-BA- Beastformers Archeology Topic
Hasbro Pre Catalog 1988 -4.jpg 142.8K
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After the shoot at Hasbro, all the vehicles and lasers were thrown together randomly which is why the yellow buzzsaw ended up with the reefer on the card and not the beast shown in the magazine.
dabbuu 11 October 2007
It´s been a while since the last BA topic showed up but I guess that with the trigger above we´ve your interest again and that´s good because we´ve save the best for last!
So this will be the last topic within the 2nd Subject of the Beastformers Archeology project named Prototypes & Blueprints, in time maybe other topics will be added or expanded in case we might bump into new info or open up another interesting hidden chamber revealing Hasbro or Takara secrets related to this but for now enjoy the following amazing prototype items.
As always a big thanks goes out to our BA member Dabbuu for the pics and info provided!
What if.............. we could ever bump into an original prototype figure or item that was used for a shoot in the Hasbro/Takara catalogs which have been discussed earlier (-BA- Original Takara/Hasbro Catalogs from the late 80's). Those would be a real gem and a holy grail for most collectors but it also sounds like the most unreal find because how big is the chance finding one of these!? But by now, after looking into the other topics discussed by the BA team, it shouldn´t come as a real surprise that there is even some of those rare gems amongst us.
Let´s take a look at the that one page of the HASBRO Pre-Toyfair 1988 Catalog (US) shown above because if we look into that a bit deeper we´ll soon find out that everything pictured there looks like the figures and items we know but in the end they´re not. YELLOW shields, different paint colors, Shoeless (painted toes) variations and GREY weapons for ALL the Japanese Laser Beasts, OTHER colors of LB Chariots........ So these are all items which have definitely and solely been used for this shoot and never made it into production because as we all know, sadly enough, this was a Pre-Toyfair photoshoot for the Laser Beasts line which never came out in 1988.
Interestingly, the vehicle and beast are actually full production pieces with all the copyrights and so forth(I tried to show this in one of the photos but it didn't come out). Takara made all of these figures and vehicles specifically for the catalog and then shipped them off to Hasbro for the magazine. I am pretty sure that Hasbro later in production started making lasers 79-88 (although they also could have just been shipped from takara) but all these originals in the catalog are from Takara. This also means that these vehicles could possibly not be one of a kind but from my understanding that is very unlikely for various reasons.
dabbuu 11 October 2007
IF Takara did indeed send Hasbro full production pieces with all the copyrights on it, which is the case looking at the pics, its a little strange that almost all of the LB figs pictured for this particular Pre-Toyfair catalog are a little different than the ones we know. The Reefer and Skybat below do look pretty identical but their paint apps are a little darker and more exact than the figs we know. So based on that I dare to say that the casts for this photoshoot are indeed original full production pieces but the paint has been applied with much more care and by another painter (slightly other paint colors used) in order to make them suitable for the occasion, namely the promotion photoshoot. The reason why the Vehicles, original design by Hasbro, are presented in other colors can probably be traced back to the fact that Hasbro was responsible for their design. So what if Hasbro created these LB chariots as such and used them for their photoshoot in the Pre-Toyfair catalog but Takara gave their veto simply because the colors used (Yellow, Red, Blue) were not in line with the Water, Fire, Wood idea Takara has been expressing so far within this line!? Personally I´d say the reason for the colors is most likely embedded in this issue related to the colors matching the symbols which is why in the end the Beetle (Battle Savannah) turned out Green (Wood), the Buzzsaw became Blue (Water) and the Battle Eagle color was turned into Red (Fire). So where Hasbro intentially played around with the colors a little bit, showing each LB Chariot in mutliple variations (in line with the chance of a variety of symbols shown on the orbs maybe (?)) thete´s a big chance Takara wanted to stick to their initial idea of assign a specific chariot to each symbol type as they´ve done before with the BB Vehicles and Playsets. Maybe this whole issue might´ve actually been responsible for the fact that the intended release of the LB within the US was cancelled......
After the shoot at Hasbro, all the vehicles and lasers were thrown together randomly which is why the yellow buzzsaw ended up with the reefer on the card and not the beast shown in the magazine. Finally, as Shadow Bat correctly assumed, Hasbro went and took these catalog figures and vehicles (so that they wouldn't be wasted) and created a mock up of how they planned to sell them. They took the laser and vehicle and hand made a card, the bubble is hand cut and custom fit, and soon after the line was cancelled and production of this item in this color scheme or on a card in the states never occured.
dabbuu 11 October 2007
There probably shouldn´t be a need to discuss the ´randomness´ when it comes to which figure ended up with what chariot because in the end it looks like the initial idea from Hasbro wasn´t really based on a match between a particular figure and/or color since placing a Reefer (Water related) on a Yellow Savannah Beetle for sure isn´t in line with the vision Takara had so I doubt the setup as such for this photoshoot had anything to do with a connection between the figure and the vehicle on which it is shown. Most likely it was just as random like the way they´ve turned out to be carded as shown below. I also believe that the card and bubble must have been created shortly after this photoshoot and maybe those ideas where even send out together with the photoshoot results to Takara in order to hear their thoughts resulting in this possible final and destructive veto call from Japan. Not that the packaging idea would´ve been an issue for Takara as we all know some of the EU shield battlers where packed on a carded bubble wrap as well but as mentioned above they most likely couldn´t agree with the colors used. Which is something that´s completely in line with the whole idea Takara had for the Vehicles and Bases released until than...
Let´s have a look at some of the items it concerned;
Skybat & Prototype Battle Eagle Chariot
Skybat Proto1.jpg 69.27K
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Skybat Proto.jpg 67.45K
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Skybat Proto2.jpg 73.43K
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Skybat Proto3.jpg 66.46K
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Skybat Proto4.jpg 81.83K
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Skybat Proto5.jpg 81K
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As well all know the Skybat and Battle Eagle Chariot were connected to each other as they were available in Japan in the boxset, that they ended up in this particular card together as well was probably a coincidence based on the ideas mentioned above. Both as well the figure as the chariot are (slightly) different though. If we look at the Skybat figure the Dark Blue paint for the armor is a little darker than the one known but the biggest difference can be found in the pink color applied to the ears, since the pink here is much brighter and more explicit (and thus more suitable for the photoshoot). The reason for the ´odd´ colors of the Eagle chariot most likely are the credit of the Hasbro design team, and thus a failure in the eyes of Takara. Another important thing to notice is the fact that on the picture ALL the figures are holding Silver guns while the weapons packed here are both the normal Brown ones we know...
Reefer & Prototype Battle Buzzsaw Chariot
Reefer Proto6.jpg 54.69K
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Reefer Proto.jpg 64.93K
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Reefer Proto1.jpg 70.49K
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Reefer Proto2.jpg 63.32K
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Reefer Proto3.jpg 62.43K
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Reefer Proto4.jpg 84.13K
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Reefer Proto5.jpg 44.6K
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For the Reefer goes the exact same thing as what´s mentioned for the Skybat above, figure is slightly different in color than the ones known in order to make it more suitably for the purpose (photoshoot). While the colors of the chariot are again the result of design decissions by Hasbro. Also here the normal Brown gun is shown instead of the Silver one which makes that something must have happened to those Silver guns as they´re somehow not packed together with the items that were on the picture.
Composed LB Chariot on Card
This is how things could have been IF they´d have decided to release the Laser Beasts in 1988 but they never made it any further than the Pre-Toyfair catalog.... The image below is composed out of several loose components (-BA- The Pre-Production Transparencies / Testprints (HASBRO)) we´ve gathered during our BA research so please forget about ever finding a carded one like this because they don´t exist outside this digital composed file done by ShadowBat.
Composed Prototype LB package .jpg 580.96K
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Despite the fact there still are a few open ends I think that with our joined forces, thoughts and available material we´ve been able to tackle another huge topic within the History of the Battle Beasts line and that we actually might´ve come close to the main reason why these Laser Beasts and Chartots never made it to the US and or Europe because eventhough Takara has never really shown its strict policy outside Japan so far there´s a big chance they´ve used their veto right in order to make sure the LB Chariots designed by Hasbro we´re released in line with their standards and initial ideas...
If you´ve anything to add to this discussion or are able to bring new facts to the table please join in on this topic and share your thoughts so we can continue our search for the truth in order to find out what really happened and what´s been the reason why those figures and chariots never made it.
The Beastformers Archeology team will keep diggin´ !!!
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Edited by Beastformers, 08 December 2014 - 06:25 AM.