Beast Machines: Transformers (franchise)
From Transformers Wiki
 |
| |||||||||||||||
Beast Machines was a followup franchise to the very successful Beast Wars. Running from 1999 to 2000, its marquee characters were mainly Beast Wars stars, and the associated fiction directly followed the storyline of the Beast Wars cartoon.
Beast Machines featured a distinctive visual style in both its toys and its television series. The cartoon was darker and grittier than its more lighthearted predecessor, and it introduced controversial new elements such as Cybertron's organic core and a more spiritual approach to transformation. It also marked the return of fully-mechanical Transformers in the form of its antagonist faction, the Vehicons.
The Beast Machines franchise featured the following primary components:
The Beast Machines continuity would be picked up by the 2003 Universe franchise, which featured a comic series that used the world of the Beast Machines cartoon as its jumping-off point.
Beast Wars Returns
 |
| |||||||||||||||
Beast Machines was not released in Japan until 2004, when Takara imported a dubbed version of the television series and some of the toyline as Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Returns (超生命体トランスフォーマー ビーストウォーズリターンズ Chō Seimeitai Transformer Beast Wars Returns).
The Beast Wars Returns release was far more low-key than the also-imported Beast Wars and Beast Wars Metals. The Beast Wars Returns toys were limited to Toys"R"Us exclusive releases, and the cartoon was aired only on a satellite station. It was also the first Transformers cartoon re-aired in Japan without an all-new theme song.
Notes
- The working name for the line was "Beast Hunters" before it became "Beast Machines." Marv Wolfman created the original treatment. A Fox Kids press release said the following about it:
- Ultimately, Mainframe dropped the Predacons. The Vehicons in place of Predacons was the idea of Mainframe's writers, the spiritual and mystical parts of the plot were a request from Hasbro, and the basic arc was Bob Skir's idea following suggestions from Hasbro, Mainframe, and Fox Kids.[1]
- Since the first episode was aired five months after the press release, in an advance screening at BotCon 1999, the name change to Beast Machines seems to have been a late decision. Ironically, at that very same con, the story "Paradox" seems to place its dystopian future after this presumed Beast Hunters story, with Windrazor recognising Megatron's dragon form and Shokaract having been one of his 'hunters' back in the day; this would've been a nice thrill for fans if Beast Machines hadn't changed radically since the press release!
- In 2012, Hasbro re-trademarked the name "Beast Hunters" for the third season of the Transformers: Prime cartoon and the subline imprint of the accompanying toy line.
