Beasts in a Box: 52Toys' Beastbox Transforming Robot Line

When it comes to transforming robot toys, it’s difficult to think of anything other than Hasbro’s Transformers. However, during my many visits through online toy sites and toy review videos, and slightly different kind of transforming robot toy line came to my attention: Toy52’s Beastbox line. As the name suggests, this line consists of robots shaped like animals (lions, crabs, dragons, dinosaurs, etc.) that fold into "mecha cubes".

For something that sounds pretty straightforward, Toy52 has gotten plenty of mileage out its core cube concept. The robot animal designs are very detailed and fun to look at (very reminiscent of the Zoids toy line), and some even come with extra parts that can be added. Some of the Beastbox robots can be combined to create bigger robots. For example, as you can see in the picture below, the robot dog figures in the Beastbox Boney Deformation set can be combined to create an even bigger robot dinosaur.

Not to be limited to simple robot styles, Toy52 has released more complex designs through the Megabox line. The Megabox line includes a few sets which feature two vehicles that combine to form a humanoid robot. So far, the Megabox combiner robot sets I’ve seen involve ocean exploration crafts, fighter airplanes, and maintenance vehicles. I particularly like the Landbreaker maintenance vehicles set (see below), largely for its “Real Robot” design. 

Through the Megabox line, Toy52 has added licenses from other franchises to its Beastbox aesthetic. So far, they’ve produced figures based on the Hulk and Predator, each of which look like robots and can transform into cubes. There are some designs based on the Alien franchise, such as the Xenomorph and the Alien Queen; of those, I prefer the cube-capable Power Loader, which in this context looks like something that would be loading other Beastboxes in and out of storage areas before folding itself up into a cube after its shift is over.

Toy52’s latest expansion of its Beastbox idea doesn’t involve boxes at all; instead, it's called Beastdrive and involves vehicles that transform into animal robots. To date, one figure transforms from a race car into a robot raptor, while the other transforms from a fighter jet into a robot shark.