1998 arrived and Beast Wars entered its third year. This was the year that the Beast Wars series truly came of age, with episode after episode that continually show up on fan’s “favorite episode” lists, and some of the very best toys of the Beast era, the Transmetals. Japan meanwhile took their own path once again with a new cel-animated series “Beast Wars Second”, complete with some new Japan only toy releases. The second half of Beast Wars’ second season concluded in 1998 with a string of excellent episodes, including what is regarded by many fans as the 20 greatest minutes of a Transformers series ever. Code of Hero aired on March 9, 1998, and resolved Dinobot’s long-running existential crisis as he went down like a true hero, facing off against all of the Predacons and sacrificing himself to safeguard the future of all humanity from Megatron’s evil plan to change the future. Dinobot’s last words are some of the most poignant of the whole series, coupled with an excellent musical score accompanying his funeral. While he was not the first Transformer to have died during the run of a series, the way the final battle and death were handled set the episode apart.
Other significant episodes in the run included Bad Spark, which introduced the Predacon Rampage, a sociopathic monster with a mutant spark that made him extremely powerful and resilient. It was revealed he was a result of a Maximal experiment to try to recreate Starscream’s unique spark, casting some shadows over the supposed “good guy” faction of the Maximals. The resolution of the episode was quite dark, with Megatron cutting out a bit of Rampage’s spark and using it to induce pain and force loyalty from the newly-recruited Predacon.
Another significant – and tragic – episode in the latter part of the second season was Transmutate. Transmutate dealt with a Protoform Maximal who was heavily damaged, and awakened as a mentally and physically challenged robot. A huge amount of the episode dealt with the cast accepting – or not – Transmutate even in her disabled form, with Silverbolt and Rampage getting a good amount of screen time as they came to understand Transmutate.
The season 2 finale was a three part story titled The Agenda. Possession set out that Beast Wars took place in the same continuity as the Generation 1 Transformers show – The Agenda drew those connections together in three different, and very awesome, ways. It introduced a survivor of the Great War – a Decepticon, upgraded and rebuilt as a Predacon – Soundwave’s former minion, Ravage! Ravage intervened in the Beast Wars and assisted the Maximals, helping them capture Megatron. But then in the three-part story’s second major connection with Generation 1, Beast Wars Megatron produced a shattered piece of the Golden Disk and revealed the whole time he had been acting under the orders of the original Generation 1 Megatron! This prompted one of the biggest and best battle sequences of the whole series, complete with – for the first time in ten years – the Generation 1 transforming sound effect being played when Ravage transformed. The tension kept ratcheting up as The Agenda continued, with its cliffhanger finale providing a third reference to Generation 1 – and one of the greatest cliffhanger endings in Transformers history. The Beast Wars were taking place on Earth – and the original Autobots and Decepticons were in stasis on board the crash-landed Ark, awaiting their awakening in the distant future of 1984. Beast Wars Megatron sought to change the future, to ensure a Decepticon victory – and to achieve that goal, he shot Generation 1 Optimus Prime in the head. The Maximals were too late, and as the episode ended a time storm erupted, consuming the entire Solar System before the scene faded out to “to be continued?”
Beast Wars Season 3 opening credits. Uploaded to Youtube by OptimalOptimus2.[/size]
Fortunately, there was not too long to wait for the continuation, as on October 24 1998 the third season began with Optimal Situation. Optimus Primal took Optimus Prime’s spark inside himself and gained a new “Optimal” Optimus form, and the Maximals managed to save Optimus Prime, putting him back into stasis so that time would again take its correct course – but not before Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal briefly met eyes. The Maximal’s base, the Axalon, was destroyed in the course of the episode – with the Beast Wars taking a new turn in its third season – safeguarding the sleeping Autobots and Decepticons from Megatron’s attempts to rewrite time – the Maximals moved into a new base outside of the Ark. A new ally joined the Maximal side shortly after in the form of Depth Charge, a hard-edged Maximal warrior out to exterminate Protoform X, aka Rampage. He did not see eye to eye with the other Maximals for many of his appearances. Blackarachnia’s character development also culminated in her defecting to the Maximal side, though she still called herself a Predacon.
1998’s Beast Wars line introduced the Transmetals, mechanical beasts with organic styled robot modes. Most of the core cast from the cartoon got Transmetal updates including Rattrap, Cheetor, Tarantulas, Megatron and Optimus Primal, seen here. The big guy in the back is Rampage – an all-new Transmetal added to the Predacon ranks.
The Beast Wars toyline underwent a reinvention for 1998, changing over to “Transmetals”. Many of the core characters got new Transmetalized forms – including those like Rhinox and Waspinator who did not get their new bodies in the show. The initial Transmetals were released at Deluxe and Mega class sizes, with two Ultra class toys coming later. All three size classes featured similar gimmicks – the beast forms, rather than the organic ones featured in the first two years of the line, were fully mechanical and featured vacuum metalized parts, which gave the toys an excellent metallic finish, though in the longer term, the chromed parts are notorious for chipping and flaking. The robot modes, to continue the inversion, were now more organic in appearance, to varying degrees – some like Transmetal Optimus Primal were very organic, while others like Scavenger or Transmetal Waspinator seemed almost wholly mechanical. The main gimmick across all three Transmetal size classes was that the characters could transform not only from robot to beast, but that the beast mode could transform further into a third “transport” mode. These were not true triple changers in the style of Blitzwing or Springer, but more like alternate configurations of alternate forms, like Generation 2 Dreadwing’s tank mode. Some of the third modes, like Cheetor or Optimus Primal, were merely deploying “transport” forms – rocket jets and a jet-powered surfboard, respectively. Others though, like Waspinator and Rattrap, got more involved transformations for their third modes.
The majority of the Transmetal releases were upgraded forms of the existing main cast – Scavenger in the Mega class is in fact the only non-Ultra class Transmetal to not be based on an existing Beast Wars character, and he was originally conceived as an updated Inferno before slow sales of Inferno led to his name change. However, there were a pair of Ultra class Transmetals, and both of these were new characters. Maximal Depth Charge was a manta ray, one of the few themed Beast Wars characters, and featured a disk launcher in his chest, plus a sword and a missile launcher designed to look like a fish. His robot mode used part of his manta ray tail to balance himself, which limited his poseability – but it was necessary due to his huge backpack. His rival, Rampage, was the Predacon Ultra class Transmetal. Rampage was a crab who turned into a tank, one of the more convincing Transmetal third modes. His main weapon was a triple barreled missile launcher that rotated and fired missiles as the tank mode was rolled forward. Rampage was a particularly excellent release due to his size, which was emphasized with the massive crab claws.
Optimal Optimus was the largest Beast Wars toy made, with light up eyes and cannons, as well as three distinct alternate modes.[/size]
The Beast Wars line also added a new size class in the form of the “Super class” Optimal Optimus. Optimal Optimus was the single largest Beast Wars toy released. A member of the Transmetal series, he featured four distinct modes – robot, ape, jet and tank. He also featured light-up details on his cannons and “blast apart” armor on his arms. Optimal Optimus was later redecoed as Primal Prime, a red, white and blue version of the toy, in the Beast Machines line.
The Fuzors were a second subset of the 1998 Beast Wars line, and featured characters with two different alternate modes that were blended – or fused – into a single creature. Released in the series included Silverbolt, Torca, Quickstrike, Terragator, Noctorro and Buzzclaw[/size]
The Fuzors were the other subset of Beast Wars toys released in 1998. The Fuzors covered the Basic and Deluxe size classes, and ten different Fuzors were released across four different assortments, two per size class. The Fuzors were, as the name implied, fusions of two different animal forms, such as the eagle-wolf hybrid Silverbolt or the cobra-scorpion fusion Quickstrike. The end results were very hit-or-miss compared to the almost universally excellent Transmetal series – one of the most notoriously bad Beast Wars toys, Injector, was a Fuzor, but on the other hand, Torca, an orca whale-elephant hybrid, was released in the same assortment, and he was one of the better Fuzors. Much like the 1997 series, the Basic Fuzors had gimmicks that were fairly simple – lever-activated punching or spring loaded snapping jaws – while the Deluxes featured spring loaded missile launchers or water shooting guns (though Quickstrike also shot water…)
Beast Wars Second opening credits for the first half of the series. Uploaded to Youtube by walruslaw[/size]
Meanwhile in Japan, Takara once again went down their own path and introduced Beast Wars Second, also known as Beast Wars II. This series was a side story to the main Beast Wars and told the story of a different crew of Cybertrons, led by Lioconvoy, arriving on the mysterious planet Gaia to counter the Destrons, led by Galvatron, in their quest to obtain the powerful Angolmois energy found on the planet. The plot of the series was very episodic, with brief arcs scattered throughout, until the finale when Galvatron brought his space fortress, the artificial planet Nemesis, to Gaia to drain the planet of all the Angolmois energy. The final battle fell to Lioconvoy and the youthful Cybertron Liojunior to fuse into the “Green Warrior”, guardian of Gaia, and bring an end to Galvatron and his wicked plan.
Much like the Japanese dub of Beast Wars, Beast Wars Second was largely played for laughs. For example the aforementioned Liojunior called Lioconvoy “mama” because he was created through the sharing of Lioconvoy’s Energon Matrix. An early episode also featured Galvatron getting drunk on “bad oil” and going on a rampage. The Japanese version of Tripredacus featured in the series, Tripledacus, were written as Mexican stereotypes. However, the series also had its epic moments, prominent among them a theatrical feature “Lioconvoy’s Crisis” which teamed up Lioconvoy and Beast Wars Convoy / Optimus Primal to face off against a huge war machine called Maijin Zarak.
A selection of the toys released in Japan for the Beast Wars Second series, including new mold leaders Lio Convoy and Galvatron, re-released Generation 1 Seacon combiner God Neptune, Japan-exclusive cyborg beasts Dirgegun, Max B and Thrustor, Flipchanger jet recolors Dirge and Thrust, unreleased Generation 2 Autoroller Autostinger and another new mold, Moon.
For the toyline, Takara released most of the remaining 1997 Beast Wars releases, some with new paint decos, to fill out the Maximal side, with Lioconvoy being the main new mold. Lioconvoy was an Ultra class white lion, whose features included a spinning mane “Lio Typhoon”, blades located in the front beast mode legs, and a large amount of missile launchers. The Destrons though were not Beast Wars toys – Takara opted to go with a “nature VS technology” theme and brought back some vehicular Transformers for the BWII Destrons! The Destron side included a selection of Generation 2 toys including the large Generation 2 tank Megatron as Megastorm, Galvatron’s second-in-command. The Generation 2 Autorollers, Dirtbag and Roadblock, were released in Japan as a part of the Destron troops – with two more that were presumably designed, but never released in Generation 2 bringing the Autoroller team up to four members. The Dreadwing ATB set from Generation 2 was released in a variant of its Megatron & Starscream ATB colors as Starscream & BB. Rounding out the molds reused in the Destron troops were Thrust and Dirge, redecoed versions of the Machine Wars flipchanger jets.
Beast Wars Second’s big bad, Galvatron, got a complete new mold. He was a triple changer – a true triple changer too, unlike the Transmetal toys that featured a “third mode”. He transformed into both a drilltank mode, and a dragon mode. Galvatron featured a variety of weapons, including slashing scythe-like weapons on his detachable backpack and hatchets which could be fired like missiles. Other notable new molds in the lineup included a Cybertron vehicle the Takotank, a giant octopus vehicle which came with a redeco of the Basic class squid Clawjaw. A base playset, the Niagara base, was also released. Rounding out the new, Japan only, releases was Moon. Moon was the sidekick of the robot girl Artemis who watched the events of the series and the pair acted as something like narrators, commentating on the action. Moon was a basic sized toy and transformed from a cutesy cartoon bunny into a cutesy little robot. You could look through his stomach to view scenes from the series – a bit like the Megavisor gimmick on the 1993 Predator series releases.
Later in the Beast Wars Second line, Takara reached back to Generation 1 for new releases. They released a giftset of five out of the six Seacons – Nautilator was omitted – as God Neptune, a majestic looking white version of Piranacon. This was followed up with a new release of Generation 1 Trypticon, remolded with a new horn on his head, as Gigastorm, an upgraded Megastorm. Both of these releases omitted many of the smaller accessories from the original releases – Gigastorm did not include Brunt or the other city parts from Trypticon, and God Neptune only included the combiner parts – the individual guns for the four smaller Seacons were not included.
The last four Beast Wars Second Destrons were the Cyborg Beasts. In the latter part of the series, Galvatron’s four soldiers Starscream, BB, Thrust and Dirge were exposed to concentrated Angolmois energy and upgraded into cyborg beast forms, and became known as Hellscream, Max B, Thrustor and Dirgegun. The four all extensively remolded Deluxe class toys from the 1996-97 series of Beast Wars releases, adding new weapons and mechanical parts giving a truly cybernetic feel to their beast modes, like they were some kind of cross between Beast Wars and the Borg from Star Trek. Only Hellscream was ever released in the US – the other three remained in Japan, which is surprising considering how similar they are to the Transmetal 2 series that would be released in 1999. The likely explanation is that the extra tooling pushed them past the threshold for what Kenner was able to release at the Deluxe pricepoint – Takara had no such restriction.
In many ways, Beast Wars Second was foreshadowing – the release of the Cyborg Beasts would look forward towards the Transmetal 2 series, and the idea of a faction of beasts facing a faction of machines was one that would be returned to more than once during the years to follow.
Superquad7
Agreed! Maybe @Sol Fury can give another one soon!
Back in
Need a update but that ok
Phantformer5533
Thank you for all these links! I definitely needed this in order to make my own list. Glory to transformers!
Vik
Awesome, such a dense history!
Metro Prime
Thanks. I have been doing that since that post. TF Wiki has been answering a lot of questions.
batfan007
You can always read some pages over at TFWIKI to catch up on those years, covers pretty much everthing.
John Does
Awsome looking forward,…
Metro Prime
It took me days to read all of this!
Excellent and informative write up. I'm impressed and it filled in a few blanks for me. I've been collecting since G1 with a few years of breaks until I started a major effort into collecting through the Energon era, the beginning of the Classics line, and intermittently through the years til I saw Titans Return and have been heavily collecting since. This write up has shown me where some of my more eclectic figures have originated.
Is there an update from 2015 to current in the works? I'd love to see what else I've missed.
Excaliberprime
good info here
Abishai100
Gen 1 – Gen 2
I think a good way to think about the immense shift in style and content between TG1 (Transformers Generation 1) and TG2 is to think about how the toys, cartoons, and comics focused more on variability of character significance for various storylines. TG1 offered stories relevant to particular characters, but TG2 offered a more liberal attitude towards who could be a randomized figurehead in a given storyline!
That's why TG2 was the 'gateway' to the modern Transformers era which focuses much more on general concepts and character randomization than did TG1.
That's also why TG1 is the ideal intro for anyone looking to become a Transformers fan. Hey, isn't that why we all love Transformers: The Movie (1986), the real art-piece that began showing us conceptual bridges between TG1 and TG2?
ChromedomeMaster
35 years of transformers, and i have only been apart of it for 10 years
3 Wheeler
I like the Long Haul Pic!!!
Djin
Great read
Blam320
That's really too bad. You're missing out on a lot, and I mean a lot of really good Transformers stuff by only caring about G1.
Rodimus Prime BetterPrime
For years I've wanted the G1 series in a blu-ray release. With this year marking its 35th anniversary, hopefully we'll finally get it. I don't care about anything but G1.