Gattai, Liokaiser!

"Gattai, Liokaiser!" - Deszaras to Leozack, Gaihawk, Hellbat, Jarguar, Killbison and Drillhorn.




 





"Now, destroy Raiden!" - Deszaras to Liokaiser


Next: Liokaiser vs Raiden!

The Complete D-355:Liokaiser individually boxed robots

Detailed pictures and commentary on individual Liokaiser memebers:

• D-329: Leozack
• D-330: Gaihawk
• D-331: Hellbat
• D-332: Jarugar (Jarguar)
• D-333: Killbison
• D-334: Drillhorn

D-334: Drillhorn (Liokaiser's left leg)

I'm not going to feature the Brestforce individual robots in numerical order, but rather slightly randomly just to mix things up a little.

Today's feature is C-334: Drillhorn, my favourite Liokaiser member. His alternate mode and colour is unique among the other Liokaiser members and in fact unique even among G1 Transformers. His colour scheme is a beautiful lilac colour mixed with grey and he transforms into a drill-tank. I can only think of one other Transformer that transforms into a drill tank and that is Nosecone. The Nosecone toy gets less props than Drillhorn because its rather tiny in comparison and also not as detailed as Drillhorn is.

A brief description from Wikipedia:

"The Breast Force strategist. Like other Decepticon strategists before him, he occasionally loses sight of the little things in favor of the big picture. Transforms into a purple-colored drill tank. His breastplate transforms into a miniature rampaging mechanical rhino."

Gah, that wasn't very interesting, I could live without that description.

I gotta say that Drillhorn has one of the nicest pieces of box art among the Brestforce (although to be fair, all of the Brestforce's box art are very nice, as is consistent with Transformers from the Victory series).

Here are some detailed pictures with comments.


Front of box - As with the rest of the Transformers in the Victory era, the box art is simply stunning.


The individual boxed Brestforce members features bottom of the box art unlike earlier year Transformers which features a representation shot of the toy on the bottom of the box.




Flawless glossy box without creases, dents or rips.


Top of box - Unlike earlier year Transformer boxes which featured transformation sequences of the toy, the box tops of the Brestforce members show instead photos of the toys featuring the 'brest-former' function that is unique to this sub-group (with the exception of Deszaras of course); notice the description actually says "Transforms from tank to robot and back again" - he transforms into a drill-tank rather than a standard tank.


Back of box


Drillhorn's bio card is not included in the paperworks packet but is actually one of the inner flaps of the box.


The other side of his bio-card is actually another flap of the box. I suspect that the printing on each flap were meant to be printed on respective sides of a card, but Takara for obvious reasons cannot do that (ie: print on both sides of the same box flap), so they did the next best thing which is giving us the characters' picture on one flap and then the bio on the other flap.


The contents of C-334, Drillhorn


Instructions and unapplied sticker sheet, plus full plethora of all paperworks like catalogues and other promotional material all sealed in its original bag. Due to the box size, the entire packet had to be folded to fit into the box, but this is how it originally came.


Minty Drillhorn toy and rhino 'brest'. The drill-tank mode is very nice.

***

Detailed pictures and commentary on individual Liokaiser memebers:

• D-329: Leozack
• D-330: Gaihawk
• D-331: Hellbat
• D-332: Jarugar (Jarguar)
• D-333: Killbison
• D-334: Drillhorn

D-331: Hellbat (Liokaiser's left arm)

I recently did a short series of pictures of Liokaiser versus Raiden. Both are very powerful combiner robots that were exclusive to Japan and I had to think hard about which one would actually be victorious in a battle.

I then recalled that I have not completed my showcase of the individual Liokaiser robots - there were still two left: Hellbat and Drillhorn.

I'm featuring Hellbat in this post. I like his cartoon manifestation and his colour scheme. Maybe I just have something for bats, my favourite comic character of all time being Batman and all. Among all the Liokaiser warrirors, his profile stands out the most - he's almost like Starscream, with a little less smarts but is just as cowardly.

Given a little more screen time to establish himself, Hellbat might just become as classic a character as Starscream.

Pictures of D-331: Hellbat...

Front of box - As with the rest of the Transformers in the Victory era, the box art is simply stunning.

The individual boxed Brestforce members features bottom of the box art unlike earlier year Transformers which features a representation shot of the toy on the bottom of the box.

Flawless glossy box without creases, dents or rips, from this side.

Flawless glossy box but there is a slight dent to in on the bottom and top right side of the box as seen here.

Top of box - Unlike earlier year Transformer boxes which featured transformation sequences of the toy, the box tops of the Brestforce members show instead photos of the toys featuring the 'brest-former' function that is unique to this sub-group (with the exception of Deszaras of course).

Back of box

Back of box

Hellbat's bio card is not included in the paperworks packet but is actually one of the inner flaps of the box. The artwork for Hellbat is simply stunning, yes?

The other side of his bio-card is actually another flap of the box. I suspect that the printing on each flap were meant to be printed on respective sides of a card, but Takara for obvious reasons cannot do that (ie: print on both sides of the same box flap), so they did the next best thing which is giving us the characters' picture on one flap and then the bio on the other flap.

The contents of D-331, Hellbat. The instructions, unapplied sticker sheet and all the original catalogues and promotional material that came with Hellbat are still sealed in the bag.

Minty Hellbat toy and Bat 'brest'.

Paperworks

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Detailed pictures and commentary on individual Liokaiser memebers:

• D-329: Leozack
• D-330: Gaihawk
• D-331: Hellbat
• D-332: Jarugar (Jarguar)
• D-333: Killbison
• D-334: Drillhorn

My Birthday Wish... I wish!

Saw this on eBay... wow, just wow!

If there is one Transformer I want to get MISB and also graded, this has to be the one (set). Probably my all time favourite Series 1 set and packaging and is something that has eluded since 1984.

But here's the catch - my birthday is not till December! Heh.

MIB journal - Masterforce C308 Doubleclouder MIB

Doubleclouder is one of a number of "Japanese exclusive Transformers" that I am interested in. Unlike say Hydra and Buster, the recoloured scheme for Doubleclouder actually looks good and not like a half-hearted effort.

On top of that, the stickers for this piece is ever so slightly different from the US release Doubledealer. Bought this from the same shop and on the same day I got C302 Carb and C304 Lightfoot from. This was by far one of the best pieces I got that day.

Immaculately nice box, figure and complete set of paperworks.

There are however, 2 aspects where I'm uncertain:

1. Whether the "Clouder" component (the equivalent of the "Skarr" powermaster component in the US release), originally came with a yellow chest, the exact same colour as Skarr did. The box shows that Clouder should have a bluish chest. However, Transformers Generations and TFU.info shows that the Clouder component has a yellow chest, just like Skarr. I believe this to be the case (since Transformers box photos are not known for their great accuracy), but don't have confirmation at the moment.
2. Whether Doubleclouder came with a bio-card (like all other Japanese Transformers of that era bar the Victory series, which had their bio-cards as part of their box flap). The shop person (not the owner, cos this is a 8 storey mega store), told me that Doubleclouder did not originally come with a bio-card and that the paperworks were complete. Again, I don't have confirmation on this.

So here it is Doubleclouder.

Figure = C9.5, tight joints, unbroken powermaster mechanism

Stickers = C8.5, sight wear on some stickers, but generally C9

Box = C9

Paperworks = complete (but see 2. above)