Sections:
Space Hulk: C&B
Vampire: Redemption
Toy Wars
X-Files Postmortem
(or on Gamasutra)
X-Files Episode Guide
Battle Beasts
Battle Beast Photo Gallery:
Series One
(1-28):
[ 1-10 ]
[ 11-20 ]
[ 21-28 ]
Series Two
(29-52, 24 figures):
[ 29-36 ]
[ 37-44 ]
[ 45-52 ]
Series Three
(53-76, 24 figures):
[ 53-60 ]
[ 61-68 ]
[ 69-72 ]
The Darklord's Battle Beast Frenzy
I was walking back to work from Lunch (at HyperBole Studios, we didn't have lunch, we had Lunch) with a whole passle of people, including my good friend Alex. The conversation had turned to Muscles, those little pink (and, later, purple) dudes that you could buy in bins during the eighties. Alex had been a Muscle guy, and, although I found them intriguing, I had to admit never having been bit by the Muscle groove. However, I told him, I did love those--
At this point I had to pound my chest a few times to get my breathing cycle going again; Battle Beasts! Good god! How could I have forgotten about Battle Beasts? Fire! Wood! Water! Those little animals in battle gear had held my attention solidly for a full two years before I had thrown them away in some mad purge of my childhood trappings. I had always loved those little guys, stocky little animal-headed warriors, like cybernetic Egyptian gods that came in two-packs. The obsession had begun when I had noticed the striking similarity between the Bighorn Sheep Beast (#26) and Orcus, the Prince of Demons, a major player in the AD&D Monster Manual.
Once I had Orcus in my hands (he was great, I'd stand him next to my 1-inch high lead miniatures, and he would stand fully twice as tall as they, which was just right), I had to have more. When I found the Minotaur (Roamin' Buffalo, #10), my fate was sealed. By the time I was done, I owned at least forty of the little guys.
Then puberty took over, and I rid myself of them. D'oh! Does everyone have that moment during early adulthood where you think back on all the stuff you got rid of as you were 'growing up', and you say to yourself, "oops"?
This all came flooding back in a rush. I quickly returned to conciousness, but I was determined to find... Battle Beasts. So I did what any self-respecting computer nerd would do: I hit the web. And, sure enough, there's all these crazy wackos out there collecting these darn things. It turned out that I wasn't alone in my opinion about these figures; I found about a dozen web sits dedicated to furthering the Battle Beast cause, stretching from the informational to the rabid. At this point, I have a collection of around 30 figures. Stay tuned. ;)
Anyway, I thought I'd lay out a photo gallery of the Battle Beast line in an easy-to-surf format. I stole the photos, so if the owner of said is bothered by what I've done, he/she/it can drop me a line. I have distant ambitions to replace these pictures with my own work, so just settle down, it's okay.
Anyway, check it out. Each one is numbered, the each have unique weapons, and they have that funky rock-sissors-paper decal gimmick. They may well be the coolest thing of all time.
-Jason
p.s. Note that this is currently a no-Laser Beast site. These were released only in Japan, and, although they may have been cooler, I'm not currently collecting them. So there.