[Vangelus]

Starting this thread in part because english-language info on these toys is ludicrously rare. I'll add some of my own photos to this post once I shoot new ones with the first 3 waves of toys.

What are Phone Bravers?

They're from the excellent Japanese TV show, Keitai Sousakan 7. It's a sci-fi action-drama that's spearheaded by a big Japanese cellphone company and Takashi Miike, one of my favourite film-makers ever (Japanese or otherwise). You can check out the show fansubbed at TV-Nihon.

The Phone Bravers themselves are autonomous robots that are, quite literally, walking cellphones. They are typically partnered with a human "buddy", and can also work with and physically equip an array of Boost Phones.

Are the toys actual phones?

No.

However! There -are- two actual cellphones that can also transform into Phone Bravers Seven and 01 respectively. Unfortunately, to my knowledge these can only be bought and used in Japan, which is a shame as they have the sleekest and most show-accurate robot modes of all the merchandise thus far. Not to mention, very show-accurate face displays.

What are the toys, then?

The mainline consists of...

• Phone Bravers: So far, three of these have been released: Seven, Third, and 01 (Zero-One). Physically they are all identical aside from their colourschemes. But, their copious electronic features are unique to each Phone Braver.
• Boost Phones: There are six of these in total, all of which have been released as of October 2008. All of the Boost Phones have three modes- Phone Mode, Active Mode (usually a robot or animal), and Chakushin (Equip) mode. Any Boost Phone can be equipped onto any Phone Braver, and this process always involves disassembling the Boost Phone into armour pieces.
• Solid Driver: This is a miniature laptop PC that can transform into a massive ape-like robot, or an 'exo-suit' for any of the Phone Bravers. In exo-suit mode, a Braver is half-transformed and plugged into the centre, with up to two Boost Phones equipped to the limbs and backpack. Solid is the priciest toy in the line, retailing for around $20 more than the Phone Bravers at around 7500 yen. The bulk of his price comes from the fact that he can be driven around via an IR remote control.

There is also a MiniPla line of candy toys, which are far less expensive. However, they are also smaller and without electronics, using a two-sided card slid into the face display (you get two faces per Phone Braver). Physically they transform just about as nicely as the mainline. Unfortunately, these MiniPla are also incredibly hard to find at times.

Check out some shots of the MiniPla toys here:
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Finally, there will be a Chogokin (die-cast content) Phone Braver Seven to be released in early 2009 for around $115. Details are more or less unknown outside of this photo (thanks Quinjester!), which reveals a sleeker robot mode than the mainline Bravers as well as an array of swappable hands:



So should I buy these?
This is a line where there is almost no draw to someone that is not a fan of the show. The mainline's pricetags (roughly $50 per Phone Braver, $30 per Boost Phone, and $75 for Solid) are extremely rough for what you get, and if you have no connection to the designs through the show it may feel like a rip-off. However, the show -is- really cool and may lead you to look into investing in this series of toys.