Bonga

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Bonga is a Beastformer from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Ro-Man V2.

Easily one of the best bare-knuckle fighters on planet Beast, Bonga (ボンガ) can level a building with just punches. And with a proper charge, his Bonga Sabel (ボンガサーベル Bonga Sāberu) MVP Weapon can disassemble objects at the molecular level, absorbing them and allowing Bonga to re-assemble them into new weapons. Truly, he is a fearsome beast on the battlefield, having served as the commander of White Leo's ground attack forces during the rebellion.

Outside of combat, however, he's a gigantic softie. Kind, warm, gentle, honest and straightforward, he's especially protective of children of any species, be they Beastformer, human, or otherwise. As the King of his homeland Halas, he focuses his energies on welfare policies, making sure his people have everything they need. He's so kind-hearted, he's become good friends with Black Turtle, who fought on the opposite side of the rebellion, and now serves as Bonga's subordinate Emperor. Bonga is the only person on planet Beast who can calm the tortoise's violent rages.

In fact, he's such a softie that he can occasionally get very skittish and be spooked at very inopportune moments. It doesn't help that he's actually afraid of small insects.

Fiction

Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Beastformers comic

Bonga was among the Beastformers who fought in their war with the Laser Beasts. Beastformers VS Laser Beasts

Legends comic

Bonga took part in the final battle between the Beastformers and the Laser Beasts on Beast in 2023. The Road to Legends' Revival Chapter 1

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

Bonga was among the many Beastformers squabbling on their home planet when Megatron arrived to fetch the Predacons. Welcome to the Jungle

Toys

Transformers: Beastformers

• Bonga (Beastformer, 1987)

• ID number: 13
• Pack: B, C
• Accessories: Blade-weapon (usually)

Part of the first series of Takara's Beastformers toys, Bonga is an anthropomorphic gorilla in orange robotic armor. The Battle Emblem on his chest reveals one of three symbols when warmed up; Fire, Water or Wood.

He usually comes with a bronze blade-weapon marked with the same ID number as on his back. However, Beastformers is notorious for toys coming with someone else's weapon; it's unclear if this was just poor QC or intentional.

The Hasbro Battle Beasts release of the figure primarily came in red armor, but late-run releases gave him the Takara orange armor. It's uncertain if the red-armor version was ever released in the Takara line, though red-armor Bongas did appear in several Taakra promotional photos (alongside lots of figures that were never released in the Transformers part of the line).

He was re-released in the second series; while the toy proper was not changed, the packaging and packed-in bio card was. The first-series release comes in a generic red-grid "Cybertron Beastformer" box, with a red-grid bio card with a painted character image on the front, though there was a random chance of his card being replaced by the rare "Holography Mirror" card. In series 2 he came in a green-grid generic "Cybertron Beastformer" box, with the bio card putting the painted image on a jungle backdrop. As he shipped in the "C Pack" case, there was a chance of his bio card being replaced with a rare "Secret Photo" card featuring White Leo.

Beastformers

• Bonga (Beastformer, 1988)

• ID number: 13
• Accessories: "Bonga Saber" MVP Weapon (usually)

Re-released in the Transformers-less Beastformers sequel series, Bonga was given a straight re-release with new packaging and a new, more filled-out bio card with corrected coloring. This new card also gave his weapon, now branded an "MVP Weapon", the name "Bonga Saber". Speaking of the weapon, once again there was also a chance he could come with the weapon from one of the other Beastformers in his shipping case; matching the Beasts with their same-numbered weapons was part of the "role-playing game" attached to the line, encouraging kids to buy more of the toys.

He was sold in the second assortment of individually-packed Beastformers, with a peg-hole in the top flap, and a sticker on the bottom with his name and role on it. This series did not have any kind of "rare card" random pack-in promotion.

Late in the run, the "mood ring" styled rubsigns were replaced with new rubsigns that revealed full-color Fire/Wood/Water images on black backdrops. (These rubsign variants also happened at the same time in the Hasbro Battle Beast version of the line.)

• Bonga (Gahsapon Beastformer, 1987)

• ID number: 13
• Accessories: Weapon

Many of the first-series Beastformers were also sold in gashapon capsule machines, Bonga included. This version is identical to the regularly-released boxed version, including the randomized rubsign, except the gashapons appear to have randomized weapons (or just crummy quality control).

There is also a rare all-white/cream version of Bonga; these rare versions can vary in how white they actually are, and it's uncertain if that's how they started or if some have simply yellowed with age. These white versions tend to be very expensive on the secondary market.

Merchandise

Meiji candy toys

• Ramune Beastformers Battle Card (1988)
  • Meiji ID number: 30

Released by candy/snack maker Meiji, a gold-foil "Battle Card" of Bonga was available in randomly-packed sets of cards that came with grape-flavored ramune candy tablets. The back of the card features a severely truncated bio, with data for the game from the Meiji chocoball SD figures' packaging.

While line-art of an SD Bonga figure is featured on the cardback, there is no evidence a toy like this was ever released.

Notes

• Bonga's 1988 bio card gives him the nickname "Gori" (ゴリ), obviously based on "gorilla".

Foreign names

• English: Gargantuan Gorilla