Optimus Prime is dying (again), Prowl, Ratchet and Inferno steps up to take a piece of the spark and Matrix from Optimus, granting them the ability to combine into Optimus Prime for a short while. Anyway, that is where my brain goes after watching this. Thanks for a good video.
@@classiccomicsforum Thank you! Maybe if Hasbro ever wants to release TF Universe versions of Brave, that is if Takara makes new versions of these Brave figures, that could be fun.
@@TyHobbies thank you! Plenty of more is coming, but I learned the hard way that, if you upload too often, the TH-cam algorithm buries your video, so I'm keeping it to once a week or so. Hope to see you around for the next one!
Make a Video on the OG Japanese Transformers BEFORE HASBRO's or the Japanese Version featuring Starsaber and Co.😊❤ That'll be a Nice Comparison between the Eastern Vs Western takes on the series!😁👍
7:05 Lol, fansubbed VHS tapes of the GGG anime were my gateway into the entire Brave series like 25 years ago 😆 Managed to amass nearly the entire DX collection MIB, with a few exceptions like some of the TF-derived figures (Red Geist, Dag Base, Shadow Maru, etc), which were expensive even back then. 😭 Admittedly, several of my pieces are Sonokong, but i found the 90% build quality to be an acceptable tradeoff for the 50% (or lower) price point 😋 Looking forward to your future videos! _Final Fusion: APPROVED!!!_ 😎👍
@@Gappasaurus I'm envious of your collection and very appreciative of your kind words! I've never been able to determine how different the Sonokong releases actually were. Is it mostly just that they're imposters, or was there a noticeable difference in quality?
@@classiccomicsforum Side-by-side comparison, there’s no real difference quality-wise. I think there may have been some slight variations in the stickers, but the main difference was just the packaging. Heavier cardboard, usually no windows, and plastic trays instead of styro. Even the same artwork, except for having Korean text instead of Japanese. To the best of my knowledge, they were 100% legit releases, just that Sonokong was the manufacturer & distributor for Takara in S.Korea, similar to Hasbro's arrangement in the West. Aside from Brave, i know the produced Transformers, Microman, B-Daman, and others.
Yep, most of those original designers (mainly Kojin Ono) still made the 86 lineup! Many newcomers came on the transformers team at takara at that time and those same people still work on the franchise today.
Came here from the FB group. I really like the Brave series and have a few of the toys. Brave Express is my favorite of the Braves. Cartoon is top notch and I love the Toy line esthetic and bot designs.
I've watched a couple of the Brave series and they always felt like a sequel to Transformers Victory series to me. I did get some of the Korean Gao Gai Gar toys and they were awesome. My oldest son loves Gao Gai gar, he watched the series with me
I'm firmly convinced the early Brave Toys were designed with the intention of being in the G1 toyline and they shifted gears when Transformers was canceled.
solid overview of one of the best lines of transforming robots out there! I recently picked up a DX ultra raker, and man is the sheer ingenuity on display something to behold. While it does share molds with transformers (most notably deathsaurus, dai atlas, sonic bomber, and sky garry) the pure focus on the transformation feels so in-line with the ideas Super Sentai was pulling around the same time with designs like Jet Icarus. If G2 was pushing bounds of articulation, yuusha series robots gave room for top-tier transformations.
Personally as an Optimus Prime from the Brave franchise, I prefer Da Garn X who looks like a cross between Star Convoy and Star Saber. Much like Star Saber it even combines with a robotic lion to form a super mode.
I agree!! The whole Da garn series rules!! all of the bots on Da Garn were pretty solid figures. Red Geist (Deathsaurus) and 7 changer (six shot) were retooled greatness and the Sabers especially the Pegasus configuration was totally Epic and my favorite besides Da Garn X himself was Land Bison, had he been made of more solid plastic and a little die cast he could have been one of the most solid transforming figures of all time. Great call!! 👍👍
I got aware of the Brave series (and Eldran, who's the kiddier version if I remember correctly) by watching the mech transforming sequence on repeat on youtube as a kid. And I did eventually saw the first 15 episodes or so of GaoGaiGar subbed in french some years later. I do remember seeing somewhere that some of the Brave Series Robot toys shared molds with Transformers. My bet on your favorite entry would be between J-Decker (the police themed one), Dagwon (the more Sentai-esque one), and Might Gain (The train one).
@@kociarzultimate384 I guess I should've been clearer on that point... I should really watch those series in full one day. The Fact Gosauser is litterally made of a school is probably a contributing factor.
I'd never known about the Brave series! They look fun. I wish they'd either officially or unofficially be reissued, because I'd love to own some of them. Thanks for the info and video!
cool video I just started watching your content, pretty amazing. I wish you did not skip the 2nd transformer, your videos make a great archive and history of toys people might not know about. Keep that in mind, if someone does not want to see that transformation they have the option to skip it. Thanks again for the hard work, Sorry about being a back seating reviewer, just my 2 cents
@@Spacetrucker138 no, I really appreciate that feedback! I'm very conscious of the fact that folks have short attention spans, so I try to keep the video short, but you're right, and I won't forget that going forward. Thank you, and keep checking back!
Super Sentai also influence Takara Transformers and Brave Robot. In 1988, we have STARSABER and VICTORY LIO, but also we have LIVEMAN and LIVEBOXER, if you check the LIVEBOXER and LIVEMAN combinaison, you will see a lot of similitudes.
It's great to see Brave figures! Japan (and even to some degree Europe) were still experimenting when transformers were languishing in the U.S. - and while they weren't all hits, there was still some cool, innovative stuff. The sheer bombast and dynamism of a lot of the Japanese-only designs are unmatched and would really invigorate even modern toys. Sadly, without previous designs to harvest, Hasbro had to come up with their own Transforming toys - and in the beginning, they weren't very good at it. I mean let's face it, Shockwave was already a better futuristic gun than the Galvatron toy was, and Galvion had much more awesome transforming futuristic cars than anything that came out of the 86 movie - too bad we only saw hints of how good they could have been on old Converters packaging art. We could all tell it was a step-down. I can't help but wonder what the movie and its subsequent toy line might have looked like if Takara had been in charge. I have to believe they could have done better than the Kup and Rodimus Prime toys we got *looks at face sculpts, shudders*.
It looks and sounds pretty rough, but it actually makes those noises normally. It's neither my rough handling nor the condition. Some of the '90s Power Rangers Megazords had the same kinds of joints that made those same noises.
The only similarity this thing has to Optimus Prime is that it has a face plate You keep making the joke that it's "Not Optimus Prime" when it very clearly isn't
Hey, that's totally fair. The resemblance seemed obvious to me, but people see things differently. Fortunately, the resemblance between Brave and G1 Transformers is less debatable
@@classiccomicsforum yeah, that's very true some of them even are transformers like Red Geist or Shadowmaru. The train combiner from the first series was even a scrapped Diaclone design as far as I'm aware
@@HouseholdWheel yes, I suspect that quite a few scrapped TF designs found their way into early Brave. I even wonder if J-Decker and Duke Fire might have begun life as a plan for a combining Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime, like we finally got in Transformers 2000/R.I.D.
Some people don’t want you to skip entire robots. And this is more of a brick than some 84 g1 bots, sooooo some of your statements are contradictory. Still, some interesting toys.
I noticed you mentioned every transformers combiner from Contructicons aka Devistator, stuntacons aka Menasor, predacons aka Predaking. You remember the Terracons aka Abonimus?
If you haven't looked into it indepth, I would suggest looking into Takara's Gridman line, which was a collaboration with Tsuburaya Productions, and could be seen as a mix of Ultraman and transforming robots (that then become armor for the Ultraman-type hero). There's been newer versions, but the toys are made by someone else and aren't as interesting design wise.
Most of the line was released here by Playmates for the American SSSS adaptation. Quality was comparable to the Takara versions, easier to find, and more affordable 😉
@@evanlindsey1100 Yeah, American licensees stripping all the fun out of Japanese robots for the sake of cost and safety has been a thing since the Shogun Warriors days 😕 Fortunately things have improved in that regard in recent years, with the swing towards catering to adult collectors more than kids 😅
"Ginrai" is pronounced like "Jin-rye", not "Ghin-rye". The full name of "God Ginrai" isn't an alliterative name as it's meant to be an homage to how Godzilla's name is pronounced in Japanese as "Gojira".
@@milestinker2178 thanks for the info! Been a fan of the toy for two decades now and have only heard folks pronounce it with the hard G. Maybe it's time to sit down and watch some of those Japanese Tranformers cartoons.
@@classiccomicsforum Fair warning about Super-God Masterforce (the series that Ginrai is from), it's a very atypical Transformers series. I personally love it, but it bears a greater resemblance to something like Super Sentai/Power Rangers or Tokusatsu in general, with a very human-focused story that has very few actual Cybertronian Transformers in it.
@@classiccomicsforum Lol, i wouldn’t worry about it too much. Regardless of what may or may not be debatably “correct”, the pronunciation of “Ginrai” throughout the anime is inconsistent at best, sounding like a hard “G” sound as often as it does a soft “J”, and very often somewhere in between. I recall nearly every time Giga/Overlord says it, it sounds like a hard “G”, so… 🤷🏻♂️
Hey, that's totally fair. The resemblance seemed obvious to me, but people see things differently. Fortunately, the resemblance between Brave and G1 Transformers is less debatable.
The Soul of Chogokin line released many Brave mechas of various Brave series but I never knew how connected they are with the Transformers lore.
I love the Brave series, I have collected it for years. We need more eyes on these fantastic toys!
@@djozr I could not agree more!
Optimus Prime is dying (again), Prowl, Ratchet and Inferno steps up to take a piece of the spark and Matrix from Optimus, granting them the ability to combine into Optimus Prime for a short while. Anyway, that is where my brain goes after watching this. Thanks for a good video.
Dang, that's good head canon!
@@classiccomicsforum Thank you! Maybe if Hasbro ever wants to release TF Universe versions of Brave, that is if Takara makes new versions of these Brave figures, that could be fun.
@@tuulikk2 I'd love to see that. Unfortunately, Bandai currently has the rights to Brave.
I like the fact that your collection is all well loved, and you still “play with” your figures from time to time.
@@MankyGit thank you much! That's my whole thing. If you don't love playing with them, what's the point?
Loving Beyond Transformers. More, more, more!
@@TyHobbies thank you! Plenty of more is coming, but I learned the hard way that, if you upload too often, the TH-cam algorithm buries your video, so I'm keeping it to once a week or so. Hope to see you around for the next one!
One hasn't lived until they've seen a lion merge with a train, a drill tank, and a jet to become a larger robot.
Hahaha. I suspect a GaoGaiGar episode is an inevitability for this channel.
Hell yeah, thank you for talking about Braves. More tf fans should know about it!
Couldn't agree more!
Make a Video on the OG Japanese Transformers BEFORE HASBRO's or the Japanese Version featuring Starsaber and Co.😊❤
That'll be a Nice Comparison between the Eastern Vs Western takes on the series!😁👍
Next up is God Ginrai, so that's in the neighborhood, at least.
@classiccomicsforum Also Cool!😁👻
I Was Literally Blown Away, when i Discovered the Jap Transformers with Starsaber at the Helm, ahahaha...😯🤯🤣
7:05 Lol, fansubbed VHS tapes of the GGG anime were my gateway into the entire Brave series like 25 years ago 😆 Managed to amass nearly the entire DX collection MIB, with a few exceptions like some of the TF-derived figures (Red Geist, Dag Base, Shadow Maru, etc), which were expensive even back then. 😭 Admittedly, several of my pieces are Sonokong, but i found the 90% build quality to be an acceptable tradeoff for the 50% (or lower) price point 😋
Looking forward to your future videos!
_Final Fusion: APPROVED!!!_ 😎👍
@@Gappasaurus I'm envious of your collection and very appreciative of your kind words! I've never been able to determine how different the Sonokong releases actually were. Is it mostly just that they're imposters, or was there a noticeable difference in quality?
@@classiccomicsforum Side-by-side comparison, there’s no real difference quality-wise. I think there may have been some slight variations in the stickers, but the main difference was just the packaging. Heavier cardboard, usually no windows, and plastic trays instead of styro. Even the same artwork, except for having Korean text instead of Japanese. To the best of my knowledge, they were 100% legit releases, just that Sonokong was the manufacturer & distributor for Takara in S.Korea, similar to Hasbro's arrangement in the West. Aside from Brave, i know the produced Transformers, Microman, B-Daman, and others.
Fun fact, seems these days they are the S.Korean licensee for lines like Hello Carbot and Turning Mecard 😄
@@Gappasaurus thanks for explaining! Been wanting to know for two decades now!
@@classiccomicsforum No problem, happy to put decades of arguably useless knowledge to some good use 😄
Yep, most of those original designers (mainly Kojin Ono) still made the 86 lineup! Many newcomers came on the transformers team at takara at that time and those same people still work on the franchise today.
Very cool! If I ever find one complete I'll snag it. Heck maybe even if it isn't just to add it to the collection.
you should cover more of this line, bring awareness of this lost generation.
@@brokenserenity01 Thanks! I definitely intend to!
Came here from the FB group. I really like the Brave series and have a few of the toys. Brave Express is my favorite of the Braves. Cartoon is top notch and I love the Toy line esthetic and bot designs.
@@ReverendPONT thanks so much for checking this out! Planning to do more Brave vids in the near future.
I've watched a couple of the Brave series and they always felt like a sequel to Transformers Victory series to me. I did get some of the Korean Gao Gai Gar toys and they were awesome. My oldest son loves Gao Gai gar, he watched the series with me
I'm firmly convinced the early Brave Toys were designed with the intention of being in the G1 toyline and they shifted gears when Transformers was canceled.
@@ShinGoukiSan that's always been my belief, as well.
@@classiccomicsforum Ultra Raker was. none of the others are confirmed to be so
solid overview of one of the best lines of transforming robots out there! I recently picked up a DX ultra raker, and man is the sheer ingenuity on display something to behold. While it does share molds with transformers (most notably deathsaurus, dai atlas, sonic bomber, and sky garry) the pure focus on the transformation feels so in-line with the ideas Super Sentai was pulling around the same time with designs like Jet Icarus. If G2 was pushing bounds of articulation, yuusha series robots gave room for top-tier transformations.
@@thebackcorner1427 well said, indeed!
Personally as an Optimus Prime from the Brave franchise, I prefer Da Garn X who looks like a cross between Star Convoy and Star Saber. Much like Star Saber it even combines with a robotic lion to form a super mode.
@@davewire87 still need to add Da Garn to my collection. Good call!
I agree!! The whole Da garn series rules!! all of the bots on Da Garn were pretty solid figures. Red Geist (Deathsaurus) and 7 changer (six shot) were retooled greatness and the Sabers especially the Pegasus configuration was totally Epic and my favorite besides Da Garn X himself was Land Bison, had he been made of more solid plastic and a little die cast he could have been one of the most solid transforming figures of all time.
Great call!! 👍👍
I got aware of the Brave series (and Eldran, who's the kiddier version if I remember correctly) by watching the mech transforming sequence on repeat on youtube as a kid. And I did eventually saw the first 15 episodes or so of GaoGaiGar subbed in french some years later.
I do remember seeing somewhere that some of the Brave Series Robot toys shared molds with Transformers.
My bet on your favorite entry would be between J-Decker (the police themed one), Dagwon (the more Sentai-esque one), and Might Gain (The train one).
@@alexandreturcotte6411 that's an awesome introduction! Great guesses, but nope!
Eldran is not more childish, it has a lot of character development and depth
@@kociarzultimate384 I guess I should've been clearer on that point... I should really watch those series in full one day.
The Fact Gosauser is litterally made of a school is probably a contributing factor.
@@alexandreturcotte6411 and it's what gives us the best stock footage
@@alexandreturcotte6411 those are all up there, bur you haven't guessed my #1!
Well done increasing the price of all this stuff
Gaogaigar... is one of those spirit of that kind of transformer like figs
We were robbed of so much back in the day.
I'd much rather a Transformer be made of car parts, rather then being a robot wearing car parts. Smokescreen is fine.
Well said!
I'd never known about the Brave series! They look fun. I wish they'd either officially or unofficially be reissued, because I'd love to own some of them. Thanks for the info and video!
@@shoddyworkmanship4934 you're so welcome. Thanks for the kind words!
cool video I just started watching your content, pretty amazing. I wish you did not skip the 2nd transformer, your videos make a great archive and history of toys people might not know about. Keep that in mind, if someone does not want to see that transformation they have the option to skip it. Thanks again for the hard work, Sorry about being a back seating reviewer, just my 2 cents
@@Spacetrucker138 no, I really appreciate that feedback! I'm very conscious of the fact that folks have short attention spans, so I try to keep the video short, but you're right, and I won't forget that going forward. Thank you, and keep checking back!
@@classiccomicsforum I will, you got a fan here, It has to be super hard to want to make good content and juggle the algorithm . You'll knock it out!
@@Spacetrucker138 thanks much, my friend. I really appreciate it!
7:26 I'm getting serious Galaxy Convoy vibes off this.
Yes, there's a definite similarity in the basic DNA, for sure.
Interesting friend.
@@TransformersTalkRAW thank you!
Super Sentai also influence Takara Transformers and Brave Robot. In 1988, we have STARSABER and VICTORY LIO, but also we have LIVEMAN and LIVEBOXER, if you check the LIVEBOXER and LIVEMAN combinaison, you will see a lot of similitudes.
@@MrAsterian75 excellent point! Hope you checked out the episode I did on Super Sentai. Thanks!
It's great to see Brave figures! Japan (and even to some degree Europe) were still experimenting when transformers were languishing in the U.S. - and while they weren't all hits, there was still some cool, innovative stuff. The sheer bombast and dynamism of a lot of the Japanese-only designs are unmatched and would really invigorate even modern toys. Sadly, without previous designs to harvest, Hasbro had to come up with their own Transforming toys - and in the beginning, they weren't very good at it. I mean let's face it, Shockwave was already a better futuristic gun than the Galvatron toy was, and Galvion had much more awesome transforming futuristic cars than anything that came out of the 86 movie - too bad we only saw hints of how good they could have been on old Converters packaging art. We could all tell it was a step-down. I can't help but wonder what the movie and its subsequent toy line might have looked like if Takara had been in charge. I have to believe they could have done better than the Kup and Rodimus Prime toys we got *looks at face sculpts, shudders*.
@@jasonschneider7224 heck, imagine a Transformers cartoon supervised by Takara instead of Hasbro!
Could also be the headmaster juniors upgraded, all now without their human partners, also infused with what they 'shared' with god bomber.....
Excellent point!
It's called the missing link series.
All that cracking and crackling sounds of the plastic being roughly manipulated during transformations make my ears and my mind hurt.
It looks and sounds pretty rough, but it actually makes those noises normally. It's neither my rough handling nor the condition. Some of the '90s Power Rangers Megazords had the same kinds of joints that made those same noises.
can you do review all brave series opening
The only similarity this thing has to Optimus Prime is that it has a face plate
You keep making the joke that it's "Not Optimus Prime" when it very clearly isn't
Hey, that's totally fair. The resemblance seemed obvious to me, but people see things differently. Fortunately, the resemblance between Brave and G1 Transformers is less debatable
@@classiccomicsforum yeah, that's very true some of them even are transformers like Red Geist or Shadowmaru.
The train combiner from the first series was even a scrapped Diaclone design as far as I'm aware
@@HouseholdWheel yes, I suspect that quite a few scrapped TF designs found their way into early Brave. I even wonder if J-Decker and Duke Fire might have begun life as a plan for a combining Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime, like we finally got in Transformers 2000/R.I.D.
Some people don’t want you to skip entire robots.
And this is more of a brick than some 84 g1 bots, sooooo some of your statements are contradictory.
Still, some interesting toys.
I'll be sure to give equal time to all bots moving forward. Thanks for the feedback.
I noticed you mentioned every transformers combiner from Contructicons aka Devistator, stuntacons aka Menasor, predacons aka Predaking. You remember the Terracons aka Abonimus?
If you haven't looked into it indepth, I would suggest looking into Takara's Gridman line, which was a collaboration with Tsuburaya Productions, and could be seen as a mix of Ultraman and transforming robots (that then become armor for the Ultraman-type hero).
There's been newer versions, but the toys are made by someone else and aren't as interesting design wise.
Thanks! I'm only aware of Gridman from the recent crossover they did with the Diaclone reboot line, so I'll have to check out the classic series.
Most of the line was released here by Playmates for the American SSSS adaptation. Quality was comparable to the Takara versions, easier to find, and more affordable 😉
@@Gappasaurus thanks for the tip!
@@Gappasaurus Playmates removed all of the lights and sound for their Servo figures, but as far as I can tell, everything else is the same.
@@evanlindsey1100 Yeah, American licensees stripping all the fun out of Japanese robots for the sake of cost and safety has been a thing since the Shogun Warriors days 😕 Fortunately things have improved in that regard in recent years, with the swing towards catering to adult collectors more than kids 😅
"Ginrai" is pronounced like "Jin-rye", not "Ghin-rye". The full name of "God Ginrai" isn't an alliterative name as it's meant to be an homage to how Godzilla's name is pronounced in Japanese as "Gojira".
@@milestinker2178 thanks for the info! Been a fan of the toy for two decades now and have only heard folks pronounce it with the hard G. Maybe it's time to sit down and watch some of those Japanese Tranformers cartoons.
@@classiccomicsforum Fair warning about Super-God Masterforce (the series that Ginrai is from), it's a very atypical Transformers series. I personally love it, but it bears a greater resemblance to something like Super Sentai/Power Rangers or Tokusatsu in general, with a very human-focused story that has very few actual Cybertronian Transformers in it.
@@classiccomicsforum Lol, i wouldn’t worry about it too much. Regardless of what may or may not be debatably “correct”, the pronunciation of “Ginrai” throughout the anime is inconsistent at best, sounding like a hard “G” sound as often as it does a soft “J”, and very often somewhere in between. I recall nearly every time Giga/Overlord says it, it sounds like a hard “G”, so… 🤷🏻♂️
@@milestinker2178 I think I'd enjoy that. Thanks for the heads up!
@@Gappasaurus thanks much for the partial exoneration!
Very powe ranger
Prefer the combined look without the extras attached 🤷🏻♂️
@@MudSluggerBP it definitely looks more like Optimus Prime that way.
15:16 I’m sorry, STD??
Haha, I promise you won't catch anything from these guys!
STD = Standard, as opposed to DX (Deluxe).
Going to be honest, other than the head I don't see optimus in in this
Hey, that's totally fair. The resemblance seemed obvious to me, but people see things differently. Fortunately, the resemblance between Brave and G1 Transformers is less debatable.
Aren't you missing some spring loaded flip up heads?
@@DonSchomer sure am. Like I said in the video, it's an abbreviated history. Some things inevitably were left out for time.
Should have stopped at the bigger feet