I liked Beast Machines, though it was not great, and it was no where near as good as Beast Wars, I think it was still a good series. The two major issues I had with this series was Rattrap and Rhinox. Rhinox is the most peace-loving guy in transformers, how can you make him evil!! and not just evil, but as evil as Taranchulas at having his own agenda. And Rattrap is suppose to be 2nd in command!! C'mon, cheetor and rattrap should have had their roles reversed. The only characters that acually had the same personality from Beast Wars were Optimus, Megatron, Silverbolt, and Blackarachnia. And I absolutely hated that one episode where they make Rattrap feel like dirt, I forgot what that episode was called, but yeah, I would totally omit that out of my memory if I could. What do you guys think about Beast Machines?

 

It's amazing, from the plot, to the extremely emotive animation, I thought it was all around good.

 

I felt like the end of the series was rushed, I mean they had some cool things going down and then it just wrapped up in a hurry. They should get a do over on the battle for the spark ark.

 

I loved it, but I agree that the end seems rushed, it looks like they had plans for a three season show like Beast Wars, but it got canned middle-way through 2.

 

I liked BM, my only gripe is that the 'run away from the vehicons' bits get a bit repetitive at the start.

 

Actually I felt what they did with Rhinox was perfect, we saw he had a dark side in BW and faced with the coruption of his race and the basic fall of cybertron I think his action were really understandble.

 

I'd disagree with that personally. I felt that all of the characters personalities were changed to some degree. Although, Cheetor I'd actually have to say was the closest to his portrayal in BW since he was shown to be maturing in Beast Wars.

I'd agree with the consensus though, BM was a good show but could have been better if they'd done some things differently.

 

I thought it was a great series, not worse than Beast Wars, just... different. A common complaint hurled at Beast Machines is the was the characters were changed. It's a complaint I just can't agree with. Our heroes had simply moved on from Beast Wars, forced to change by circumstances way beyond their control. Come to think of it, the whole series plays with questions of identity.

Optimus discovers that, far from winning the Beast Wars, he inadvertently enabled Megatron to enslave the whole of Cybertron. Turning to religion when reason has failed him seems quite understandable.

Rattrap always relied on a ready supply gadgets, guns and explosives in Beast Wars. Here, that character is forced to either do without them or improvise. He questions his self-worth, loses the respect of his peers... he spends most of season one trying to discover who he really is when the props he's taken for granted are taken away.

Silverbolt has to face up to the fact he has a dark side which is personified in Jetstorm. The experience changes him permanently, possibly not for the better, but it makes him a more rounded character. He begins the show in darkness as Jetstorm and emerges back into the light with the help of Blackarachnia.

The tragedy of Rhinox shows us the other path: he never makes it back. The first Maximal to fully accept his partially-organic nature in Beast Wars, that part of him has been completely stripped away by Megatron in Beast Machines. Perhaps because he was so attached to that side of himself, he's never really whole again. He has been forced into a cold, mechanical casing and compelled by Vehicon programming to hunt down his former comrades. Even when he remembers who he was, he can't quite free himself from what he has become. So he chooses to become someone else: Tankor.

Megatron: no more jokes, no more dubber ducky, no more "yesss"es. His experiences on Earth changed him. In the end he lost the Beast Wars because of other people. His accomplices constantly either failed him or betrayed him, all because of their pesky free will. If only there was something he could do about that...

Anyway, I'd go along with the view that Beast Machines really needed another season to wrap everything up properly, but unlike many folks I'm not of the view that there was anything wrong with the fundamentals of the show.

 

I think the way to explain Tankor/Rhinox's actions would be that when they contacted Rhinox, The shell program was still in operation, so therefore Tankor recieved Rhinox's intelligence and memories and therefore the ambition and knowhow to overthrow Megatron.

It might have been nice for Rhinox to have been reformatted at some point mind and Rattrap to have kept his more sarcastic personallity traits mind but I thought it was a good series even if the humour that was there in BW was very much missed..

 

I thought BM's Beasts were ugly, still do. I was also horrified when Cybertron was turned all grassy-organic. It's the only series where I thought Megatron had the better idea. It was a very dark series and it almost, well it did, stop me from being a Transformers collector/fan for awhile. Thank Primus RID was just around the corner.   I broke down this last year and bought the BM DVD set to give it a fair judgement. It's an interesting series, but no way my idea of what Transformers should be about. I rate it above Animorphs though.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself. Beast Machines was, in essence, my favorite TF series ever. I still love to watch the re-runs. It brings back fond memories of sitting at home waiting to go to work/college, and my first adult run at toy-hunting.

 

I tried to hate Beast Machines, I really did, but it was just too good to hate. I tried to be close-minded and everything!  

I would love it as much as Beast Wars if it weren't for the Maximals' ugly robot modes, "I am transformed" in season 1, and Nightscream. It's my second favorite TF series of all time, regardless.

I love what they did with Megs. He was always the best Megatron to me, and he did nothing but confirm that in BM. He was creepy and amazing. (And he does, too, say 'yesss'! Out of the entire series, I think I counted, what, 14 times he said it? I dunno.)

I don't think any of the characters were out-of-character at all, but it's fun to debate. All of them acted accordingly to the situation they were thrown into, and it was a scary one at that. If they were to keep them unwavering to it... well, it's not believable. If you were responsible for the "deaths" of everyone on the planet, wouldn't you go just a tad batshit? While it was Primal, Rattrap, and Rhinox who received most of my sympathies, the Maxies overall did a good job of making me feel bad for 'em.

Except for Nightscream. I wish Soundwave look-alike would have used him as a shield in that flashback.

Blah blah blah, I love this show, it's near perfect.

 

I had watched the beginning of the series when it originally aired and liked the animation but didn't really like the storyline much. When I was able to watch the entire series after buying the box set a couple years back, my appreciation grew. The story is actually very well done. Some of the characters did have drastic changes, but I'd say in their situation that would be a natural thing, especially Optimus Primal. Still not a fan of the end, but oh well! No series has been 110% perfect.

 

As an animation fan, I loved Beast Machines.

As a Transformers fan, not so much, but I still enjoyed it because:

It was fresh.
It was interesting.
It was visually impressive.
It was different.
It was bold, and risky.
And it was dark... too dark and to be a kids' show, in fact.

And as I've said here many times, BM is a lot easier to accept/tolerate if you watch it solely for its entertainment value. View it as being outside of TF canon--as a stand-alone series that just happens to have "Transformers" in the title--and it's a genuinely entertaining series. In spite of its flaws, it was still a quality production in terms of writing, story, voice talent, and animation...and those are all vital elements for a successful animated drama.

I definitely agree with others that the ending seemed rushed, and we can only wonder about what might have been. And although I was disappointed by the series ending, I must admit it was one helluva ride.

 

It took me a while to pluck up the courage to watch Beast Machines, worried that it may ruin my opinion of the Beast Era. While I'm still not particuarly a fan of the Maximal designs, I loved the Vehicons and the dark overtones of the series. The final battle is one of the best in Transformer history.

I hope one day they'll release an accurate Megatron figure, I love the design when hes plugged into Cybertron.

 

I agree with almost everything in this thread. BM was fantastic.

 

I just found a site that had all the episodes a couple of weeks ago and watched them all.

I thought it was pretty good. I would not want it to be the end all cannon for the planet cybertron by far, but for what it was I was entertained.

 

I simply loved BM! It was a great show for me. I must admit that I didn't like the Maximal designs so far, but the Vehicons were awesome. A great concept.

 

It's a great show.

It may not be a great Transformers show due to the whacky premise, but on its own, it's definitely a great show.

 

I agree totally on BM, despite you and some other guys beating the crap out of me on the selling transformers thread. If you check back I made an apology at the end. hope we can bury the hatchet and start over (no hard feelings).