I showed my wife the Liokaiser reveal video last night, of course introducing them as the Breastforce. She, of course, gave an eyeroll of disgust, spent a while grumbling, and asked just, "Why?" I, of course, answered, "Because Japan."
It did get me thinking a bit though:
Headmasters
Targetmasters
Powermasters
Godmasters
Brainmasters
Breastmastersforce
...Why? I mean, Hasbro extended the -masters terminology to other groups (Micromasters & Action Masters), but the Breastforce is the only G1 group I can think of on either the Hasbro or Takara side where bots using the play pattern of the complete bot having a part of them transform into a smaller bot DOESN'T have a -master group name. Would Breastmaster have sounded creepy even in Japan?
In JG1, those with the "-master" suffix tend to have their unique technology either originate from or have ties to Planet Master in some form. This includes Headmasters, Targetmasters, Headmaster Juniors, Godmasters, Powermasters, and even Brainmasters--but in the latter's case, it's inverse of how all the others involve small units bonding to/partnering with a larger unit, in that the smaller Brain robots are basically avatars or tiny Transtectors that the larger Brainmasters can transfer their consciousnesses into in order to interact on a smaller scale.
The Breastforce's Breast Animals are basically animalistic drones who share a similar relationship to their larger masters as Soundwave's minions do to him, but somewhat less intelligent than the cartoon versions of Ravage, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, and Ratbat, acting basically like pure animals loyal to their masters but with little-to-no actual free will or higher cognitive functions of their own.
The only real exceptions to the rule of those with "Master" in their name being tied to the planet of the same name in JG1 are the Powered Masters (whose name origin wasn't ever really explained besides "it just sounds cool" from Takara's IRL end), and the Action Masters (whose forms originate from Nucleon, but this can be chalked up to Takara simply reusing the same name that Hasbro used whether it makes since in-universe or not).
Though, Micromasters are different kettle of fish. In Japan, they were called "Micro Transformers", so they never had "-master" in their name. That is, until the reissue line from 2002 called Transformers: Micromaster, in which the six-combiners from Operation Combination were referred to as "Micromasters" while the individual components were still called "Micro Transformers". Though, there does exist a tenuous link between the "Micromasters" of this line and the inhabitants of Planet Master. The Micro Transformers of this line were said to have originally been a kind of small-sized non-transforming civilian Cybertronian called a "Seiberdroid" (Ask Vector Prime later canonized "Cyberdroid" as the Western equivalent of "Seiberdroid", so I'll be using "Cyberdroid" from here onward). One of the Kiss Players timelines later retconned the inhabitants of Planet Master who fled Cybertron as refugees to have originally been Cyberdroids since they too were small-sized non-transforming civilian Cybertronians. So in a sense, the Micro Transformers of Transformers: Micromaster who can combine to form six-combiners called Micromasters were originally the same kind of Cybertronian species as the inhabitants of Planet Master.
Phew!
Turning into animals instead of humanoids distinguishes them enough from all the 'masters, I would think.
One would think, but
Lione,
Toraizer and
Shuffler are all Headmasters who have animal forms instead of humanoid ones, but I guess they've also been depicted as intelligent enough to be fully cognitive beings whereas the Breast Animals are more like drone-like beasts.
I assumed it was to match with the Dinoforce from the same series?
At first glance, one might think so, along with the Multiforce, too. But, Victory did something weird with these three "forces". They called the Breastforce as such, as ブレストフォース (
Buresutofōsu), but for both the Dinoforce and Multiforce, they varied things up a bit. Instead of calling them ダイノフォース (
Dainofōsu) and マルチフォース (
Maruchifōsu) like one might expect, they instead called the Multiforce the マルチ戦隊 (
Maruchi Sentai, meaning "Multi Squadron") and the Dinoforce the 恐竜戦隊 (
Kyōryū Sentai, meaning "Dinosaur Squadron"), going full Japanese with those two teams instead, with the names "Dinoforce" and "Multiforce" only being written on their toy packaging material despite never actually being said in Japanese.
Does Piranacon count as a Targetmaster? The sixth member isn't really binary bonded, he's just Nautilator because he's useless a spare.
I think the "Targetmaster" name was only used for the Seacons in western media, so the JG1 rules wouldn't apply in their case.
