Merry Christmas

This year I picked up a Santa blow mold by Poloron Procucts Inc., that dates from some time in the late '60s to early '70s. The weird gold beard was a deciding factor with this one.

Beast Wars Japan: D-32 Dead End

I'm wrapping up my little Japanese Beast Wars marathon with one of my favorites from the Beast Wars Neo line. Dead End is a cool and colorful version of an ancient ammonite.



I'd have to admit that it was mostly things like this, as well as the various insect Transformers, that drew me to these toy lines. For the most part I think that Takara handled the concept a little better than Hasbro did, with more variety, better packaging, and more interesting looking figures.

Beast Wars Japan: D-33 Hydra

Beast Wars Japan: D-34 Crazybolt

Beast Wars Japan: C-31 Stampy

Beast Wars Japan: D-31 Sling

Beast Wars Japan: D-14 Dirge

Beast Wars Japan: D-15 Thrust

Beast Wars Japan: C-23 Hell Scream

Beast Wars Japan: C-3 Cheetor

Beast Wars Japan: C-7 Rhinox

Beast Wars Japan: C-24 Motorarm

Beast Wars Japan: D-7 Shadow Panther

Beast Wars Japan: D-8 Black Widow

Beast Wars Japan: C-18 Powerhug

Beast Wars Japan: C-20 Mantis

At this point I should probably admit that I'm not exactly selling off all of my Japanese Beast Wars toys. Manterror was the first figure from the American Beast Wars line that caught my eye, and I'm just as fond of Mantis the Japanese version. For some reason this figure in particular seemed like such an obvious cousin to the Microman/Micronauts line that I couldn't help but be attracted to it.

Beast Wars Japan: C-4 Dinobot

Beast Wars Japan: C-2 White Claw

Beast Wars Japan: C-16 Flash Lio Convoy

Beast Wars Japan: D-1 Megatron

Beast Wars Japan: C-19 Tonbot

Beast Wars Japan: C-11 Cybershark

Beast Wars Japan: C-10 Airazor

One of the big things that got me genuinely hooked on toy collecting was the Beast Wars line, and in particular, just how much it reminded me of the old Micronauts toys that I'd had as a kid. Of course there's a connection between the two, but it was really the similar level of play friendly design that did it for me.

At around the same time that the first Beast Wars toys were coming out, I was also rediscovering my love for Japanese toys, so it's no big surprise that I ended up with a decent collection of Japanese Beast Wars figures.

I've been sorting through them lately, and to be honest, I've decided to sell most of them off. They're the last of a relatively large Transformers collection that I've slowly said goodbye to over the past few years, but I'm having the hardest time getting rid of these.

I'm thinking about posting one Japanese Beast Wars Transformer a day until I get bored, or run out of them, or sell them all off... or change my mind and stash them away in a box for another few years.