Beast Saga figure cards for the Battle Beast reboot characters!

[adrotate banner=”7″]The Battle Beasts/Beastformers line Beast Saga has released in Japan and figures are coming out in tiny waves. Luckily, that means the official site updates with all their data cards, which gives me a cool bunch of images to share with you, the viewers at home! Hopefully I’ll get around to getting some of the actual figures, and at the best deal possible, so stay tuned to see if I suddenly come into a collection of Battle Beasts.

The whale and the dolphin are cool, but my favorite is the turtle and the cat.

I know what you are thinking “Gee, I wish there was a Beast Saga cartoon…” Well, your prayers are answered! Yes, more things for me to consume like a mindless drone! Take that, savings fund!

Not only this, but there is the American Battle Beasts line from Diamon Select toys coming out soon (they missed getting into Toys R Us by Christmas!) and also a Russian Battle Beast inspired line. And that’s not counting a few other toys that look suspiciously like Battle Beasts that are also launching this year or next. It’s an exciting time to blow all your money on plastic junk!

Beast Saga Buffam
Beast Saga Ogre
Beast Saga Seylas

Beast Saga Anime

Beast Saga toys hit preview mode – Beast Fight Collection

[adrotate banner=”7″]Some of the completed Battle Beasts line from TakaraTomy has hit far enough down the line it is showing up in catalogs, and instead of being under Beast Saga it is listed as Beast Fight Collection. Whatever the final name of the line and game ends up being (Beastformers, Battle Beasts, Beast Saga, or Beast Fight!), it will be awesome. Thanks to RobotKingdom‘s facebook page, we got the images! Here are a few, more on the Facebook album. The pictures also show that the chests will contain dice for the game that goes along with the figures. And this is not the full line, because the tiger figure from the prototypes is no present in this image collection.

Beast Fight - Beast Saga - Beastformers - Battle Beasts
Beast Fight - Beast Saga - Beastformers - Battle Beasts

From Dragonautes via LittleRubberGuys

Diamond Select Battle Beasts

[adrotate banner=”1″]Diamond Select got the American rights for the Battle Beasts name a few years ago, and released a few repaints of a single alligator Minimate figure at a few cons (see our article about the version we have), but beyond that the news was mostly dark. Until this past week, when suddenly a countdown and a new announcement rumbled to life on the official site!

And now we got another different figure, promises of many more, and a comic book announcement

Ancient words are spoken. A deadly weapon is activated. And from across the galaxy comes a race of beings who are at once familiar and unlike anything the Earth has seen. Why have they come to Earth? What do they seek? Why do they fight? The answers lie in the hands of one of the only people on Earth who understands them, a low-level government linguist named Bliss, and if she doesn’t survive this onslaught, all hope may be lost.

Battle Beasts Diamond Select
Three characters:
Vorin
Species: Ram
Raised in the way of all Battle Beasts, Vorin was taught combat from a young age. But after a lifetime of violence, he seeks out a different way for his people, and will battle to make his vision of the future a reality. On his journey, he has found allies who share his vision, and they, too, are no strangers to the ways of the sword, knife and axe.

Gruntos
Species: Walrus
Although sometimes jovial and frequently hungry, Gruntos is a fiercely loyal warrior, and will defend his comrades as vigorously as he defends his plate.

Merk
Species: Falcon
A natural predator, Merk clashed with Vorin many times before they became allies. But Merk studies his friends as closely as he does his enemies.

The characters look more like warrior animals than the classic Battle Beasts.

A clear red version of Vorin will be released at C2E2 2012. Sadly, the fact it is clear red makes it hard to see the figure, though the Facebook page did release a picture of the figure out of the bag, unlike the official site.
Battle Beasts Vorin
Battle Beasts Vorin
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Battle Beasts Manga! Beast Saga (ビーストサーガ) is the new series!

[adrotate banner=”1″]Japanese Manga mag Saikyo Jump has started publishing a new Battle Beasts story – called Beast Saga ( ビーストサーガ ) – featuring Battle Beasts and new characters and powers. Gone is the Fire/Wood/Water powrs, the new chest emblems feature signage that mimics their animal species, and has some sort of chestblasting powers that we think translates into Psycholot.

There are new animals, and a return of a few of the old ones. The main character is a lion named Lionga (ライオーガ), King of Gloria. He’s depicted with green hair and red armor in color pictures. Goldar (ゴールダー) and Big Serow (the tiger and the deer) have the same names as their originals. There are bad guys who are pirates in search of a totem that will give them new powers.

A splash page features a horse, birds, and some type of fish.

Two guys attack Lionga:
Crab’s name – Tarabaani (Tarabagani is Red King Crab)
Fish’s name – Kassago (Kasago is a type of Japanese rock fish)

There are Pigs, Dogs, and Cats among Lionga’s town (one type of dog with whiskers looks like he might be modeled after the Dog Slave from the Transformers episode!)

Pirates:
Swordfish name – ビルソード – Birusoodo (translates “bill sword” aka swordbill if I did it right)
Manta name – Mantarei
Gator name – Arugairu
The bad guys also have a bunch of piranha goons whose job seems to be just to die. There is a Shark in later issues (キラーシャーク – Kiraashaaku – probably Killer Shark)

A shot of a bunch of dead beasts includes what may be a raccoon, a fox, and an iguana or other lizard

One of Lionga’s advisers looks like some sort of brown-faced cat/lion/something feline (only really have a clear shot of his back)

The Tiger’s group includes a Panda (Janjan – ジャンジャン) and something that might be a mouse.

The preview pages are located here

Beast Saga Lionga

In addition, this picture of what might be prototypes for new figures showed up on Twitter! So hopefully we’ll get some new Japanese Battle Beasts toys! I like the new look and hopefully they hit production soon!

Beast Saga Toy

Strangely enough, this isn’t the only Battle Beasts news this week, the American line is coming to life, and we’ll have an update on them as well soon!

Thanks to the guys at LittleRubberGuys, especially TheNinja and WhiteLeo for translation help and confirmation

Rise of the Beasts

Rise of the Beasts
[adrotate banner=”1″]UPDATE: THE PROJECT HAS BEEN CANCELLED! And that’s not all. The Kickstarter was far beyond the goal prize, but the fund raiser was still canceled within the last few hours. At first we were given some junk about a “fantastic opportunity” that made it sound like they killed the fundraiser because someone came in and bought them out, but later it has been revealed that they just had factory troubles and decided to kill the project instead of telling people they might be a month delayed. I am not mad about a delay, I am mad because they lied to us at first about why the line was canceled. I’m mad I wasted time and effort promoting the project and getting excited about it, when the first move they make is to cut out the community around it and not play straight with us. Although the toy line is still going forward, I am glad the Kickstarter was canceled because now I won’t be giving my money to people whose first instinct is to lie to me. Good riddance.

Rise of the Beasts is a new toyline produced by fans of toylines like Battle Beasts and M.U.S.C.L.E.s, in the same vein as the Muscle-like fan set from October Toys, O.M.F.G. (so ticked off I missed this project!) Similarly, Rise of the Beasts features four figures that look vaguely-Battle Beastian in their design. In any event, they’re cool enough that I pledged to the Kickstarter raising funds for the project (at the $45 level) The company behind this is Plastic !magination and the initial project promoter is JKaris from the LittleRubberGuys forum, though I am not certain who Plastic Imagination is.

Figures:
1 – Lion figure
2 – Gorilla figure
3 – Horny Toad figure
4 – Squat Komodo Dragon figure
Rise of the Beasts Komodo

Here are photos and a fan video of the proposed figures:

The Kickstarter site is here if you want to pledge or get more information

New Battle Beasts review

[adrotate banner=”1″]So I snagged on of the new Minimates Battle Beasts. This is similar to the single announce Gator beast, except they have been making alternate colors to give away at various toy shows and cons this year. The first was a month or so ago and I couldn’t find it for anywhere near reasonable on eBay, but there was a second alternate color gator released this past month at some place called E2X2 or C2E2 or R2D2 or something. In any event, I snagged on off of eBay for a mere $25 including shipping, so that was a good score. It is the first chance for me to get a handle on the new Battle Beast, so here are some pics:

The alternate color Gator came complete with a crappy gun. His color scheme is the best one so far, so props for the color scheme!
bb01.jpg

My Beast came with a special bonus: a hair from a paintbrush!
bb02.jpg

The gator can barely hold the crappy gun, and when he does it is crooked. Boo to that! The previous premium gator had a sword.
bb03.jpg

Size-wise, you can see how the new Beasts are slightly taller than the old ones (please forgive the fact the Battle Beast shown is a bootleg, that was the only other one I had bought recently)
bb04.jpg

And more size comparisons with some Gormiti figures.
bb05.jpg

Overall, I am less than impressed by the hair and the crappy gun, but the color scheme of this one was the best so far. I am still not excited about the new line, and will continue to look at it with trepidation. There is one more alternate color of the gator going to get released, but besides that, there are currently no announced plans for the line.