Transformers: Beast Wars
Encyclopedia
Transformers: Beast Wars is a Transformers toyline released by Hasbro
between 1995 and 2000, and a Daytime Emmy Award
winning full-CG
animated television series spawned by it that debuted in 1996. The series was set in the future of the "original" Transformers
universe as a sequel to the first Transformers series (which has since been rebooted
in limited comic book stories by Dreamwave
and IDW
among others).
The Beast Wars TV series was produced by Mainframe Entertainment
of Canada
; its story editors were Bob Forward
and Larry DiTillio
. All three seasons are currently available on DVD
in the USA
and other Region 1 territories. In Australia
, to coincide with the show's tenth anniversary in 2006, Madman Entertainment
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 Klotz
, won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997 for his work on Beast Wars.
English cast
Leslie West
and Joe Lynn Turner
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 Virtue
. Most of the cast went on to provide voice work for other Transformers
shows.
Japanese cast
Spanish Cast
are the descendants of the Autobot
s and the Predacons are the descendants of the Decepticon
s. The names were intended to stem from the terms Mammal
and Predator but were not necessarily consistent with the alternate forms of the Transformers. (In Beast Machines
, 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 Energon, (Though in The Agenda (Part 1) it's revealed Megatron got the location of energon as a bonus) to be used in a ploy for power and dominance. They do this with the aid of an artifact known as the Golden Disk
and Megatron's stolen ship, the Darksyde, which is equipped with a transwarp drive. A Maximal exploration ship, the Axalon
, led by Optimus Primal
, 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. This plays a larger part in the IDW series, The Gathering. 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 Blackarachnia and Inferno. The stasis pods are used as a plot device
to introduce new characters.
The teams are divided between the "good" Maximals and the "evil" Predacons. Dinobot
changes sides, starting as a Predacon and becoming a Maximal. Additionally certain "Predacons" like Quickstrike and Blackarachnia were created from Maximal protoforms, but were fitted with Predacon shell programs, fighting instead for the Predacons. 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 Transmetals
. Optimus himself is soon revived as a Transmetal, thanks to the help of Rhinox
.
The Transmetal Driver is an alien artifact from the Beast Wars: Transformers series. It appeared in season 3 in the possession of Megatron
, seemingly from nowhere.
At first he used it to produce cyborg velociraptor
s made to hunt down protohumans, but later used it to produce a Transmetal 2 clone of the deceased Dinobot
, using the interior of Rampage's spark. Cheetor
was caught in the overload from the Transmetal Driver and after a delayed reaction, was transformed into a new, yet somewhat mangled, Transmetal 2 form.
Depth Charge
stole the Driver and thought that he destroyed it by throwing it into a magma pit, but Blackarachnia saved it before it could submerge in the lava and kept it for herself. Blackarachnia tried to use the Transmetal Driver to remake herself into a Transmetal, but was interrupted by Silverbolt. This caused her to suffer malfunctioning glitches similar to Energon overloads, resulting in her Predacon shell program to degrade and threaten her life. While Rhinox
attempted to remove her Predacon shell programming, Tarantulas and the other Predacons caused a power interruption which allowed failsafes within her programming to take her offline, but the alien Transmetal Driver activated and remade her into a new Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia, minus her old Predacon programming.
Each Transmetal 2 has a unique characteristic other than their obvious augmentations. The Dinobot clone is capable of regeneration, Cheetor can exceed speeds of Mach 2, and Blackarachnia possesses mental telekinetic abilities. The Driver; however, is never featured in the television series again after reactivating Blackarachnia.
The Transmetal Driver would later appear in the Botcon comic book story where it was used by the Vok to help create Primal Prime
.
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 Prime, 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 Megatron 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 Prime's body. When the repairs are complete, and 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 Nemesis and uses it to make his final stand. Around the Beast Wars finale, both Maximals and Predacons suffer several deaths within their respective crews. The survivors finally abandon the prehistoric Earth in an Autobot space shuttle and Megatron is taken under arrest.
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 original cartoon series. 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, the toy-only character Wolfang was supposed to be in the show, but was replaced at the last moment to conserve money, as Tigatron was a repaint of Cheetor
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 Blu
, 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 Transmutate
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 1980s 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(Cheetor, Rattrap and Waspinator). Notably among them is the character Waspinator
, 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 Machines
Waspinator survives, albeit in a new body and identity, as Thrust.
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 Marx
. The script of the episode depicted an encounter between Rattrap
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.
Endings
in 2004/2005. These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print.
On February 8, 2011, Shout! Factory
announced that they had acquired the rights to the series and planned to re-release it. They subsequently re-released season 1 on DVD on June 7, 2011 as well as a complete series set on the same day. Both releases contain extensive bonus features including interviews, featurettes and special 24 page comic book- Transformers Timelines “Dawn of Future’s Past.” Season 2 & 3 was re-released on October 4, 2011.
In Region 4, Madman Entertainment
released all three seasons on DVD in Australia in 2006. On June 24, 2009, they released Transformers: Beast Wars - Complete Collection. The 10-disc box set features all 52 episodes of the series as well as many bonus features.
and Beast Wars Neo
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 Unicron
, 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 Robots
in the following new year, in which several unused Transmetal 2 molds were used as Destrongers (Predacons).
, 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.
In the Point Omega storyline, several events lead up to a tremendous battle against Shokaract, a Predacon fueled by the Dark Essence of Unicron
himself. This also serves as an introduction for Apelinq, and the only appearances of Windrazor, 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 Prime
to stand in his way; Primal Prime teams up with Airazor, Tigatron, and Ramulus, who have come back from the dead as well.
released a Summer Special which contained a Beast Wars story. It introduced three new characters, Optimus Minor, Bonecrusher
, and Wolfang. 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 Furman
and Don Figueroa
. 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 Beast Wars mini-series, titled Beast Wars: The Gathering
, was released in 2006. The series was written by Simon Furman
and drawn by Don Figueroa
. 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 Magmatron
, Razorbeast, and Injector. Other characters who made an appearance are Grimlock
in his Beast Wars body (a recolored Dinobot toy) and Ravage
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 Council 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 Convoy in flashback sequences implies that the Japanese-exclusive Beast Wars II
and Beast Wars Neo
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.
A Beast Wars Sourcebook
was also published by IDW.
and PC
. 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 FAP
, with its own play rooms in the MS Gaming Zone (they have subsequently been removed). The second game, Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals
, is a Fighting Vipers
-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! Entertainment
. 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 2
, but was scrapped in pre-production
, without any official word as to why, or how far the project was before the plug was pulled.
Hasbro
Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...
between 1995 and 2000, and a Daytime Emmy Award
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...
winning full-CG
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
animated television series spawned by it that debuted in 1996. The series was set in the future of the "original" Transformers
Transformers: Generation 1
Transformers: Generation 1 was the original Transformers toy line that produced from 1985 to 1992 and actually lasted longer than the G1 1980s television series itself...
universe as a sequel to the first Transformers series (which has since been rebooted
Reboot (continuity)
The verb reboot, in media dealing with serial fiction, means to discard much or even all previous continuity in the series and start anew with fresh ideas...
in limited comic book stories by Dreamwave
Dreamwave Productions
Dreamwave Productions was a Canadian art design studio and comic book publisher founded in 1996 and is best known for their multiple Transformers comic book series...
and IDW
IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. 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...
among others).
The Beast Wars TV series was produced by Mainframe Entertainment
Mainframe Entertainment
Rainmaker Entertainment, Inc. is a Canadian computer animation and design company based in Vancouver, British Columbia and Los Angeles, California. It produces computer animation TV series and movies. They are best known for producing the first ever CGI animated series ReBoot, as well as the...
of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends 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 Forward
Bob Forward
Robert D. Forward , commonly known as Bob Forward, is an American writer, director and producer. Forward is the production director and president of his independent company, Detonation Films. Forward has been the writer of many animated television series, as well as a film, The Owl, based on his...
and Larry DiTillio
Larry DiTillio
Lawrence 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 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in the USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and other Region 1 territories. In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, to coincide with the show's tenth anniversary in 2006, Madman Entertainment
Madman Entertainment
Madman Entertainment is an Australian company that distributes international films as well as Japanese anime and manga in Australia and New Zealand. The company is owned by Funtastic Limited and is one of the major entertainment companies in Australia. It employs 130 people and has an annual...
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 Klotz
Clyde Klotz
Clyde 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.
English cast 
Canada
- Gary ChalkGary Chalk (actor)Gary Chalk is an English-born Canadian actor, tri-national US-Canadian-UK citizen and voice artist. He has lend hit voice in over 30 animated television series and has been in films such as The Fly II and Freddy vs. Jason....
- Optimus Primal, G1 Megatron - Scott McNeilScott McNeilScott McNeil is a Canadian actor and voice actor. He currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada...
- Rattrap, Dinobot, Dinobot II, Silverbolt, Waspinator - Richard NewmanRichard NewmanRichard Newman is a voice actor with numerous voice roles in Transformers cartoons.-Career:Newman started his career in voice acting in Beast Wars voicing Rhinox and the Vok...
- Rhinox, Vok - Ian James CorlettIan James CorlettIan James Corlett is a Canadian 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 MankumaBlu MankumaBlu Mankuma is an American actor. He has appeared in numerous Canadian and American productions filmed in Canada.Mankuma was born in Seattle, Washington...
- Tigatron, Tigerhawk, Vok, Unicron - Pauline NewstonePauline NewstonePauline 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 SobolovDavid SobolovDavid Sobolov is a Canadian voice actor. David began his creative career as a french horn player in pit orchestras and small ensembles, then studied acting in New York with the legendary Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse...
- Depth Charge - David KayeDavid KayeDavid V. Hope , known professionally as David Kaye, is a Canadian American actor who is better recognized for his work as a voice actor...
- Megatron - Don Brown - Scorponok
- Alec Willows - Tarantulas
- Doug ParkerDoug Parker (voice actor)Doug Parker is a Canadian voice actor and voice director.He has been doing voices 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 TerzoVenus TerzoVenus 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 ByrnesJim Byrnes (actor)James Thomas Kevin "Jim" Byrnes is a blues musician, guitarist, and actor.-Life and career:Byrnes was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a homemaker mother and a municipal accountant father. He has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, since the mid-1970s...
- Inferno - Colin MurdockColin Murdock (actor)Not to be confused with Colin MurdochColin Murdock , is a voice actor who is often miscredited as Colin Murdoch.-Anime:* Cardcaptors - Spinner Sun* InuYasha - Ryokan, Sango's Father, Water God, Orochidayu* MegaMan: NT...
- Quickstrike - Campbell LaneCampbell LaneCampbell 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 TockarLee TockarLee William Tockar is a Canadian voice actor and visual artist 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
Leslie West
Leslie West
Leslie West is an American rock guitarist, singer and songwriter.-Biography:Originally named Leslie Weinstein, West was born in New York City, grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey, and in East Meadow, Forest Hills and Lawrence. After his parents divorced, he changed his surname to West...
and Joe Lynn Turner
Joe Lynn Turner
Joe Lynn Turner , is an American rock singer, known for his works with Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, Deep Purple. From the late 1990s, he continued to perform in a large number of solo albums and other studio projects...
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 Virtue
Warriors of Virtue
Warriors Of Virtue is a 1997 Chinese-American fantasy film directed by Ronny Yu. It is in English, Mandarin, 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 Transformers
Transformers
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling.Transformer may also refer to:* ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet computer manufacturer by Asus...
shows.
Japanese cast 
Japan
- Takehito KoyasuTakehito Koyasuis a Japanese voice actor.-Career:Koyasu is part of the voice actor quartet Weiß consisting of Weiß Kreuz voice castmates Shinichiro Miki, Tomokazu Seki, and Yuuki Hiro...
- Optimus Primal (Convoy), Vok - Kappei YamaguchiKappei Yamaguchi, better known by his stage name of , is a Japanese voice actor and actor from Fukuoka, affiliated with Gokū and 21st Century Fox.He is best known for the roles of Ranma Saotome , Jackson Neil , Tombo , Yattaro , InuYasha , Ryuichi Sakuma , L , Usopp...
- Rattrap - Keiji FujiwaraKeiji Fujiwarais a Japanese voice actor from the Tokyo Metropolitan area who is affiliated with Air Agengy.His best known projects include Crayon Shin-chan as Hiroshi Nohara, Eureka Seven as Holland, Fullmetal Alchemist as Lieutenant-Colonel Hughes, Zoids: Chaotic Century as Irvine, Final Fantasy VII Advent...
- Dinobot, Dinobot II - Mitsuo IwataMitsuo IwataMitsuo Iwata is a seiyū who was born in Tokorozawa, Saitama. He is married to fellow seiyū Rikako Aikawa. Mania.com praised him as "truly one of the greatest seiyū". Otakunews.com complimented him for the role of Tetsuya from Outlanders...
- Silverbolt - Kensō Katō - Waspinator
- Daiki NakamuraDaiki Nakamurais a Japanese voice actor and member of 81 Produce.-Anime:* The Brave Express Might Gaine * Colorful * Cromartie High School * Grandpa Danger...
- Rhinox - Wataru TakagiWataru Takagiis a Japanese seiyū and stage actor from Chiba Prefecture. He is currently affiliated with Arts Vision.He is best known for his roles in Detective Conan , After War Gundam X , Slayers Try , the Beast Wars: Transformers series , GTO , Hajime no Ippo (July 25, 1966 - ) is a Japanese seiyū and stage...
- Cheetor - Kōichi Tōchika - Tigatron, Tigerhawk
- Hidetoshi Nakamura - Unicron
- Tetsuya IwanagaTetsuya Iwanagais a Japanese voice actor. As of April 1, 2009, he is affiliated with maxmix.-Notable voice roles:*Kensuke Aida in Neon Genesis Evangelion*Makoto Mizuhara in El-Hazard*Imaichi in Fancy Lala*Tomite in Fushigi Yūgi...
- Airazor - Kiyoyuki YanadaKiyoyuki YanadaKiyoyuki Yanada is a seiyū who was born in Tokyo. He was a member of 81 Produce.-Notable voice roles:*After School in the Teacher's Lounge *Baten Kaitos...
- Depth Charge - Shigeru ChibaShigeru Chibais an actor and voice actor. He has also worked as a sound effects director and music director. He is employed by the talent management firm 81 Produce....
- Megatron - Masashi Endō - Scorponok
- Yūichi NagashimaChoCho or CHO can refer to several things:Cho can refer to the following people, real or fictional:-People:Given name* Cho Ramaswamy, an actor, columnist, and political commentator in Tamil Nadu, India* Cho U, a Chinese Go playerSurname...
- Tarantulas - Nobuo TobitaNobuo Tobitais a Japanese seiyū from Mito. He is represented by Arts Vision.He is most known for the roles of Kamille Bidan , Albert Heinrich/004 , and Sueo Maruo...
- Terrorsaur, Quickstrike - Kazuki YaoKazuki Yaois a veteran voice actor and actor currently represented by Mix Max.- Television animation :* Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple * Astro Boy * Beast Wars * Beast Wars Neo...
- Starscream - Ryōka YuzukiRyoka YuzukiRyōka Yuzuki is a voice actress who was born in Anjo, Aichi, Japan. Her younger sister is an adult comic strip artist Sayumi Sakuragi ....
- Blackarachnia (Blackwidow), Predacon Ship Computer - Shin-ichiro Miki - Inferno
- Nobuyuki HiyamaNobuyuki Hiyamais a Japanese voice actor currently affiliated with Arts Vision.-Profile:* Sometimes credited as: Shuji Hiyama , Osamuyuki Hiyama * Year Enrolled into the Voice-Acting Industry: 1987...
- Rampage - ChafurinChafurinis a Japanese vocal actor from Saitama Prefecture who works for Office Osawa. He was formerly credited as '. He graduated from Toyo University.-Television animation:*Ah! My Goddess *Argento Soma...
- Cicadacon - Yukimasa KishinoYukimasa Kishinois a Japanese voice actor affiliated with Aoni Production. He is also active in the theatrical entertainment field and is the chairman of his own theatrical group, Gekidan Kishino Gumi...
- Ramhorn - Joji YanamiJoji Yanamiis a Japanese voice actor currently represented by Aoni Production.- Television :* Ookami Shōnen Ken , Boss* Hustle Punch , Professor Garigari/Garigari Hagase* Osomatsu-kun , Tou-san...
- Seaclamp - Toshiyuki MorikawaToshiyuki Morikawais a prolific Japanese male voice actor from Yokohama, Kanagawa, was affiliated with Arts Vision. Lately, however, he has become the head of that a voice actor company he founded in Apr 2011. His name is also sometimes mistranslated as Tomoyuki...
- Ravage (Jaguar)
Spanish Cast 
Mexico
- Mario Sauret - Optimus Primal (Primitivo)
- Miguel Angel Ghigliazza - Rhinox
- Alejandro IllescasAlejandro IllescasAlejandro Illescas was a Mexican voice actor who was heard in the Latin American dubs of many movies, TV series, and cartoons, often in small roles as policemen, reporters, or announcers.-Feature Films:...
- Cheetor (Cheeta) - Martin Soto - Rattrap (Ratatrampa)
- Federico Romano - Dinobot(Dinobot)
- Alvaro Tarcicio - Tigatron (Tigreton), Tigerhawk (Tigrehalcon)
- Rebeca Manrriquez - Airazor (Aguila)
- Eduaro Borja - Depth Charge (Mantaraya)
- Alejandro Villeli - Megatron
- Roberto MolinaRoberto MolinaRoberto Molina is a Spanish sailor and Olympic champion. He won gold medal in the 470 class at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, together with Luis Doreste.-References:...
season 1. Carlos Iñigo season 2 and 3 - Waspinator (Avispaneitor) - Bardo Miranda - Scorponok (Eskorpicon)
- Humberto VelezHumberto VélezHumberto Vélez is a Mexican voice actor. He is most widely known for dubbing the voice of Homer Simpson in the Latin American version of The Simpsons.-Animation:*Homero Simpson in the Latin American dub of The Simpsons...
- Tarantulas (Tarantula) - Olga Hnidey - Blackarachnia (araña negra)
- Cesar Arias (actor)Cesar Arias - Inferno (infierno)
- Jorge Ornelas (actor)Jorge Ornelas - Quickstrike (cobra)
- Hector Lee?, Herman Lopez - Terrorsaur (Terrorsaurio)
- Monica Estrada - Uma
- Rossy AguirreRossy AguirreRosanelda "Rossy" Aguirre is a Mexican Spanish-language voice actress and director. Rossy began voice work at the age of 5, following the career of her mother who was also a voice actress...
? - Chack
Setting and plot
The two main factions of "Transformers" in Beast Wars are descendants of the two main factions in the original cartoon: the MaximalsMaximal (Transformers)
Maximals are a faction in the Transformers series by Hasbro. They are generally depicted as respecting all life and following 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 Autobot
Autobot
Autobot, 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 Predacons are the descendants of the Decepticon
Decepticon
The Decepticons are usually depicted as the antagonists in the fictional universes of the Transformers stoyline and related comics and cartoons, and the enemies of the Autobots and the University of California Davis Aggies...
s. The names were intended to stem from the terms Mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
and Predator but were not necessarily consistent with the alternate forms of the Transformers. (In Beast Machines
Beast Machines
Beast Machines is an animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. Hasbro has the full distribution rights to the show as of 2011. It was a direct sequel to Beast Wars taking place within the continuity of the original Transformers series...
, 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 Energon, (Though in The Agenda (Part 1) it's revealed Megatron got the location of energon as a bonus) to be used in a ploy for power and dominance. They do this with the aid of an artifact known as the Golden Disk
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 Axalon
Axalon
The 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.-History:The Axalon, commanded...
, led by Optimus Primal
Optimus Primal
Optimus 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. He is sometimes called Optimal Optimus...
, 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
Ancient astronauts
Some writers have proposed that intelligent extraterrestrial beings have visited Earth in antiquity or prehistory and made contact with humans. Such visitors are called ancient astronauts or ancient aliens. Proponents suggest that this contact influenced the development of human cultures,...
.
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. This plays a larger part in the IDW series, The Gathering. 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 Blackarachnia and Inferno. The stasis pods are used as a plot device
Plot device
A 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. Dinobot
Dinobot
Dinobot is a fictional character from the Beast Wars Transformers universe.-Beast Wars:Dinobot 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...
changes sides, starting as a Predacon and becoming a Maximal. Additionally certain "Predacons" like Quickstrike and Blackarachnia were created from Maximal protoforms, but were fitted with Predacon shell programs, fighting instead for the Predacons. 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 Transmetals
Transmetals
Transmetals are a subgroup of the Beast Wars and Beast Machines characters in the fictional Transformers universe. Ordinary Transformers in the Beast Wars universe have a mechanical robot form and a techno-organic animal form, also known as a "beast mode"...
. Optimus himself is soon revived as a Transmetal, thanks to the help of Rhinox
Rhinox
Rhinox 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 Transmetal Driver is an alien artifact from the Beast Wars: Transformers series. It appeared in season 3 in the possession of Megatron
Megatron (Beast Wars and Beast Machines)
The Beast Wars and Beast Machines version of Megatron is the main antagonist from the aforementioned parts of the Transformers animated series, toy lines, and multiverse...
, seemingly from nowhere.
At first he used it to produce cyborg velociraptor
Velociraptor
Velociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V. mongoliensis; fossils...
s made to hunt down protohumans, but later used it to produce a Transmetal 2 clone of the deceased Dinobot
Dinobot
Dinobot is a fictional character from the Beast Wars Transformers universe.-Beast Wars:Dinobot 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...
, using the interior of Rampage's spark. Cheetor
Cheetor
Cheetor is several fictional characters from various Transformers universes.- Beast Wars :Cheetor's original tech 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...
was caught in the overload from the Transmetal Driver and after a delayed reaction, was transformed into a new, yet somewhat mangled, Transmetal 2 form.
Depth Charge
Depth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...
stole the Driver and thought that he destroyed it by throwing it into a magma pit, but Blackarachnia saved it before it could submerge in the lava and kept it for herself. Blackarachnia tried to use the Transmetal Driver to remake herself into a Transmetal, but was interrupted by Silverbolt. This caused her to suffer malfunctioning glitches similar to Energon overloads, resulting in her Predacon shell program to degrade and threaten her life. While Rhinox
Rhinox
Rhinox 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...
attempted to remove her Predacon shell programming, Tarantulas and the other Predacons caused a power interruption which allowed failsafes within her programming to take her offline, but the alien Transmetal Driver activated and remade her into a new Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia, minus her old Predacon programming.
Each Transmetal 2 has a unique characteristic other than their obvious augmentations. The Dinobot clone is capable of regeneration, Cheetor can exceed speeds of Mach 2, and Blackarachnia possesses mental telekinetic abilities. The Driver; however, is never featured in the television series again after reactivating Blackarachnia.
The Transmetal Driver would later appear in the Botcon comic book story where it was used by the Vok to help create Primal Prime
Primal Prime
Primal Prime is a fictional character from the Transformers universes and a repaint of Beast Wars, Optimal Optimus.-Beast Machines:Forged from the remnants of a control suit used to manipulate Optimal Optimus during the Beast Wars, Primal Prime is a hybrid of Maximal and Autobot spark-replication...
.
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
Ark (Transformers)
The Ark is an Autobot spacecraft in the Transformers Universe. It has appeared as a central fixture of the Transformers storyline ever since its creation, as the Autobots main method of transport to Earth and as a base once they arrive....
, and kill the dormant Optimus Prime, 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 Megatron 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 Prime's body. When the repairs are complete, and 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 Nemesis and uses it to make his final stand. Around the Beast Wars finale, both Maximals and Predacons suffer several deaths within their respective crews. The survivors finally abandon the prehistoric Earth in an Autobot space shuttle and Megatron is taken under arrest.
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 1980s cartoon). However, Forward and DiTillio knew next to nothing about the original series. Since they were given free rein 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
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
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 original cartoon series. 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, the toy-only character Wolfang was supposed to be in the show, but was replaced at the last moment to conserve money, as Tigatron was a repaint of Cheetor
Cheetor
Cheetor is several fictional characters from various Transformers universes.- Beast Wars :Cheetor's original tech 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...
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 Blu
Susan Blu
Susan Maria 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 Transmutate
Transmutate
Transmutate is the name of a fictional character from the various Transformers universes. She is a damaged, but powerful, Maximal protoform who befriends both the Maximal Silverbolt and his enemy the Predacon Rampage....
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 1980s series continuity had several characters die in the theatrical movie
The Transformers: The Movie
The Transformers: The Movie is a 1986 animated feature film based on the animated series of the same name. It was released in North America on August 8, 1986 and in the UK on December 5, 1986....
, 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(Cheetor, Rattrap and Waspinator). Notably among them is the character Waspinator
Waspinator
Waspinator is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes. He is sometimes called Wasp. The original Waspinator was voiced by Scott McNeil in the Beast Wars animated series.-Beast Wars:...
, 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 Machines
Beast Machines
Beast Machines is an animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. Hasbro has the full distribution rights to the show as of 2011. It was a direct sequel to Beast Wars taking place within the continuity of the original Transformers series...
Waspinator survives, albeit in a new body and identity, as Thrust.
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 Marx
Christy Marx
Christy 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 Rattrap
Rattrap
Rattrap 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.
Japan
Openings- "WAR WAR! STOP IT" by Banana Ice
- "Evolution of the Soul" by Kageyama Hironobu
- "Millenium Soldiers" by Kageyama Hironobu
Endings
- "FOR THE DREAM" by MickeyMickeyMickey is a common name, derived from Michael. The word may refer to one of the following:-Fictional characters:* Mickey Mouse, a Disney cartoon character* Mickey Goldmill, a character from the Rocky franchise...
- "Ba-Bi-Bu-Be-Beast Wars" by Kageyama Hironobu and Ba Bi Bu Be Bombers
- "Halleluyah" by Kageyama Hironobu
DVD releases
The series was originally released on DVD in Region 1 by Rhino EntertainmentRhino Entertainment
Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company. It is owned by Warner Music Group.-History:Rhino was originally a novelty song and reissue company during the 1970s and 1980s, releasing compilation albums of pop, rock & roll, and rhythm & blues successes...
in 2004/2005. These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print.
On February 8, 2011, Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
announced that they had acquired the rights to the series and planned to re-release it. They subsequently re-released season 1 on DVD on June 7, 2011 as well as a complete series set on the same day. Both releases contain extensive bonus features including interviews, featurettes and special 24 page comic book- Transformers Timelines “Dawn of Future’s Past.” Season 2 & 3 was re-released on October 4, 2011.
In Region 4, Madman Entertainment
Madman Entertainment
Madman Entertainment is an Australian company that distributes international films as well as Japanese anime and manga in Australia and New Zealand. The company is owned by Funtastic Limited and is one of the major entertainment companies in Australia. It employs 130 people and has an annual...
released all three seasons on DVD in Australia in 2006. On June 24, 2009, they released Transformers: Beast Wars - Complete Collection. The 10-disc box set features all 52 episodes of the series as well as many bonus features.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 4 | ||
| Season 1 | 26 | August 12, 2003 June 7, 2011 (Re-release) |
March 17, 2006 |
| Season 2 | 13 | March 23, 2004 | July 25, 2006 |
| Season 3 | 13 | March 23, 2004 | November 10, 2006 |
| Seasons 2&3 | 26 | October 4, 2011 (Re-release) | N/A |
| Complete Series | 52 | June 7, 2011 | June 24, 2009 |
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 clever use of comic relief and character development.Beast Machines
Beast Wars was succeeded by Beast Machines, a new series with a new creative team in charge of production. Maximals find themselves back in Cybertron, malfunctioning and trapped into their first beast modes (the ones they had at the beginning of Beast Wars) without memory of what happened previously, fighting for survival against mindless drones called Vehicons. With the whole planet empty and all of the Transformers missing, Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Rattrap and Blackarachnia begin a new crusade, this time to free the entire planet.Japanese treatment
The Japanese series Beast Wars IIBeast Wars II
refers to the 1998 Japanese Transformers television animated series, and the movie and toyline that resulted from it. While its position in the Transformers continuity has previously been unknown, the IDW Publishing comic book mini-series Beast Wars: The Gathering and comments from Transformers...
and Beast Wars Neo
Beast Wars Neo
Beast Wars Neo is a 1998 Japanese Transformers television animated series and toy line, and a sequel to Beast Wars II.-Plot:The series focuses on a battle between Maximal and Predacon factions for possession of an energy source called Angolmois. The lone "one-man army" Big Convoy is assigned the...
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 Unicron
Unicron
Unicron 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. Unicron is a prodigiously large robot whose scale reaches planetary proportions, and he is also...
, 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 Robots
Transformers: Robots in Disguise
Transformers: Robots in Disguise, known in Japan as , is a Japanese anime television series 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 (Transformers)
Primus 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.-Primus and Unicron:...
, 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 Shokaract, a Predacon fueled by the Dark Essence of Unicron
Unicron
Unicron 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. Unicron is a prodigiously large robot whose scale reaches planetary proportions, and he is also...
himself. This also serves as an introduction for Apelinq, and the only appearances of Windrazor, 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 Prime
Primal Prime
Primal Prime is a fictional character from the Transformers universes and a repaint of Beast Wars, Optimal Optimus.-Beast Machines:Forged from the remnants of a control suit used to manipulate Optimal Optimus during the Beast Wars, Primal Prime is a hybrid of Maximal and Autobot spark-replication...
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
Dreamwave Productions was a Canadian art design studio and comic book publisher founded in 1996 and is 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 Minor, Bonecrusher
Bonecrusher (Transformers)
Bonecrusher is the name of several fictional characters in the various Transformers universes.-Transformers: Generation 1:Bonecrusher is a member of the Constructicons. He is a brawler by nature and specialises in demolitions work...
, and Wolfang. 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 Furman
Simon Furman
Simon 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 Figueroa
Don Figueroa
Don 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.-Dreamwave Productions:...
. 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
IDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. 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...
. A four-issue Beast Wars mini-series, titled Beast Wars: The Gathering
Beast Wars: The Gathering
Beast Wars: The Gathering is a four-issue comic book mini-series, published by IDW Publishing. The series was launched with #1 in February 2006 and ended with #4 in May. It has since been republished as a trade paperback....
, was released in 2006. The series was written by Simon Furman
Simon Furman
Simon 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 Figueroa
Don Figueroa
Don 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.-Dreamwave Productions:...
. 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 Magmatron
Magmatron
Magmatron 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:...
, Razorbeast, and Injector. Other characters who made an appearance are Grimlock
Grimlock
Grimlock is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers universes. He is usually portrayed as a tough leader who turns into a mechanical dinosaur...
in his Beast Wars body (a recolored Dinobot toy) and Ravage
Ravage (Transformers)
Ravage 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 Council 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 Convoy in flashback sequences implies that the Japanese-exclusive Beast Wars II
Beast Wars II
refers to the 1998 Japanese Transformers television animated series, and the movie and toyline that resulted from it. While its position in the Transformers continuity has previously been unknown, the IDW Publishing comic book mini-series Beast Wars: The Gathering and comments from Transformers...
and Beast Wars Neo
Beast Wars Neo
Beast Wars Neo is a 1998 Japanese Transformers television animated series and toy line, and a sequel to Beast Wars II.-Plot:The series focuses on a battle between Maximal and Predacon factions for possession of an energy source called Angolmois. The lone "one-man army" Big Convoy is assigned the...
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.
A Beast Wars Sourcebook
Beast Wars Sourcebook
Beast Wars Sourcebook is a Transformers comic book. It was created by Simon Furman and Ben Yee and is 48 pages long. It features highlighted technology, worlds and characters. Three artists contributed to the book: Don Figueroa, Nick Roche and Rob Ruffolo....
was also published by IDW.
Video games
There have been two Beast Wars video games. The first game, simply called Beast Wars, was released for the PlayStationPlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
and PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM 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...
. 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 FAP
FAP
FAP may refer to:Technology and industry* FORTRAN Assembly Program, the macro assembler for some IBM mainframe computers* Fair Access Policy, a term for a bandwidth cap, limiting Internet usage...
, with its own play rooms in the MS Gaming Zone (they have subsequently been removed). The second game, Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals
Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals
Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals is a 1999 versus styled fighting game based on the Beast Wars Transformers cartoon series and toy-line for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation...
, is a Fighting Vipers
Fighting Vipers
Fighting 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! Entertainment
BAM! Entertainment
BAM! 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 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, but was scrapped in pre-production
Pre-production
Pre-production or In Production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- In film :...
, without any official word as to why, or how far the project was before the plug was pulled.
External links
- Beast Wars: Transformers at the Big Cartoon DataBaseBig Cartoon DataBaseThe Big Cartoon DataBase is an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows and cartoon shorts....
- A3U Podcast Audio Interview With Voice Actor Scott McNeil
- A3U Podcast Audio Interview With Voice Actor Gary Chalk
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Beast_Wars_Toys#External_links