For many of us Battle Beasts collectors the collection is not complete without each Beasts having its own unique weapon. This means that a full collection of Battle Beasts is not consisting out of 76 pieces, namely Beasts, but double that amount 152 pieces!!! Where finding the Beasts in a decent condition can be quite a struggle considering issues like broken arms, missing rubsigns or paint damage that´s nothing compared to the struggle of finding the weapons that go with the Beasts. Why is this so hard and what effect does this have on the pricing of the Beasts these days? This will be explained in this post about; Battle Beasts & Their Vulnerable Small weapons..
Did Battle Beasts have weapons?!
To many this question might look a bit odd but considering the fact that you´ll probably find more individually sold Beasts or Beasts in a lot completely without weapons at all these days and memories might be a bit vague to some it is not uncommon for people to have forgotten about the fact that Battle Beasts did come with a weapon. Out here on the Beastformers Blog it´s key to preserve the Battle Beasts line in the best possible way which means it´s also important to address the importance of the weapons to those who´re unaware or who´ve forgotten.
Lost and Broken and over time forgotten…
How many of your own Battle Beasts weapons have survived since your childhood?
To those who´ve been very careful with their toys back in the 80´s the answer might be most of them but even the most well behaved kid back in the days must have experienced a broken or lost weapon back in the days. And with these weapons being so tiny and vulnerable that´s been almost unavoidable. So eventually a lot of Battle Beasts weapons never withstood those first days, weeks, months or let alone years causing the number of weapons currently around being completely out of balance with the number of Beasts that survived the test of time. Where those little plastic weapon things easily got lost or thrown away, by parents…, even if they´re not broken(!) the Beasts, luckily enough, were often spared from this fate. All in all the size and vulnerability of the weapons, sometimes resulting in a very short life span, are responsible for the fact that in some cases they´ve indeed been forgotten…
SNAP, a broken weapon!
This is the worst thing that can happen to you when you´ve just received a complete Beasts you´ve been after for quite a while, or while having a figure fall out of your display while cleaning or rearranging, but it happens. After handling many Beasts over the past years we´ve learned that even placing the weapons inside the hands of a Beasts can be a bit challenging in some cases. Triple Threat Snakes weapon can be quite a struggle in that sense and it´s one of the weapons that broke but there are more that suddenly snapped or that didn´t make it in one piece via the mail. As frustrating as this might be it´s also part of the line, many weapons have fallen since their release and many more will fall in time. The only thing you can try to do to prevent this is to handle them with extreme care being fully aware of their vulnerability because they might bend until a certain degree but there´s no warning sign before the fatal SNAP.
It´s hard to tell whether over time more weapons have been broken or got lost but you can imagine that hundreds if not thousands of these little weapons have been lost at playgrounds, in toy rooms, in cars, etc. Leaving numerous of Beasts unarmed these days…
Damaged Weapons
And sadly enough those weapons that did withstand the test of time making it this far in one piece are not always unharmed either. Probably on of the most seen issues on weapons are bite marks which can be pretty severe. This is quite strange considering you´d estimate that the target group for the Battle Beasts back in the eighties, us as kids, were at an age that this shouldn´t have happened but it did. Other issues are fatal cuts or bends that have been responsible for partially destroying a weapon. To some issues like these might be acceptable because at least the weapon did not break but to others these are serious issues causing them to continue their search for that specific weapon in the preferred condition. In the end, also when it comes to the weapons, it all depends upon condition.
Battle Beasts weapons are pricey
And with the time passing that search for, especially loose, weapons can become an even more pricey one. Because as explained above there are numerous reasons for the fact that the number of weapons in relation to the number of Beasts is completely out of balance and this is causing friction. Due to the constantly moving market we´re not able to share exact prices in this article because once we do this that price might´ve gone up or down within the next weeks or months causing this to become irrelevant like most of the Battle Beasts related price guides out there being completely outdated and inaccurate. It´s just not possible to keep that up to date in a proper and informative way. What we can conclude, looking at the past few years, though is the fact that the influence and the value of the weapons has increased drastically. Weapon lots on Ebay can fetch insane prices whereas lots with a similar number of Beasts in it could even be sold for less and this is clearly the result of this dis-balanced situation of collectors with Beasts looking for loose weapons to complete them. Another interesting development is the fact that pricing of complete Beasts, so the Beasts with the weapon, has doubled if not tripled in some cases and this comes primarily from the increased value of the weapons. In some cases the value of the weapon has already out-driven the price of the Beast itself and this is probably a development we´ll be seeing more often in the future simply because of the fact that you can´t leave a Beast unarmed.
Advice
When new collectors contact us via the Beastformers Blog or any of the Social Media accounts in regards to Beast purchases or to help them with accurate info in regards to pricing to give them an idea there´s often one crucial advice that we share; Don´t save a few bucks now by purchasing just the loose figure if, in the end, your goal is to obtain a complete set of Beasts with weapons. People often tend to think that purchasing a loose Beasts (without weapon) for a good price is a good deal but they often get burned when they find out that finding the loose weapon for this Beasts is either relatively expensive to purchase or, in most cases, it´s not even available at all. Resulting in the fact that most end up purchasing the same Beast again but this time complete with weapon just in order to get a hold of that weapon. So it might be better to do that straight away saving you a lot of effort, frustration and money down the line. If you´re new to collecting this line or just started this is probably one of the most helpful advises you can get because it´s a lesson you´ll end up learning down the road eventually anyway. Make up your mind in regards to your collecting goal on the level of completeness and or condition of the figures as soon as possible and keep this as your key measure when purchasing to avoid ending up with incomplete figures or figures in a condition you don´t like and need to update.
BB Weapons VS Laserguns
This advice is especially valid for the Laser Beasts because equal to their prices the value of their laserguns can be pretty serious as well. Luckily the weapons of the Laser Beasts, like the rubsign replacement for the orb, can really be considered to be a 2.0 updated version of the BB weapons since these are much bulkier and solid. They´re a real improvement because with those you don´t have to worry about breaking them or at least it wont be as easy as breaking one of those fragile BB weapons, so far we can´t remember having seen a broken LB weapon.
Hopefully this article was useful and informative although to most collectors it´s probably nothing new but it´s good to share our collective knowledge with those who don´t know or who´re new to collecting this line now or in the future.
Requests for Loose Weapons…
One final note; Please don´t ask or request for loose weapons because it´s our ¨policy¨ not to sell them as such since we strive to offer complete figs only and those extra weapons we might have around will be completed with a Beasts in time because we´ve learned the hard way that it´s easier to find a Beasts for a weapon than the other way around…
Enjoy the Beasts!
The Beastformers Team
Beastformers Blog 