The Transformers: Binaltech Asterisk
From Transformers Wiki
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The Transformers: Binaltech Asterisk (バイナルテックアスタリスク) is a spinoff franchise of Binaltech.
In late 2005 (not too long before it went on "indefinite hiatus"), Binaltech gained a sub-series, Binaltech Asterisk, using old molds in new decos as previously-unreleased Autobots, but also including small PVC figurines of human girls, each one inspired by a female human character from a previous Transformers series. These figurines had alternate arms and lower bodies so they could "drive" the Autobots in car mode. These toys were also packaged in robot mode as opposed to the normal car mode (presumably to encourage transformation to car mode so the girls could drive). Reportedly, the addition of the PVCs was to try and reach a broader market to help the line's flagging sales... though the higher price tag probably didn't help.
This series only had three releases before it was canceled; a "Black Convoy meets Melissa" set was solicited as the fourth set but never released as originally planned. Instead, it was changed for the next incarnation of the 1:24 line: Kiss Players.
Fiction
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Pack-in prose:
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Binaltech Asterisk received a short series of online comics, collectively titled Asterisk Story, supplemented with prose stories packed in with the toys themselves. Each chronicled an adventure of a Transformer/human duo participating in the joint diplomatic effort between Cybertron and Earth known as the Interplanetary Personnel Exchange Program. These were at the time largely unconnected to any other Transformers timeline, being mostly short vignettes free of Decepticon troubles. However, the official Japanese Generation 1 timeline placed these comics within the same fiction and period of time as Binaltech.
Toyline
| Wave 1 (September 29, 2005)
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| Wave 2 (November 18, 2005)
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