Bot a Day: Daily Drawings

Truly a valiant hero if ever there was one, Silverbolt is the most memorable of the Maximal Fuzors as he was afforded a prominent role in the Beast Wars animated series. A shining knight of a warrior, Silverbolt (no relation to the Generation One /Two SST jet ) transforms into a winged wolf. He was available in 1998.   

Hard to believe that so demonic a Fuzor is actually a good guy. Noctorro here turns into a bull-headed bat chimera, which is unsettling enough, but his robot mode's alien face, winged arms and massive horns look downright diabolical. His specialty is listed as airborne warrior. He was available in the 1998 assortment.   

Air Hammer is a Maximal Fuzor whose beast mode is a combination of hammerhead shark and hawk. He was available in 1998.   

Now starting off a subset of Fuzors -- Beast War toys with animal forms that are two animals crossed together that really shouldn't be crossed together. The first Fuzor is Bantor, a cross between a tiger and a mandrill. He's the Maximal jungle warrior and demolitions expert. 

The Maximal leader, Optimus Primal, gets a major reformatting (one of many) as a Transmetal warrior. This incarnation still turns from robot into a gorilla, albeit a mechanical gorilla that rides a flying hoverboard. Can't get more 90s than that! Transmetal Optimus Primal was available in 1998.  

Completists will include this incarnation of Dinobot in their list of 1998 Transmetal toys, but it comes with a number of caveats. The Transmetal term is in branding only, as the toy does not have the chromed bits or the tertiary vehicle mode like the proper Transmetal toys. And there's good reason for that: this Dinobot is a Happy Meals toy from McDonalds. As you can imagine, it was a very simplistic design that I've embellished in illustration here. It doesn't particularly look like the previous incarnation of Dinobot, but it does turn into some sort of raptor dinosaur. What little lore surrounds it states it is a failed clone of the late lamented Dinobot from the Beast Wars series.   

Claw Jaw, first released in 1997, was reissued in 1998 in Europe packed with a VHS episode of the Beast Wars series (a series that Claw Jaw never appeared in). The toy was branded as Transmetal, but it lacked the features that distinguished the Transmetal line -- no chromed pieces, and no third vehicle-like mode. He's a straight-up redeco of the '97 figure, but with more of a 'tech' paintjob as opposed to something truly organic. He turns into a squid.    

A big "Ultra"-scale toy from 1998, Depth Charge turns into a Transmetal-style mechanical manta ray, giving the Maximals some aquatic firepower.  He has a third mode that is supposed to be some sort of aircraft, but it seems sort of a mid-transformation manta ray more than anything. Lots of built-in weapon gimmicks, his chromed parts, and his enormous wings make him a memorable addition to Beast Wars.     

The big bruiser bot of the Maximals is back, now upgraded into a Transmetal form. In this version, he still turns into a rhino, albeit a mechanical one. And the rhino has a secondary mode with treads and skids, becoming a strange hybrid rhino half-track vehicle. Rhinox was available starting in 1998.  

Upgraded for 1998 is Rattrap, now in his Transmetal form. He turns into a mechanical rat complete with chromed parts. His rat mode can also convert into a wheeled rat, the circular forms that define his hind legs and hips become hubs for wheels, letting him tear into action. His whip-like tail becomes, quite literally, a whip in robot mode.

Running at ya is Cheetor, refurbished as a Transmetal Maximal. He turns into a mechanical cheetah, that has a secondary combat mode where his sides open up like gullwing doors, so he becomes a flying mechanical cheetah. He was available in 1998 and '99.   

Kicking off 1998's toys with a new version of Airazor, as part of an assortment of Transmetal toys. In the fiction, exposure to a quantum surge upgraded a number of Predacon and Maximals into a more powerful mechanical form. In the toyline, this meant new designs sporting a vacuum-metallized chrome-like finish. These Beast Wars toys were not trying to adopt realistic, organic animal forms. Rather, their beast modes are still robotic. So in Airazor's case, she turns into a mechanical falcon. 

Wrapping up 1997 comes a toy with a bit of a convoluted history. He was released only in Japan by Takara, at first, and named Shadow Panther. He was a redeco of Cheetor, except as a black panther or jaguar. By 2000, he came Stateside as an exclusive through Hasbro's online store. Originally listed as Shadow Panther, he would be renamed Tripredacus Agent. That's because, in the mythology of the animated series, there was a dark feline like bot who fit that role. The series would reveal that the agent was Ravage, the jaguar cassette from the 1984 toyline and original animated series. It would seem that though Hasbro wanted to highlight the connection, they had lost the trademark on the name "Ravage" and couldn't identify the character by name, only by role.

The largest Starscream incarnation to date, his Machine Wars version is based on a 1992 European exclusive named Skyquake. Arriving in 1997 alongside Megatron, this change in their relative sizes is sure to wreak havoc on their particular power dynamics. Starscream turns into a Cybertronic jet that has a passing resemblance to an SR-71 Blackbird, but is more sci-fi than military accurate. This concludes the Machine Wars assortment that was briefly available exclusively at Kay-Bee toys. 

The Machine Wars incarnation of Decepticon communicator Soundwave does away with his anachronistic tape player design, exchanging it for a more imposing missile-toting tank mode. The design dates back to 1992, and was originally released as the character Stalker, only in European, Australian and Canadian markets. This redeco was available exclusively through Kay-Bee toys in 1997. 

Like they were back in 1984, Thundercracker and Skywarp are once again identical save for a paint job. The Machine Wars incarnation of Thundercracker turns into a Dassault Rafale jet. He was available exclusively at Kay-Bee toys in 1997.   

Skywarp, one of the original seeker jets from 1984, gets upgraded into a new body design for his Machine Wars incarnation.  This Decepticon warrior turns into Dassault Rafale jet. He was available exclusively at Kay-Bee stores in 1997. 

The mighty Decepticon leader Megatron has been a handgun and a tank and now, for Machine Wars, he's an F-22 Raptor fighter plane. His mold doubled as his "clone" Megaplex in a cost-effective way to bulk out the line. Megatron was available exclusively at Kay-Bee stores in 1997.

A straight-up redeco of another toy in the line, Megaplex has a bio that presents him as a clone of Megatron. The design was an unused one that never got a chance to appear in the cancelled Generation Two line, but found new life in the Machine Wars line. Megaplex turns into a Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptor. He was available exclusively at Kay-Bee toy stores in 1997.  From Japan's Operation Combination turbo team set comes the unfortunately named Discharge. This Autobot Micromaster turns into a firetruck, and has a robot design with a helmet that resembles that of a firefighter's. He was available only in a collected set with the rest of his teammates as a Japanese-exclusive in 1992. This drawing is from 2019. The 1987 assortment was filled with gimmicks, including sets of Autobot and Decepticon clones. The premise was that the robot modes would be "identical", but each twin would turn into a very difficult vehicle or creature. In the case of Autobot clone Fastlane, he t...

The classic Autobot commander gets a new incarnation for Machine Wars, though collectors aware of the European releases a few years earlier will recognize this body. It's a redeco of Thunder Clash, leader of the Turbomasters, but done in the classic blue, red and gray colors of Generation One Prime. He turns into Cybertronic truck cab, and has a trailer that turns into a battle station. As a straight-up redeco of Thunder  Clash, Prime's face doesn't look very Prime, without the iconic face mask we've grown accustomed to. This version of Prime was available exclusively at Kay-Bee Toys in 1997.

Next up in the Machine Wars assortment is Sandstorm, Autobot desert recon. He's been reformatted since his 1986 Triple Changer mode to become a high tech attack helicopter. His body is a redeco of Rotorstorm, a toy released in European markets in 1992, with a more desert-appropriate paint job. This incarnation of Sandstorm was sold exclusively at Kay-Bee Stores in 1997.   

The classic Autobot Prowl made the Machine Wars assortment, though he traded in his traditional police car mode for a racecar. As a reuse of the Machine Wars Mirage body, he turns into a Penske PC-18 Indycar. He was available at Kay-Bee stores in 1997.  

Modes come and go, but Mirage will always be drawn to high end professional race cars. Here is the classic Autobot, now in his Machine Wars incarnation. He turns into a Penske PC-18 Indycar, and was originally slated as a Generation Two release before that line's cancellation. He saw the light of day as a Kay-Bee Toys Exclusive in 1997. 

The design for Machine Wars Hoist also doubled for Hubcap, here redeco'ed to be a bright yellow not unlike his sports car previous incarnation . It seems like they are two different 'bots that share a name, as this Hubcap is not a communications specialist, but rather a damage control specialist. He turns into a Kenworth W900 wrecker truck, and was available only at Kay-Bee stores in 1997. 

Taking a break from the beasts to cover Machine Wars, a short-lived program of Kay-Bee Toys exclusives from 1997 that brought back the vehicles-into-robots play pattern to Transformers. No Maximals or Predacons, these are Autobots and Decepticons. Most of the toys in this subset were redecos of ones released in the European market earlier in the 90s, but a few "new" designs surfaced as well, such as this one. The design was originally intended for Generation Two, but that toyline ended before it came to light. This is Hoist, the Autobot maintenance tech, who has been upgraded from a Toyota 4WD toy truck to a Kenworth W900 wrecker truck.   

As described a few days ago , the original two-pack of bat-Optimus Primal and alligator-Megatron was released in Japan in 1997 as the Amazon Showdown Special two-pack. Optimus was repainted as Convobat, and Megatron as Megaligator. Rather than a realistic green hue, Megaligator is an intense Decepticon-purple. a hint of what his bio reveals: that he's supposed to be the original Megatron. 

For the 1997 BotCon fan convention, fans could buy an exclusive two-pack of Fractyl and Packrat . Fractyl is, so far, the third use of this design following Terrorsaur and Lazorbeak . As such, no surprises, this Predacon turns into a pteranodon.   

Combine the previous three Predacons ( Cicadacon , Ram Horn and Sea Clamp ) and you end up with the towering Tripredacus, made convenient by the fact all components are included in a boxed set. Tripredacus was the villainous counterpart to Magnaboss , the Maximal combiner also released in 1987. 

The next in the boxed set trio after Ram Horn and Cicadacon is Sea Clamp (get it? C-Clamp?), a hard-shelled robot who turns into a lobster. This particular beast mode gives him enormous arms in robot mode. He was available in 1997. 

 Next in the three-pack that also contains yesterday's Cicadacon is Ram Horn, a rhinoceros beetle. The name Ramhorn had been previously used for an actual rhino robot character , though this version is a separate character with a space in his name. Ram Horn's toy is unusual as it has an articulated mouth, making him one of the few toys you could do a ventriloquist act with. He also kinda looks like Guy Smiley. He was available in 1997.