhinos), which was very delicately depicted in woodcut by artist Albrecht Dürer in the 1500s, based off of another persons's sketches- this image became the iconic representation of rhinos (it was unknown in Europe until then), despite having a "phone game" style amount of inaccuracy (a sholder-spike, for example) that happens when you draw someone else's drawing and get stuff wrong.

 

Toy Description: Sailon is... not that well-liked as a Laser Beast, from what I've seen. I mean, he's OKAY, but he's controversial, since he basically just copies the Rhino from earlier in the line, and is short on deatils. He's just so PLAIN- a regular grey rhino when the line already had one was unnecessary, especially since the LBs are pricier. He's actually a bit shorter than the other Rhino, having a robust body but a non-existant neck, making him look more squat and rotund. 

 

Despite probably being an Indian Rhino, he has none of their distinctive armor- his limbs are just plain and lack detail. His face is at least detailed, with a pronounced frown, a pointy lip, little dots for nostrils, some wrinkles around his anatomical features, and pointy ears (way smaller than the other Rhino's). His horn, however, is quite unimpressive- just a lil' blunt-ended nub that points almost straight out, rather than the impressive double-horn of the other Rhino. 

 

The fact that he's so round and squat makes him somewhat unimpressive, only made worse by his relatively monochromatic look. His armor has some of the least detail in the line. All in all, he's actually not even as good as his counterpart in the Battle Beasts. Kind of a waste.

 

His copywrite information is on the right foot, and "79A" is on the left of mine, along with a peghook. I'm not sure why his name is "Sailon", but if I had to guess... it's possibly that it's the Anglicization of the Japanese way you'd say "Ceron", as in the "Ceros" of Rhinoceros. Like, to a Japanese speaker, you'd say it like "SAY-rlon", and somebody who write it as "Sailon" because of that. That's my best guess.

 

Colors: Three- he has light grey skin (lighter than the BB Rhino), dark blue armor, and dark orange eyes & secondary colors (lights on his armor)

Armor: A big, solid one-piece armor, very plain up front, with two large orange trapezoidal shapes surrounding his Chest Symbol. Up his shoulders are two raised lines that go back to reach his very flat back, which has two raised bits with some "buttons" on them. The codpiece part is very simple, with some small lines here and there. His shoulder-pads are very square, with almost no detail on top, though the front & back have rounded bits with two "ledges" going around the sides. His wrist-guards are similarly "tiered", ending with projections over the backs of the hands. His boots are very rounded nad "tiered" in the same way, with very rounded kneepads and "sockets" on the sides. His boots are quite pointy, and cover his entire feet.

 

Weapon: A metallic-grey gun with a small rhino horn on top. The rear part (ugh I don't know gun terms so you'll have to bear with me on all of these) is a good depiction of a robotic rhino head. Good details, a nice horn (it has an edge around it and some line-depressions to give it some shape), and lots of little "holes in the plastic" details to give it some character. I like how these three metal plates surround a depression that marks the "eye".

Hands & Feet: Mitten hands, oddly "ribbed", sort of like his armor is, but more organically.

Easily-Broken Bits: That horn is so blunt that it's probably easy to get a wrecked one and not even notice.

 

Do I Have One?: Yep. Forget where I got it from (probably the Antique Mall close by). No weapon, though.

 

Overall Score: 6.5/10 (meh, he doesn't look BAD, but he's not very detailed and is noticeably not even as cool or as bad-ass as the BB Rhino is. A very sub-par "early LB" design)

Edited by Jabroniville, 25 January 2019 - 11:14 PM.

[Exactobeast]

Nope! Love those arms, though more because they give me a samurai feel!

[Jabroniville]

 

#81: TIGER BURN:

Animal Basis: 

 

Like Ferocious Tiger, the LB Tiger is one of many varieties of Tiger, already detailed earlier.

 

Toy Description: Tiger Burn is a somewhat forgotten Laser Beast, being just a duplicate animal like Sailon & Brain Mouse. He lacks a lot of details that other cat Beasts have, but you can still tell he's a tiger by the yellow coloring and the stripes. He is physically MUCH larger and robust compared to the BB Tiger, which is rather short and large-headed. This guy's head is fairly small, making his body look bigger, and it's added to by some HUGE shoulder pads.

 

Like Sailon, he has a pretty simple color scheme and his armor isn't very detailed. Moreover, he's rather plain- just a yellow guy with blue/grey armor and some pink highlights. He doesn't really "pop" or stand out particularly well. A lack of stripes on his body is a disappointment, too- these guys really don't have much TO them in some ways. Despite that, he cuts a somewhat impressive figure because of his size and those tremendous shoulder-pads.

 

His copywrite information is on the right foot, and "81B" is on the left of mine, along with a peghook. His head is pretty tiger-like (compared to the more kitty-like BB Tiger), being rounded and with tiny ears and a small muzzle. His front canines are bared in a snarl, and he even has "whisker holes" detailed on his snout. He sports some tiny stripes, as well- three tiny ones on each side of his forehead "helmet", and three thicker ones on each side of the back of his head. Unlike the BB Tiger, there are no stripes on his limbs.

 

Colors: Four- his skin is a bright yellow, and his armor a medium blue/grey shade. His armor highlights are a dark pink, and his eyes are red.

Armor: A big, solid one-piece armor, as is usual. Four bands surround his Chest Symbol, two blue bands with a lot of detail on the bottom, and two large pink things with some lines and vents on them up top. His back has a flat circle with some plain bits on the upper back, and the codpiece is pretty plain, with some lines on the sides, and a pink triangle on the crotch. His shoulders, though, have some SIGNIFICANT armor, with big trapezoidal pads with two "sockets" on the edges, and front & back having some kind of trapezoid detail as well. His wristguards are rather blocky. The boots are very organic, having a "sweeping" look to them (the lower legs swing back, with the feet sticking forward), round kneepads, and very long "raised" lines on the sides. The backs have some horizontal lines up top, and the toe-parts just stick forward in very simple shapes.

 

A long, flat piece of armor sits on the top of his head and is connected to the back by a thick wire- it features a tiny little pink triangle pointing towards his face. Two blocky shapes resembling "Radio Comms" or Greek Hoplite cheek guards are on the sides of his face.

 

Weapon: It... looks like a grey gun with some tiger stripes etched into the middle. A few details, but it's a pretty typical gun design otherwise- even including that sight thing at the tip.

Hands & Feet: Mitten hands with a single crease near the base of the fingers.

Easily-Broken Bits: Being dark colors painted on yellow, paint wear sticks out quite a lot on him.

 

Do I Have One?: Yep. Bought him at the local Antique Mall. Interestingly, the MARBLE somehow got cracked (no idea how you do that), with a tiny fracture in the bottom left corner, sending three cracks out at angles. It actually creates a cool "battle damage" look.

 

Overall Score: 7/10 (kind of like Sailon, he's not super incredible or that well-detailed, but he's physically robust and that stands out a bit)

Edited by Jabroniville, 02 February 2019 - 05:40 AM.

[Exactobeast]

Fun fact: if you were perhaps to remove the arms and then cut off the front facing shoulder detailing, you would have just enough space to slap on a series 1-3 rub

[Jabroniville]

A rub AND a marble? Now that's just crazy talk .

So, Shool is a centipede, right? He's the only animal that kind of vexes me. He's got tons of limbs, his "spikes" indicate centipede legs, and his antennae are EXACTLY where a centipede's are, but his whole look says "aquatic" to me. Underwater centipedes weren't discovered until 2016, so possibly it's just all in my head that he's aquatic.

Edited by Jabroniville, 05 February 2019 - 12:26 AM.

[Jabroniville]

 

#87: SHOOL

 

Animal Basis:

 

 

Okay, this is a tricky one. I mean, there's a lot of bugs out there. Looking at the unique traits of centipedes on Wikipedia, I'm calling it- he's a centipede.

 

Centipede traits I see here- a "segmented" body plan- his limbs and back indicate rounded segments. The little spikes on his arms, and legs on his sides, indicate "lots of limbs". He has a pair of antennae sticking round out from under his eyes, on the front part of his face- centipede traits. His butt even has the two "back spikes" of a centipede's butt (actually its rear legs, which point backwards), and his "Weird Limb" ends in what resembles the pincers of a centipede's front limbs.

 

One of the more oogy arthropods out there, centipedes are famously creepy to look at, sporting dozens of legs along a segmented body plan. Though called "hundred legs" scientifically, no known centipede has exactly 100 legs, because their number of pair is always an odd number- numbers range from 30 to 354. Their first appendages are modified into "pincers" (those are legs, not the mouth) that carry venom- a paralytic that can stun a creature as large as a mouse. Carnivorous for the most part, centipedes are terrestrial creatures, typically burrowing. Their range is extremely broad- even extending past the Arctic Circle. Lacking the waxy cuticle of insects and arachnids, they rapidly lose water, and thus require a moist habitat.

 

Centipede segments typically have one pair of legs each, at alternating lengths so that they don't collide with each other during rapid movement. The legs of most actually form during their moults- the American House Centipede hatches with only four pairs of legs, and in successive moults has 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, 15, 15 and 15 before it becomes an adult. Another clade, the Epimorphs, have all their segments from birth.

 

The largest centipedes are a foot long, and their diet includes rodents, frogs, lizards and even BATS- one type of centipede actually hangs from the ceilings of caves, awaiting passing bats during their nightly passage, at which point it will literally SNATCH ONE OUT OF MID-AIR, paralyze it, and devour it while its fellows simply pass by. Though the bites of large ones are painful and will sting for a while, they are unlikely to be fatal.

 

Centipedes either have no eyes or very simple eyes (no true vision- just "light" or "dark" settings), and detect vibrations or use their power of scent instead. They are not closely related to most arthropods, representing a subphylum (phylums are big enough that humans and fish are in the same one).

 

Toy Description: Shool has one of the most bizarre set-ups of Beasts in the entire line- only the Penguin and two Cephalopods really "stand out" to this extent- no other Beast has as many THINGS sticking off of them as this short, squat fellow. Shool (I don't know why he's called that) has very long, segmented arms that have little "legs" sticking off of them- each of the four segments is connected by a tiny circle at the joint, and has a big oval on the inside, and springs off a tiny grey bump, from which an orange leg springs, resembling a tiny, blunt spike. A final fifth segment is the hand on one side, and another grey segment on the other, mimicking the front limbs (the "pincer") of the centipede.

 

The "segments/limbs" thing is replicated all over his body. Four more segements are on his head & back, with a large one separating from the neck one and reaching down his back. the bottom two have very large "connectors" instead of the tiny circles of the arms. Three tiny sets of "legs" are buried beside his head, being covered by his antennae and armor (two additional, tiny legs sit just at the sides of his head), and three much larger sets of legs spring from his back armor and move up to his Chest Marble- these long, four-segmented limbs are much larger than the others. His armor even ends in two little spikes that mimic the centipede's rear-facing legs. His legs have three grey segments each, with spheres at the joint on both sides.

 

His head is very simple, and made up of two segments, split at the front. He has tiny green "slit" eyes, with extremely long antennae springing forth from under them, then craning around to the back, to the point where they stick up from the shoulders, ending in points. 

 

Ultimately, he's incredibly detailed and strange. No other Beast has arms this detailed, for example. And you will never find more PAINT detail on any other figure in the line- looking for tiny bits, I'm even more impressed- EVERY ONE of the legs is colored orange- even the tiny bits on the arms, and his butt-spikes. Keep in mind that the actual plastic is grey, so someone had to single out all of these bits and color them in. His arms being segmented results in long, curling arms instead of the simple "upper arm/giant gauntlet" look that nearly every other Beast has. In general, he's very "spikey"- his arms, the Weird Hand, the shoulder pads and even his antennae all spike out.

 

I was initially not THAT impressed with him- he's more detailed that impressive-looking at first glance- Zariganian or Blue Eagle, for example, look more impressive and cool. But just the observation of all these tiny details makes me far more impressed- this guy had to have been the biggest nuisance in the line to paint- nothing else even comes close.

 

An "87A" is on the left boot of mine, along with the peg-hook, and the other has his copywrite info.

 

Colors: Four. His "segmented" parts- his limbs and his back- are all a light grey. His head and all of his limbs are a bright orange- this extends to his arm "legs", his antennae, the legs on his sides and head, and butt-spikes. However, his boots are also orange, unlike his armor, which is a dark red. His eyes and a light on his head-armor is a dark torquoise color.

Armor: His armor is very minimal, in that its mostly covered by limbs. On the front, you can only see two bits of chest (with two "squares" on each) and a vented, blocky crotch. His back is just two rectangles at the shoulders, and two bulging bits beneath them that wrap around to the front. The Chest Marble is surrounded by the red ring, and the back ends in a simple circle with a vented triangle above it. His back ends with a projected bit that bulges downwards, ending in his butt-spikes.

 

There's a bit of mechanical stuff on his head- one of those "Forehead Bits" with a green triangle in it, and a wire projecting backwards- three segements and a block, and three more segments and a smaller, trapezoidal block that flattens out in to his second grey "back-segment". His shoulder-pads are very round "bulbs" with tiny circles with half-spheres stuck on them at the front, circles just below those, L-shaped "vents" on the sides, and plain circles and more L-vents on the back. The sides sprout very large "pincers"- the bottom, largest segment sprouting right from the armor itself with less segmenting, a small, blunt segment, and then a long pointing one, aiming towards the other point.

 

His boots are very unusual- large and organic, they sport rounded kneepads at the front, plain fronts, and two-segmented "toes"- four in all. Unusually, three swooping shapes are seen stacked up on both sides of each boot. The rear of the boots have cut-out vents.

 

Weapon: A fairly plain silver-grey gun that has a bunch of segments around the rear end, somewhat looking like Shool's.

Hands & Feet: His right hand is a simple "mitten" hand, while his right is an additional "grey segment" ending in two orange bumps, which lead to pointy pincers, resembling a centipede's mouth.

Easily-Broken Bits: There are a LOT of points on this guy, and almost all of them painted orange. Since he's a grey color initially, except a lot of paint wear all over.

 

Do I Have One?: Yep. Probably bought him off of eBay.

 

Overall Score: 8.5/10 (not that impressive at first glance, but probably the most detailed Beast ever)

Edited by Jabroniville, 15 February 2019 - 09:44 PM.

[Exactobeast]

Yeah! I love this guy!

[Jabroniville]

Like I said, I never QUITE appreciated him until I took a look at all the details in close. Him, the Bovine, and a few others have really impressed me with stuff I've never thought to notice before.

PS I checked my Zariganian, and HE'S the one I bought in Japan. I don't know where I bought Shool, now .

[Jabroniville]

 

#88: BRAIN MOUSE

 

Animal Basis: 

 

-He's a mouse, same as Powerhouse Mouse from the Battle Beasts. I mean, it's pretty clear and all.

 

Toy Description: Another Mouse in the line for some reason. Though he's not bad looking- the REALLY bright color scheme (he's basically neon YELLOW plastic, painted light grey for the skin) actually makes him pop quite well, and he's a nice figure overall. Cool armor, nice, unique colors (TWO secondary colors on the armor!), a Weird Hand, and more.

 

Brain Mouse is a fair bit less robust than Powerhouse Mouse, being about as tall, but slimmer and with an itty-bitty head by contrast. His face is quite similar, being long-muzzled with a nose, sneering green and two incisor teeth at the front, but his ears are a different shape- they're "Mickey Mouse round" and point straight forward. His tail is rather weird- unlike the BB Mouse, which had a REALLY long tail running down the back of one leg, this guy has a tail nearly reach the ground, but pointing diagonally backwards. It looks rodent-like, but fairly limp- it hangs funny.

 

It's a bit less neat to have ANOTHER copied animal with the LBs, but I really dig the colors- BRIGHT yellow, light grey, then pastel purple & dark turquoise? It's neat. He even has little green guns on him! The only downside is that his teeth aren't colored in. It'd only add a fifth color. He's also rather small compared to other Beasts.

 

There's an "88B" on mine's foot (along with a peg-hole), and copywrite information on the other.

 

Colors: Four. His body is a very light grey (painted on the yellow plastic), which his armor is a VERY bright, almost neon yellow- easily the brightest color in the entire line. His armor has two large pastel purple sections on it, and another secondary color is a dark turquoise- six "guns" on his torso, and his eyes.

Armor: The front of his armor is almost completely without detail on the yellow part- even the codpiece is plain. But it's made up for with these two large purple sections on the upper chest, with a pair of turquoise nozzles in each, looking like gun tips. Longer guns are hovering by his hips- a VERY strange addition for this line- here, they're little cones sticking out of tubes on his sides. His back is very detailed, featuring a little "backpack" in the middle and two large coil things beside them. His shoulder pads are narrow and somewhat plain, with three lines etched on the front and back, and "fins" sticking out from the edge, pointing upwards and having little dots on the side.

 

His wristguards are long and lack many details, but have a round bit on two sides, and long trapezoid bits on the other sides. His left arm ends in a very strange "electrical clamp" thing, with a circular bump at the end, and two assymetrical "claws" sticking out. One sticks in just a little bit more than the other. Both have three holes etched into the top and bottom. His boots have very circular kneepads (with "socket" shapes on the knees), and strange boots that have three lines etched on each side, and very long, flat feet. Unusually, there are two robotic-looking "toes" on the back of each boot.

Weapon: Haha, OMG! His gun is so cute! It's basically a regular gun with a flat relief sculpture of a mouse on it! Look at his little dot eyes and his big, round ears!

Hands & Feet: A very bland "mitten" hand, and a yellow clamp on the other.

Easily-Broken Bits: None, but being thick gray painted onto yellow, you're gonna have some prominent scratches if you wear off any paint. Mine misses some on the tip of his tail.

 

Do I Have One?: Yep- I forget where I got him, but I have one!

 

Overall Score: 8/10 (actually not bad, despite an unintimidating figure)

 

 

[Jabroniville]

Weird question: Is there a place where I can see what the backs of all the LBs look like? I use that STA "Toy Archive" site to look at the guns and the figures I don't have, but it only features frontal shots. The ones I own, I can check out just fine, but I only have the first 12.