Brave

Yūsha (or Brave, also known as the Brave Series) is a franchise that Takara and Sunrise created after the Generation One anime ran its course in Japan. The Brave Series consists of eight individual series that were released one after the other from 1990 to 1998 with corresponding TV shows in Japan.

Although none of the series storylines are connected to one another (except for the Exkaiser and Fighbird), the basic format of each series is similar. Usually a kid befriends/creates/becomes a sentient robot, and together they fight a great evil threatening the Earth. The main robots combine with supporting vehicle to form larger robots, and will able to combine with other robots to become much larger robots in later episodes. Additional teams of sentient robots combine amongst themselves to form larger robots as well. It has been described as a cross between Transformers and the Super Robot genre of the late '70s and early '80s.

Toys for these robots were created in two sizes: DX ("deluxe") versions that contained more gimmicks and more complicated transformations, and STD ("standard") versions that contained fewer gimmicks and more limited transformations, but often also higher accuracy in reproducing the look of the robot from the anime series. Generally, the transformation of the robots was created by Takara, while the look of the robots was created by Kunio Okawara, a legendary Sunrise mecha designer.

Relationship to Transformers
The initial concept designs for Brave Exkaiser, the first Brave Series, were intended to be Transformers designs. While the Brave robot Ultra Raker was very far along at this stage, the Max team and King Exkaiser bore little resemblance to their final designs.

There are also similar design elements between the Brave toys and Generation 2/Beast Wars Transformers, which were released around the same time as the Brave toys. For example, many of the Brave of Legend toys have light-piped eyes thanks to transparent pieces of plastic in their heads, a design element which many Generation 2 Transformers share. The Goldran DX toyline contains many projectile launchers, something Generation 2 shared as well. In particular, the Goldran toy "Advenger" contains a rotor-launching gimmick identical to that of Generation 2's Rotor Force. Lastly, the elbows of Leon from DX Leonkaiser contain ball joints, a design element that gained much broader use during Generation 2 and even more so during the Beast Wars toy line.

The Brave Series also reused character designs and toys from previous Transformers series. (A complete listing of those reuses follows in the section below).

Similarly, subsequent Transformers lines have also been influenced by the Brave Series. The Japanese Mini-Con Kingbolt's coloration and characterization are homages to the Brave series Exkaiser. Also, the Cybertron cartoon featured many homages to the Brave series King Of Braves GaoGaiGar, most notably the concept of the combination between Optimus Prime with Leobreaker and Wing Saber, which is similar to the way GaoGaiGar combines with Goldymarg and Stealth Gao respectively. The cinematography for Energon Optimus Prime's stock-footage combination sequence with his Prime Force limbs is also very reminiscent of Brave series stock footage.

One striking difference between the Brave Series and Transformers is that very few villain robots were released for the former. This is in sharp contrast to most of the Transformers series, for which heroes and villains were and are released in relatively equal numbers (with the exception of Zone and Battlestars). Generally speaking, the lack of villain toys is more the norm for such toy lines in Japan, with the various Transformers lines (save for aforementioned two) being the exception there rather than the rule.

Toys and character designs recycled from Transformers

 * Ptera Geist - Swoop
 * Thunder Geist - Sludge
 * Horn Geist - Slag
 * Armor Geist - Snarl
 * Red Geist - Deathsaurus (missing the Eagle Breastplate)
 * Hiryu - Sonic Bomber
 * Mega Sonic - Sonic Bomber
 * Goryu - Dai Atlas (missing handle for his shield)
 * Atlas Mk.II - Dai Atlas
 * Atlas Epsilon - Dai Atlas
 * Shadow-maru - Sixshot (featured significant remolding to incorporate a ninja motif)
 * Kagerou - Sixshot
 * The four Micromaster Battlestations (sans Micromaster and including non-Transforming Brave Police figures)
 * Duke Fire - New Rodimus (New Rodimus was an unused Transformers design shown in Transformers Generations; Duke Fire uses New Rodimus's basic transformation scheme, except an ambulance becomes his arms)
 * Revibaron - Hybrid of Deathsaurus, Sonic Bomber, and Dai Atlas
 * Zazorigun - Scorponok
 * Death Garry Gun - Sky Garry (canabilized trailer launchers)
 * Thunder Dagwon - Galaxy Shuttle (significant remolding, including a an additional motorcycle/robot that combines for the shuttle's robot mode)
 * Dag Base - Grandus (significant remolding, does not combine with Star Convoy)

Note: Italicized names are non-toy characters.