I think in honor of the 20th anniversary of Beast Wars I should have a top ten list thread. However rather than making multiple different threads for different things I'm just going to include them all in the same thread. I have a few different categories for top lists. Top Ten Best Beast Era toys. (Actual beasts only.) Top Ten Best VEHICLE Beast Era toys. (This would include figures that are still technically part of that era despite not actually transforming into beasts.) Top Ten Actual Beast Era toys. (This only includes figures that were actually part of a Beast Wars or Beast Machines toy line. No repaints from later toy lines or new molds made to homage those characters.) Top Ten Pseudo Beast Era toys. (This would include RID1 Predacons and anything else that was released after those toy lines ended... except for Beast Wars 10th Annivarsary figures since that is an official Beast toy line.) Top Ten Japanese exclusive Beast Era toys. (This would only include toys that were never released in the U.S.) Top Ten American Beast Era toys. (This would include everything except the Japanese toys.) Top Ten toy only Beast Era characters. (Obviously this means any character who's never appeared in a cartoon and/or Comic. I don't know that much about the comics myself so I may slip up and include comic characters here. This is mainly for you to use in your replies.) And finally... the one category that really doesn't belong in the toy section... Top Ten Cartoon/Comic Only characters. (This would include any Beast Era character or incarnation of a character who has appeared in media but has never actually received a toy.) I'm going to fill out my top ten lists later when I have more time. Probably do one category per post but if anyone else wants to post one using any of these categories go right ahead. I recommend the vehicles only category for anyone that doesn't like the Beastformers. There's surprisingly a lot of them for a era all about beastformers.
Top Ten Best Beast Era toys. (Actual beasts only.) 10. Beast Machines Night Viper. I was always really impressed by how they managed to make a robot out of such a compact beast mode. They did this one other time and oddly enough for being a smaller toy I think they handled it much better than Cohrada did. 9. Universe Depth Charge. Universe recolors were usually horrible. This one however actually just made him look like a more organic sting ray. Plus I was never able to get my hands on the original version of the mold so I have a little bit of a bias towards this one being the only universe repaint I own both because it's not terrible and not having the original. 8. TM2 Cybershark/RID Sky-Byte. I really couldn't make up my mind which one to put here. Cybershark is the one I actually owned but Sky-Byte is the character that really popularized the mold. Either way, I love this shark. It has it's flaws though which is why it's not further up on the list. 7. BW Silverbolt. I've always seen him as the best of the Fuzors. Tigerhawk is a close second but Silverbolt just did it better. 6. BW Ravage. I was going to put TM Cheetor on this list but it's pretty much the same toy. There's some retooling done to this version and this has always been my favorite incarnation of Ravage due to his design and his portrayal in the cartoon. That's the only reason he got onto the list instead of Cheetor. That being said, I'd recommend any version of this mold. The red version I like to image as being Rodimus Primal. I'm surprised there isn't a blue version because the fold out wings have always reminded me of a BW version of Tracks. 5. TM2 Dinobot. The dude looks like a skeleton, it's creepy and awesome. I've always loved this design. I wish it got more homages instead of the original version of the character. Was never a big fan of that one as a kid. I like him a lot more now that I've realized he was quoting Hamlet but as a kid I just had no clue what he was saying half the time. Plus that laser eye thing he has in the cartoon reminds me of the Borg from Star Trek. 4. TM Waspinator. I wish this one had actually been in the cartoon. For one thing the red version really makes me think he could of turned into this while being possessed by Starscream. For another he's really the only Transmetal with a vehicle mode that actually looks like a vehicle. I could of included him in a different category for that reason but that should be for figures who don't have beast modes and this is still a wasp. 3. Ironically number 3 is actually three figures. Magnaboss. There weren't a lot of beast era combiners but of the ones that did exist, I think this one looks the best. He has actual hands unlike Tripredacus. I don't really count Magmatron as a combiner at all because the individual figures don't have their own robot modes. Some people do but for that reason I don't even consider them to be real combiners. I seriously regret picking up Tripredacus instead of Magnaboss. 2. Optimal Optimus. Do I need to explain this one? 1. Botcon 2016 Megatron. This would of gone to RID Galvatron except I like this color scheme and the new head sculpt a lot more. Granted he lost one mode due to the missing mouth piece for bat mode however you could possibly replace it with the unused Ostrich mode to make up for it. Plus I love this toy just because of all the potential for fan modes. This has been my favorite mold ever since it came out. Never really been too big of a fan of the color schemes it's been painted in until now so I'm glad this finally exists. The only down side is that I will probably never own this version of it.
Top Ten Actual Beast Era toys. Roughly in order from 10 to 1: Clawjaw (1997) Rhinox (1998) Blackaracnia (2000) Scourge (1999) Motorcycle Drone (2001) Scavenger (1998) Big Convoy (1999) Depth Charge (1998) Manterror (1997) Scavenger (2000) If you want to make it Beast Only, then scrub in Ramulus and Powerpinch anywhere you want. I was THIS CLOSE to just posting: Silverbolt Silverbolt Jetstorm Jetstorm Snarl Snarl Quickstrike Quickstrike Scavenger Scavenger
Top Ten Best VEHICLE Beast Era toys. (This would include figures that are still technically part of that era despite not actually transforming into beasts.) 10. BM Scavenger* 9. BM Mirage* 8. Machine Wars/Timelines Strika. It's actually a very clever use of the Warpath mold. She never had much of a female figure to begin with so it works surprising well. Obsidian did not make it onto this list because I'm not a huge fan of Bayverse molds. Plus I didn't use their original toys because they're really not very good. 7. Motorcycle Drone... At least until Generations gives us a more accurate Trust like they did with Tankor. 6. Timelines Lio Convoy. I just like that mold and it does kinda look like a lion head in vehicle mode when it's painted in his color scheme. 5. Generations Tankor. Should of been bigger but considering the most accurate toy before this was even smaller I'll take it. 4. Dawn of the Predacus Sea Clamp. The other two members of this combiner team didn't really make it onto this list but I had to at least include the Tripredacus council because it's nice to have representations of what they actually looked like in the cartoon instead of the least accurate toys ever made. Sea Clamp is the lowest on this list because of the lack of any clamps or aquatic alt mode. There's nothing sea or clamp about him. 3. Cicadacon is next on the list because I really thought he should be the torso like the original version but otherwise he's fine. 2. And Ramhorn gets the top billing because I could not have picked a more perfect mold to use for him. 1. Dawn of Future's Past Optimus Primal. I don't know why but I really like the idea of an Optimus figure being something other than a truck. Maybe it's because he also doesn't have the usual mostly red color scheme in vehicle mode but not being a truck really works for him. *This list could have easily been filled with Beast Machines Vehicons because I love those designs. They're the most alien vehicle modes I've ever seen for cybertronian vehicles. What really sets them apart from others is that they don't really have cockpits. They actually look like what I would image a living vehicle to look like. It also helps that characters like Jetstorm have articulated vehicle mode "heads" for lack of a better word. It's like the area where a cockpit would normally be is actually a second robot head just for vehicle mode. Anyway, this list was surprisingly difficult to narrow down. You wouldn't think something known as the Beast Era would be this hard to make a top ten vehicle only list but damn there's a lot of them.
In no particular order: Terrorsaur Hydra Fuzor Silverbolt TM Waspinator TM2 Dinobot Blue Spittor TM Scourge Basic Iguanus Insecticon Transquito You can tell from some of those that I really liked Magmatrons crew in the Gathering. My favourites from non BW lines: Robotmasters Optimus Primal Chug Rhinox Device Label Tigatron Reptillion Rid Gas Skunk Rid Slapper Rid Darkscream Robotmasters Megatron Robotmasters Lio Convoy Armada Predacon
My Top 10 Actual Beast toys 1.Beast Wars Gorilla Mold (Optimus Primal/Universe 2.0 colors/Burning) 2.Beast Wars Rat Mold (Rattrap/Packrat) 3.Beast Wars Hornet Mold (Waspintor/Buzz Saw/Dirgegun/Thrustinator) 4.Beast Wars Big Cat Mold (Cheetor/Tigatron/Shadow Panther) 5.Beast Wars Tyrannosaurus Mold (Megatron/T-Wrecks) 6.Beast Wars Neo Mammoth Mold (Big Convoy/Nemesis Prime/Ultra Mammoth) 7.Beast Wars II Lion Mold (Lio Convoy/Flash/Black Lio Convoy/Galvalio) 8.Beast Wars Frog Mold (Spittor/TM Spittor/Driver) 9.Beast Wars Bison Mold (Bonecrusher/Bighorn) 10.Beast Wars Spider Mold (Taranalus/Blackarachnia)
To be fair, the toys for Tripredacus existed well before their appearance on the show so you could say that the show did a poor job matching their character models to the toys. At the same time, Sea Clamp, Ramhorn, and Cicadacon would have no reason to have a beast alternate mode in the show because they were safely back on Cybertron during the whole of the Beast Wars.
My Top 10 Beast Era Figures would be. 10.BW TM Ramulus or Universe Longhorn (either is nice) 9.BW Cheetor or his repaint Tigatron 8.BW FK TM Waspinator or his repaints 7.BW TM2 Depthcharge 6.BW TM Megatron (T-Rex) 5.BW TM Tigerhawk or his Universe version 4.BW Optimus Primal & Megatron 2pack (Bat & Croc) 3.BW TM2 Airrazor 2.Takara BW Neo Big Convoy (Mammoth) or his Target Exclusive Nemesis Prime 1.BW TM2 Megatron (Red Dragon) UPDATE: But some other honorable mentions are. Takara BW Neo Heinlad Takara BW Neo Longrack Takara BW Neo Corhada Takara BW Neo Stampy B'Boom TM2 Rampage Rhinox any version Cheetor most versions except 1 or 2 Rattrap Scavenger
My top ten in no order: Optimal Optimus Big Convoy Razorclaw Spittor Snarl TM 2 Iguanus Beast Machines Jetstorm Silverbolt (Fuzor) Transmetal Megatron Beast Wars Quickstrike
True, they wouldn't of had beast modes like their toys... however they could of actually taken the time to model and color them to actually resemble those toys. They took the time to render three entire new CGI models rather than using pre-existing ones anyway so why not make them at least some what accurate. Like just make them more robotic versions of those toys without the organic beast mode elements but leave everything else the same. Instead we get three CGI models who aren't even remotely close to their toys. Every season 1 Beast Wars character was based on a toy that was released well before the cartoon was made. That's the main reason why none of them are accurate to their toys. However even Blackarachnia looks more like her toy than the Tripredacus council does. There are a lot of animation models like that in every cartoon but the animators usually at least base the design on the toys because they are meant to sell toys. Kinda hard to sell the toys of the Tripredacus council in a cartoon where you can't even tell they have toys. I did own Tripredacus as a kid but that was because I wanted one of the combiner teams and Sea Clamp is actually the one who sold the set to me. I have a thing for aquatic transformers. I never even knew that they actually made an appearance in the cartoon. Individually their names were never spoken on screen and the combined name I never actually knew how to pronounce correctly. They may of said tri pred in the cartoon as in three Predacons, but to me the toy was trip red. Some times I still pronounce it that way when I'm reading it even though I know it's wrong. I called him that for so long it's just habit now. Depth Charge, Airrazor, and Rampage are not TM2, they're just TM. Tigerhawk however is TM2. Anyway moving on... Top Ten Actual Beast Era toys. (This only includes figures that were actually part of a Beast Wars or Beast Machines toy line. No repaints from later toy lines or new molds made to homage those characters.) 10. 10th Anniversary Optimus Primal and Megatron. I've been debating weather or not these figures even belong on this list. Technically they were originally made for the Cybertron toy line not for Beast Wars. However they were sold in a Beast Wars toy line with little versions of the Axalon and Darksyde, two accessories that you can't get with their Cybertron counterparts. They would be higher on the list but it's highly questionably if they should be included at all. 9. 10th Anniversary Transmutate. Transformers first and so far only build a figure. A transformer that doesn't transform. You can guess why she isn't higher on the list, still I wanted to include her because she is exactly what she was in the cartoon. Things like this and the previously mentioned figures actually make me wish we had stasis pods, a Starhopper, a toy of that little Diagnostic Drone that was in the Japanese BW cartoons and Beast Machines, and maybe an accessory of that spark torture device that TM2 Dinobot and Megatron used to keep Rampage obedient. 8. Beast Machines Buzzsaw. I didn't really like him that much at first. However with a different head this figure could have very easily been made into a screen accurate Thrustinator. He basically used that body with Trust's head anyway. Botcon typically replaces robot mode heads but this require replacing the beast mode head. That's quite a bit more to ask for but considering it's a basic figure maybe it would be a bit cheaper that having to remold a larger figure. Whatever the case I really see this mold as being BM Waspinator. 7. Deluxe BM Trust 6. Mega BM Tankor. Despite the fact they (including the above mentioned Trust) are not show accurate and there are more accurate versions of both characters I still really like the designs of these toys. They could very easily be alternate versions of these characters. Like upgraded into more powerful bodies. 5. BM Snarl. There are very few BM Maximals I actually like. This being one of them. I will admit though this was one of the few I never owned. I liked a lot of their designs in general just not as Transformers. I was really into Digimon at the time these came out and that's actually how I imagined them. 4. BW Buzzsaw. Or as I like to call him BW Bumblebee. While Waspinator is typically depicted with the Mutant head, Buzzsaw is typically depicted with his robot head. He has a color scheme very similar to that of Bumblebee. The beast mode actually looks more like a bee than a wasp anyway. I've always felt that with their names being based on the animals they turn into that Bumblebee and Hound really should of made an appearance in there some where. And there are several figures who would make a good hound but they don't really match the original name sake as much as this one does. To me this is BW Bumblebee. Plus considering he was my favorite Transformer when I was four for reasons I can't remember, I will always have a soft spot for this character. I had to include him some how. I probably would of put him higher on the list if that were actually his official name and not just my head cannon. 3. Onyx Primal. Ever since I found out there were multiple dudes in the BW continuity who all resemble Optimus Prime, and having owned the Bat version before the cartoon even aired, and the fact that Onyx Prime is now one of the original 13, I can't help but love this guy. I also like him more than the original version of this mold because he's mostly black. This thing is like Batman... if Batman was a Transformer. Plus there was one guy in Beast Wars Neo, his robot mode was always covered by a cape and he didn't transform, his name was Great Convoy, but in my head cannon, this is the same character as Bat Optimus/Onyx Primal. 2. TM2 Blackarachnia. Personally I think this is the best version of that character in toy form. She's also a really good character in general so I had to have at least one version of her on some list. 1. Tigerhawk. Mostly he made it so high because I wanted to try to avoid repeating figures I've already mentioned on other lists as much as possible. I do like Tigerhawk quite a lot but never really pictured him ending up in a number 1 spot. Maybe more like a 3.
My toppy-tippers, in no specific order: Transmetal Tarantulas Metals Megatron Transmetal Optimus Lazorbeak Transmetal Cheetor Optimal Optimus Transmetal 2 Megatron Airhammer Silverbolt (fuzor) Quickstrike TBF theres a lot more worth mention, but when there's so few legitimately bad figures from the whole era, it's hard to pin down just ten that stand out. Actually they deliberately didn't do that because they knew those characters would never appear in the show in their toy forms, so rather than waste valuable time and money modelling characters that would never show up again, they just made new designs entirely out of pre-existing parts that wouldn't allude to something that would never happen.
What do you mean pre-existing parts? Where did they use those parts before that? They look like entirely new models to me. Top Ten Pseudo Beast Era toys. (This would include RID1 Predacons and anything else that was released after those toy lines ended... except for Beast Wars 10th Annivarsary figures since that is an official Beast toy line.) 10. Junkion Tarantulas... I really like that Junkion mold... not so much as Tarantulas but I like the mold enough to at least include it on the list. 9. Animated Cheetor... AKA Transtech Cheetor. This design is based on what he would have become if Beast Machines had kept going. That being the case it's the only vehicle mode Cheetor that I don't mind having cheetah print and being called Cheetor since it actually takes place after becoming technorganic. 8. Cybertron Jungle Planet Megatron. I feel much more comfortable adding these guys to this list and putting this one lower mainly because of where you have to stick his cyber planet key. 7. Cybertron Jungle Planet Optimus Prime. Being that his gimmick is entirely built into his accessory rather than the figure itself this is probably one of the best figures out of that entire toy line. 6. Armada Airrazor with Nightscream. I would of made her higher on the list but there are a few issues with this toy. For one thing even her Mini-Con has a name of a Beast Era character but a character she never met and he doesn't have anything in common with except the name. For another her allegiance is confusing. She's listed as either an Autobot or Decepticon depending on where you look. Obviously the original Airrazor was a Maximal so you would think she's an Autobot. However aside from having Mini-con ports added to the mold she was also remolded to include a Decepticon insignia. The packaging said one thing but her instructions said different. So honestly have no idea who's side she's on. 5. Animate Blackarachnia... OK so I get to include two versions of Blackarachnia... I decided to include this one because she's one of the better figures from the Animated toy line. I wish we would of gotten a remold of her for when she took her helmet off in the cartoon. There really should be a toy of that. 4. Armada Rhinox with Armorhide. This one gets to be so high on the list because I wish this mold was actually used in Beast Wars as it's "vehicle mode" kind of serves as foreshadowing for Tankor and being one of the better designs. Instead he ends up being the only beast era repaint to end up in an entirely different cartoon for all of two seconds. 3. Generations Rattrap. So low on the list simply because of what a pain in the arse it is to get him back into beast mode. Robot mode is easy but actually getting everything to fold back up properly into beast mode is overly frustrating. 2. Classics Dinobot. I passed up on him initially. I wasn't sure what it was but something just seemed off about him. I kind of regret it though. 1. Generations Waspinator... strange that the one Beast Wars character I never liked should end up being so high on this list. I love Scott McNeil though so it's only fitting that the top three Pseudo Beast Era figures all be modern versions of Scott McNeil characters.
They're not, though. Maybe Seaclamp's head, but they were a combination of parts. Like Ramhorn used a stretched Rattrap face inside a simple helmet with other small modifications, Cicadacon used a stretched out Megatron face, etc. they also may have used parts from other Mainframe shows such as Reboot, which is where the generic Cybertronian body everyone used came form. Add to thet their models aren't even that complex at all thanks to being mostly robes and two colours.
Top Beast formers (not in order other than the first 3, the rest were just as I remembered them) 1. Optimal Optimus 2. Transmetals Rampage 3. Transmetals 2 Megatron 4. BW Neo Big Convoy 5. Transmetals Tarantulas 6. Transmetals Cheetor 7. Beast Wars II Magnaboss 8. Transmetals 2 Dinobot 9. Transmetals 2 Prowl 10. Transmetals 2 Ramulus Honorable mention: B'boom/ Apache. There were tons of toys I'd like to add but I honestly can't remember them all. Some of the dinosaurs from Beast Wars Neo deserve recognition as well. Top 10 Beast Era Vehicles 1. Beast Machines Tank Drone 2. Beast Machines Cycle Drone 3. Beast Wars II Starscream & BB 4. Beast Machines Spy Streak 5. Beast Machines Stryka 6. Beast Machines Mirage 7. Beast Wars II Autojetter (I have no idea why I like this brick so much.) Honestly a pretty short list for vehicles because there weren't many and most of them were repaints except for Beast Machines.
Actually there's a lot of them. I had a harder time narrowing down that list than any other list I've posted so far. You wouldn't think there would be that much since it is the Beast Era but between BWII Predacons being mostly vehicles, Vehicons, and Pre-Beast Wars figures you could make a top 20 list without mentioning a single beast mode. I listed 10 and I'm still working in runner ups into other lists when possible. Top Ten Japanese exclusive Beast Era toys. (This would only include toys that were never released in the U.S.) 10. Stampy. A bunny is just an odd choice for an alt mode but not a bad design. 9. Big Convoy. I removed Break from the list because of being a shell former. I kept this one because I think he handles the shell way better than that penguin. 8. Lio Convoy he looks great but there are other figures on this list who impress me way more than he does. 7. Heinrad. While most of these figures end up on my lists because of design or character this one got here because of the fact that this toy actually functions as a working alarm clock. It's also not a bad design but how many other Transformers can you actually make the claim that they serve a practical purpose? Maybe the Device Label stuff since at least the USB drivers are real USB drives but other than that I don't know of any other devices that actually work. This would probably be less impressive if we had more things like this but since we don't it's freaking amazing. This is also the only Japanese exclusive to make an appearance in the U.S. fittingly enough as an Alarm Clock in the RID1 cartoon. 6. Cohrada. Even though Night Viper did it better, this is for Japanese exclusives so I still had to include this guy because it's a freaking snake that turns into a robot. That's pretty impressive. 5. Dirgegun 4. Thrustor 3. Max-B 2. Hellscream. I really like the Cyberbeasts so of course I was going to include all four of them high up on this list. I can't believe how they still manage to transform properly despite the massive retooling they went threw. We often see retools but not to this extent. I also really like the asymmetrical designs that they all have which is also something you don't see very often. Honestly I don't know why I like asymmetrical designs so much. Dirgegun is the lowest on this list because technically only the head is Japanese exclusive thanks to Thrustinator. 1. Galvatron. Not a big fan of the color scheme but would of loved to see the mold used in some way on this side of the globe.
I have few (less than 5) American Beast Wars Figures. I have quite a few Beast Wars Neo figures though. So I will comment on those. 5. Break - Who doesn't love a penguin? Bot mode is a little too shell former for my liking, but I bought most of these for the animal/alt modes. 4. Stampy - Love his bot and alt modes. Rabbits are just cool. 3. Mach Kick - I'm a sucker for his horse mode. His bot mode is iffy at best. 2. Magmatron - I love Combiners. That fact that three individual Dinosaurs come together to form his bot mode is a plus. And His Bot mode is just mean looking. 1. Big Convoy - He's a really nice figure all around. His Bot mode is menacing and his alt mode is just really nice.
I guess when I see "Beast Era" I'm thinking toys explicitly released between 1996 and 2001 and used in any of the beast lines Beast Wars, BWII, BW Neo, and Beast Machines. I also only listed toys from the above lines that I like, which makes my list even shorter.
Magmatron is not a Japanese exclusive. That figure was actually released in the U.S. as part of the Dinobots subline for Beast Machines. It was labeled as a Maximal on the box but otherwise was unchanged from the Japanese version. I did explain in my first post the different categories you could use. If you're going for vehicles only there's nothing in that limiting you to those toy lines. That's an entirely different category all together. Anything after 2001 (with the exception of the 10th Anniversary toy line) is what I refer to as "Pseudo Beast Era" figures. They're figures which are obviously made to homage that era but were never actually released as part of that era. Or in some cases are literally beast era figures that were repainted and reused for other toy lines long after that era ended. Top Ten American Beast Era toys. (This would include everything except the Japanese toys.) Considering I've already posted several lists that don't include any Japanese toys. (mostly because I had to cut them due to lack of space.) there's really no point in me filling this one out. I basically already did so I'm skipping this one.
Top 15 'cause I'm a rebel. 1. Sky Shadow 2. Transmetal Tarantulas 3. Transmetal Megatron 4. Transquito 5. Transmetal Optimus Primal 6. Quickstrike 7. Inferno 8. Dinobot 9. Rampage 10. Megatron (without the custom paint it wouldn't have made the list) 11. Longrack 12. Big Convoy 13. Jetstorm 14. Transmetal Terrorsaur 15. Manterror
I'm mixing American and Japanese BW in my list. In no particular order... 1. TM Optimus Primal 2. TM Tarantulas 3. TM Cheetor 4. TM Megatron 5. Silverbolt 6. Lio Convoy 7. Magmatron 8. Dirgegun/Thrustor/Max B/Hellscream (yes, I'm cheating, but I can't decide which to put here) 9. Depth Charge 10. Saberback Honorable mention: Clawjaw, Tigatron, Rampage, Jawbreaker, Ramulus, TM2 Megatron, Cohrada I must be one of the few people who don't really like Optimal Optimus
