Webdiver: The Line That Almost Replaced Transformers

[@wsc0tt]

The idea for Wyverion's design- of old-school vehicles in futuristic styling, is a really cool idea and I'd love to see that come back for Transformers.

[@Deceptiwolf]

"Micheal Bay's webdiver movie" That is truly a terrifying thought.

[@stevencisneros9306]

Transformers + Pacific Rim + Matrix = Webdiver (directed by Michael Bay) lol

[@aliastheabnormal]

I don't think Michael Bay could stay awake long enough to bother.

[@secretagent1007]

it would be cool to see you talk about the brave series trying to rival transformers. cool video!

[@danielthomas1355]

I second that I too would love a 'deep dive' on the Brave Series!

[@Xeno-The-Wanderer]

Agreed, 8 years of bravery, that’s a LONG time one coming yearly

[@Loanstalker]

Agree with this too!

[@aliastheabnormal]

The Brave series was never meant to rival Transformers. The original show J-Decker was made after the Japanese Transformers series was cancelled. And Takara made J-Decker to salvage the toyline that was made.

[@secretagent1007]

@@aliastheabnormal J decker is like the 4th or 5th entry in the franchise. The first show Exkaiser even has an unrealised grimlock toy.

[@ChaoticDarkness1]

We got so many crazy and cool looking robot designs in the late 90s and early 2000s. The bright colors, the huge shoulder pads, the neon lines, the Naraku-esc orb in the chest look, etc. I do miss that era.

[@bungieman2810]

Shoutout to Wyverion for having a character arc in the show that never really got brought up again after his debut. He literally just became a power mushroom.

[@collectorcanine96]

TJ, there's a few things this video never brought up or got a bit wrong that I need to point out. First off, you didn't mention Daigunder at all. That came between Webdiver and the start of Micron Legend in Japan. secondly, Aaron Archer did tell the whole story behind Armada's existence not too long ago. To kinda paraphrase what we know about the relationship between Webdiver, Daigunder, and Transformers Armada based on what Archer said and various other pieces of evidence: It seems like Webdiver and Daigunder were just what Takara chose to do as filler until Armada/Micron Legend was ready to go. Armada came about because Car Robots did poorly for Takara and Beast Machines did poorly for Hasbro. They came together and were like "okay, the way we're doing this now isn't working, we should have better coordination." As a result, they teamed up and got to work on developing what was next for Transformers, which ultimately ended up being Armada/Micron Legend. Hasbro chose to import the Car Robots toys and TV show as RID 2001 while Takara decided to use this as an opportunity to test a concept they had, although Webdiver had already been in development when they chose to team up. Archer mentioned having been excitedly shown Webdiver prototypes when he went to Japan for the first talks about "the next steps for Transformers." Webdiver aired in 2001 and Daigunder in 2002. Micron Legend aired in Japan in 2003. We got Armada 5 whole months before Japan got Micron Legend. I know there's other potential questions that aren't answered here, but tbh, those are things that don't have clear answers as of rn.

[@Hypnacio]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your explanation!

[@StevenDolce]

The anime originally aired on the TV Tokyo channel on Fridays at 18:00 JST from April 6, 2001 to March 29, 2002 with 52 episodes.

[@Ranma_Leopard]

Very interesting video. Ironically this is uploaded right as I got my gladion Model kit

[@Bluesharky38]

Dude I’ve actually been watching the sequel show Daigunder! It’s so awesome and is one of my favorite shows now.

[@OverseerXIII]

Daigunder is my precious baby

[@monsterhighandbarbiefan]

thanks for the history lesson i never knew about webdiver until today

[@Razorgeist]

I was not aware of this. Nice effort Takara. The whole infrared thing reminds me of when Art Asylum was getting their Star Trek line started. They intended for their electronic ships to be able to interact with each other but the idea wasn't feasible for them. I wasn't aware Takara was able to do it.

[@ManOutofTime913]

Goodsmile's MODEROID team have basically been releasing whatever the hell they want including kits from obscure 70s and 80s series like Bryger and Daioja, so I don't even know if we can predict whether or not there'll be more Webdiver from them. After the Cruise Chaser Blassity kit, I'll believe they'll put out basically anything whether it'll sell or not.

[@strataseeker2981]

I still have maybe half of my Webdiver collection in storage with the exception of Gradion and Galleon who have an honored place on top of my TF shelves.

[@riderbuzz2606]

webdiver was so cool!

[@SkageXL5]

I was offered a LOT of these toys in a trade, and I turned them down. STUPID YOUNGER ME!

[@raymondchong1607]

Great video! Thanks for introducing this line to me!

[@Wolfie1262]

Takara has a history of this. They did it when Transformers started to flag a bit in the late 80s/early 90s with the creation of Brave Exkaiser. And damn you for showing the sharkbot…now I have to hunt him down lol

[@iron1349]

I don't know if I'd recognize myself without Armada, and vague memories of it making me want to see the 2007 movie, and now having a bunch of Transformers toys.

[@allenusison3124]

Also, a bit of a sore spot about this is the story. This basically was Lovecraft Lite before Digimon did it. Midway through the series, they changed who Deletloss was during the series as the writers themselves explained that in the original drafts, Aoi, the Webdivers' female companion, would have been a herald of Deletloss before deciding to rewrite the character and make him a separate one, complete with a human form and an obligatory black repaint design of Gladion as another form for him. As a bonus, this is Tomokazu Sugita's debut protagonist role in TV after starting out in heroic roles through Super Robot Wars Alpha. Amazing memories there.

[@darkusblader]

Juat imagine how epic a reboot of the webdiver anime would be.

[@phoenix1174]

Legit my dream that show made my freaking childhood

[@jamesiewalters2360]

​@@phoenix1174I'd watch it, that's for sure! Gladion and wyverion got new toys, but he hasn't got hard points for potential attachments for the other members, if they were ever going to be made.... I think you know what I wanna say here.

[@Xeno-The-Wanderer]

Gonna comment before the end of the video to say you got the symmetrical docking thing wrong in terms of the originators. Blue and Green Raker of Exkaiser forming Ultra Raker were the original Symmetrical dockers or Lateral combiners as they called it

[@StevenDolce]

After Webdiver ended, it got replaced by an anime called Bakutou Sengen Daigunder which aired on TV Tokyo on Fridays at 18:00 JST from April 5 to December 27, 2002 with 39 episodes. After that show ended, it got replaced by Transformers Micron Legend.

[@svartmetallyst7712]

I remember that back in 2009 when my mother was in Japan, she bought a BW Neo figures set with Longrack and Guiledart (10 years after their release!). And I still have them, although their bullets and Longrack's tail have been lost. Despite the big clearance issues in the process of transformation, they are quite good.

[@thegoufsomefox8816]

I've only heard about this toy line today, but dang, these things look awesome! This is probably very unlikely, but maybe Takara will present these old designs to Hasbro and potentially slip a design or two into Legacy. Again, probably unlikely or impossible, but one can dream.

[@ShinKatto]

Motoroid has a kit of it out lol

[@cyberdraco001]

If memory serves correctly there was a sister series to webdiver: Daigunder. The US got the show for Daigunder but not the toys since it was also a game and toy combatin like Webdiver.

[@Sharingan1989]

I still have my original gladion and daitalion from when I got them in 2007 and to this day still solid no cracks on the translucent plastic and every ratchet joint oh boy still got healthy click!

[@bookerpound3609]

The shark one reminds me of a toy a friend used to have. It was a car with a button on the front that would pop out into a shak car hybrid.

[@Jimboliah3985]

I'll just call the locomotive dude Gradeon, because there were plenty of steam locomotives designed to haul heavy trains, regardless if it's freight or passenger, over particularly steep *gradients.*

[@MulletSuperman]

I can't even imagine what it would cost to make these toys today

[@vustvaleo8068]

Webdiver is like a spiritual successor to the Brave series along with Daigunder, another Takara transforming robot series after Webdiver.

[@AJSantiesteban]

Those are some quality toys. Great to see you keep posting. Been a long time viewer, and have you to thank for my Kamen Rider affliction lol.

[@wizwarioogaming]

I own the toy at 9:32 was wondering where it was from. saw that it had a plug n play video game function that I never got to use.

[@darthprime4916]

I have never heard of these before and have been collecting for a long time ha!

[@Thunderwing88]

The only reason I’d herd of this is the MSTF3K parody song “Spend” (to the tune of “Dare”) at BotCon 2002.

[@ZZtheDark]

Takara's ver. of Captain Power in a nutshell but Daigunder also happens to fall into that category. I've found the game portion of this toyline. Thanks to STALKER for the tip: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZqQg4OPob5pb9k

[@KasumiKenshirou]

Takara previously had the Video Challenger, a toy gun + videotape toy similar in concept to Captain Power. The toy was also used by Daniel in The Headmasters cartoon as the Challenge Blaster, and The Headmasters' opening credits eventually started having the Decepticons appear with a weird flashing effect placed over them to work with this toy.

[@nucleonegro9762]

This was a pretty cool anime and toy line, I'm still sad i had no money when you were selling yours, a complete collection would be my holy grail so i hope i can get the model kits if they get released

[@jeffreystein9871]

Good video, but no mention of Daigunder? Daigunder was after Web Diver and before Armada/Micron Legend. I think it was pretty much the same gimmick, just a bunch of new toys and a new story. Bizarrely, the cartoon aired in the US, with no accompanying toyline.

[@desshinta9428]

Webdiver model kits are currently being produced by Good Smile.

[@heckyeahponyscans]

You're not kidding about the RID2001 transformations being too complex for little kids . . . I transformed Optimus and Ultra Magnus into their combined form once and was never again able to get Ultra Magnus back into his own robot mode. And I was an adult! I actually did have a couple Web Diver toys, I bought the centaur-unicorn off eBay back in the day. I'd forgotten all about them until this video.

[@dexterthoma867]

It’s also one of the first episodes of yours that I ever saw

[@andrewgrant2990]

I ordered a lot of the Car Robots 2000 toys directly from Japan. I recall seeing Webdiver in the catalogs thinking why are they advertising non Tfs? I almost ordered some of them but was concerned the game features wouldn't work with my TVs in the USA. The pirate ship & hovercraft were my favorites.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

I'd hate to imagine what the guy behind Kiss Players would've done with a franchise with the word "Diver" in its name.

[@spikesagitta]

I actually remember watching this on tv.

[@BaconNuke]

When you said it had a Plug-n-Play gimmick I was 100% expecting that every figure had a different game but it was mostly gonna be generic platformer with the controllable character being the figure you were using.. but having it be just one base figure with others adding on is.. much smarter I guess since that meant you were always selling at least the base main bot..

[@joejunior5991]

Webdiver should be a Brave Series Spiritual Successor since they have all the element of Brave Series : 1. Human who Interact with Super Advanced Robot and fight together in the name of Justice and Earth Safety. 2. Multiple Robots with Different Personality. 3. Main Enemy is a Alien who wanted to rule all Cyberspace and Earth. 4. Just like any Brave Main Mecha Upgrade the Upgrade Gradion Receive is a Form of Wing and Pair of Boots. 5. Gladion has a Human-like Featured and once transforming to his Battle Mode has some Mouthpiece and Helm

[@ZOSO900]

Gradion is another big translucent plastic victim that I could have sent you pics of for your special on it. Also, Wyverion is a big holy grail for me.

[@thomasthompson2431]

Picked up the magic station many years ago on ebay, never had any of the other toys so it's potential was lost

[@thomasalvarenga2839]

I can see Shinkalion make a Gladion reference if Shinkalion plans on continuing.

[@johnnymason3265]

I have heard of Webdiver. Always wished they had made a TV series out of this. Like the toys, though!

[@megatron2171]

Wow i watched the anime when i was a kid and loving it

[@williammckinley1035]

I remember finding these at the stores. I wanted transformers and everyone kept pointing these to me. I thought they were the new transformers. I was finding no new transformers toys. So I bought some of these. Beast wars neo had just ended and the Transformers reissues were winding down and Car Robots was about 6 months away. I thought these toys were interesting. They were all over the place and Beast War toys were pretty much clearanced out at a lot of places. I stuck with these even after Car Robots started showing up.

[@gavinerickson9392]

I would like to see these designs cannibalized into Transformers.

[@walterlopez5054]

Eyyyy, I'm the guy bought most of your webdivers.

[@kylebecker7928]

9:50 wait they can do that i didn't know they can that thx man

[@autobotzapof0002]

I wish this was out or survived until 06 so I could actually have known of it when I was a kid!

[@Katarn84]

Good God... I just found out this series aired here in Italy... it has an Italian Opening...

[@stevencisneros9306]

I would’ve imagine Webdiver crossing over in the Super Robot Wars world!!!

[@plushcrochet8719]

Here's a fact: Hiroshi Negishi directed the Webdiver. He also did every.single Tenchi Muyo ovas and sequels no one wanted.

[@OverseerXIII]

I want TJ now to review Daigunder stuff hahaha

[@joshuachristian5443]

I think Dragons are lame and the fans of Dragons are silly. That's because those that do like Dragons are Highlanders or Wizards and I am far too mortal to understand the sheer virtuosity of all things dragonian.

[@whitewing2]

It would have worked, if they Sticked to the 2D Animation than 3D, if you saw the 2 Opening, its pure 2D and it looked Awesome

[@desmondmalone438]

Webdiver is one of reason it better for it to be 2D then 3D in there anime(blame the Op for be awesome and when you see the 3D fight you get disappointed)

[@RKStrikerJK5]

This stuff's pretty damned cool!

[@MichaelAlexKawa]

It seems like someone thought, "let's make a series like Digimon, but make them big transformable combining robots".....like even the names sound Digimon like.

[@Loanstalker]

Love these guys. only problem is Gladion's translucent plastic is prone to breaking at the shoulder hinges.

[@lyokomajor]

What a shock. I just commented that mine did that.

[@superrobofan]

Funny how the mechs are 2D-animated in the opening sequences. Pity they didn't do that in the rest of the series, because it looks awesome!

[@KasumiKenshirou]

It was not uncommon for the opening sequence of a cartoon to have much better animation than the rest of the show. That's probably what was going on in this case. (Season 3 of Transformers was an exception to this. You got exactly what was advertised.)

[@superrobofan]

@@KasumiKenshirou True. Still a shame, though. Heck, other mech series from around that time did a pretty good job 2D animating their mecha, like a lot of Sunrise series.

[@tonyjackson4078]

So The King of the Braves GaoGaiGar wasn't the follow up to g1? I had Gradion, Sharkon, the two dog combiner. I wanted Wyverion, but he's rare and stupid expensive.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

Yeah, it was, and featured many retools of Transformers toys. It even had retools in its cartoon that never had corresponding toys.

[@moeg1631]

I gotta get my hands on a Gradion….😍

[@shadowscribe]

Full on toys to life is a bit much but it's cool they used actual toys and not figurines. The closest the fad came to that again was that starship game with plug and play weapons.

[@VAULT-TEC_INC.]

I thought Car Robots was going on in 2001 in Japan and was a hit?

[@Undrave]

Takara produces some real janky robot when left to their own devices... Remember Transformers Go? Just looking at the toys you'd hear all the large hollow pieces rattling... Just uncomfortable looking toys that were sadly a cool concept. And don't they make Shinkalion nowadays?

[@Hitsugaiafan10]

He's similar to Daigunder

[@joejunior5991]

All 13 Member of Cyber Knight kinda like Arthurian Legend Doesn't they? 1. Gradion is Lancelot 2. Daitallion is King Arthur 3. Dragwon is Gawain 4. Ganryu is Percival 5. Wyverion is Galahad 6. Kerberion is Gareth 7. Orthrion is Gahesis 8. Phoenixon is Bors 9. Pegasion is Bedivere 10. Ligeron is Agravain 11. Griffion is Kay 12. Jaguaron is Yvain 13. Sharkon is Ector As for the Antagonist Deletloss is Morgan Ryuto is Mordred Rada is Vortigenn

[@allenusison3124]

If only I wish you would review more Webdiver... You are missing two of the lead Web Knights, Dragwon and Wyverion. EDIT: Ouch... So you sold them all. But it's fine. Hope they have as much fun as you did.

[@mrheroprimes]

also we have to remember that Takara was desperately trying to keep themselves afloat given that the company was in severely bad financial shape.

[@Top_Galer]

I have Pegasion. Not my favorite design, I think others in the line look better.

[@beauxr.benoit1374]

4 Minutes in. A cross between Transformers, Digimon and Pacific Rim. 12:54. It is a Dirigible, it is also similar to the Mothership dirigible of Don Carnaggid in Tailspins. Yes, I am guilty of watching it. 14:37. It is also a goose, it can land on water too.

[@jasonx2808]

Actually, Webdiver is closer to Brave Express Might Gaine, which -spoilers- is revealed to be a game played by higher dimensional beings AND every robot turns into trains. Takara had a lot of transforming robot series, but Webdiver is nothing to do with Transformers.

[@genyakozlov1316]

Except the use of the word "Prime" you mean?

[@jasonx2808]

@@genyakozlov1316 even Optimus isn't called Prime in Japan. He's Convoy.

[@sebastianthomsen2225]

👍👍

[@aliastheabnormal]

Why would Takara think that Webdiver would sell. I mean the show is boring. It's a worse Battle Network or Corrector Yui.

[@serina3872]

The ships robot mode looks like Joey's crocodile with a sword monster and with hasbro doing unknown characters and Diaclone I wouldn't put it past them repainting some TF figures as webDivers

[@Dogmaguy74]

Who ever designed Transformers R.I.D 2001 was high on acid....Too much asymmetry...I'm looking at you Sideburn.

[@Xeno-The-Wanderer]

Some asymmetry is good to spice up designs keeping things unique

[@Dogmaguy74]

@@Xeno-The-Wanderer Indeed but i admit i'm mostly referring to Sideburn who's figure good lord suffers from it.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

I agree.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

@@Xeno-The-Wanderer Some, sure. But they went overboard with it.

[@lyokomajor]

I got myself a Gradion at a toy store a couple towns over. Was only $45. Sadly the transformation hinges at his shoulders have suffered some severe snappage.