Mold Partners

In Battle, and within the large variety of animals and colors that are present within this toy line, it might seem that all Beasts stand alone but in reality no Battle Beast (BB) stands alone and it goes even further since no Battle Beast was even produced on its own! Because within the Battle Beasts line, this also goes for the Laser Beasts (LB), every Beast has a so-called “Mold Partner,¨ and maybe you didn’t know but each Beast from this Mold Partner set is either a King or an Emperor on Planet Beast!

The concept of the Mold Partners can be explained and clarified from two different perspectives namely from the Production point of view and via the original Beastformers Storyline (Japanese). Although both don´t seem to have a direct connection other than the fact that it´s concerning the same toy line, you´ll learn in this post that without the input from the storyline it´d probably have been impossible to correctly assign the correct Mold Partner to each Beast. If you´re curious and you can´t wait you can scroll all the way down to find a fully written out List of the Beastformers/Battle Beasts Mold Partners.

Before diving deeper into this subject it might be wise to first clarify the definition of a Mold Partner as pertaining to the Battle Beasts toy line.

MOLD PARTNER

A Mold Partner is a Battle Beasts (or Laser Beast) that has been produced in the exact same mold, at the exact same moment, and in the exact same BASE color as the other Beast.

– Definition –

This means that two different Battle Beasts, within the same Series, were produced at the exact same time. In order to understand this a bit better and to properly explain about the Mold Partners it’s best to follow the production point of view initially.

PRODUCTION

When producing a toy line a lot of choices have to be made and in order to cut costs during production there’s one important key word; Efficiency. Knowing that HASBRO had announced that by the summer of 1987 over 40 Million individual Beasts were supposed to be released (check: LINE ART KIT 1987 (HASBRO LICENSING DEPARTMENT) it´s not so weird that efficiency probably played a key role in the fact that Mold Partners exist simply because by placing two different Battle Beasts into one Mold the number of required molds is instantly reduced by 50% from 76 individual molds to 38 molds which each held two Beasts. The same goes for the Laser Beasts. So in total with the 112 Beasts existing (76 BB and 36 LB), not 112 molds were made but ¨only¨ 56. However in this post the focus will be on the Battle Beasts, maybe at a later point there will also be a post like this for the Laser Beasts, so remember the number of 38 (BB molds) because this number will return later!

By choosing to combine two different BBs into the same mold in order to reduce costs and increase the production speed at the same time, the choice to cast these Beasts in the same BASE color was also automatically made. This might have been a hard decision considering the large variety of colors that are present within this toy line but due to the highly skilled designers from TAKARA in Japan and the paint decisions that were made to give each Beast a unique look they did pretty well to create some color combinations that are pretty deceiving. There’s even a chance you wouldn’t have known certain Beasts actually belonged together as Mold Partners if you´d not seen this post and that’s quite an achievement.

Now we know that for each BB that exists there is (at least) one other Beast out there with the exact same BASE color due to the way these have been produced.

THE BASE COLOR

This BASE color is an important and returning topic when it comes to explaining the Mold Partners, because it is THE variable within this colorful toy line that is actually the most consistent. If there’s one Purple Beast around, for instance Sledgehammer Elephant (see the Header image of this post), you know there´s another Beast that also has Purple as it’s BASE color, in this case Swiny Boar (its Mold Partner). This is an easy example and it´s probably one you´d have been able to tell for yourself as well, but it’s not always that easy/obvious. When you look solely at the White Beasts within Series 1; Pirate Lion, Colonel Bird, Killer Carp and Gruesome Gator it might already get more tricky without additional information, but this part will be clarified within the Beastformers Storyline later on in this post.

In general when base color is mentioned you could almost safely say that this would be the skin color of the Beast in which is was cast so White for Pirate Lion, Brown for Deer Stalker, Purple for Sledgehammer Elephant, Turquoise for Hare Razing Rabbit and so on BUT this is no always the case! As it turns out, all of the exceptions strangely enough seem to have had something to do with the color Black.

ONLY 2 BLACK BEASTS REALLY EXIST

There are various theories/rumors around about this but the fact is that ONLY Gargantuan Gorilla and Hardtop Tortoise were produced and released with Black as their base color, initially… Because at some point in time the production of these figures shifted from the Black base color to a version that´s known as the ¨Orange Plastic¨ Version (image above) which is considered a MATERIAL VARIANT. When looking beyond Series 1 there are NO Black Base color figures found amongst Series 2 and the Black Base color figures you think exist in Series 3 (Panzer Panda, Black Panther and Crooked Crow) are not actually cast in Black?! Curious to know more about this? Have a look at the ¨VARIANT EXPLANATION¨ page. This shows that not everything is always what it looks like and that there are details within this toy line that can be rather deceiving.

MOLDS IN DIFFERENT FACTORIES

By far the largest majority of Battle Beasts have been produced in factories in China because that´s where the BB were made for the Japanese, American and most of the European market but apart from these production locations there were also production locations in other countries and with these Mold Partners in mind some color differences and variations might suddenly make more sense as well. Like for instance War Weasel and Crusty Crab which were not only produced in China but also in Taiwan (this goes for all of the final 10 BB (#19-28)), to be included with the Battle Beasts Chariots, resulting in the fact that these are found with a Pink Base Color as well instead of the more Common Red version which was produced in China. These are known as Production Variants. More info about this can also be found on the ¨VARIANT EXPLANATION¨ page. With this connection is mind it also explains why even more distinct versions are around like for instance the Gray Deer Stalker and Gray Grizzly Bear (image below) which are the result of a factory in Spain that was responsible for the production of the Spanish Battle Beasts known as the BESTIAS DE COMBATE. They had the full run of Series 1, so 14 Mold (28 Beasts), to be produced for the Spanish market resulting in some interesting and distinct Mold Partner color.

From the Production point of view we´ve learned that in order to cut costs and to speed up production 38 Battle Beasts Molds exist resulting in the fact that there also are 38 sets of Mold Partners around, each of which have the same base color. So which Beasts are the actual Mold Partners?

In order to be able to completely clarify that, particularly for those Beasts who seem to have a similar base color and are found within the same Series, it´s impossible to ignore the original Beastformers Storyline coming from the Japanese Beastformers Book.

BEASTFORMERS STORYLINE

Although this Storyline comes from the Japanese Beastformers Book it’s actually a Pamphlet that´s included in various Japanese box sets (Battle Beasts Chariots, Battle Beasts Base/Play sets and the Clear Carp set) that explains it perfectly;

What we see here is the Map of Planet Beast which contains 6 different continents divided over 38(!) countries each of which is ruled by the Mold Partners. Let´s break this down in order to explain it.

38 COUNTRIES

Remember you were asked to keep that number 38 in mind? Here it is again, but instead of there being 38 Molds now there are 38 Countries. A coincidence? Not really, because if you look carefully at the image on the Pamphlet you´ll notice that every country is numbered and that two Beasts are assigned to it, exactly TWO Beasts which not by accident turn out to be the Mold Partner Beasts. So it is this division that actually clarifies any possible uncertainties/doubts in regards to figures with the same base color. Because now we can see that Pirate Lion actually belongs to Colonel Bird instead of for instance Killer Carp or Gruesome Gator. But wait, there is more!

THE MOLD PARTNER NUMBERING

With the Mold Partners in sets of two, assigned to a different Country on Planet Beast also comes a discrepancy, because the numbering of the Mold Partners shown there is obviously completely ¨illogical¨(?) or at least not in line with the production point of view. It starts well with Mold Partner set Number 1 being Pirate Lion and Colonel Bird which would make sense with Pirate Lion being Beast Number 1, but it goes wrong from there straight away. Logically Mold Partner set Number 2 would be Deer Stalker with Grizzly Bear and so on but that´s not the case with Mold Partner set Number 2 being Sawtooth Shark and Bighorn Sheep. With Mold Partner set 9 containing Series 2 Beasts, namely Sabre Sword Tiger and Squire Squirrel, it becomes less likely. This is where the two perspectives to approach the Mold Partner subject take a different path.

So for the record the Mold Partner numbering is NOT related to the production order because in that case Molds 1-14 would automatically be assigned to Series 1, Molds 15-26 would be Series 2 and Molds 27-38 would be Series 3.

The reason why we stick with this Storyline Numbering, as such, is because it´ll be in line with future publications that´ll explain more about the Beastformers Storyline. Due to ongoing translation work in regards to the actual names of the 38 various countries on Planet Beast and the whole storyline we won´t go deeper into that here, because it’s irrelevant for this Mold Partner subject which can be explained without it as well. Before this post comes to an end there´s one more thing worthy of nothing, because Mold Partners are not just Mold Partners, based on the Storyline it also made that every Mold held a King and an Emperor!?

KINGS & EMPERORS

Within the Beastformers storyline the Balance on Planet Beasts plays a crucial role and this is represented by presence of the known Symbols (FIRE, WOOD, WATER) but it also plays a role within each Country because each of the 38 Countries is ruled by a King as well as an Emperor! Together they make the ¨Strongest Pair¨ and this results in a balance within the country. This balance within the storyline is merely based on the fact that qualities of the Beasts, based on their character descriptions, are complementary to each other so they strengthen each other’s strong points and/or cover the weak points from the other Beast with their own strong points. It´s an interesting thought to say the least knowing that one Country is ruled by two leaders, each holding a different title, but which both play a crucial role in maintaining the balance.

White Leo (Pirate Lion) for instance is a King, so now you know it’s actually King White Leo and with that it also makes that it´s Emperor Flykick (Colonel Bird). The Pamphlet (above) and the written out Beastformers Mold Partners list (below) shows which Beasts are actually a King or an Emperor. Did you know? Have a look and find out what title your favorite Battle Beast holds!