Transformers • Transformers: Beast Wars

Transformers: Beast Wars (トランスフォーマー ビーストウォーズ) is Takara’s Japanese release of the Beast Wars toy line, launched in July 1997, well before the 2006 Takara Tomy merger. The Maximal (Cybertron) and Predacon (Destron) toys, which transform into animals, were mostly close to Hasbro’s versions, but several got new decos, a new villain was created for the VS two-packs, and some first-wave figures received more show-accurate running changes in January 1998. To meet demand at the end of 1997, Takara also imported US-market toys with Japanese stickers on the packaging.