Cybertron Satellite
From Transformers Wiki
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Cybertron Satellite (サイバトロンサテライト Saibatoron Sateraito) was a Transformers promotion in Japan that saw select neighborhoods and cities granted their own mascot Transformer character, with the title "Town Commander". Each commander is an original character based on a preexisting Legends-class or Cyberverse Legion-class toy, redesigned with new colors and details to evoke certain famous characteristics of their region. Fourteen characters were rolled out in the first wave of the promotion in March 2012, with a fifteenth used by TakaraTomy as a mascot at conventions. A second series began in November 2012, though most of its new characters didn't emerge until May 2013. At least one more series occurred after that, presumably in 2014, albeit with a significantly smaller addition to the roster.
The promotion was denoted by large Matrix of Leadership-shaped in-store displays, which run a video on the history of Transformers and are decorated by portraits of the franchise's great leaders: Generation 1 Optimus Prime, Rodimus Prime, Optimus Primal, Unicron Trilogy Optimus Prime, Animated Optimus Prime, live-action movie Optimus Prime, Prime Optimus Prime, and in the eighth and final slot, that region's Town Commander.
The primary objective for fans in the campaign was to fill out the official "Town Commander Collection Book" by traveling to each location to procure the sticker for that region's Town Commander, with the "final boss" of the event being chasing down TakaraTomy employees at participating events for a sticker of Dimicron Prime, the Town Commander representing TakaraTomy themselves.
Cybertron Satellite was pushed so hard by TakaraTomy that it even received a "show" of sorts in the form of the From the Cybertron Satellite, Transformers Division series of bumpers for the Japanese airing of Transformers Prime, wherein Transformers deity Vector Sigma tasked the idol group Tokyo Girls' Style with a series of thinly veiled commercials holy missions that exposited on various Transformers concepts and sub-promotions.
While the events seemingly trailed off around 2015, the Cybertron Satellite branding and a steady stream of exclusive toys continued to be carried by participating retailers across Japan all the way up to some time in 2022, when TakaraTomy quietly removed the Cybertron Satellite tab from its Transformers website.
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Fiction
The Town Commander Collection Book
From the Cybertron Satellite, Transformers Division
Go! cartoon
Isami and the Autobot Swordbot Samurai Team discovered a Legendisc connection point near the Cybertron Satellite in Ginza, which they promptly used to travel back in time in pursuit of the green Legendisc. The Invincible Swordsman - Ryōma Sakamoto!?
Yokohama Decepticon Secret Base
TransTech
Toys
Matrix Collection
- Mito no Machi no Matrix (ミトの町のマトリクス, 2012-10-17)
- Fukutsu no Machi no Matrix (フクツの町のマトリクス, 2012-12-29)
- November 2012 saw the launch of the "Matrix Collection": a set of fourteen redecos of the Matrix of Leadership accessory included with Masterpiece MP-10 Convoy, intended to be the Matrices carried by the Town Commanders, and decorated in two-tone color schemes that correspond to their bearers.
- Only Mito's Town Matrix and Fukutsu's Town Matrix were released; equipped with a removable key-chain, they were available in all fourteen Cybertron Satellite stores, sold with a sticker of that region's Town Commander. They were only available with purchases of 3000 yen or more, and were limited to only 200 pieces per store.
- The Mito's Town Matrix in particular was eventually repurposed as the Purple Matrix.
Prime
- Dark Guard Optimus Prime (Voyager, 2012-12-01)
- Accessories: "Cybertronian battle sword", "plasma cannon"
- Released in December 2012, this black and gold redeco of Transformers: Prime First Edition Optimus Prime was available for sale only at the fourteen stores participating in the Cybertron Satellite promotion.
- Nightmare Unicron (2013)
- Accessories: "Bogu M" Arms Micron
- A black, grey, and red redeco of Gaia Unicron, this version of the chaos-bringer is designed to match up with Prime Nemesis Prime. Notably, this is the first release of the mold to feature correctly-assembled knees. Nightmare Unicron was released as a Cybertron Satellite store exclusive in Japan. Prior to the release, he was revealed as a prize for the second Arms Up Micron contest.
Transformers GT
- Safety Prime (Original Ver.) (Legends class, 2013)
- Something of a "bonus round" of the promotion, Safety Prime is a redeco of 2010's Transformers: Reveal the Shield Legends Class Prowl, transforming into a modified Nissan 350Z, reworked into a motorsport safety car. He was given away free at the TakaraTomy-sponsored "Kids Walk" events held by Super GT in 2013 to participating children as something of a crossover between Cybertron Satellite and the Transformers GT franchise.
Go!
- Hunter Nemesis Prime (Voyager, 2013-12-26)
- Accessories: 2 missile launchers/rocket engines, 2 missiles, sword
- A Cybertron Satellite-exclusive TakaraTomy Go! toy, Hunter Nemesis Prime is a black redeco/retool of Prime: Beast Hunters Voyager Class Optimus Prime, transforming into a monstrous flat-nosed truck, and with his head being remolded to feature a faceplate.
Lost Age
- Convoy [Anniversary Clear Ver.] (EZ Collection, 2014)
- A redeco of the Reveal the Shield Legends Class Optimus Prime toy with the Generations Motorbreath retooling (for accessories he does not come with), Convoy is cast in red and black clear plastic. He has been retooled to include a magnet in his right foot, allowing him to interact with Lost Age Battle Command Optimus Prime and Age of Extinction Stomp & Chomp Grimlock.
- Convoy was available at a variety of 2014 events, including on May 3 at a "Kids Walk" event at Fuji Speedway, in special packaging on May 16 at the "Transformers Celebration 2014" midnight event at the Sunshine City Toys"R"Us store in Ikebukuro, on June 15 at Tokyo Toy Show 2014, at the Aeon Mall in Kasukabe on July 19, and at the "Transformers Expo" event in Yokohama on August 9; at the Expo's preview night, attendees could also acquire a sticker sheet designed to turn the toy into Nemesis Prime in a bundle with themed Decepticon insignia cookies. Convoy was also available as one of three preorder bonuses for Cloud Roadbuster.
- This toy was repurposed as Nemesis Prime/Yokohama Convoy by the included "Yokohama Decepticon Secret Base" comic that (rather out of nowhere) functions as pretty much the de facto primary fiction for the entire Cybertron Satellite campaign.
- Black Knight Strafe (Deluxe, December 2014)
- Accessories: Crossbow/launcher, missile, 2 swords
- A redeco of Generations Strafe, this time in a predominantly black colour scheme with blue highlights, presumably representative of the mainly dark gray appearance of the Dinobots in the movie. Black Knight Strafe is a Takara exclusive, and was obtainable at Cybertron Satellite participant stores.
Adventure
- Sawback (Mini-Con, 2015)
- Accessories: Armor sprue (muzzle-guard, left & right shoulder-blades, left & right axe/cannons, tail-flame effect)
- Known designers: Hisao Nishimoto (TakaraTomy)
- Part of the first wave of Robots in Disguise single-pack Mini-Cons, Sawback transforms from a robotic wolf into a Cybertronian buzzsaw in a single step. He is designed to attach to and launch from Deployer Drift's grill-mounted launcher. He comes with a number of clear-plastic accessories attached to an Autobot-insignia-shaped sprue, which can be attached to him in both beast and buzzsaw modes (though the muzzle-guard really doesn't want to allow him to close all the way into buzzsaw mode).
- His leg-mounted axes/cannons can combine with armor parts from his wavemates Divebomb, Dragonus, and Slipstream to form a robotic lion.
- Sawback was released by TakaraTomy in November of 2015, as part of the Transformers Adventure Limited Micron Gift Campaign. He was given away free with the purchase of 3000 yen worth of Transformers Adventure products at Yamada Denki and Yodobashi Camera stores, plus AEON "Cybertron Satellite" stores in Lake Town, Mito Uchihara, and Sapporo Hiraokanishi. This release of Sawback has a Transformers Chronicle mobile app-compatible scan-badge, but is otherwise identical to the Hasbro release.
Golden Lagoon
The Golden Lagoon toyline consisted of redecoes of toys mostly from the contemporaneous Prime Wars Trilogy in golden colour schemes, vacuum metallized where possible (and in creamy golden plastic where not). Each release was available from TakaraTomy Mall at some stage; Convoy and Soundwave debuted early at Wonder Festival 2018 [Summer] and Wonder Festival 2019 [Winter], respectively, and all releases save the Beachcomber/Perceptor/Seaspray three-pack were also available at Cybertron Satellite locations across Japan. In 2020, the entire line was offered via Hasbro Pulse in extremely limited quantities, with the toys being given new ID numbers.
Joint Cybertron Satellite Exclusives
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Collaborative
- The third figure released in the Collaborative line, Gigawatt is an extensive retooling of Siege Deluxe Class Sideswipe that transforms into a heavily customized DMC DeLorean, representing the iconic vehicle from the Back to the Future film trilogy. In his vehicle mode, his gull-wing doors can open and close, plus a "lightning rod" can be added to the back to replicate the climax of the first film. He can also be converted to the hovercar mode from the first film's ending (and how it appeared in much of the second film) by adding the "Mr. Fusion" generator to the back and folding his wheels down.
- In robot mode Gigawatt displays a chest-mounted flux capacitor, as well as time circuits which display three dates, each corresponding to the time periods Doc and Marty visited in the first two movies. His knees also feature molded-in (and unpainted) flux capacitors to boot (ha ha). The lightning rod becomes a whip weapon, and the Mr. Fusion can be plugged into the back or the top of his rifle.
- TakaraTomy announced that they would be releasing Gigawatt in July of 2020, making it the first Collaborative product to be released in Japan. It was a released as a joint exclusive between TakaraTomy Mall and participating Cybertron Satellite stores in October of 2020.
| Siege mold: Sideswipe | ||
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Cybertronian vehicle mode:
Earth vehicle mode:
Other:
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Vintage Beast Wars
In 2021, to take advantage of the 25th Anniversary of the Beast Wars series, Hasbro began to apply the same vintage treatment to characters from the Beast Wars franchise. While the packaging attempted to mimick the design the original English-only 1996 United States packaging for those figures, it nevertheless featured five languages (English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese), while ignoring any of the unique elements specific to the contemporary multilingual packaging versions of those original Beast Wars figures' packaging.
The first wave of this line was released by TakaraTomy as a joint exclusive between TakaraTomy Mall and participating Cybertron Satellite stores.
| Carded figures | Boxed figures |  |
External links
- Cybertron Satellite at the TakaraTomy website (archived)
- Summary of the Cybertron Satellite campaign (complete with Town Commander bios) at the "Fight! Toy Warrior!" blog
- Scans of The Town Commander Collection Book at TFRaw
