As the 21st century dawned full of promise, the Beast era reached its conclusion, and with it the long running continuity that had begun with More than Meets the Eye Part 1 in 1984. The Beast Machines toyline was released in full force, though by the time there was substantial product on the shelves the first season of the cartoon was already finished and the second season was well underway. 2000 also brought the final four releases in the Beast Wars line – the Mutants – and brought back the Dinobots as a subline of the Beast Machines toys. Meanwhile Takara decided to go their own direction, moving away from beasts and instead running with a new series about a group of car robots.
Beast Machines: Transformers opening credits, featuring Phat Planet by Leftfield. Uploaded to Youtube by superspoon21.[/size]
The second season of Beast Machines picked up where season 1 left off, with the aftermath of the unleashing of the Plasma Energy Chamber and the remaining Maximals and Vehicon generals picking up the pieces. Blackarachnia achieved her season long goal of restoring Silverbolt, but far from the goofy, noble character of Beast Wars he was now portrayed as a brooding loner wracked with angst and guilt. Megatron eventually accomplished his goal of purging himself of the organic elements of his own body – he was initially trapped in the body of a fully organic wolf creature, Noble, which could mutate into a dragon form, Savage. However once Megatron manipulated the Maximals into taking him to his new fortress – a huge floating fortress modeled on his head called the Grand Mal – Megatron revealed himself and cast off the organic body, becoming a being of pure spark energy.
The series proceeded through the Sparkwar – a three part arc where Megatron’s goal, to absorb the sparks of all Cybertronians and become unto a god, was revealed, and two new Vehicon generals, Obsidian and Strika, were introduced. The Sparkwar concluded with Noble, who had become sentient in his own right after Megatron left his body, sacrificing himself to save the Maximal Nightscream, and Nightscream using his sonic scream to disrupt Megatron’s spark. Beast Machines then reached its conclusion with Dark Spark and Endgame. The Maximals took over the Grand Mal, but Megatron – now sealed in the body of a diagnostic drone – launched a massive counterattack which saw the Maximals fall one by one. By the conclusion of Endgame Part 2, only Optimus Primal was left standing – facing down against Megatron’s final form, nicknamed “Optimal Megatron”. Optimal Megatron was Optimus Primal’s Optimal Optimus body from Beast Wars, with Megatron firmly in control. The two rivals fought each other in a brutal battle royale in the finale, culminating in Megatron and Optimus Primal plunging into the core of Cybertron. Both Optimus Primal and Megatron died in the process, and Cybertron was reborn as a lush green world, populated by restored Cybertronians who had evolved into a balance of mechanical and organic. The series concluded with Cheetor having one final vision of the ghost of Optimus Primal, turning and departing to rejoin the Allspark.
The finale of Beast Machines was a fitting ending to the series and its themes, though throughout the series fans complained of the “hippy” overtones, particularly of the way that the Maximals fought their battles with vine bombs and the ending led to a grassy, blue skied Cybertron. However, the finale of the series delivered an ending in keeping with the themes of the series, and one of the best showdowns between an Optimus and a Megatron since the fatal showdown of the original Optimus Prime and Megatron in 1986. It goes to prove how divisive the series was – sadly, some fans stooped as low as sending death threats to the writer, Bob Skir, revealing an ugly side to the Transformers fandom that took their cartoon robots far too seriously.
A selection of the Beast Machines toys from 2000, including Maximals Blackarachnia and Silverbolt, Night Viper, Longhorn and Skydive. The Vehicons shown are the Ultra class Jetstorm, plus Thrust and Obsidian.[/size]
Sadly the Beast Machines toyline was as divisive as its cartoon. The first assortment of toys for the Basic, Deluxe and Mega classes came out in late 1999, but the second assortment would not arrive until over three months later, leading to some toys clogging shelves (particularly the Deluxe assortment, which only had two toys per case of 8 in it, Jetstorm and Optimus Primal). By the time many toys were on shelves, the show was already mostly over. The toyline was notable for the inaccuracy of its show characters – Nightscream, one of the smallest Maximals, got one of the two Ultra class toys, while Silverbolt who in the show stood eye-to-eye with Blackarachnia ended up with a Basic class toy that barely stood higher than the Blackarachnia toy’s thigh. Decos were also inaccurate, with the aforementioned Silverbolt being a particularly notable offender. Individual character art was also dropped from the packaging, in favor of one piece of artwork of Cheetor on all boxes and cardbacks.
For all the complaints though there was a lot of good in the Beast Machines line. The Vehicons were a welcome return to vehicular Transformers, and mostly had a nice high-tech, futuristic look, with releases like Tankor, Scavenger, Mirage and both Deluxe and Ultra class versions Jetstorm all standing out as excellent offerings. While the initial Maximals were weaker releases, later ones included Night Viper, a snake transformer, Skydive the pterodactyl, Snarl the lion, and a particularly good arachnid in then form of the latest iteration of Blackarachnia.
The largest size class in the Beast era also debuted in 2000. The Supreme class was conceived as a price point above Super class, to offer larger and more intricate designs. The first release in this new size class was a version of Beast Machines Cheetor the size of a housecat – unfortunately this proved to be unpopular and low sales of Supreme Cheetors led to a second Supreme class toy based on Optimus Primal being cancelled.
The initial four Deluxe class Dinobots, Triceradon, Airraptor, Dinotron and Striker[/size]
Two sublines were released in 2000 alongside the Beast Machines line. The first, in Beast Machines styled packaging, were the Dinobots – an assortment of four Deluxe class and an Ultra class toy. The Ultra class was T-Wrecks, a redeco of the original Beast Wars Ultra class Megatron, while the Deluxes were four of the Deluxe sized releases from the Beast Wars Neo line, making their US debut. The four were Archadis, Guiledart, Saberback and Hardhead, redecoed and renamed as Airraptor, Triceradon, Striker and Dinotron respectively. These were popular releases, particularly for those craving more “realistic” beasts or those who did not have the means to buy the Beast Wars Neo releases the year before. The four Deluxes began shipping in March, and shared case assortments with the Beast Machines Optimus Primal and Jetstorm Deluxes, thinning out their numbers on the shelves a little. Two more Deluxes – Rapticon and Tyrannotron – were added later in the sub assortment, these were redecos of Beast Wars Transmetal Terrorsaur and Transmetal 2 Dinobot, respectively. A store exclusive release for Magmatron – complete with Japanese text on his box – rounded out the assortment.
The Mutant Beast Wars series, who shifted between two different beast modes. The four were Icebird, Soundwave, Razor Claw and Poison Bite. Soundwave, center, demonstrates the “concealed robot parts” feature of the toys.[/size]
The other subline was an assortment of four Beast Wars toys, the final four to be released. They were the Mutant Beast Wars – rather than having robot modes, the toys could convert between two different beast modes. For example, Soundwave in this assortment was a bat which turned into an alligator. The four sported hidden compartments which could be opened to reveal the robot’s heads or other mechanical detailing “to reveal the robot trapped within”. The idea was quirky, but was panned by fans who did not recognize Transformers without robot modes as true Transformers – the fact they started out life as unreleased toys from the 1999 Animorphs line, which Kenner and the Transformers team had also had a hand in, probably did not help matters.
Transformers Car Robots opening credits. These opening credits featured a mix of CGI and cel animation for the robots, while the episodes themselves were almost 100% cel animated. Uploaded to Youtube by walruslaw[/size]
Japan, after the poor performance of Beast Wars Neo and Beast Wars Metals, moved away from beasts and launched a complete new series and accompanying toyline called Transformers Car Robots. In many ways, the lighter style of the series and its reliance on anime tropes including flashy attacks and stock footage combined sequences made it a spiritual successor to Transformers Victory. While Beast Machines brought back vehicular Transformers in the form of the futuristic Vehicons, Car Robots went one better and brought back realistically styled automotive Transformers. Other than the new villain, Gigatron – who led the “Destrongers”, a pun on the traditional Destron name and stronger – all the villain toys released for this series were reuses of existing molds, both some Transmetal 2s which had not made it to Japan and some older toys brought out once again. The Cybertrons were almost all entirely new molds, again with the exception of the Spychnagers – which were the Generation 2 Gobots redecoed – and Brave Maximus, a new redeco of Fortress Maximus. Unfortunately the line was not a success and led to Transformers going on another sabbatical in Japan, with only occasional reissues to keep the line going. The first of these reissues came out in 2000 to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the Transformers line in Japan – a reissue of the original Convoy / Optimus Prime toy.
Also of note in this year was a Simon Furman penned comic for UK Transformers convention, Transforce 2000. The two page comic, “The Last Days of Optimus Prime”, depicts Optimus Prime far into the future, where he finds he no longer fits into the new era, and quietly slips away into a Valhalla style afterlife called “J’nwan” where he is greeted by Megatron – and assured that “it never ends”. While unofficial and therefore non-canonical, the story does fit into Botcon fiction of the time – which Simon Furman was also involved in writing. It also provides some good closure for Optimus Prime in the original Marvel Comics continuity.
Lastly, an important event in the world of Transformers conventions took place in 2000, with the first UK Transformers convention Auto Assembly held in October 2000. The event was founded by Sven Harvey and run by science fiction fan organization Infinite Frontiers. The first Auto Assembly attracted a modest attendance of 31, but it rapidly grew in attendance in the intervening years and is now the largest European Transformers convention.
That was the year 2000, a year marked by the Transformers brand on both sides of the Pacific hitting a rough patch – a true shame for Japan too where Car Robots was the fifteenth anniversary series and also the last for a while. Beast Machines would carry on into 2001, but a combination of poor distribution of the first waves and poor availability of the toys while the show was on air meant that the series was floundering – ironic, then, that the very Car Robots show that had tanked in Japan in 2000 would be just what Hasbro ordered.
The beast era was ending. In 2001 the world would be reintroduced to the Robots in Disguise and the clash of the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons, with the fate of the Earth hanging in the balance.
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.