Beast Wars: Transformers (
Beasties on YTV, due to discomfort over the name) was a Transformers toyline released by
HasbroHasbro is a U.S.-based, multinational toy and boardgame company. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States. The majority of its products, however, are manufactured overseas.-History:In 1923, two brothers—Henry...
between 1995 and 1999, and a full-
CGComputer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of pictorial data by a computer....
animated television series spawned by it that debuted in 1996. The series was set in the future of the "original"
TransformersTransformers: Generation 1 was the original Transformers toy line that produced from 1984 to 1991...
universe as a sequel to the first Transformers series (which has since been
rebootReboot, in serial fiction, means a discarding of much or even all previous continuity in the series, to start anew. Effectively, all previously-known fictive history is declared by the writer to be null and void, or at least irrelevant to the current storyline, and the series starts over as if...
ed in limited comic book stories by
DreamwaveDreamwave Productions is a Canadian art design studio and comic book publisher, best known for their multiple Transformers comic book series...
and
IDWIDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American comic book company owned by IDT Corp.. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic Distributors...
among others).
The
Beast Wars TV series was produced by
Mainframe EntertainmentRainmaker Entertainment, formerly Mainframe Entertainment, Inc., is a Canadian computer animation and design company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and Los Angeles, California, USA . It produces computer animation TV series and movies...
of
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
; its story editors were
Bob ForwardRobert D. Forward , commonly known as Bob Forward, is an American writer, director and producer. Forward is the son of the late Dr. Robert L. Forward, who was an American physicist and science fiction writer. Forward is the production director and president of his independent company, Detonation...
and
Larry DiTillioLawrence G. "Larry" DiTillio is an American film and TV series writer. He is most famous for his role as executive story editor of the science-fiction series Babylon 5, and for writing or co-writing most of the episodes in the animated series Beast Wars...
. All three seasons are currently available on
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
in the
USAThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and other Region 1 territories. In
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, to coincide with the show's tenth anniversary in 2006,
Madman EntertainmentMadman Entertainment is an Australian company which specialises in the distribution of Japanese anime and manga in Australia and New Zealand. The company is owned by the ASX listed Funtastic Limited and Madman Entertainment is one of the major entertainment companies in Australia, along with Warner...
released all three seasons in Region 4 format. These boxsets include "world exclusive" special features, such as commentaries and interviews with the voice actors.
The Production Designer for the show,
Clyde KlotzClyde Klotz is a Canadian television art director and production designer. He worked as assistant art director on several TV series filmed in Vancouver, such as The Hitchhiker, 21 Jump Street and The X-Files; and as an illustrator on the films This Boy's Life and Look Who's Talking Too.His recent...
, won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997 for his work on
Beast Wars.
Setting and plot
The two main factions of "Transformers" in Beast Wars are descendants of the two main factions in the original cartoon: the
MaximalsMaximals are a faction in the Transformers toyline by Hasbro and the accompanying animated television series Beast Wars. They respect all life and follow a path of peace before war. They follow the tenets of the Pax Cybertronia. The Maximals are opposed by the Predacons...
are the descendants of the
AutobotAutobot, a faction of sentient robots from the planet Cybertron, are usually the main protagonists in the fictional universe of the Transformers, a collection of various toys, graphic novels, paperback books, cartoons and movies first introduced in 1984. In all but one Transformer story, the...
s and the
PredaconsPredacons are a faction in the fictional Transformers universe created by Hasbro. Previously the name Predacon had been associated with the Transformer group which combined to form Predaking. The faction made their first appearance in the Beast Wars toyline and animated series, and have been...
are the descendants of the
DecepticonThe Decepticons are usually depicted as the Antagonists in the fictional universes of the Transformers toyline and related comics and cartoons, and the enemies of the Autobots. The villains take many forms, and have many different origins and stories across the numerous different Transformers...
s. The names were intended to stem from the terms
MammalMammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose females are characterized by the possession of mammary glands while both males and females are characterized by sweat glands, hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in the brain.Mammals are divided into three main...
and Predator but were not necessarily consistent with the alternate forms of the Transformers. (In
Beast MachinesBeast Machines was an animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was a direct sequel to Beast Wars taking place within the continuity of the original Transformers series. The cause of much controversy among the fanbase, the show ran for...
, the process during which Autobots and Decepticons became Maximals and Predacons is referred to as "The Great Upgrade".)
The leader of the Predacon team is Megatron. He and his forces are a splinter group on the hunt for powerful crystals known as
EnergonIn the fictional universe of the Transformers, Energon is the primary source of power for Transformers. Using Energon, Transformers live, power their machinery, and even craft weapons.-Generation 1/Beast Wars:...
, to be used in a ploy for power and dominance. They do this with the aid of an artifact known as the
Golden Disk-Beast Wars:The Golden Disk is a relic from the Beast Wars Transformers timeline, and a key plot device for the events of the show. Considered a revered artifact, it is actually the Voyager Golden Record, which includes information on Earth and humanity, and is presumably the only source of...
and Megatron's stolen ship, the
Darksyde, which is equipped with a transwarp drive. A Maximal exploration ship, the
AxalonThe Axalon is the name of the fictional Maximal ship in the Beast Wars cartoon and comic books. In addition, in the Transformers: Armada cartoon, the Autobots constructed a space ship that was also named the Axalon, possibly in reference to the original Maximal ship...
, led by
Optimus PrimalOptimus Primal is a fictional character from the Transformers toyline, and the leader of the Maximal forces and the main protagonist in the Beast Wars television series...
, is sent to stop them. Together the ships plunge through a time/space phenomenon created by the transwarp device during their battle in space, and crash-land on a mysterious planet.
The planet is found to be rich in deposits of raw Energon, to the point that it proves to be poisonous to both factions' robot forms, forcing them to take on alternate organic forms for protection until their robot forms are needed. Thus the robots take on the beast forms of recognizable animals including mammals, birds, dinosaurs, arachnids, and insects.
Before crashing, the
Axalon deploys its cargo of “stasis pods” containing Maximal protoforms — Transformer robots with vulnerable and undeveloped physical forms, which are left to orbit the planet as an alternative to possible destruction in the initial crash landing. Throughout the series, stasis pods lose altitude and crash-land on the planet, and the Maximals and Predacons race and fight to acquire them, as protoforms acquired by Megatron's forces can be reprogrammed to become Predacons, as is the case with
BlackarachniaBlackarachnia is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes.-Beast Wars:Originally, this character was intended to be a quick retool of the Tarantulas toy, but the animators ended up giving Blackarachnia a very feminine design and shapely figure.- Season 1...
and
InfernoInferno is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes. This page is about the Inferno who appeared in the Beast Wars series. For other characters named Inferno see Inferno .-Beast Wars:...
. The stasis pods are used as a
plot deviceA plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....
to introduce new characters.
The teams are divided between the "good" Maximals and the "evil" Predacons, but include anti-heroes like
DinobotDinobot is a fictional character from the Beast Wars Transformers universe.-Beast Wars:He originally debuts in the series' premiere as a subordinate of Megatron, leader of the villainous Predacons. However, Dinobot challenges Megatron's leadership, and is shortly expelled from his crew. He...
and Blackarachnia who change sides: starting as Predacons and becoming Maximals. Additionally certain "Predacons" like
QuickstrikeQuickstrike is the name given to three fictional characters in the Transformers universes.-Beast Wars:Quickstrike is typecast as a typical "western" warrior villain. His beast mode is a scorpion with a cobra for a tail. He uses stereotypical cowboy slang terms, like "Howdy" and "Hombre", and speaks...
and
RampageRampage is the name of several different fictional characters in the Transformers universes.-Transformers: Generation 1:Rampage was a member of the Predacons, the other members being Razorclaw, Divebomb, Headstrong, and Tantrum. He can combine with them to form Predaking, becoming the right arm...
actually have a Maximal shell program. For the Maximals, the emphasis is on team spirit and good-natured arguing, especially from Rattrap, but the Predacons argue and battle for leadership, which impairs their effectiveness against the Maximals.
Many of the plots involve interaction with artifacts from an alien race known as the Vok. These artifacts become a great source of power, especially for Megatron. Activating an alien beacon signals what is originally thought to be the planet's second moon but is really a massive alien transmitter. When the aliens decide that the Transformers have contaminated their experiment they decide to destroy the planet. Using the second moon they fire a giant laser at the planet intending to blow up the remaining Energon deposits. Through the combined efforts of the Predacons and Maximals, Optimus is able to fly a retrofitted stasis pod into the second moon. However, Megatron backstabs the Maximals by trapping Optimus in the pod causing him to be killed when the second moon is destroyed. The alien moon destroys half of the planet's raw Energon and damages several stasis pods resulting in the creation of the Fuzors: Transformers with two animals combined into one. The laser also crystallizes the majority of the Energon on the planet into Energon cubes thereby making it safe for Transformer use. After the transwarp explosion of the second moon, a radiation wave leads to the re-configuration of some of the Transformers into
TransmetalsTransmetals are a subgroup of Beast Wars in the fictional Transformers Universe, featuring toys with mechanical animal modes and techno-organic robot modes...
. Optimus himself is soon revived as a Transmetal, thanks to the help of
RhinoxRhinox is the name of three fictional characters from various Transformers universes.-Beast Wars:Rhinox's character in the Beast Wars television series is very different from how the toy was depicted. As one of the first year toys, the toy of Rhinox was created before the television series came...
.
The Transformers discover that they have traveled back in time and landed on prehistoric Earth. Megatron decides to wipe out human civilization (currently a small group of proto-humans living in a single ravine), take control of the previously-crashed Autobot spaceship, the
Ark, and kill the dormant
Optimus PrimeOptimus Prime is a fictional character from the Transformers franchise. He is the main protagonist and leader of the "heroic" faction in most of the various Transformers continuities.-Transformers: Generation 1:...
, legendary leader of the Autobots. This would win the Beast Wars for the Predacons, alter the timeline, prevent the Autobots from being awakened by humanity in 1984, and leave Megatron the undisputed ruler of the universe.
The new plot develops following the discovery of a message made by the original
MegatronMegatron is a character from the Transformers franchise, created by toy companies Hasbro and Takara. He is the primary antagonist and leader of the "evil" faction in most of the various Transformers universes....
for any Decepticons who might uncover it within the Golden Disk. The Predacon Megatron infiltrates the
Ark and destroys Optimus Prime, but Optimus Primal takes the spark of his ancestor into his own body in order to protect it while the other Maximals perform vital repairs on Optimus Prime's body. When the repairs are complete, and Optimus Prime's spark is returned to him, the timeline is restored to its original state. The battle continues with the Maximals gradually gaining the upper hand until Megatron discovers the Decepticon flagship, the
NemesisThe Nemesis is a Decepticon spaceship in the fictional Transformers universe. It was built by Megatron as the flagship of his Decepticon space fleet, and was described by Optimus Primal as the most powerful Decepticon battleship ever. The ship was never named in the original series, only being...
and uses it to make his final stand.
History and development
Originally, the series was going to be set in the present, with certain characters from the original cartoon series reborn in new bodies. This was evident in the early
Beast Wars toy tech spec cards containing pictures of the Transformers taking on giant-sized forms in the present era (similar to the original '80s cartoon). However, Forward and DiTillio knew next to nothing about the original series. Since they were given free reign to promote what was at the time a dying franchise, they instead chose a considerably earlier setting with no connection to the Transformers universe outside of a few recycled names. Larry DiTillio revealed in an interview that the decision to make Earth the planet in question was not finalized until the end of the first season. They gave the planet two satellites and decided that they would destroy one moon if the planet was indeed to be Earth. When he and Bob Forward discovered the alt.toys.transformers
UsenetUsenet, a portmanteau of "user" and "network" , is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It evolved from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name....
group and learned more about the original series, they began to work in classic Transformer elements, placing Beast Wars in the same universe. Contrary to early concept art, the faction leaders in Beast Wars are not the same as the ones in G1. This is confirmed when both Primal and Megatron come face-to-face with the currently-deactivated forms of their ancestors inside the
Ark at different points.
The show was originally going to feature a much larger cast of characters, but limitations on CGI at the time meant that the animators had to shorten the cast to five members on both sides, adding new characters sparingly. Bob Forward has credited this as being part of the reason why the show was so successful, because a smaller cast meant he could focus on character development and personality for every character, as opposed to the ungainly task of writing for an entire army's worth of characters.
Also, instead of
Tigatron-Beast Wars:Tigatron tends to patrol solo, modeled after the solitary behavior of tigers in the wild. Tigatron and Airazor share a love of the Earth, as each considers it their home. They both prefer to remain outside the Maximal Base and roam the planet free in beast mode. Airazor would often save...
, the toy-only character
WolfangWolfang is the name of a fictional character in the various Transformers universes.-Animated series:Wolfang's stasis pod was presumably among those who were launched into orbit around prehistoric Earth in the series pilot....
was supposed to be in the show, but was replaced at the last moment to conserve money, as Tigatron was a repaint of
Cheetor- Beast Wars :Cheetor's original industrial spec indicated he was a seasoned and confident warrior always in search of battle with the Predacons, seemingly in contrast to his youthful and impulsive portrayal in the original show. The tech spec released with his Tenth Anniversary Toy would be much...
in the toy line, and could thus be a repaint of Cheetor's CGI figure. This reuse of character CGI figures to introduce new characters is a fairly common money-saving tactic for most CGI-based television shows, and was used in
Beast Wars to make Blackarachnia (a slight remodel and remap of Tarantulas) and Ravage whose head was a repainted version of Tigatron's beast mode head, mounted on a robot body which was a remodel of Transmetal Cheetor's robot mode body.
Susan BluSusan Blu , sometimes credited as Sue Blu, is an American voice actress, voice director, and casting director in American and Canadian cinema and television...
, who provided the voice of Arcee in the original
Transformers series, was the voice director for the
Beast Wars series, as well as the voice of
TransmutateTransmutate is the name of a fictional character from the various Transformers universes.-Beast Wars:Transmutate could fly, seemingly had enhanced senses and could emit a powerful sonic cry...
in the episode of the same name. She went on to direct voices in
Beast Machines as well, making her the longest serving Transformers staff member.
Beast Wars was the first
Transformers series to include deaths in the television episodes (the original 80s series continuity had several characters die in the theatrical movie, but no characters died in the series itself). The characters Dinobot, Dinobot 2, Scorponok, Terrorsaur, Tarantulas, Depth Charge, Rampage, Tigerhawk, Inferno, and Quickstrike were all killed by the end of the show. Of the ten characters that appear in episode one, only six survived the entire series, and out of these, only three survived to the end of
Beast Machines. Notably among them is the character
WaspinatorWaspinator is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes.-Beast Wars:Waspinator is best remembered for being the universe's whipping boy: getting destroyed or demolished in almost every episode of Beast Wars, yet returning in almost perfect condition in the...
, who was blown to pieces or otherwise dismantled in almost every episode of the series, but never officially "died". Even in the sequel series
Beast MachinesBeast Machines was an animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was a direct sequel to Beast Wars taking place within the continuity of the original Transformers series. The cause of much controversy among the fanbase, the show ran for...
Waspinator survives, albeit in a new body and identity, as
ThrustThrust is a fictional character from the Transformers toyline that appeared in the Beast Machines series.-Beast Machines:He is a Vehicon General who was in charge of the Cycle Drones and was one of the few who remained an ally to Megatron until the very end...
.
Initially Waspinator, was to die at the beginning of season two but because people enjoyed Waspinator as comic relief, the creators decided to kill off Terrorsaur instead. Waspinator went on to become the only Predacon to survive both
Beast Wars and
Beast Machines (not counting Blackarachnia, who defected in season three of
Beast Wars).
The third season of the TV show was originally supposed to include an extra episode, titled "Dark Glass", written by
Christy MarxChristy Marx grew up in Danville, Illinois and is an American writer and a photographer. She has written scripts for various episodes of TV-series, mainly for kids' shows, including Jem, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Conan the Adventurer, G.I. Joe, Hypernauts, Captain Power and others...
. The script of the episode depicted an encounter between
RattrapRattrap is the name of a fictional character from the Transformers toyline that appeared in the Beast Wars and Beast Machines series. He is a Maximal and takes the beast form of a rat.-Beast Wars:...
and the clone of Dinobot, where Rattrap finds the data tracks of the original Dinobot in the Maximals' ship's computer, and goes on a suicide mission to install it into the clone, in a desperate bid to bring his old friend back. However, the script was seen as "too dark" for children to watch, and so the episode was never produced. A considerably lighter and more jocular episode, titled "Go with the Flow", was created in its place. Transcripts of the episode are rumored to survive and it is now considered part of the
Beast Wars continuity by some fans, mainly for its explanation on how the Dinobot clone regained the original's personality after Rampage was destroyed at the end of season three.
DVD releases
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 1
- Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Audio: 5.1 Dolby Surround & 2.0 Stereo
- Number of discs: 4
- Rating: Not Rated
- Studio: Rhino Theatrical
- DVD Release Date: August 12, 2003
- Run Time: 620 minutes
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 2
- Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Audio: 5.1 Dolby Surround & 2.0 Stereo
- Number of discs: 2
- Rating: Not Rated
- Studio: Rhino Theatrical
- DVD Release Date: March 23, 2004
- Run Time: 330 minutes
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 3
- Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Audio: 5.1 Dolby Surround & 2.0 Stereo
- Number of discs: 2
- Rating: Not Rated
- Studio: Rhino Theatrical
- DVD Release Date: September 7, 2004
- Run Time: 350 minutes
/
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 1
- DVD Release Date: 17 March 2006
- Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 4
- Region: Region 4
- Classification: PG (Parental Guidance)
- World Exclusive Special Features
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 2
- DVD Release Date: 25 July 2006
- Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 3
- Region: Region 4
- Classification: PG (Parental Guidance)
- World Exclusive Special Features
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 3
- DVD Release Date: 10 November 2006
- Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 3
- Region: Region 4
- Classification: PG (Parental Guidance)
- World Exclusive Special Features
Reception
While the toyline was lauded for its innovative joint construction and the show is overall liked by fans, the show was initially derided by a minority of fans for using animals instead of vehicles for the line's alternate forms. Overall,
Beast Wars was well-received and is often praised for its mature tone and darker storylines, in addition to its use of sophisticated humor and character development.
Beast Machines
Beast Wars was succeeded by
Beast Machines, a new series with a new creative team in charge of production. As a sequel, it was not initially well-received among most fans mostly due to the surviving Maximals and Predacons being out-of-character to varying degrees. Others did not find its
techno-organicIn the Marvel Comics universe and Transformers Beast Machines, techno-organic material is a material with properties and abilities of both organic and technological material...
Cybertron concept to be agreeable, as the planet was always referred to previously as not having organic life. More recently, it has been held in higher regard by some fans, especially compared to the perceived poor quality of the newer Japanese-produced series that are unconnected to the core universe. Also panned by some critics was the use of non-projectile weapons, which was constant in the original series. The network which aired Mainframe entertainment at the time was FOX, who decided that time bombs, machine guns and other weapons would be deemed too realistic and violent for their network, so the series shifted tones for pulse cannons and futuristic weaponry.
Japanese treatment
The Japanese series
Beast Wars IIis the 1998 Japanese Transformers television animated series, movie and toyline. Both animated series were created to fill time in order to dub Beast Wars seasons 2 and 3 into Japanese...
and
Beast Wars NeoBeast Wars Neo is the 1999 Japanese Transformers television animated series and toyline and is a direct sequel to Beast Wars II. Both animated series were created to fill time in order to dub Beast Wars seasons 2 and 3 into Japanese...
were created to fill the gap while the second and third seasons of
Beast Wars were being translated into Japanese (called
Beast Wars: Metals). The characters originate from the future that the
Beast Wars teams left, but the events of the series take place in the far future. The series are noted primarily for the return of
UnicronUnicron is a fictional character from the Transformers universe and toyline. Created by Floro Dery, he was introduced in the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie as the film's main antagonist...
, but more negatively, for their childish, comedic nature, as the
Transformers franchise is aimed at a very young age group in Japan when compared to Canada.
Beast Wars II spawned a theatrical movie. The
Beast Wars Neo toyline was created to cater to the Japanese market. Whereas the cybernetic transmetal
Beast Wars Transformers sold well in Western markets, Japanese fans preferred more realistic looking beast modes, thus
Beast Wars Metals was not as successful with Japanese fans. The second and third season of
Beast Wars and its toy line only lasted a few months before being quickly replaced by
Transformers: Car RobotsTransformers: Robots in Disguise is the title of the 2001 English-dubbed version of the Japanese television series Transformers: Car Robot and serves as a self-contained universe separate from any of the other existing Transformers Universes...
in the following new year, in which several unused Transmetal 2 molds were used as Destrongers (Predacons).
Comic books
Officially, the
Beast Wars and
Beast Machines series exist as the future of "a" Generation 1 universe, and not specifically the original cartoon series or Marvel Comics series. The writers of the series adopted this position in order to pick and choose the best elements of the discrete Generation 1 continuities. However, beyond use of the comic-only term, "the
Ark", and the comic book entity,
PrimusPrimus is the "benevolent" godlike entity in the fictional Transformers comic universe who fought against the Chaos-Bringer Unicron. The Lord of the Light, Primus is the being who created the Transformers to help him defeat Unicron.-Transformers: Generation 1:...
, all of the show's references are based on the original cartoon. This would be carried on into the Dreamwave comics, which seemed to integrate elements from both lines while working towards maintaining continuity with
Beast Wars.
BotCon comics
In the BotCon comics, two particular
Beast Wars storylines are tapped.
In the
Point Omega storyline, several events lead up to a tremendous battle against
ShokaractShokaract is a character from the Transformers toy line and comic series.-Beast Wars:Shokaract is the most diabolical and evil force the universe has seen since Unicron. Originally an exiled Predacon, called the Hunter, Shokaract discovered the Chaos Bringer's Dark Essence on Earth...
, a Predacon fueled by the Dark Essence of
UnicronUnicron is a fictional character from the Transformers universe and toyline. Created by Floro Dery, he was introduced in the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie as the film's main antagonist...
himself. This also serves as an introduction for
ApelinqApelinq is a character from the Transformers toy series and comic books.-Beast Machines:Apelinq is a Maximal scientist and member of the Wreckers. He is a brilliant inventor, and created the miraculous Transfer Interlink, which allows him to download digital designs into reality...
, and the only appearances of
Windrazor-Transformers: Generation 2:The name Windrazor was first given to a Decepticon Skyscorcher. He was called Tornado in some countries, and Volcano in others....
, Sandstorm, Antagony, and Cataclysm.
In the
Primeval Dawn story, Tarantulas comes back from the dead alongside Ravage, Spittor, Iguanus, and Razorclaw to complete the mission he set out to do, while the Vok create
Primal PrimePrimal Prime is a fictional character from the Transformers toy and story lines.-Beast Machines:Primal Prime's tech spec would set out his origin: he was created from the remnants of the control suit Quickstrike used to control Optimus Primal in the Beast Wars episode "Master Blaster"...
to stand in his way; Primal Prime teams up with Airazor, Tigatron, and Ramulus, who have come back from the dead as well.
Dreamwave Productions
Dreamwave ProductionsDreamwave Productions is a Canadian art design studio and comic book publisher, best known for their multiple Transformers comic book series...
released a Summer Special which contained a
Beast Wars story. It introduced three new characters,
Optimus MinorOptimus Minor is the name of a fictional character in the various Transformers universes.- Beast Wars :The character of Optimus Minor is depicted in two widely different ways, the first is his original toyline depiction and the second version is in comics released by IDW Publishing and Dreamwave...
,
BonecrusherBonecrusher is the name of several fictional characters in the various Transformers universes.-Transformers: Generation 1:Bonecrusher is a member of the Constructicons. He is brawler by nature and specialises in demolitions work...
, and
WolfangWolfang is the name of a fictional character in the various Transformers universes.-Animated series:Wolfang's stasis pod was presumably among those who were launched into orbit around prehistoric Earth in the series pilot....
. The comic had a survey as to whether Dreamwave's new comic would be
Robots In Disguise or
Beast Wars.
Beast Wars won.
Dreamwave Productions had plans to release a
Beast Wars comic in early 2005, which would have been done by the
War Within creative team of
Simon FurmanSimon Christopher Francis Furman is a comic book writer, particularly associated with of a number of notable Transformers comics for Marvel UK, Marvel US, Dreamwave, and most recently, IDW...
and
Don FigueroaDon Allan Figueroa is a Filipino American comic book artist and toy designer. He is best known for his work on many different Transformers designs, for both the defunct Dreamwave Productions and with IDW Publishing....
. Brad Mick and Adam Patyk were originally planned to write the series until they left Dreamwave after not being paid for several projects. However, although some cover art did appear on the internet, Dreamwave entered bankruptcy before one issue could be published.
IDW Publishing
After Dreamwave filed for bankruptcy in January 2005, the license for all
Transformers comics, including
Beast Wars were picked up by
IDW PublishingIDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American comic book company owned by IDT Corp.. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic Distributors...
. A four-issue
Beast Wars mini-series, titled
Beast Wars: The Gathering, was released in 2006. The series was written by
Simon FurmanSimon Christopher Francis Furman is a comic book writer, particularly associated with of a number of notable Transformers comics for Marvel UK, Marvel US, Dreamwave, and most recently, IDW...
and drawn by
Don FigueroaDon Allan Figueroa is a Filipino American comic book artist and toy designer. He is best known for his work on many different Transformers designs, for both the defunct Dreamwave Productions and with IDW Publishing....
. The mini-series takes place parallel to the third season of
Beast Wars and introduced characters who were not shown in the original series such as
MagmatronMagmatron is a Transformers character who first appeared in the Japanese Beast Wars Neo series, was later released in the American Beast Machines Dinobots toy line, and most recently in official Beast Wars comic continuity.-Beast Wars Neo:...
,
RazorbeastRazorbeast is the name of a fictional character from the Transformers toyline that appeared in the Beast Wars: The Gathering.-Beast Wars:He is a Maximal and takes the beast form of a razorback boar.-IDW Publishing:...
, and Injector. Other characters who made an appearance are
GrimlockGrimlock is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers universes.-Transformers: Generation 1:Grimlock is the most fearsome and powerful member of the Dinobots...
in his
Beast Wars body (a recolored Dinobot toy) and
RavageRavage is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers universes. Due to the inability to trademark the common word "ravage", he is sometimes called Battle Ravage, Command Ravage or Tripredacus Agent...
in his Transmetal II "Tripredacus Agent" incarnation.
Taking place around the events of the season three episode "Deep Metal" (as the Predacons are just installing Sentinel), the mini-series focused on Magmatron, sent by the
Tripredacus CouncilThe Tripredacus is a fictional characters from the Transformers universe. He should not be confused with Tripledacus.-Beast Wars:Tripredacus is the combined form of the Predacon leaders Ramhorn, Cicadacon, and Seaclamp. -Animated series:...
to capture Megatron after Ravage's failure. However, Magmatron had his own agenda - to create his own army from the stasis pods the
Axalon had ejected in the pilot episode of
Beast Wars. His scheme was partially thwarted by the Maximal double-agent Razorbeast, who ensured the shell program used reconfigured many of the protoforms as Maximals rather than Predacons. The two sides would clash in an attempt to stop Magmatron from returning to Cybertron with a captured Megatron, with some unexpected aid from Grimlock ensuring Magmatron was sent back to Cybertron empty handed. However, Razorbeast's Maximals and many Predacons (led by Ravage, resurrected in a Transmetal II body) were left on Earth, opening the way for future series.
The series is important in that it wraps up many of the loose ends that the show did not address – most importantly, what happened to the various protoforms that the Maximals jettisoned. Also the presence of both Lio Convoy and
Big ConvoyBig Convoy is the name of a Maximal in the fictional Transformers universes.-Beast Wars Neo:Big Convoy is a Maximal commander who turns into a woolly mammoth and has an additional attack mode. He prefers to fight alone instead having troops under his command. He is old friends with the Maximal...
in flashback sequences implies that the Japanese-exclusive
Beast Wars IIis the 1998 Japanese Transformers television animated series, movie and toyline. Both animated series were created to fill time in order to dub Beast Wars seasons 2 and 3 into Japanese...
and
Beast Wars NeoBeast Wars Neo is the 1999 Japanese Transformers television animated series and toyline and is a direct sequel to Beast Wars II. Both animated series were created to fill time in order to dub Beast Wars seasons 2 and 3 into Japanese...
animated series take place in the same continuity.
IDW editor-in-chief Chris Ryall recently confirmed the second
Beast Wars series, titled
The Ascending, as well as a series of character profile books, will be due in August.
Video games
There have been two
Beast Wars video games. The first game, simply called Beast Wars, was released for the
PlayStationThe PlayStation is a 32-bit fifth generation video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December ....
,
Nintendo 64The , often abbreviated as N64, is Nintendo's third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released on June 23, 1996 in Japan, September 29, 1996 in North America, March 1, 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1, 1997 in France and December 10,...
and
PCIBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
by
Hasbro InteractiveHasbro Interactive was an American video game production and publishing subsidiary of Hasbro, the large game and toy company.Hasbro Interactive was formed late in 1995 in order to compete in the computer and video game arena. Several Hasbro properties, such as Monopoly and Scrabble, had already...
. It was a third person shooter, based on the first season of the show, in which you can control either the Maximals or the Predacons in a series of missions to undermine the other faction's attempts at gaining enough resources to win the war between them and escape the planet. It was given a multiplayer feature (removed from the console releases) that allowed up to 8 players to play over
LANLän are the Swedish and lääni Finnish language terms, respectively, for the administrative divisions used in Sweden and Finland.They are also sometimes used in other countries, especially as a translation of the Russian word oblast...
, with its own play rooms in the MSN Gaming Zone (they have subsequently been removed). The second game,
Transformers: Beast Wars TransmetalsTransformers: Beast Wars Transmetals is a fighting game for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. It was released in 1999. In Japan, both version are called two separate names; for the PSX version, and for the N64 version...
, is a
Fighting VipersFighting Vipers is a 3D fighting game developed by Sega-AM2.The game was first released in the arcade in 1995 using the Sega Model 2 hardware and ported the same year to the Sega Saturn with significantly reduced graphics.-Gameplay:...
-style fighting game based on the second season. The PlayStation version was released by Hasbro Interactive and the Nintendo 64 version was released by
bam! EntertainmentBAM! Entertainment is a dormant video game publisher that published such titles as Carmen Sandiego: The Secret of the Stolen Drums, Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo, and various video game console adaptations of Cartoon Network programs. Threatened as early as 2002, NASDAQ eventually delisted their...
. Neither of these games did well, commercially, and were panned by critics and fans alike, although the second game was memorable for having most of cast members from the show reprise their roles. A third game was in the works for the
PlayStation 2The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony. The PS2 console is the sequel to the original PlayStation console. The successor to the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 2 forms part of the PlayStation series of video game...
, but was scrapped in
pre-productionPre-production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- Information :In the film industry, pre-production usually only commences once a project has been developed and is greenlit...
, without any official word as to why, or how far the project was before the plug was pulled.
Cast
Beast Wars: Transformers (
Beasties on YTV, due to discomfort over the name) was a Transformers toyline released by
HasbroHasbro is a U.S.-based, multinational toy and boardgame company. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States. The majority of its products, however, are manufactured overseas.-History:In 1923, two brothers—Henry...
between 1995 and 1999, and a full-
CGComputer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of pictorial data by a computer....
animated television series spawned by it that debuted in 1996. The series was set in the future of the "original"
TransformersTransformers: Generation 1 was the original Transformers toy line that produced from 1984 to 1991...
universe as a sequel to the first Transformers series (which has since been
rebootReboot, in serial fiction, means a discarding of much or even all previous continuity in the series, to start anew. Effectively, all previously-known fictive history is declared by the writer to be null and void, or at least irrelevant to the current storyline, and the series starts over as if...
ed in limited comic book stories by
DreamwaveDreamwave Productions is a Canadian art design studio and comic book publisher, best known for their multiple Transformers comic book series...
and
IDWIDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American comic book company owned by IDT Corp.. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic Distributors...
among others).
The
Beast Wars TV series was produced by
Mainframe EntertainmentRainmaker Entertainment, formerly Mainframe Entertainment, Inc., is a Canadian computer animation and design company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and Los Angeles, California, USA . It produces computer animation TV series and movies...
of
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
; its story editors were
Bob ForwardRobert D. Forward , commonly known as Bob Forward, is an American writer, director and producer. Forward is the son of the late Dr. Robert L. Forward, who was an American physicist and science fiction writer. Forward is the production director and president of his independent company, Detonation...
and
Larry DiTillioLawrence G. "Larry" DiTillio is an American film and TV series writer. He is most famous for his role as executive story editor of the science-fiction series Babylon 5, and for writing or co-writing most of the episodes in the animated series Beast Wars...
. All three seasons are currently available on
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
in the
USAThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and other Region 1 territories. In
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, to coincide with the show's tenth anniversary in 2006,
Madman EntertainmentMadman Entertainment is an Australian company which specialises in the distribution of Japanese anime and manga in Australia and New Zealand. The company is owned by the ASX listed Funtastic Limited and Madman Entertainment is one of the major entertainment companies in Australia, along with Warner...
released all three seasons in Region 4 format. These boxsets include "world exclusive" special features, such as commentaries and interviews with the voice actors.
The Production Designer for the show,
Clyde KlotzClyde Klotz is a Canadian television art director and production designer. He worked as assistant art director on several TV series filmed in Vancouver, such as The Hitchhiker, 21 Jump Street and The X-Files; and as an illustrator on the films This Boy's Life and Look Who's Talking Too.His recent...
, won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997 for his work on
Beast Wars.
Setting and plot
The two main factions of "Transformers" in Beast Wars are descendants of the two main factions in the original cartoon: the
MaximalsMaximals are a faction in the Transformers toyline by Hasbro and the accompanying animated television series Beast Wars. They respect all life and follow a path of peace before war. They follow the tenets of the Pax Cybertronia. The Maximals are opposed by the Predacons...
are the descendants of the
AutobotAutobot, a faction of sentient robots from the planet Cybertron, are usually the main protagonists in the fictional universe of the Transformers, a collection of various toys, graphic novels, paperback books, cartoons and movies first introduced in 1984. In all but one Transformer story, the...
s and the
PredaconsPredacons are a faction in the fictional Transformers universe created by Hasbro. Previously the name Predacon had been associated with the Transformer group which combined to form Predaking. The faction made their first appearance in the Beast Wars toyline and animated series, and have been...
are the descendants of the
DecepticonThe Decepticons are usually depicted as the Antagonists in the fictional universes of the Transformers toyline and related comics and cartoons, and the enemies of the Autobots. The villains take many forms, and have many different origins and stories across the numerous different Transformers...
s. The names were intended to stem from the terms
MammalMammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose females are characterized by the possession of mammary glands while both males and females are characterized by sweat glands, hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in the brain.Mammals are divided into three main...
and Predator but were not necessarily consistent with the alternate forms of the Transformers. (In
Beast MachinesBeast Machines was an animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was a direct sequel to Beast Wars taking place within the continuity of the original Transformers series. The cause of much controversy among the fanbase, the show ran for...
, the process during which Autobots and Decepticons became Maximals and Predacons is referred to as "The Great Upgrade".)
The leader of the Predacon team is Megatron. He and his forces are a splinter group on the hunt for powerful crystals known as
EnergonIn the fictional universe of the Transformers, Energon is the primary source of power for Transformers. Using Energon, Transformers live, power their machinery, and even craft weapons.-Generation 1/Beast Wars:...
, to be used in a ploy for power and dominance. They do this with the aid of an artifact known as the
Golden Disk-Beast Wars:The Golden Disk is a relic from the Beast Wars Transformers timeline, and a key plot device for the events of the show. Considered a revered artifact, it is actually the Voyager Golden Record, which includes information on Earth and humanity, and is presumably the only source of...
and Megatron's stolen ship, the
Darksyde, which is equipped with a transwarp drive. A Maximal exploration ship, the
AxalonThe Axalon is the name of the fictional Maximal ship in the Beast Wars cartoon and comic books. In addition, in the Transformers: Armada cartoon, the Autobots constructed a space ship that was also named the Axalon, possibly in reference to the original Maximal ship...
, led by
Optimus PrimalOptimus Primal is a fictional character from the Transformers toyline, and the leader of the Maximal forces and the main protagonist in the Beast Wars television series...
, is sent to stop them. Together the ships plunge through a time/space phenomenon created by the transwarp device during their battle in space, and crash-land on a mysterious planet.
The planet is found to be rich in deposits of raw Energon, to the point that it proves to be poisonous to both factions' robot forms, forcing them to take on alternate organic forms for protection until their robot forms are needed. Thus the robots take on the beast forms of recognizable animals including mammals, birds, dinosaurs, arachnids, and insects.
Before crashing, the
Axalon deploys its cargo of “stasis pods” containing Maximal protoforms — Transformer robots with vulnerable and undeveloped physical forms, which are left to orbit the planet as an alternative to possible destruction in the initial crash landing. Throughout the series, stasis pods lose altitude and crash-land on the planet, and the Maximals and Predacons race and fight to acquire them, as protoforms acquired by Megatron's forces can be reprogrammed to become Predacons, as is the case with
BlackarachniaBlackarachnia is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes.-Beast Wars:Originally, this character was intended to be a quick retool of the Tarantulas toy, but the animators ended up giving Blackarachnia a very feminine design and shapely figure.- Season 1...
and
InfernoInferno is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes. This page is about the Inferno who appeared in the Beast Wars series. For other characters named Inferno see Inferno .-Beast Wars:...
. The stasis pods are used as a
plot deviceA plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....
to introduce new characters.
The teams are divided between the "good" Maximals and the "evil" Predacons, but include anti-heroes like
DinobotDinobot is a fictional character from the Beast Wars Transformers universe.-Beast Wars:He originally debuts in the series' premiere as a subordinate of Megatron, leader of the villainous Predacons. However, Dinobot challenges Megatron's leadership, and is shortly expelled from his crew. He...
and Blackarachnia who change sides: starting as Predacons and becoming Maximals. Additionally certain "Predacons" like
QuickstrikeQuickstrike is the name given to three fictional characters in the Transformers universes.-Beast Wars:Quickstrike is typecast as a typical "western" warrior villain. His beast mode is a scorpion with a cobra for a tail. He uses stereotypical cowboy slang terms, like "Howdy" and "Hombre", and speaks...
and
RampageRampage is the name of several different fictional characters in the Transformers universes.-Transformers: Generation 1:Rampage was a member of the Predacons, the other members being Razorclaw, Divebomb, Headstrong, and Tantrum. He can combine with them to form Predaking, becoming the right arm...
actually have a Maximal shell program. For the Maximals, the emphasis is on team spirit and good-natured arguing, especially from Rattrap, but the Predacons argue and battle for leadership, which impairs their effectiveness against the Maximals.
Many of the plots involve interaction with artifacts from an alien race known as the Vok. These artifacts become a great source of power, especially for Megatron. Activating an alien beacon signals what is originally thought to be the planet's second moon but is really a massive alien transmitter. When the aliens decide that the Transformers have contaminated their experiment they decide to destroy the planet. Using the second moon they fire a giant laser at the planet intending to blow up the remaining Energon deposits. Through the combined efforts of the Predacons and Maximals, Optimus is able to fly a retrofitted stasis pod into the second moon. However, Megatron backstabs the Maximals by trapping Optimus in the pod causing him to be killed when the second moon is destroyed. The alien moon destroys half of the planet's raw Energon and damages several stasis pods resulting in the creation of the Fuzors: Transformers with two animals combined into one. The laser also crystallizes the majority of the Energon on the planet into Energon cubes thereby making it safe for Transformer use. After the transwarp explosion of the second moon, a radiation wave leads to the re-configuration of some of the Transformers into
TransmetalsTransmetals are a subgroup of Beast Wars in the fictional Transformers Universe, featuring toys with mechanical animal modes and techno-organic robot modes...
. Optimus himself is soon revived as a Transmetal, thanks to the help of
RhinoxRhinox is the name of three fictional characters from various Transformers universes.-Beast Wars:Rhinox's character in the Beast Wars television series is very different from how the toy was depicted. As one of the first year toys, the toy of Rhinox was created before the television series came...
.
The Transformers discover that they have traveled back in time and landed on prehistoric Earth. Megatron decides to wipe out human civilization (currently a small group of proto-humans living in a single ravine), take control of the previously-crashed Autobot spaceship, the
Ark, and kill the dormant
Optimus PrimeOptimus Prime is a fictional character from the Transformers franchise. He is the main protagonist and leader of the "heroic" faction in most of the various Transformers continuities.-Transformers: Generation 1:...
, legendary leader of the Autobots. This would win the Beast Wars for the Predacons, alter the timeline, prevent the Autobots from being awakened by humanity in 1984, and leave Megatron the undisputed ruler of the universe.
The new plot develops following the discovery of a message made by the original
MegatronMegatron is a character from the Transformers franchise, created by toy companies Hasbro and Takara. He is the primary antagonist and leader of the "evil" faction in most of the various Transformers universes....
for any Decepticons who might uncover it within the Golden Disk. The Predacon Megatron infiltrates the
Ark and destroys Optimus Prime, but Optimus Primal takes the spark of his ancestor into his own body in order to protect it while the other Maximals perform vital repairs on Optimus Prime's body. When the repairs are complete, and Optimus Prime's spark is returned to him, the timeline is restored to its original state. The battle continues with the Maximals gradually gaining the upper hand until Megatron discovers the Decepticon flagship, the
NemesisThe Nemesis is a Decepticon spaceship in the fictional Transformers universe. It was built by Megatron as the flagship of his Decepticon space fleet, and was described by Optimus Primal as the most powerful Decepticon battleship ever. The ship was never named in the original series, only being...
and uses it to make his final stand.
History and development
Originally, the series was going to be set in the present, with certain characters from the original cartoon series reborn in new bodies. This was evident in the early
Beast Wars toy tech spec cards containing pictures of the Transformers taking on giant-sized forms in the present era (similar to the original '80s cartoon). However, Forward and DiTillio knew next to nothing about the original series. Since they were given free reign to promote what was at the time a dying franchise, they instead chose a considerably earlier setting with no connection to the Transformers universe outside of a few recycled names. Larry DiTillio revealed in an interview that the decision to make Earth the planet in question was not finalized until the end of the first season. They gave the planet two satellites and decided that they would destroy one moon if the planet was indeed to be Earth. When he and Bob Forward discovered the alt.toys.transformers
UsenetUsenet, a portmanteau of "user" and "network" , is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It evolved from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name....
group and learned more about the original series, they began to work in classic Transformer elements, placing Beast Wars in the same universe. Contrary to early concept art, the faction leaders in Beast Wars are not the same as the ones in G1. This is confirmed when both Primal and Megatron come face-to-face with the currently-deactivated forms of their ancestors inside the
Ark at different points.
The show was originally going to feature a much larger cast of characters, but limitations on CGI at the time meant that the animators had to shorten the cast to five members on both sides, adding new characters sparingly. Bob Forward has credited this as being part of the reason why the show was so successful, because a smaller cast meant he could focus on character development and personality for every character, as opposed to the ungainly task of writing for an entire army's worth of characters.
Also, instead of
Tigatron-Beast Wars:Tigatron tends to patrol solo, modeled after the solitary behavior of tigers in the wild. Tigatron and Airazor share a love of the Earth, as each considers it their home. They both prefer to remain outside the Maximal Base and roam the planet free in beast mode. Airazor would often save...
, the toy-only character
WolfangWolfang is the name of a fictional character in the various Transformers universes.-Animated series:Wolfang's stasis pod was presumably among those who were launched into orbit around prehistoric Earth in the series pilot....
was supposed to be in the show, but was replaced at the last moment to conserve money, as Tigatron was a repaint of
Cheetor- Beast Wars :Cheetor's original industrial spec indicated he was a seasoned and confident warrior always in search of battle with the Predacons, seemingly in contrast to his youthful and impulsive portrayal in the original show. The tech spec released with his Tenth Anniversary Toy would be much...
in the toy line, and could thus be a repaint of Cheetor's CGI figure. This reuse of character CGI figures to introduce new characters is a fairly common money-saving tactic for most CGI-based television shows, and was used in
Beast Wars to make Blackarachnia (a slight remodel and remap of Tarantulas) and Ravage whose head was a repainted version of Tigatron's beast mode head, mounted on a robot body which was a remodel of Transmetal Cheetor's robot mode body.
Susan BluSusan Blu , sometimes credited as Sue Blu, is an American voice actress, voice director, and casting director in American and Canadian cinema and television...
, who provided the voice of Arcee in the original
Transformers series, was the voice director for the
Beast Wars series, as well as the voice of
TransmutateTransmutate is the name of a fictional character from the various Transformers universes.-Beast Wars:Transmutate could fly, seemingly had enhanced senses and could emit a powerful sonic cry...
in the episode of the same name. She went on to direct voices in
Beast Machines as well, making her the longest serving Transformers staff member.
Beast Wars was the first
Transformers series to include deaths in the television episodes (the original 80s series continuity had several characters die in the theatrical movie, but no characters died in the series itself). The characters Dinobot, Dinobot 2, Scorponok, Terrorsaur, Tarantulas, Depth Charge, Rampage, Tigerhawk, Inferno, and Quickstrike were all killed by the end of the show. Of the ten characters that appear in episode one, only six survived the entire series, and out of these, only three survived to the end of
Beast Machines. Notably among them is the character
WaspinatorWaspinator is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes.-Beast Wars:Waspinator is best remembered for being the universe's whipping boy: getting destroyed or demolished in almost every episode of Beast Wars, yet returning in almost perfect condition in the...
, who was blown to pieces or otherwise dismantled in almost every episode of the series, but never officially "died". Even in the sequel series
Beast MachinesBeast Machines was an animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was a direct sequel to Beast Wars taking place within the continuity of the original Transformers series. The cause of much controversy among the fanbase, the show ran for...
Waspinator survives, albeit in a new body and identity, as
ThrustThrust is a fictional character from the Transformers toyline that appeared in the Beast Machines series.-Beast Machines:He is a Vehicon General who was in charge of the Cycle Drones and was one of the few who remained an ally to Megatron until the very end...
.
Initially Waspinator, was to die at the beginning of season two but because people enjoyed Waspinator as comic relief, the creators decided to kill off Terrorsaur instead. Waspinator went on to become the only Predacon to survive both
Beast Wars and
Beast Machines (not counting Blackarachnia, who defected in season three of
Beast Wars).
The third season of the TV show was originally supposed to include an extra episode, titled "Dark Glass", written by
Christy MarxChristy Marx grew up in Danville, Illinois and is an American writer and a photographer. She has written scripts for various episodes of TV-series, mainly for kids' shows, including Jem, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Conan the Adventurer, G.I. Joe, Hypernauts, Captain Power and others...
. The script of the episode depicted an encounter between
RattrapRattrap is the name of a fictional character from the Transformers toyline that appeared in the Beast Wars and Beast Machines series. He is a Maximal and takes the beast form of a rat.-Beast Wars:...
and the clone of Dinobot, where Rattrap finds the data tracks of the original Dinobot in the Maximals' ship's computer, and goes on a suicide mission to install it into the clone, in a desperate bid to bring his old friend back. However, the script was seen as "too dark" for children to watch, and so the episode was never produced. A considerably lighter and more jocular episode, titled "Go with the Flow", was created in its place. Transcripts of the episode are rumored to survive and it is now considered part of the
Beast Wars continuity by some fans, mainly for its explanation on how the Dinobot clone regained the original's personality after Rampage was destroyed at the end of season three.
DVD releases
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 1
- Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Audio: 5.1 Dolby Surround & 2.0 Stereo
- Number of discs: 4
- Rating: Not Rated
- Studio: Rhino Theatrical
- DVD Release Date: August 12, 2003
- Run Time: 620 minutes
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 2
- Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Audio: 5.1 Dolby Surround & 2.0 Stereo
- Number of discs: 2
- Rating: Not Rated
- Studio: Rhino Theatrical
- DVD Release Date: March 23, 2004
- Run Time: 330 minutes
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 3
- Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Audio: 5.1 Dolby Surround & 2.0 Stereo
- Number of discs: 2
- Rating: Not Rated
- Studio: Rhino Theatrical
- DVD Release Date: September 7, 2004
- Run Time: 350 minutes
/
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 1
- DVD Release Date: 17 March 2006
- Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 4
- Region: Region 4
- Classification: PG (Parental Guidance)
- World Exclusive Special Features
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 2
- DVD Release Date: 25 July 2006
- Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 3
- Region: Region 4
- Classification: PG (Parental Guidance)
- World Exclusive Special Features
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 3
- DVD Release Date: 10 November 2006
- Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 3
- Region: Region 4
- Classification: PG (Parental Guidance)
- World Exclusive Special Features
Reception
While the toyline was lauded for its innovative joint construction and the show is overall liked by fans, the show was initially derided by a minority of fans for using animals instead of vehicles for the line's alternate forms. Overall,
Beast Wars was well-received and is often praised for its mature tone and darker storylines, in addition to its use of sophisticated humor and character development.
Beast Machines
Beast Wars was succeeded by
Beast Machines, a new series with a new creative team in charge of production. As a sequel, it was not initially well-received among most fans mostly due to the surviving Maximals and Predacons being out-of-character to varying degrees. Others did not find its
techno-organicIn the Marvel Comics universe and Transformers Beast Machines, techno-organic material is a material with properties and abilities of both organic and technological material...
Cybertron concept to be agreeable, as the planet was always referred to previously as not having organic life. More recently, it has been held in higher regard by some fans, especially compared to the perceived poor quality of the newer Japanese-produced series that are unconnected to the core universe. Also panned by some critics was the use of non-projectile weapons, which was constant in the original series. The network which aired Mainframe entertainment at the time was FOX, who decided that time bombs, machine guns and other weapons would be deemed too realistic and violent for their network, so the series shifted tones for pulse cannons and futuristic weaponry.
Japanese treatment
The Japanese series
Beast Wars IIis the 1998 Japanese Transformers television animated series, movie and toyline. Both animated series were created to fill time in order to dub Beast Wars seasons 2 and 3 into Japanese...
and
Beast Wars NeoBeast Wars Neo is the 1999 Japanese Transformers television animated series and toyline and is a direct sequel to Beast Wars II. Both animated series were created to fill time in order to dub Beast Wars seasons 2 and 3 into Japanese...
were created to fill the gap while the second and third seasons of
Beast Wars were being translated into Japanese (called
Beast Wars: Metals). The characters originate from the future that the
Beast Wars teams left, but the events of the series take place in the far future. The series are noted primarily for the return of
UnicronUnicron is a fictional character from the Transformers universe and toyline. Created by Floro Dery, he was introduced in the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie as the film's main antagonist...
, but more negatively, for their childish, comedic nature, as the
Transformers franchise is aimed at a very young age group in Japan when compared to Canada.
Beast Wars II spawned a theatrical movie. The
Beast Wars Neo toyline was created to cater to the Japanese market. Whereas the cybernetic transmetal
Beast Wars Transformers sold well in Western markets, Japanese fans preferred more realistic looking beast modes, thus
Beast Wars Metals was not as successful with Japanese fans. The second and third season of
Beast Wars and its toy line only lasted a few months before being quickly replaced by
Transformers: Car RobotsTransformers: Robots in Disguise is the title of the 2001 English-dubbed version of the Japanese television series Transformers: Car Robot and serves as a self-contained universe separate from any of the other existing Transformers Universes...
in the following new year, in which several unused Transmetal 2 molds were used as Destrongers (Predacons).
Comic books
Officially, the
Beast Wars and
Beast Machines series exist as the future of "a" Generation 1 universe, and not specifically the original cartoon series or Marvel Comics series. The writers of the series adopted this position in order to pick and choose the best elements of the discrete Generation 1 continuities. However, beyond use of the comic-only term, "the
Ark", and the comic book entity,
PrimusPrimus is the "benevolent" godlike entity in the fictional Transformers comic universe who fought against the Chaos-Bringer Unicron. The Lord of the Light, Primus is the being who created the Transformers to help him defeat Unicron.-Transformers: Generation 1:...
, all of the show's references are based on the original cartoon. This would be carried on into the Dreamwave comics, which seemed to integrate elements from both lines while working towards maintaining continuity with
Beast Wars.
BotCon comics
In the BotCon comics, two particular
Beast Wars storylines are tapped.
In the
Point Omega storyline, several events lead up to a tremendous battle against
ShokaractShokaract is a character from the Transformers toy line and comic series.-Beast Wars:Shokaract is the most diabolical and evil force the universe has seen since Unicron. Originally an exiled Predacon, called the Hunter, Shokaract discovered the Chaos Bringer's Dark Essence on Earth...
, a Predacon fueled by the Dark Essence of
UnicronUnicron is a fictional character from the Transformers universe and toyline. Created by Floro Dery, he was introduced in the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie as the film's main antagonist...
himself. This also serves as an introduction for
ApelinqApelinq is a character from the Transformers toy series and comic books.-Beast Machines:Apelinq is a Maximal scientist and member of the Wreckers. He is a brilliant inventor, and created the miraculous Transfer Interlink, which allows him to download digital designs into reality...
, and the only appearances of
Windrazor-Transformers: Generation 2:The name Windrazor was first given to a Decepticon Skyscorcher. He was called Tornado in some countries, and Volcano in others....
, Sandstorm, Antagony, and Cataclysm.
In the
Primeval Dawn story, Tarantulas comes back from the dead alongside Ravage, Spittor, Iguanus, and Razorclaw to complete the mission he set out to do, while the Vok create
Primal PrimePrimal Prime is a fictional character from the Transformers toy and story lines.-Beast Machines:Primal Prime's tech spec would set out his origin: he was created from the remnants of the control suit Quickstrike used to control Optimus Primal in the Beast Wars episode "Master Blaster"...
to stand in his way; Primal Prime teams up with Airazor, Tigatron, and Ramulus, who have come back from the dead as well.
Dreamwave Productions
Dreamwave ProductionsDreamwave Productions is a Canadian art design studio and comic book publisher, best known for their multiple Transformers comic book series...
released a Summer Special which contained a
Beast Wars story. It introduced three new characters,
Optimus MinorOptimus Minor is the name of a fictional character in the various Transformers universes.- Beast Wars :The character of Optimus Minor is depicted in two widely different ways, the first is his original toyline depiction and the second version is in comics released by IDW Publishing and Dreamwave...
,
BonecrusherBonecrusher is the name of several fictional characters in the various Transformers universes.-Transformers: Generation 1:Bonecrusher is a member of the Constructicons. He is brawler by nature and specialises in demolitions work...
, and
WolfangWolfang is the name of a fictional character in the various Transformers universes.-Animated series:Wolfang's stasis pod was presumably among those who were launched into orbit around prehistoric Earth in the series pilot....
. The comic had a survey as to whether Dreamwave's new comic would be
Robots In Disguise or
Beast Wars.
Beast Wars won.
Dreamwave Productions had plans to release a
Beast Wars comic in early 2005, which would have been done by the
War Within creative team of
Simon FurmanSimon Christopher Francis Furman is a comic book writer, particularly associated with of a number of notable Transformers comics for Marvel UK, Marvel US, Dreamwave, and most recently, IDW...
and
Don FigueroaDon Allan Figueroa is a Filipino American comic book artist and toy designer. He is best known for his work on many different Transformers designs, for both the defunct Dreamwave Productions and with IDW Publishing....
. Brad Mick and Adam Patyk were originally planned to write the series until they left Dreamwave after not being paid for several projects. However, although some cover art did appear on the internet, Dreamwave entered bankruptcy before one issue could be published.
IDW Publishing
After Dreamwave filed for bankruptcy in January 2005, the license for all
Transformers comics, including
Beast Wars were picked up by
IDW PublishingIDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American comic book company owned by IDT Corp.. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic Distributors...
. A four-issue
Beast Wars mini-series, titled
Beast Wars: The Gathering, was released in 2006. The series was written by
Simon FurmanSimon Christopher Francis Furman is a comic book writer, particularly associated with of a number of notable Transformers comics for Marvel UK, Marvel US, Dreamwave, and most recently, IDW...
and drawn by
Don FigueroaDon Allan Figueroa is a Filipino American comic book artist and toy designer. He is best known for his work on many different Transformers designs, for both the defunct Dreamwave Productions and with IDW Publishing....
. The mini-series takes place parallel to the third season of
Beast Wars and introduced characters who were not shown in the original series such as
MagmatronMagmatron is a Transformers character who first appeared in the Japanese Beast Wars Neo series, was later released in the American Beast Machines Dinobots toy line, and most recently in official Beast Wars comic continuity.-Beast Wars Neo:...
,
RazorbeastRazorbeast is the name of a fictional character from the Transformers toyline that appeared in the Beast Wars: The Gathering.-Beast Wars:He is a Maximal and takes the beast form of a razorback boar.-IDW Publishing:...
, and Injector. Other characters who made an appearance are
GrimlockGrimlock is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers universes.-Transformers: Generation 1:Grimlock is the most fearsome and powerful member of the Dinobots...
in his
Beast Wars body (a recolored Dinobot toy) and
RavageRavage is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers universes. Due to the inability to trademark the common word "ravage", he is sometimes called Battle Ravage, Command Ravage or Tripredacus Agent...
in his Transmetal II "Tripredacus Agent" incarnation.
Taking place around the events of the season three episode "Deep Metal" (as the Predacons are just installing Sentinel), the mini-series focused on Magmatron, sent by the
Tripredacus CouncilThe Tripredacus is a fictional characters from the Transformers universe. He should not be confused with Tripledacus.-Beast Wars:Tripredacus is the combined form of the Predacon leaders Ramhorn, Cicadacon, and Seaclamp. -Animated series:...
to capture Megatron after Ravage's failure. However, Magmatron had his own agenda - to create his own army from the stasis pods the
Axalon had ejected in the pilot episode of
Beast Wars. His scheme was partially thwarted by the Maximal double-agent Razorbeast, who ensured the shell program used reconfigured many of the protoforms as Maximals rather than Predacons. The two sides would clash in an attempt to stop Magmatron from returning to Cybertron with a captured Megatron, with some unexpected aid from Grimlock ensuring Magmatron was sent back to Cybertron empty handed. However, Razorbeast's Maximals and many Predacons (led by Ravage, resurrected in a Transmetal II body) were left on Earth, opening the way for future series.
The series is important in that it wraps up many of the loose ends that the show did not address – most importantly, what happened to the various protoforms that the Maximals jettisoned. Also the presence of both Lio Convoy and
Big ConvoyBig Convoy is the name of a Maximal in the fictional Transformers universes.-Beast Wars Neo:Big Convoy is a Maximal commander who turns into a woolly mammoth and has an additional attack mode. He prefers to fight alone instead having troops under his command. He is old friends with the Maximal...
in flashback sequences implies that the Japanese-exclusive
Beast Wars IIis the 1998 Japanese Transformers television animated series, movie and toyline. Both animated series were created to fill time in order to dub Beast Wars seasons 2 and 3 into Japanese...
and
Beast Wars NeoBeast Wars Neo is the 1999 Japanese Transformers television animated series and toyline and is a direct sequel to Beast Wars II. Both animated series were created to fill time in order to dub Beast Wars seasons 2 and 3 into Japanese...
animated series take place in the same continuity.
IDW editor-in-chief Chris Ryall recently confirmed the second
Beast Wars series, titled
The Ascending, as well as a series of character profile books, will be due in August.
Video games
There have been two
Beast Wars video games. The first game, simply called Beast Wars, was released for the
PlayStationThe PlayStation is a 32-bit fifth generation video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December ....
,
Nintendo 64The , often abbreviated as N64, is Nintendo's third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released on June 23, 1996 in Japan, September 29, 1996 in North America, March 1, 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1, 1997 in France and December 10,...
and
PCIBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
by
Hasbro InteractiveHasbro Interactive was an American video game production and publishing subsidiary of Hasbro, the large game and toy company.Hasbro Interactive was formed late in 1995 in order to compete in the computer and video game arena. Several Hasbro properties, such as Monopoly and Scrabble, had already...
. It was a third person shooter, based on the first season of the show, in which you can control either the Maximals or the Predacons in a series of missions to undermine the other faction's attempts at gaining enough resources to win the war between them and escape the planet. It was given a multiplayer feature (removed from the console releases) that allowed up to 8 players to play over
LANLän are the Swedish and lääni Finnish language terms, respectively, for the administrative divisions used in Sweden and Finland.They are also sometimes used in other countries, especially as a translation of the Russian word oblast...
, with its own play rooms in the MSN Gaming Zone (they have subsequently been removed). The second game,
Transformers: Beast Wars TransmetalsTransformers: Beast Wars Transmetals is a fighting game for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. It was released in 1999. In Japan, both version are called two separate names; for the PSX version, and for the N64 version...
, is a
Fighting VipersFighting Vipers is a 3D fighting game developed by Sega-AM2.The game was first released in the arcade in 1995 using the Sega Model 2 hardware and ported the same year to the Sega Saturn with significantly reduced graphics.-Gameplay:...
-style fighting game based on the second season. The PlayStation version was released by Hasbro Interactive and the Nintendo 64 version was released by
bam! EntertainmentBAM! Entertainment is a dormant video game publisher that published such titles as Carmen Sandiego: The Secret of the Stolen Drums, Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo, and various video game console adaptations of Cartoon Network programs. Threatened as early as 2002, NASDAQ eventually delisted their...
. Neither of these games did well, commercially, and were panned by critics and fans alike, although the second game was memorable for having most of cast members from the show reprise their roles. A third game was in the works for the
PlayStation 2The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony. The PS2 console is the sequel to the original PlayStation console. The successor to the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 2 forms part of the PlayStation series of video game...
, but was scrapped in
pre-productionPre-production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- Information :In the film industry, pre-production usually only commences once a project has been developed and is greenlit...
, without any official word as to why, or how far the project was before the plug was pulled.
English cast US
| Actor |
Character |
Gary ChalkGary Chalk is a British-born Canadian actor and voice actor. He is also known as Garry Chalk.Chalk was born in Southampton, England and moved to Vancouver, Canada in 1957. He has been involved with professional theatre since 1978, and has performed at The Playhouse, The Arts Club and numerous...
|
Optimus Primal, G1 Megatron |
| Scott McNeil Scott McNeil is an Australian-born Canadian voice actor. He currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada...
|
Rattrap, Dinobot, Dinobot II, Silverbolt, Waspinator |
| Richard Newman Richard Newman is a voice actor with numerous voice roles in Transformers cartoons. Newman started his career in voice acting in Beast Wars voicing Rhinox and the Vok....
|
Rhinox, Vok |
| Ian James Corlett Ian James Corlett is an animation voice artist, writer, and musician. He is the creator of Studio B Productions' animated series Being Ian and Yvon of the Yukon....
|
Cheetor, Sentinel, Maximal Computer |
| Blu Mankuma Blu Mankuma is an American actor. He has appeared in numerous Canadian and American productions filmed in Canada.Mankuma was born in Seattle, Washington but currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia....
|
Tigatron, Tigerhawk, Vok |
| Pauline Newstone Pauline Newstone is a voice actress.- Voice Credits :*Beast Wars - Airazor *Dragon Ball Z - Frieza *Class of the Titans - Medusa*Hamtaro - Kaitlin Endo*Inuyasha - Mistress Centipede...
|
Airazor |
| David Sobolov David Sobolov is a voice actor. David first studied acting at the Banff School of Fine Arts then in New York with the legendary Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse...
|
Depth Charge |
| David Kaye David V. Hope , known professionally as David Kaye, is a Canadian actor who is better recognized for his work as a voice actor...
|
Megatron |
| Don Brown |
Scorponok |
| Alec Willows |
Tarantulas |
| Doug Parker Doug Parker is a Canadian voice actor and voice director.He has been in several cartoons and anime, He is probably best known for playing Terrorsaur in Beast Wars, He also played Starscream who made a cameo appearance in the show...
|
Terrorsaur, Starscream |
| Venus Terzo Venus Terzo is a Canadian actress best noted for her role as Detective Angela Kosmo in Da Vinci's Inquest and its spinoff, Da Vinci's City Hall. She was nominated in 2002 for the Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role in that same role...
|
Blackarachnia |
| Jim Byrnes James Thomas Byrnes was born on September 22, 1948 in St. Louis, Missouri. He has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, since the mid-1970s. He is a Blues musician, guitarist, and actor...
|
Inferno |
| Colin Murdock Colin Murdock , is a voice actor who is often miscredited as Colin Murdoch.-Animation:* Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 - Kalus / Sever / Zeke* Cardcaptors - Spinner Sun...
|
Quickstrike |
| Campbell Lane Campbell Lane is a Canadian actor who primarily does work in Vancouver. He has appeared in many television shows produced there, and has done some voice acting for anime as well.- Television Roles :...
|
Rampage |
| Elizabeth Carol Savenkoff |
Predacon Ship Computer |
| Lee Tockar Lee Tockar is a Canadian voice actor who works for several studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is also a writer of children's literature, a musician, sculptor, illustrator and collected painter...
|
Ravage |
| Susan Blu Susan Blu , sometimes credited as Sue Blu, is an American voice actress, voice director, and casting director in American and Canadian cinema and television...
|
Transmutate, Una |
Leslie WestLeslie West is an American rock guitarist, singer and songwriter.-Biography:West was born in New York City, and grew up on Long Island, in East Meadow, Forest Hills and Lawrence. After his parents divorced, he changed his surname to West...
and
Joe Lynn TurnerJoe Lynn Turner , born Joseph Linquito August 2, 1951 in Hackensack, New Jersey, is a melodic hard rock singer best known for his work with Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen and his brief stint in Deep Purple. He played the accordion as a child, grew up with an appreciation for classic R&B and became an...
provided the voices that said
Beast Wars during episodes of the show.
Perhaps by coincidence, a majority of the voice cast, including Cortlett, McNeil, Murdock, Chalk and Terzo, also voiced characters in the 1997 film
Warriors of VirtueWarriors Of Virtue is a 1997 Chinese/Japanese-American film directed by Ronny Yu. It is in English, Japanese and Cantonese. Although commercially unsuccessful and critically panned, a sequel, Warriors of Virtue: The Return to Tao, was made in 2002....
. Most of the cast went on to provide voice work for other
TransformersTransformer may refer to:* Transformer, a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling* Transformer , Lou Reed's 1972 rock album...
shows.
on YTV, due to discomfort over the name) was a Transformers toyline released by
animated television series spawned by it that debuted in 1996. The series was set in the future of the "original"
. All three seasons are currently available on
and other Region 1 territories. In
released all three seasons in Region 4 format. These boxsets include "world exclusive" special features, such as commentaries and interviews with the voice actors.
, won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997 for his work on
The two main factions of "Transformers" in Beast Wars are descendants of the two main factions in the original cartoon: the
s. The names were intended to stem from the terms
and Predator but were not necessarily consistent with the alternate forms of the Transformers. (In
, the process during which Autobots and Decepticons became Maximals and Predacons is referred to as "The Great Upgrade".)
The leader of the Predacon team is Megatron. He and his forces are a splinter group on the hunt for powerful crystals known as
, to be used in a ploy for power and dominance. They do this with the aid of an artifact known as the
, which is equipped with a transwarp drive. A Maximal exploration ship, the
, is sent to stop them. Together the ships plunge through a time/space phenomenon created by the transwarp device during their battle in space, and crash-land on a mysterious planet.
The planet is found to be rich in deposits of raw Energon, to the point that it proves to be poisonous to both factions' robot forms, forcing them to take on alternate organic forms for protection until their robot forms are needed. Thus the robots take on the beast forms of recognizable animals including mammals, birds, dinosaurs, arachnids, and insects.
deploys its cargo of “stasis pods” containing Maximal protoforms — Transformer robots with vulnerable and undeveloped physical forms, which are left to orbit the planet as an alternative to possible destruction in the initial crash landing. Throughout the series, stasis pods lose altitude and crash-land on the planet, and the Maximals and Predacons race and fight to acquire them, as protoforms acquired by Megatron's forces can be reprogrammed to become Predacons, as is the case with
. The stasis pods are used as a
The teams are divided between the "good" Maximals and the "evil" Predacons, but include anti-heroes like
and Blackarachnia who change sides: starting as Predacons and becoming Maximals. Additionally certain "Predacons" like
actually have a Maximal shell program. For the Maximals, the emphasis is on team spirit and good-natured arguing, especially from Rattrap, but the Predacons argue and battle for leadership, which impairs their effectiveness against the Maximals.
Many of the plots involve interaction with artifacts from an alien race known as the Vok. These artifacts become a great source of power, especially for Megatron. Activating an alien beacon signals what is originally thought to be the planet's second moon but is really a massive alien transmitter. When the aliens decide that the Transformers have contaminated their experiment they decide to destroy the planet. Using the second moon they fire a giant laser at the planet intending to blow up the remaining Energon deposits. Through the combined efforts of the Predacons and Maximals, Optimus is able to fly a retrofitted stasis pod into the second moon. However, Megatron backstabs the Maximals by trapping Optimus in the pod causing him to be killed when the second moon is destroyed. The alien moon destroys half of the planet's raw Energon and damages several stasis pods resulting in the creation of the Fuzors: Transformers with two animals combined into one. The laser also crystallizes the majority of the Energon on the planet into Energon cubes thereby making it safe for Transformer use. After the transwarp explosion of the second moon, a radiation wave leads to the re-configuration of some of the Transformers into
. Optimus himself is soon revived as a Transmetal, thanks to the help of
The Transformers discover that they have traveled back in time and landed on prehistoric Earth. Megatron decides to wipe out human civilization (currently a small group of proto-humans living in a single ravine), take control of the previously-crashed Autobot spaceship, the
, legendary leader of the Autobots. This would win the Beast Wars for the Predacons, alter the timeline, prevent the Autobots from being awakened by humanity in 1984, and leave Megatron the undisputed ruler of the universe.
The new plot develops following the discovery of a message made by the original
for any Decepticons who might uncover it within the Golden Disk. The Predacon Megatron infiltrates the
and destroys Optimus Prime, but Optimus Primal takes the spark of his ancestor into his own body in order to protect it while the other Maximals perform vital repairs on Optimus Prime's body. When the repairs are complete, and Optimus Prime's spark is returned to him, the timeline is restored to its original state. The battle continues with the Maximals gradually gaining the upper hand until Megatron discovers the Decepticon flagship, the
Originally, the series was going to be set in the present, with certain characters from the original cartoon series reborn in new bodies. This was evident in the early
toy tech spec cards containing pictures of the Transformers taking on giant-sized forms in the present era (similar to the original '80s cartoon). However, Forward and DiTillio knew next to nothing about the original series. Since they were given free reign to promote what was at the time a dying franchise, they instead chose a considerably earlier setting with no connection to the Transformers universe outside of a few recycled names. Larry DiTillio revealed in an interview that the decision to make Earth the planet in question was not finalized until the end of the first season. They gave the planet two satellites and decided that they would destroy one moon if the planet was indeed to be Earth. When he and Bob Forward discovered the alt.toys.transformers
group and learned more about the original series, they began to work in classic Transformer elements, placing Beast Wars in the same universe. Contrary to early concept art, the faction leaders in Beast Wars are not the same as the ones in G1. This is confirmed when both Primal and Megatron come face-to-face with the currently-deactivated forms of their ancestors inside the
The show was originally going to feature a much larger cast of characters, but limitations on CGI at the time meant that the animators had to shorten the cast to five members on both sides, adding new characters sparingly. Bob Forward has credited this as being part of the reason why the show was so successful, because a smaller cast meant he could focus on character development and personality for every character, as opposed to the ungainly task of writing for an entire army's worth of characters.
was supposed to be in the show, but was replaced at the last moment to conserve money, as Tigatron was a repaint of
in the toy line, and could thus be a repaint of Cheetor's CGI figure. This reuse of character CGI figures to introduce new characters is a fairly common money-saving tactic for most CGI-based television shows, and was used in
to make Blackarachnia (a slight remodel and remap of Tarantulas) and Ravage whose head was a repainted version of Tigatron's beast mode head, mounted on a robot body which was a remodel of Transmetal Cheetor's robot mode body.
in the episode of the same name. She went on to direct voices in
series to include deaths in the television episodes (the original 80s series continuity had several characters die in the theatrical movie, but no characters died in the series itself). The characters Dinobot, Dinobot 2, Scorponok, Terrorsaur, Tarantulas, Depth Charge, Rampage, Tigerhawk, Inferno, and Quickstrike were all killed by the end of the show. Of the ten characters that appear in episode one, only six survived the entire series, and out of these, only three survived to the end of
. Notably among them is the character
, who was blown to pieces or otherwise dismantled in almost every episode of the series, but never officially "died". Even in the sequel series
Initially Waspinator, was to die at the beginning of season two but because people enjoyed Waspinator as comic relief, the creators decided to kill off Terrorsaur instead. Waspinator went on to become the only Predacon to survive both
The third season of the TV show was originally supposed to include an extra episode, titled "Dark Glass", written by
. The script of the episode depicted an encounter between
and the clone of Dinobot, where Rattrap finds the data tracks of the original Dinobot in the Maximals' ship's computer, and goes on a suicide mission to install it into the clone, in a desperate bid to bring his old friend back. However, the script was seen as "too dark" for children to watch, and so the episode was never produced. A considerably lighter and more jocular episode, titled "Go with the Flow", was created in its place. Transcripts of the episode are rumored to survive and it is now considered part of the
continuity by some fans, mainly for its explanation on how the Dinobot clone regained the original's personality after Rampage was destroyed at the end of season three.
While the toyline was lauded for its innovative joint construction and the show is overall liked by fans, the show was initially derided by a minority of fans for using animals instead of vehicles for the line's alternate forms. Overall,
was well-received and is often praised for its mature tone and darker storylines, in addition to its use of sophisticated humor and character development.
, a new series with a new creative team in charge of production. As a sequel, it was not initially well-received among most fans mostly due to the surviving Maximals and Predacons being out-of-character to varying degrees. Others did not find its
Cybertron concept to be agreeable, as the planet was always referred to previously as not having organic life. More recently, it has been held in higher regard by some fans, especially compared to the perceived poor quality of the newer Japanese-produced series that are unconnected to the core universe. Also panned by some critics was the use of non-projectile weapons, which was constant in the original series. The network which aired Mainframe entertainment at the time was FOX, who decided that time bombs, machine guns and other weapons would be deemed too realistic and violent for their network, so the series shifted tones for pulse cannons and futuristic weaponry.
). The characters originate from the future that the
teams left, but the events of the series take place in the far future. The series are noted primarily for the return of
franchise is aimed at a very young age group in Japan when compared to Canada.
spawned a theatrical movie. The
toyline was created to cater to the Japanese market. Whereas the cybernetic transmetal
Transformers sold well in Western markets, Japanese fans preferred more realistic looking beast modes, thus
was not as successful with Japanese fans. The second and third season of
in the following new year, in which several unused Transmetal 2 molds were used as Destrongers (Predacons).
series exist as the future of "a" Generation 1 universe, and not specifically the original cartoon series or Marvel Comics series. The writers of the series adopted this position in order to pick and choose the best elements of the discrete Generation 1 continuities. However, beyond use of the comic-only term, "the
, all of the show's references are based on the original cartoon. This would be carried on into the Dreamwave comics, which seemed to integrate elements from both lines while working towards maintaining continuity with
himself. This also serves as an introduction for
story, Tarantulas comes back from the dead alongside Ravage, Spittor, Iguanus, and Razorclaw to complete the mission he set out to do, while the Vok create
to stand in his way; Primal Prime teams up with Airazor, Tigatron, and Ramulus, who have come back from the dead as well.
story. It introduced three new characters,
. The comic had a survey as to whether Dreamwave's new comic would be
.
. Brad Mick and Adam Patyk were originally planned to write the series until they left Dreamwave after not being paid for several projects. However, although some cover art did appear on the internet, Dreamwave entered bankruptcy before one issue could be published.
. A four-issue
, was released in 2006. The series was written by
. The mini-series takes place parallel to the third season of
, and Injector. Other characters who made an appearance are
Taking place around the events of the season three episode "Deep Metal" (as the Predacons are just installing Sentinel), the mini-series focused on Magmatron, sent by the
to capture Megatron after Ravage's failure. However, Magmatron had his own agenda - to create his own army from the stasis pods the
. His scheme was partially thwarted by the Maximal double-agent Razorbeast, who ensured the shell program used reconfigured many of the protoforms as Maximals rather than Predacons. The two sides would clash in an attempt to stop Magmatron from returning to Cybertron with a captured Megatron, with some unexpected aid from Grimlock ensuring Magmatron was sent back to Cybertron empty handed. However, Razorbeast's Maximals and many Predacons (led by Ravage, resurrected in a Transmetal II body) were left on Earth, opening the way for future series.
The series is important in that it wraps up many of the loose ends that the show did not address – most importantly, what happened to the various protoforms that the Maximals jettisoned. Also the presence of both Lio Convoy and
video games. The first game, simply called Beast Wars, was released for the
. It was a third person shooter, based on the first season of the show, in which you can control either the Maximals or the Predacons in a series of missions to undermine the other faction's attempts at gaining enough resources to win the war between them and escape the planet. It was given a multiplayer feature (removed from the console releases) that allowed up to 8 players to play over
, with its own play rooms in the MSN Gaming Zone (they have subsequently been removed). The second game,
-style fighting game based on the second season. The PlayStation version was released by Hasbro Interactive and the Nintendo 64 version was released by
. Neither of these games did well, commercially, and were panned by critics and fans alike, although the second game was memorable for having most of cast members from the show reprise their roles. A third game was in the works for the
, without any official word as to why, or how far the project was before the plug was pulled.
during episodes of the show.
Perhaps by coincidence, a majority of the voice cast, including Cortlett, McNeil, Murdock, Chalk and Terzo, also voiced characters in the 1997 film
. Most of the cast went on to provide voice work for other