I was just thinking today how much I really enjoyed seeing the last season of Beast Machines. As I recall, I believe Cybertron became covered by plantlife at the very final episode. I don't remember at the time, but was there ever talk of a series to follow beast machines? I really think the characters and writing could have gone through another entire storyline together.

 

I believe it was going to be TransTech.

 

Transtech - Transformers Wiki

 

Fascinating. I had no idea they really intended to produce a show, but I remember concept art being talked about online for a toyline. I wonder, now that CGI has come so far, if going back and making a series like Transtech is possible.


Hasbro really should start accepting donations to begin new projects, at least as a possiblity. I wouldn't be suprised if a fan-financed series would create heightened interest from new generations of fans.

 

There was a lot of concept art that came out for it, so it's hard to tell exactly how the show would have turned out, but there was a lot of cool concepts, IMO, some of which made it into shows like Armada.

http://www.tfarchive.com/fandom/transtech/

transtech | Tumblr

 

To be honest while not a perfect ending, Beast Machines represents an ending to the Beast Era, and I'm happy with their not being a sequel.

I know TransTech was planned - and that the overall idea was that original Optimus Prime would return and alongside Silverbolt and Cheetor to face the Decepticons Megatron, Starscream, Shockwave and Immorticon.

Some of those concepts have been reused since - IIRC Immorticon has a bit in common with TFTM Brawl.

 

Agreed. Especially since the sequel was going to be more of the same, whereas the ending of Beast Machines left me thinking that their race might finally move in a new direction away from war. And the idea of the original Optimus returning to take over undercuts Cheetor's whole arc towards becoming a leader. It's not like Optimus to swoop in and steal the throne out from under a new, young ruler- oh wait. . .  

Snarkiness aside, I would still rather see Cheetor as leader than have the legendary Optimus return with all his baggage. It's like- Cybertron has got to learn how to get along without Optimus Prime there to run things, and that's what the whole Beast era was showing. Not only could they get along without the Autobot commander, they were doing quite nicely too.

 

No one knows for sure, but it is known that bots from older shows like G1 would reappear in new forms (though technically they'd still be in the same continuity, I guess). The idea of a dimensional nexus is how transtech was approached in the Funpub comics though.

 

Honestly I'm not sure if i would have liked Transtech the whole we have the original Optimus Prime back thign just doesn't sit well with me.

 

If you don't like the (insert current numbered)th return of Optimus Prime then you are a fan of the Wrong franchise.  

Well.. at least it wasn't Alternity where it was every Optimus Prime at once.. in one or more bodies.. in one or more realities... at multiple times.. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

 

While I can see where having Optimus Prime return yet again would undermine the establishment of Cheetor as the leader-figure, on the other hand, I can also see where the end of Beast Machines would also make a great starting point for Transtech as a story: sure, all the Cybertronians are happy to have their sparks back and be liberated once more...until they take a couple steps back and realize they have to get accustomed to their homeworld suddenly being part organic because the monkey had visions about it, and this might not sit too terribly well with a lot of Cybertronians. Especially the two or three infamous Decepticons who've just returned and see that their homeworld has been turned into a twisted mirror-image of that miserable third mudball from the sun back in the Sol system that gave them nothing but trouble...in that regard, I could see where even Cheetor, who'd probably have enough to deal with just handling the growing civil unrest from having this change thrust on them, would feel pressed to call in the kind of help that's accomplished at dealing with the likes of Starscream and Shockwave.

 

I think having Cheetor as commander of the autobots/maximals would have been a really cool aspect. I always liked the "crew of a ship" concept, so maybe Cheetor could take the main cast back out into space possibly to retrieve lost/stranded maximals?

I always assumed there was a wide variety of maximals/decepticons scattered throughout the universe. At least that was the impression I had during Beast Wars. I've been looking over those designs and some of them are really good, and I also see where they were used for later characters.

 

I dunno. If they had managed to do something awesome with the new floral-mode Cybertron, people might have bitched less about the ending of Beast Machines. And since most of the characters were supposed to be "techno-organic vehicles," BM would still have been an ending for the beast era.

 

After searching him on TFWiki, now I really want a TransTech Shockwave figure...

 

I also have to say that those Transtech cars would have looked AWESOME speeding down a path through a cyborg alien jungle. That's alone would have redeemed the ending of BM for me.

 

I still think those "freed Cybertronians" would've been pissed as hell about what all went down, many of which enough so to turn on Cheetor's camp & essentially wanna stone them for everything. Some might not even believe that Megatron existed at all & campaign that he was simply the floating head all along & was just part of the virus they caused, while others who were less paranoid would simply blame Megatron's shit on them. Then if those weren't enough, there'd likely be a 3rd band using this as an opportunity to restore the Predacon/Decepticon faith (what do we want, we wanna be viral!), and yaddy yaddy yadda.

They would have to go in hiding like in the beginning of Beast Machines, except unlike before when they had 1 enemy, they now have an entire planet against em. Botanica would probably get sick/weakened or something as to remove her as a potentially broken character in this new world, Silverbolt would still be a dick, and the amount of threats looming would be horrendous.

Might not exactly agree with what was planned, but that's what I always imagined anyway.

 

There were some Transtech characters written into the TFCC comic books a few years back but the volume numbers escape me at the moment.

 

I really hate FunPub's comics, but. . . this one idea wasn't too bad. Except then they had to throw in yet another Cy-kill death.

Oh I know, I know. It's a good thing I like Optimus! lol! But at least with the beast era they were good about letting the next generation of Transformers take over. A few references and even one appearance by Optimus Prime, but it was always about the Axalon crew.
I always think it's so funny when people used to wish that G1 Optimus should've awakened and trashed Predacon Megs and his crew. It's like- it's not his fight.

I like your reasoning for why Cheetor might need the aid of someone like G1 Optimus to help smooth over the transition. Still- the Cybertronians, especially the Autobots/Maximals, have always been a spiritually strong group. They might be more ready to accept Cheetor as the new chosen one than we might expect. Especially with his direct link to the Oracle.

I like this idea too. The crew of the Axalon was always a tight-knit family, and if Cheetor were to ascend to the role of supreme leader over Cybertron, no doubt his responsibilities would break that up. By sending them back into space, they let Cybertron sort out its own problems and let the populace come to terms with their newly reformatted world on their own, while Cheetor and the Axalon crew have adventures in space! I like this a lot.  

Yeah. I was never a big fan of the technorganic look either, but as a concept I have no problem. I think if they had been able to make the technorganic look more like a true balance between machine and organic instead of the organic side being dominant, there would have been a lot less griping.

 

What was there to even follow up? Beast Machines' ending tied things up pretty well. It was better that they moved on to a different series.