Laser Beast
From Transformers Wiki
The Laser Beasts (レーザービースト Rēzā Bīsuto) are a formidable race of anthropomorphic cyborg animals that lived in the depths of planet Beast's vast subterranean caverns. The laser lenses in their chests absorb and focus light energy to provide power. They are heavily regimented, ruled for millennia by the Royal Tiger Clan and organized into a number of military units with strict hierarchy. They are also incredibly scientifically advanced, able to make war machines that rival those made by their creators, the Three Wise Ones.
In the modern day, the Laser Beasts are ruled by Great Emperor Tigerburn, who commands absolute loyalty from his people. He has declared war on the Beastformers who inhabit the surface of planet Beast, planning to take their land and make his rule of the planet supreme.
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Fiction
Beastformers comic
Tens of thousands of years ago, the Three Wise Ones crash-landed on Beast and quickly discovered that they could not survive due to the planet's incredible temperature. Immediately, they located a cave and chose to live underground where they could survive somehow. Using their incredible knowledge, they created three machines capable of unfathomable destruction which they dubbed "Head Hunters". They used the Hunters to build a vast subterranean empire, but fearing the destructive power of the Hunters, had all three units separated and hidden across the globe. Later, they developed a new kind of lifeform that would protect the planet after they were gone, the Laser Beast.
The Laser Beasts developed an underground civilization relying on machines, but over time, they themselves became as cold and unfeeling as their machines. A small group of them were opposed to this development and left for the surface, where they founded another race known as the Beastformers. 20014 years later after their creation, the Laser Beasts' city was destroyed in a great natural disaster that opened up a rift to the surface, causing water to pour in and flood it. Legend of the Three Wise Ones
With the artificial sun that powered them on the brink of destruction, the surviving Laser Beasts chose to travel to the surface where they could rely on the real sun. Finding the surface inhabited by the Beastformers, the cold-hearted Tigerburn immediately decided to wipe their cousins out and take Beast for their own. They swiftly conquered most of North Snarl in preparation for attacking the strongest Beastformer nation, Bistoram, and violently rejected the Beastformer leader White Leo's peace offer. A war then broke out between the two factions, during which the Laser Beasts were able to conquer half of the Beastformers' territories before getting pushed back when their enemies discovered the Head Hunters. In response, they developed their own vehicles in the form of the Battlecruisers and continued the war. Beastformers VS Laser Beasts
Legends comic
The Laser Beasts were winning the war until pushed back by the Beastformers' Autobot allies, leading to Tigerburn using a gem containing the power of the Three Wise Ones to merge three Headmaster Teens with Laser Beasts. The added power of Transformer bodies allowed them to defeat the Monsterbots and continue their winning streak, but not before losing the power gems to the Beastformers. LG51 Doublecross Prologue They decapitated Doublecross, turning him into their pawn, and ultimately defeated and exiled the Beastformers' leader, White Leo. On finding that White Leo had taken with him the gems, Tigerburn grabbed Doublecross and the ultimate Laser Beast MVP Weapon, the Haywire Laser, and followed Leo to the Legends World. White Leo and White Lune used the gems to defeat Tigerburn and restore Doublecross, then returned to Beast to continue their war with the Laser Beasts. Bonus Edition Vol. 51
The Laser Beasts began to lose the war and Tigerburn led some of them, the Shield Battler-6, back to the Legends World to conquer it instead, but he was defeated and they fled back to their own dimension. Bonus Edition Vol. 64 They were able to recover some fighting strength by taking back two of the gems, allowing them to continue fighting until 2023 when more Transformers showed up and joined forces with the Beastformers. In spite of Tigerburn's best efforts at using the gems to fight back, he was defeated for good when White Leo sacrificed himself to crystallize the both of them. Following this, the Laser Beasts ceased their offensive and began living peacefully alongside the Beastformers, using the crystalline statues of their leaders as a symbol of peace. The Road to Legends' Revival Chapter 1
Organization
The Laser Beast Corps is made up of eight different units, split among four sub-commanders, who answer to Strike Commander Skullgrotes, who in turn answers only to Great Emperor Tigerburn.
- Shield Battler-6 (シールドバトラー6 Shīrudo Batorā 6)
- Captain: Stronghurricane
- An independent unit specializing in high-speed recon and sneak attacks.
- Underground Battalion (地底部大隊 chiteibu daitai)
- Commander: Dinogator
- Underground Operations (地中工作隊 chichū kōsakutai)
- Underwater Operations (水中工作隊 suichū kōsakutai)
- Commander: Dinogator
- Ground Battalion (地上部大隊 chijōbu daitai)
- Commander: Slag King
- Ground Assault Force (陸上突撃隊 rikujō totsugekitai)
- Ground Strike Force (陸上攻撃隊 rikujō kōgekitai)
- Maritime Strike Force (海上攻撃隊 kaijō kōgekitai)
- Commander: Slag King
- Air Force Battalion (空部大隊 sorabu daitai)
- Commander: Skybat
- Aerial Strike Force (航空攻撃隊 kōkū kōgekitai)
- Special Intelligence (特殊情報局 tokushu jōhōkyoku)
- Commander: Skybat
Toys
Beastformers
Released in the back end of Takara's post-Transformers-branding "RPG"-themed second year of Beastformers product in 1988, the Laser Beasts have the same general construction as a Beastformer: a soft-plastic 1.5-inch-tall figure with swivel arms. But instead of a "Battle Emblem" rubsign, Laser Beasts have a clear "lens" in their torsos. A small hole in their backs allows light through, which reveals a full-color Fire/Water/Wood symbol when you look into the gem. And instead of esoteric melee-weapon accessories, Laser Beasts came with blaster rifles themed after their animal types.
Like Beastformers, most came in individual boxes, sold at 250 yen each (a 50-yen increase from the Beastformers). However, many were available only packed in with larger vehicles, or in gift sets.
As these items are tail-enders of a niche line, they currently command very high prices on the secondary market, with the box sets in particular reaching 4-digit price tags (in US dollars, it's 6-digits in yen!).
Laser Beasts (series 1)
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Laser Beasts (series 2)
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Battlecruisers
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Multi-packs
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Many of these toys were released very late in the Hasbro Battle Beasts line, under the name "Shadow Warriors", but they barely petered out into closeout stores in the US, and got a smattering of European-market releases before the line was ended. 21 of the 36 figures have been confirmed with packaged Battle Beast samples: the 12 "series 1" Beasts in the usual two-packs, and the first 6 "series 2" and at least 3 of the "Shield Battler-6" as individually-packaged "Battle Chargers" each with a W Battler sled (the remaining 3 Shield Battlers were slated for "Battle Charger" packs, we just need confirmation of their release). Their rarity does not help the aftermarket prices at all. The remaining 12 figures were slated to come in individual sets packed in with a Battlecruiser, but as far as can be told, these never made it to final production or even packaging samples.
Notes
- The Hasbro 1988 Pre-Toy Fair Catalog (circa winter 1987) calls the these toys the "Crystal Creatures".
