Also add Gorilla Warfare to the Season-1-Watch-List for Primal's sheer badassery.  

 

I would have to admit that Beast Wars, or Beasties as we Canadians were subjected to, is one of the best cartoons that came out in the late 90's. Kenner/Hasbro, Mainframe and the writers did a bang up job on the whole concept of taking something that was fading and re-energizing. It's definately not a "kids" cartoon at all. But none of the 4 main shows that Mainframe did could be considered "kid" cartoons.

 

I still can't get over the name, "Beasties". LOL. Makes me laugh every time.

 

I know, YTV just had to be different.

 

I missed the BW premiere and only saw a couple random eps from the first season and didn't care for it, but it was because I was unaware of how they fit into the continuity and what was in store for the story to come that I dismissed it at first. (I was also at college at the time and rarely watched any TV.)

Then I got word from my younger bro that Starscream and Unicron had appeared in the series, and my inner child forced me to give the show another chance. Thus, I didn't start watching until the second season. In hindsight, I hadn't missed that much. I was able to pick up in the middle of the series without needing much backstory. I did go back later and try to catch the eps I missed, but seasons 2 and 3 are the best part of the series anyway.

As for Beast Machines, there were parts I really disliked and parts I really loved. But overall, I found the series very entertaining from beginning to end. And when you see the BW S3 finale, you'll have to pick up with the first ep of BM because you'll want to know what happened.

And then when you see that ep, what happens will blow your mind so much that you'll be as hooked as I was to watch the rest of the series if for no other reason than just to see how the @#$% it's going to turn out.

If you're anything of a diehard geewunner, try watching BM with an open mind. Watch it for the entertainment value and I don't think you'll be disappointed. It's deep and it's dark and really too adult for kids if you ask me. And if you don't like the BM's direction and how it fits into the TF continuity, think of it as a really well-crafted "what if" and I think you'll find yourself enjoying it.

I've never understood why the "bot-to-beast" issue was such a point of contention for diehard geewunners.

Seriously, G1 had plenty of bot-to-beasts: the Dinobots, Predacons, Insecticons, Monsterbots, Seacons, Terrorcons, and some of the Pretenders.

Granted, they were mech beasts, but weren't the Pretenders' shells organic-based?

The organic beast alt-modes in BW made perfect sense to me in Transformers continuity. When I was a kid, I wished there had been more of them.