Beast Machines: Transformers is an animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment as part of the Transformers franchise.Hasbro has 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.[1][2] The show ran for two seasons, airing on YTV and Fox Kids from September 18, 1999 to November 18, 2000.[3] Of the Transformers animated series produced in North America, Beast Machines was the only one to have been completely conceptualized and outlined in advance, lending it a more serialized and linear storyline than the others.
Synopsis
Following their victory in the Beast Wars, four of the surviving Maximals – Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Blackarachnia and Rattrap – finally return to Cybertron only to discover that their people have vanished, and the world is now ruled by the mindless Vehicons. To make matters worse, the quartet are trapped in their beast forms without any of the upgrades they gained during the Beast Wars – and they are swiftly losing their memories of anything but each other and two of their missing comrades. Forced to retreat deep underground, the Maximals discover the Oracle, a powerful supercomputer that reformats their bodies into new, even more powerful techno-organic forms.
The Maximals soon learn that their old enemy Megatron – who managed to break free and return to Cybertron before them – is the malevolent intelligence behind the Vehicons. Megatron has declared war on both beast modes and free will itself, imprisoning the sparks of Cyberton's entire population. With the odds stacked against them, the Maximals set out to free the sparks of their people, discover what really happened to their allies Silverbolt and Rhinox, and bring organic life to Cyberton once more.
Cast
Garry Chalk as Optimus Primal
Scott McNeil as Rattrap, Silverbolt, Waspinator
Ian James Corlett as Cheetor
Venus Terzo as Blackarachnia
David Kaye as Megatron, Savage/Noble
Christopher Gaze as Diagnostic Drone
Brian Drummond as Jetstorm
Paul Dobson as Tankor, Obsidian, Diagnostic Drone #2
Jim Byrnes as Thrust
Alessandro Juliani as Nightscream
Richard Newman as Rhinox
Kathleen Barr as Botanica
Patricia Drake as Strika
Production
According to the commentary of the Beast Machines DVD, the series was initially to be called Beast Hunters. The character Jetstorm was initially called Skybolt, but the writers changed the name to make it harder to theorize Silverbolt's connection to the Vehicon. The first five episodes of the series were filed with the name Skybolt, and later edited to reflect the change. At one point, Thrust was going to be carrying Silverbolt's spark, but the writers, on a whim, decided to have him carry Waspinator's spark instead. In the episode Home Soil, the character Thrust made a gesture similar to the middle-finger to Optimus while racing to the crashed ship and in the episode "Savage Noble", Thrust also made a gesture similar to the middle-finger to Cheetor when they briefly banded together to search for Savage. In the flashback featuring Waspinator, the heads of Inferno and Quickstrike make cameo appearances, as do the pre-humans Hammer, Jack, Una, and others.
Episodes
Series overview
Season 1 (1999)
Season 2 (2000): Battle for the Spark
Home releases
Beast Machines: Transformers (Episodes # 1–5) Canada / United States
Beast Machines: Transformers – The Complete Series Canada / United States
Written into a special edition comic book was a character by the name of Primal Prime. Appearing only in this book, he is a side character to the Beast Machines story and was later written into the toy lines of both Beast Machines and Transformers: Universe. In the Universe story line, he eventually gains a new body, which combined with Apelinq to create Sentinel Maximus.
The head writers used to post and answer questions on a message board known as Bottalk.
Toys
The Hasbro toys for Beast Machines gained notoriety for bearing little resemblance to the show's characters, both in shape and color. Additionally, they were disproportionately scaled. The discrepancy arose because the show creators and toy creators developed the characters independently in the first year, leading to the release of slightly more show-accrue.
Many of the characters created as toys never made it on the television series, although some did appear in the comic books. Oddly, the transforming plant Botanica from the television series was not made into a toy for any of the related toy lines.
Another characteristic of this toy line was its packaging. Unlike other Transformers lines, wherein each toy had a photo or illustration of themselves on the front of the packaging, almost all Beast Machines packages had an illustration of Cheetor on the front – regardless of character or faction. The one exception was Nightscream.[4]
The toys released in the Beast Wars Returns (a release of Beast Machines in Japan) toy line by Takara were recolored to more closely resemble the show colors. Molds from the drones in the Vehicon Army, which bore more resemblance to the Vehicon Generals, were recolored and used as the Vehicon Generals instead in the Beast Wars Returns toy line.
A line of simple McDonald's Beast Machines toys was sold which did look more like the show characters, and this line was recolored for release in other countries by other fast-food restaurants.
Non-show groups
A number of toy sub-groups didn't make it into the animated series, but had small stories on their toy boxes.
Beast Riders
Two deluxe sized vehicles that resembled the heads of animals and could be ridden by larger figures. Both were redecorated once each, but their boxes remained unchanged.
Deployers
Three sparkless Maximal drones transform into weapons for larger toys, with their boxes remaining unchanged despite being redecoed in new colors. The dark blue recolor of Rav represents the character Chro in the 3H Comic series, where the original-colored Deployers also appeared.
Dinobots
A set of Maximals, all recolors of older toys from the Beast Wars and Beast Wars Neo lines, was commanded by Magmatron and T-Wrecks. Members included Airraptor and others, and like the Deployers, they appeared in the 3H Beast Machines comics.
Non-show characters
A number of characters appeared in the Beast Machines toy line who didn't make appearances in the television series. These included:
Blastcharge – A Vehicon who turns into a six-wheeled missile truck. The character does appear in the Wreckers comics.
Buzzsaw – A Maximal who transforms into a wasp. The character does appear in the Transformers: Universe comics.
Battle Unicorn – A Maximal who turns into a unicorn.
Che – A Beast Rider whose form is a cheetah head. The character was to appear in the un-produced Wreckers #4.
Chro (Name given to purple Rav repaint) – Appears in Wreckers comics.
Dillo – A Maximal Deployer who turns from an armadillo into a weapon. The character does appear in Wreckers comics.
Geckobot – A Maximal who transforms into a flying lizard.
Hammerstrike – A Maximal who transforms into a hammerhead shark.
Longhorn – A Maximal who turns into a bull. The character was to appear in the un-produced Wreckers #4.
Mechatron – A Beast Rider whose form is a dragon'a head.
Transtech
After Beast Machines ended, Hasbro planned a follow-up series called Transtech, which would have been a combination of Beast Wars, Beast Machines, and G1. The series was supposed to bring back some of the characters who died in Beast Wars along with some characters from the original 1980s cartoon, all in new, organic-looking bodies, with vehicle alternate modes instead of the animals used in Beast Machines. Many concept sketches and even a few toy prototypes were made, but Hasbro scrapped the idea, bringing Car Robots to American markets as a placeholder until Transformers Armada.
Concept sketches or prototype toys have been seen for Blackarachnia, Cheetor, Depth Charge, Megatron, Nightscream, Optimus Prime, Scavenger, Shockwave, Soundwave, Starscream, and a new character called Immorticon.
Transformers: Universe
The storyline of Beast Machines is continued in the short-lived comic book Transformers: Universe by 3H Publishing, which has stories taking place during the second season of Beast Machines (in the Transformers: Wreckers comic) and after the Beast Machines story (in the Transformers: Universe comic).
