Bot a Day: Daily Drawings

Blue Bacchus is another of the crime lord Decepticon Crossformers from the  Transformers Victory  mythos. As a Pretender, his inner robot turns into a sleek dragster, while his outer Pretender shell also transforms into a high-tech helicopter. He was available in Japan in 1989. 

Here is Black Shadow, a Decepticon "Crossformer" -- Japan's answer to the US Mega Pretenders. In the fiction of  Transformers Victory,  Black Shadow is less a Decepticon than he is an unscrupulous gangster. As a Pretender, Black Shadow has a smaller inner robot that transforms into a sleek jet, and his outer shell also transforms into a space ship. He was available in Japan in 1989. This drawing is from 2019. 

The last of the three Mega Pretenders is a Decepticon who became a major villain in the pages of the original  Transformers  comics. His inner robot is a pretty basic little 'bot that turns into a spacecraft. It's the outer shell, however, that's the real attention getter. It is some sort of armored alien warrior with a fearsome face that resembles a Japanese oni mask. As a Mega Pretender, this outer shell also transforms, in this case to a larger space ship. So distinctive was his outer shell design that the inner robot rarely made an appearance in the comic. Thunderwing was available in 1989. That same year, in Japan, the body became the basis of the character   Black Shadow .   

Vroom, Autobot saboteur, is one of the Mega Pretenders released in 1989. His inner robot turns into a dragster race car, and his outer human shell turns into a motorcycle. This odd scale - a huge motorcycle and a tiny dragster - works when the two are combined, as the dragster becomes the motorcycle's sidecar. 

Crossblades kicks off a format of figures called "Mega Pretenders," which are more plussed out than the Basic Pretenders, but nowhere near as complicated as an Ultra. The soldier human body extra conceals an inner robot that turns into a dragster. The outer shell turns into a combat helicopter. He was available in1989.