Dave's Beast Wars Transformers - Japanese TV Magazine

	Beast Wars Pictures Archive: TV Magazine
Beast Wars Japan	Pictures from Japan's TV Magazine
Beast Wars Japan	Last Updated 7/29/00 August pics of Car Robots!

Pictures from TV Magazine

These are all images scanned from various issues of Japan's TV Magazine (Telemaga), which is a big pile of toy tie-ins the likes of which would violate FCC regulations if attempted in this country. :) Some of the images are scaled-down two-page spreads, and even scaled down are pretty big, so those of you with slower connections be careful.

AUGUST 2000

This is basically my last installment until I can find a source of TV Magazine in Michigan (and get a scanner, and time, etc). In addition to what I scanned, there's a set of trading cards that seem to be used in a fighting game of some sort.

Black Convoy's Base: One of the things that made Laser Optimus perhaps the best Transformer ever was the incredibly nifty base his trailer turns into. Here's Black Convoy's base mode in all its glory.
Black Convoy: All the stuff together, to scale with a little kid. Note that while Laser Optimus came with a clear sword that lit up red with an LED in his fist, Black Convoy has a clear red sword.
Baldigus Components: I'm convinced that "Baldigus" (Bardigus) is a corruption of "Bruticus." Anyway, here's the five components in vehicle and robot modes, with a CG combined mode.
Baldigus Combined: Probably the best color job Bruticus has had yet, IMO.
Microman Convoy: This is a Microman recolor of the vehicle that came with Actionmaster Optimus Prime. But instead of coming with an 8cm Optimus, it comes with an 8cm Edison. The trailer turns into a base mode (foreshadowing of the Mighty Laser Optimus) and the cab turns into a jet.
Cel-style Microman Convoy: A cel-style drawing of the truck mode.

JULY 2000

Mostly anime-style pics this time out.

Black Convoy: Various pictures of the leader of the third faction in Car Robots. Black Convoy is a recolor of Laser Optimus Prime. The faction symbol is a black upside-down G2 Autobot symbol, although TV Magazine is labeling them all with Destronger (Predacon) symbols here. LATE NOTE: This may or may not be a third faction, other sources indicate they're just the new generation of Destrongers.
- Shoulder Cannons: Black Convoy firing his shoulder cannons.
- Pistol Shot: Black Convoy firing his pistol in the wrong hand. It's the wrong hand because on the toy, the pistol only lights up when fired in the right hand.
- Sword: Black Convoy slicing a boulder in half with his laser sword.
- Origin: Gigatron was scanning terran vehicles to use as templates for new Destrongers. He caught Fire Convoy in the beam of his scanner while scanning a tanker truck, and thus was born the enigmatic Black Convoy.
- Toys: Toys of Black Convoy and...Black Fire Convoy! Yes, it's time for more recolors! Looks like these are part of a robot point giveaway (three of the giveaways are available in stores, the other two are recolors). Not shown is a recolor of G1 Convoy, which seems to be gold where Convoy (original Optimus Prime) is silver. Well, a little of it is shown here. It's possible that Black Fire Convoy will show up in the story as a member of Black Convoy's faction, but since his Cybertron symbol is molded on, it couldn't be replaced without a remold. LATE NOTE: Dark Fire Convoy is the official name.
Baldigus Team: The recolored Combaticons, also part of Black Convoy's mysterious third faction.
Indy Heat and Wrecker Hook: Done in anime style.

JUNE 2000

This time out we have better pics of the JRX components, plus the Machine Wars recolors and a bunch of "toys with candy" sets.

JRX Components: The three trains which combine to form JRX. Betcha can't guess which one becomes the legs! :)
Indy Heat and Wrecker Hook: Recolored Machine Wars indy car and wrecker truck, standing in front of the Fortress Maximus release, which includes a play mat that the two here are standing on. Still no indication that Fort Max will be available in stores, it appears to be a mail-in premium or raffle of some sorts. I expect anyone not in Japan is not eligble, sorry.
Toys With Candy - Various little toys that come with candy and are sold mainly in grocery stores. Not that the Japanese grocery in my area ever has anything but Pokemon, Digimon and Power Rangers anymore.
- Little Models: Cheap, monochrome snap-together kits of the JRX team (which can assemble more or less into JRX, although with extra limbs sticking out), Fire Convoy and Super Fire Convoy. They apparently come in random colors, since the three JRX components aren't all the correct colors to make the JRX shown.
- Deluxe Models: Better snap-together kits of a train guy, one of the Car Brothers, plus, of course, Fire Convoy and Super Fire Convoy.
- Statues: Painted statues (pseudo-decoys) of the three Car Brothers, Fire Convoy and Super Fire Convoy.

MAY 2000

No new TFCR toy pictures this time (well, there's a reallllly tiny picture of the promotional Fortress Maximus, but it doesn't look any different from the original Fort Max), but lots of anime-style interpretations. And a little bit of Digimon 02.

Super Fire Convoy To Scale: Here's a picture of a kid holding Super Fire Convoy, to give some idea of his size.
Fire Convoy cel-style: Truck, base and Fire Convoy modes.
Car Brothers cel-style: Composition on this and the remaining cel-style drawings is a bit muddy, but it should give some idea of how the characters look on the cartoon.
JRX Team: The combined form is at the upper left.
Spychangers: The six recolored GoBots actually look pretty cool in cel-style.
Gigatron: Anime-style interpretations of all five modes. The bat actually looks non-lame in this pic.
Destrongers: Gushar, Gelshark, Gildo and Gaskunk.
Digimon 02 toys: The new toys don't transform, instead they digivolve into their Champion levels by adding on armor that stores in egg form. Series looks to be a sort of "next generation" with a few of the original kids (Kari and TK mainly) a few years older, joined by new kids and opposed by an evil human kid who's figured out how to enslave Digimon with control collars. Some old Digimon return, plus new ones on both sides that use the eggshell armors.

APRIL 2000

There wasn't anything worth scanning in February and March, but now we have Car Robots! The logo is to the right, click on it to download. Also, I have a pic of the Agumon/WarGreymon toy.

CGI Cybertrons: These are the CGI images of the characters from their techspec cards, all stuck together in a sort of scene. Upper left is Wild Ride, and the rest of the top row is composed of recolored GoBots. Fire Convoy is at lower left, with Mach Alert and Speed Breaker to his right, in that order. For those who care, the GoBots are (top row, left to right) Eagle Killer, X-Car, War, Artfire/Autofire (below Artfire) Ox. Counter Arrow is on the crease, you can see a little of him to the right of Gigatron in the Destron picture.
CGI Destrons: The images used on the techspec cards, also with a city backdrop. Gigatron dominates the lower right, with Gelshark above him (recolored Cybershark II). Gaskunk (Stinkbomb), Gildo (Nightglider) and Gushar (Spittor II) round out the set.
C-001 through C-004 Robot Modes: Speed Breaker, Mach Alert, Wild Ride and Super Fire Convoy (from left to right) in robot modes.
C-001 through C-004 Vehicle Modes: Torsos of the smaller robots also visible here. From left to right, Wild Ride (with robot head visible through the windshield, keen!), Mach Alert, Fire Convoy and Speed Breaker.
Gigatron!: Gigatron's robot mode is in the background, presiding over the other FIVE modes. From left to right they are: Gigabat, Gigahand, Gigadragon, Gigaformula (race car) and Gigajet. Okay, some of the modes are a bit of a stretch, but it's the first six-changer since Quickswitch (not counting SevenChanger from the non-TF Takara line, and it's only a six-changer if you decide the submarine mode is too lame for words).
Agumon/War Greymon: This is a very impressive digivolving Digimon toy. Looks like the only serious kibble is that the split shield on War Greymon's back is actually Agumon's face.

JANUARY 2000

Again, mostly Metals stuff this month, some nifty Godzilla 2000 pics (too far off-topic to put up here, though), a sort of recap of the sentai stuff, etc.

Jaguar: A cel-style drawing of Metals Jaguar. Yep, Agenda's already playing in Japan, and they're gonna be bringing out OpOp and TMII Megadrac, among other toys.
Agenda Part 3: Metals Lord Megatron lets Convoy have it in the face with a power blast. The original Convoy, of course.

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