Transformers Ramune
From Transformers Wiki
Transformers Ramune (トランスフォーマーラムネ Toransufōmā Ramune) was a line of candy toys produced by Kabaya during the Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers, F!SRL Transformers 2010 and The Headmasters franchises. A variety of different toys and accessories were released under the Ramune line, including keychains and assorted figurines.
"Ramune" is a brand of Japanese soft drink, characterized by the use of a marble as a bottle-stopper, which then rattles around in the neck of the bottle when the soda is drunk. The drink inspired "Ramune candy", fizzy candy typically sold in packets shaped like plastic bottles. These fizzy sweets are the candies sold with the Transformers Ramune products.
Like its sibling Kabaya series, Transformers Gum and Transformers Choco, the Transformers Ramune line would make a resurgence in the 1990s, running alongside the Beast Era as Beast Wars Ramune and its various derivatives.
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Products
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers
The first Transformers Ramune product line, released in 1985, was a series of keychains. Ten were available:
The keychains were sculpted out of grey plastic, in the shape of either the Autobot or Decepticon insignia. One side featured the sculpted detail of the symbol itself, while the other side was flat, and decorated with a sticker showing a headshot of the character in question, cropped from their package art.
Scramble City
When the Scramble City range of toys arrived in early 1986, Transformers Ramune changed gears entirely to focus on them, and released a series of figurines of the combiners:
The figures consisted of a red central body made from hard plastic, with grey PVC limbs that were articulated at the shoulders and hips.
Transformers 2010
For Transformers 2010, later in 1986, Kabaya released a series of soft-rubber figurines, a kind of collectable known as keshigomu in Japan. The eight figures produced were:
These figures are very similar in design to the earlier range of keshigomu that would go on to be labelled Decoys when they were imported by Hasbro, apparently having been designed to complement that previous series. They were available in red, yellow and blue variants.
The Headmasters
A range of figures similar to those released for Scramble City was produced for The Headmasters... but we'll be jiggered if we can tell you anything about them. That packaging image to the right is the height of our knowledge, so we know a Highbrow figure existed, at least.
