Heroic Decepticon: February 2012

29 February 2012

Transformers Operation Combination, TF-10: Battle Gaia MIB unused

I acquired Battle Gaia (together with Guard City) sometime in June 2011, talked about it in August 2011 and been meaning to do a full post with detailed shots of it before the end of 2011, but it didn't happen.

Battle Gaia is significant for various reasons. As the last release in Operation Combination (ie: TF-10, out of 10 giftsets), he is also the very final G1 Transformer released in Japan. The giftset also features all new box art for this figure, which is awesome by the way, unlike Guard City which features box art recoloured from C-76: Guardian.

Like I mentioned in my August post, Battle Gaia commands very high prices in the secondary market despite the Bruticus mold being recoloured for various post-G1 Transformer lines and the Bruticus colour scheme being officially reissued as part of the Transformers: Encore line in Japan a year or 2 ago.

In a MIB and complete state, Battle Gaia can go for as much as USD$1,800, putting it in the price range of a MIB Fortress Maximus!

Battle Gaia profile from TF Wiki

Battle Gaia (バトルガイアー Batoru Gaiā) leads the Decepticon invasion force, under orders from Scrash, aiming to take over Earth. His arch-nemesis is Guard City, who leads the Autobot forces against him.

He is composed of five Decepticons: Great Cannon (Onslaught recolour), Leyland (Swindle recolour), Sandstorm (Brawl recolour), Shuttle Gunner (Blast-Off recolour) and Target Hawk (Vortex recolour).

As a Free-Combiner, Battle Gaia's component robots can consciously rearrange themselves into new formations in response to a certain predicament. With Shuttle Gunner and Target Hawk as his legs in the Flying Formation, he can surge upward at incredible speeds. Using Sandstorm and Leyland as his legs in the Dash Formation, his running speed increases greatly. Accessing the Crash Formation with Leyland and Target Hawk as his arms, his destructive powers are greatly enhanced. And by creating the Fire Formation with Sandstorm and Shuttle Gunner as his arms, he can utilize all the fire-power of his individual components.

Without further ado, some photos!

Front of packaging

Close up of box art. Man, this is a beautiful piece of box art and with backgrounds to boot.

The 'full' box art.

'Free-Combination'

Back of box

Close up of combined form

'Free-Combination' concept diagram

Illustration of 'free combination' possibilities

Battle Gaia's tech spec values. With the exception of Intelligence (a '6', still not that stupid) and Rank ('8'), all his other stats are '10'.

Battle Gaia profile in Japanese.

Out of package with unused paperworks

Close up of styro tray insert. It's really neat how the Japanese arrange the inside of their giftsets, yes?

Close up of Great Cannon

Close up of Shuttle Gunner

Close up of Sandstorm. Hey, are you a triple changer? Pulling pages out of Blitzwing's book by turning into a tank, eh?

Close up of Target Hawk

Close up of Leyland

Close up of accessories, which for the most part, are differently coloured compared with Bruticus' parts.

Paperworks

Close up of instructions

Close up of unused sticker sheet (which I'm going to use pretty soon!)

Guard City MIB unused and Battle Gaia MIB unused

Close up #1

Close up #2

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Related posts

27 February 2012

Transformers Operation Combination, TF-04: Guard City MIB unused

I'm so slack.

I acquired Guard City sometime in June 2011, talked about it in August 2011 and been meaning to do a full post with detailed shots of it before the end of 2011, but it didn't happen.

First a re-cap of why collectors are interested in this piece, which from a colour scheme perspective is not really that impressive to me - I like the Defensor colour scheme better.

Here is a summary from my Aug 2011 post, regarding why Guard City (and Battle Gaia) are so rare and expensive:

They are Japanese exclusives and not available in the US and Europe, but only available in Japan and some parts of Asia. Operation Combiner is the final Generation One line in Japan (and
theoretically the final G1 line in the world, since the Europe exclusives are considered “G1.5”).
Battle Gaia, being TF-10, is the only Decepticon in the Operation Combiner line and arguably, the very last G1 Transformer, the very last G1 Decepticon and the very last G1 combiner.
With the Transformers series in decline first in the US and then in Japan in 1992, it’s very probable that only a very small quantity of each Operation Combiner figure was produced. There has been a decline in price for the Micromaster combiners, TF-01, TF-02, TF-02 and TF-05
(ie: Sixbuilder, Sixwing, Sixturbo and Sixliner) after the deluge of reissues in the early 2000s. TF-06 to TF-09 giftsets have never really been expensive because the toys were released as part of G1.5 and G2. However, the quantity of Guard City and Battle Gaia sets has not increased since 1992.
The extremely beautiful box art. This is the key feature that sets G1 apart from any other line that comes after. If TF-04 and TF-10 were not in a giftset box with stunning box art, I’d probably not seek them out or pay so much for them (personally).

Guard City profile from TF Wiki

Guard City (ガードシティ Gādo Shiti) is a high-ranking Autobot warrior, who commands the Micromaster Six-Teams in their defense of Earth. His arch-nemesis is the Decepticon combiner Battle Gaia.

Guard City is composed of the following individual Autobots: Fire Chief (Hot Spot recolour), Streetstar (Streetwise recolour), Fly-Up (Blades recolour), Sparkride (Groove recolour) and Safety (First Aid recolour).

As a Free-Combiner, the individual robots making up Guard City's limbs enjoy a certain level of autonomy, allowing them to consciously rearrange themselves to suit specific situations. With Streetstar and Sparkride forming his legs, Guard City can reach incredible speeds with his "Mach Formation". With Sparkride and Fly-Up forming his arms, Guard City can use their various abilities (such as Fly-Up's rotor blades) to aid him in battle with the "Attack Formation". With Safety and Streetstar forming his arms, he can use the lightbars of both vehicles to make himself highly visible and demand attention during emergency situations, creating the "Signal Formation". And with Safety forming one of his arms, Guard City can call upon the medic's skills to repair wounded soldiers via the "Repair Formation".

Photos now? Yes!

Front of package

Close up of front of package

The "free-combiner" concept identified by TF-Wiki above is actually the cornerstone concept behind Operation Combination (and perhaps an evolution of the Scramble City concept) - free-combiner is written on the Guard City box are "自由合体" (see photo below). Very interestingly, while the Japanese language use of Chinese of characters are usually in the form of traditional Chinese characters, the word body ("体") in this instance is actually in simplified Chinese. The tradition Chinese word for "体" is "體".

Close up of Fire Chief in package

Close up of the other 4 Guard City members in package

Back of box

Free-combination concept diagram

Illustration of free-combination possibilities

Guard-City's tech specs, which are on the bottom rather than back of the box. Except for Strength, Endurance and Rank which are "10"s, all other stats are "9"s.

Guard City's profile write up

Out of package with unused paperworks

Close up of styro tray insert. It's really neat how the Japanese arrange the inside of their giftsets, yes?

Fire Chief

Fly Up. Notice that there is no rub-sign on the roof, where Blades would have a rub sign.

Safety. Notice that there is no rub-sign on the roof, where First Aid has a rub sign.

Streetstar. Again, there is no rub-sign on the hood where Streetwise would have a rub sign

Sparkride

Unused paperworks

Close up of the unused sticker sheet. For Guard City (and Battle Gaia), the stickers are really the key features that further differentiates them from their US-counterparts. The stickers are not just recolours of the US type stickers but are all new creations with many more stickers that the US-releases do not have.

I will not go into commenting on the differences between Guard City and Defensor or go into detail for each figure. The reason for that is simple - Maz has already done an A+ job describing and reviewing them. Read Maz's post here on TF-1.

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Guard City MIB unused and Battle Gaia MIB unused