Bot a Day: Daily Drawings

From the Galaxy Force series comes the Noisemaze Ryōsan Gata Version, also known as the Noisemaze Mass Production Type Version. These are troops based on Noisemaze, the Japanese incarnation of the Cybertron character Sideways . This soldier turn into an alien spacecraft, and was available in Japan in 2006, and came packed with a DVD of Galaxy Force episodes.

Somehow in my flood of Mini-Con illustrations -- particularly the slew of redecos of the original   Armada   Sparkplug -- I missed Rán. Also known as Prime Super Mode, Rán was a magazine pack-in, included in the August 2003 issue of   TK-kun . The magazine explained that it's Sparkplug / Prime, turned green when powered up by other Microns. Later lore in 2015 named this incarnation Rán and established her as female.

Dark Nitro Convoy is an evil clone of the Velocitron Autobot Override  from the Cybertron series. He was exclusive to the Japanese incarnation of the line, Galaxy Force, and only available via a mail-in offer through TV Magazine. In Japan, Override was a male character (in the US, she was female) so his clone is also male. A redeco of Override, Dark Nitro Convoy turns into a sleek Velocitron race car. He was available in 2005.

A redeco of Armada Unicron is Hikari no Unicron, AKA The Unicron of Light. Extremely rare -- only 10 were ever made -- this toy was a contest prize in the Legends of the Microns line in Japan in 2004. Unicron of Light, in storytelling, is formed by the aggregation of many Mini-Cons into a glowing green giant. He turns into a planet-gobbling planet and is packed with the Mini-Con Bug .

Having wrapped up Robotmasters , before moving onto the next line, I'm circling back to the Japanese version of the Unicron Trilogy for a handful of toys I skipped / wasn't aware of. Thanks to Bluesky user jenny-alexis for identifying these. First up is Chromia, a Galaxy Force toy that is a redeco of Thunderblast  from Cybertron, turns into a speedboat, and came bundled with a Galaxy Force DVD. She was available in Japan in early 2005.

The last of the numbered Robotmasters toys is two toys in one. "Reverse Convoy" is an Optimus Prime-version of the Generation 2-era Megatron M1 Abrams tank , done in blue with some retooling to give it a new Convoy-style head. But, it also has a Megatron head so the figure can double as "Rebirth Megatron." Reverse Convoy was available in Japan in 2004. 

Skipping past another redeco in the Robotmasters line brings us to #22 in the series, Lio Convoy. This is a new sculpt, but a pared down rendition of Lio Convoy from the 1998 Beast Wars II line . This 2004 Lio Convoy too turns into a lion. (The skipped over RM-21 was another Beast Convoy, but deco'ed all in red to become "Burning Beast Convoy." RM-23 was a redeco of Lio Convoy with metallic parts and came bundled with a DVD.   

The 20th toy in the Robotmasters line is a two-pack of dueling Cyberjet designs. It's Autobot Delta Seeker (a redeco of Skyjack the F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter ) versus X-Gunner (a redeco of Space Case the Sukhoi Su-47 Berket jet ). The set was available in Japan in 2004.

The Decepticon answer to yesterday's Road Rocket is Double Face, the 19th figure in the Robotmasters line. Double Face is a redeco of the Generation 2 Road Pig design , and as such still turns from highly poseable robot with LED features into a Harley Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle. Double Face was available in Japan in 2004.

A redeco of the Generation 2 Laser Cycle, the Road Rocket from Robotmasters is now a yellow Yamaha GTS1000 motorcycle. The robot mode has a cool LED light effect that makes his clear-plastic arm-mounted buzzsaw light up. Road Rocket was available in Japan in 2004.  

Another new sculpt inspired by Transformers Victory is Victory Leo. A scaled down and simplified version of his 1989 design , this Robotmasters incarnation turns from a robot into a mechanical lion and has a third jet mode as well. Victory Leo was available in Japan in 2004.

The lead hero character from Transformers Victory gets the Robotmasters treatment as Star Saber is the 15th figure in the assortment. The robot mode is made up of a smaller robot, Saber (inset) who joins with the V-Star space cruiser to form his larger robot mode. This incarnation of Star Saber came out in Japan in 2004.

These next two Robotmasters were sold separately, but are so connected in their past toy incarnations I made the call to combine them on one day. Smokesniper and Gigant Bomb are the 2004 incarnation of designs that started off in Generation 2 as Smokescreen and Dreadwing in 1994. In 1998, they were bundled together as Starscream and BB as Japanese  Beast Wars II toys. In 2001, they were Smokejumper and Dreadwind  in the Robots in Disguise series.  Smokesniper turns into a jet that can dock with the larger Gigant Bomb B-2 bomber mode. Gigant Bomb also has a tank mode as well.

That classic rascally Decepticon gets a new sculpt as part of the Robotmasters line. Inspired heavily from his animation model, this new version of the character has greater articulation and doesn't require the removal of parts for transformation that his original 1984 model had. Starscream turns into a F-15 jet. He was available in Japan in 2004.

The 11th in the Robotmasters series is a new sculpt of the Beast Wars Optimus Primal scaled down to fit the typical size of the line. Known as Beast Convoy in Japan, he turns into an organic gorilla, though this version has an Autobot symbol rather than a Maximal one. He was available in Japan in 2004. What happened to RM-10? Well, that was just a slight redeco of RM-01: G1 Convoy packed with a DVD of a Robotmasters cartoon episode. I decided it didn't have enough visual difference to warrant a whole new drawing.    

Psycho Orb. Qu'est-ce que c'est? Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa... What a name for an armadillo. Psycho Orb is a redeco of the Beast Wars era design Armordillo and Bump . He was released in Japan as part of the Robotmasters line in 2004.

Wingstun is a redeco of the Machine Wars era seeker jets Skywarp and Thundercracker . He transforms into a Dassault Rafale fighter jet. Unique to his Robotmasters release is the trident he's packed with. Wingstun was available in Japan in 2004.

Bound Rogue is an Autobot scout with a beast mode: turning into an organic-looking Tasmanian Devil. He's a redeco of a Beast Wars era design that was previously used as Snarl and Tasmania Kid . This Robotmasters incarnation distinctly sports an Autobot symbol. He was available in Japan in 2004.

Air Hunter is a redeco of a Machine Wars design used to depict Megatron and Megaplex in the 90s. Now in a black and yellow finish, with slightly translucent black plastic, Air Hunter is is the sixth RobotMasters figure. A Decepticon, Air Hunter turns into a F-22 raptor jet, and was available in Japan in 2004.

R-Blade is a redeco of a 1995 Generation Two Cyberjet design , but done in the classic deco of the 1985 Jetfire toy . R-Blade was released in 2004 Japan as part of the Robotmasters series, and turns into a swing-wing variant of an F-22 Raptor.