Battle Beasts were created back in 1986 by Takara Japan, and originally envisioned as a Transformers spin-off, appearing in the Japanese series Transformers: The Headmasters. Originally they were also called Beastformers, the two opposing sides were even called Autobots & Decpticons.
The toys took the form of anthropomorphic animals adorning battle armour and specialised weaponry, most of the characters had a missing hand replaced by some kind of weapon. For example the imaginatively named Sledgehammer Elephant had a sledgehammer for a hand, whereas Blitzkrieg Bat had a hook.
Each character had a heat sensitive panel which would reveal a symbol representing either fire, water or wood. Which could be played in a game similar to rock, paper, scissors. Later a limited sunburst symbol was added which could beat all three.
The toy line really picked up though when it was licensed to Hasbro, who distributed it across America, as well as other parts of the world outside Japan. Hasbro also changed all the names of the characters, some were improvements, but many were unnecessary. For instance the previously mentioned Sledgehammer Elephant was originally just called Elephan, a much more otherworldly name you'll agree, whereas Blitzkrieg Bat had the considerably less cool sounding name of Devil Bat.
It was quite common in Eighties Britain for existing publications to bring out a Summer Special magazine which didn't necessarily tie-in with any ongoing story lines, it was also an ideal format for an extra bit of publicity for a toy line which didn't have an existing TV Show or comic series, such as Monsters in My Pocket or in this case Battle Beasts.
It's worth noting the cover price as well. While these specials were often more expensive than an issue of an ongoing series, they are still considerably cheaper than comics today. The 75p cover price when adjusted for inflation becomes £1.91, whereas most kids comics in Britain today tend to be around the £3.99 mark. More than double that of 1988.
The only advert in Battle Beasts Special No. 2 is for the Visionaries toy line, another of Hasbro's properties. Surprisingly though there isn't an ad for the Battle Beasts themselves.
Were you a fan of Battle Beasts? How many did you have? and who was your favourite? Let me know in the comments below
