Armored Battalion Insect Beetras - Inspired Bootleg
At time or writing, no one seems to really know what this is with any concrete evidence.
Facts and speculation for your research pleasure;
Japanese company Takatoku Toys created a line of transforming insect robots for their toy line 'Armored Battalion Insect Beetras'. They were in the market for a new idea and approached Japanese animation studio ArtMic for inspiration. Now famed mecha designer Shinji Aramaki working for ArtMic at the time tells they pitched something insect themed and Takatoku were onboard*. A tie-in animated series was planned and the line to be fleshed out as that evolved. Unfortunately this and other works in progress didn't eventuate when Takatoku ceased trading due to financial difficulties. Their remaining moulds were sold off to companies such as Bandai, Takara and MARK, resulting in BEET-Gadol for example reappearing as Transformers Deluxe Insecticon Barrage.
* reference a fantastic interview by Matt Alt with Shinji Aramaki
Takatoku had planned not only to add a female Lady Bug character (Beet-Papil) to the line, there was also to be a second wave including a spider, dragonfly, hornet and possibly others. Wave 2 was also to introduced the gimmick of motor powered wings to propel the toys along a length of tight string.
MARK, notorious for bottom feeding toy designs when a company goes bankrupt or are finished with them eventually picked up the moulds. They released five insect models as Zectron / Mecha Insect Zectron in Japan and simultaneously as Insectors for SELECT's Convertors, predominantly in the United States and Robot Changers in Europe.
Where did this Lady Bug come from? Speculation time!
The Lady Bug is largely based on Beet-Gadol / Crawler's design and reuses parts from that figure, albeit in some instances slightly re-sculpted. Lady Bug's head is a copy of Transformers G1 Twin Spin's and the weapon is Beet-Gadol's.
Is it just a Beetras themed bootleg? It's unclear. Prohoton Industries that released it also produced bootlegs of other Takatoku via MARK offerings that were also sold as Maladroids for the Convertors line. In each instance they were unchanged casts of existing figures. If Prohoton IND. had retrofit a lady bug shell onto Crawler and also re-sculpted parts of the legs and other details it would be a huge departure from their previously seen behaviour. It's a significant development commitment for a bootleg company that makes return on limited investment.
We know MARK acquired the Beetras moulds. Aramaki confirmed Takatoku planned to release a spider as part of Beetras wave 2 and that prototypes of those were made. We know MARK released a spider figure so we could make the leap this hints MARK ended up with some or all of Takatoku's Beetras prototypes.
Is it odd that Lady Bug has Twin Spin's head and is cobbled together from other toy parts? This was actually very common during the prototyping stage when designers needed to quickly produce a physical example to show marketing and executives before investing more resouces creating unique sculpts. MARK seeing the prototype wasn't salable as is may have just shelved it. Post MARK's involvement, some of the moulds were reused by Japanese company JAM to make even cheaper versions and where they ended up after that is unknown.
Was Lady Bug a Takatoku prototype we're getting an unintended glimpse of via a bootleg company that ended up with their prototype and made moulds of it? Did Prohoton Industries genuinely reverse
engineer Beet-Gadol and create a one-off, completely new figure that just happens to be the missing Lady Bug themed figure from the Beetras line; if slightly different to the preview art?
For now, you be the judge. Head out and see what else you can discover!
Region Codes Used: US United States
NOTE: Location codes only shown where items were known to be released. This list is accurate yet likely to be incomplete.
Insectbot US Prohoton IND. 1985
Stamped (c) Prohoton IND. 1985 Taiwan
Packaging Lady Bug was released on blister card as seen below as well as in a windowed box displayed in insect mode. In both instances the Insectbot logo borrows heavily from the SELECT Convertors styling. The artwork showing Lady Bug in robot mode is a rework of Beet-Gadol's box art with Twin Spin's head still present.
Beetras Beet-Gadol vs. Lady Bug Insectbot Art Comparison
Beetras Takatoku Toys Catalogue