Beast Wars! 1995 McDonald’s Toy Document Gives Us a Previously Unseen Look at Early Franchise Develo

Discussion in 'Transformers News and Rumors' started by WindBlade Prime, Dec 28, 2020.

  1. Scaleface

    Scaleface Well-Known Member

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    It looks like early concepts for the series had robots reformatting into different animals and vehicles anyways.
     
  2. Scaleface

    Scaleface Well-Known Member

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    I just realized the Optimus head splits left/right!

    D6D28518-C989-45F3-89BE-97612A2A953F.png
     
  3. RoboticPlanet

    RoboticPlanet Exclusively Exclusive

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    The molds certainly match up, and the 1995 Hasbro/Kenner Toy Fair catalog does reveal a Sgt Hound using that loader mold, so that certainly suggests to me that Hasbro had given McD's some input on the Auto Roller idea. I was hoping to contact a former employee based on other documents I obtained with the presentation binder,to ask questions about how the concepts were developed, but unfortunately no luck making those contacts.
     
  4. Max Tower

    Max Tower Well-Known Member

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    I loved the Mc Donalds Happy Meal Transformers too the 1st wave especially - but imagine if some creative KO maker made a Masterpiece like (or neo-classics) version of them that would be really "delightful" and as they'd be so different by virtue of the enhancements they'd not even be stepping on two many toes legally.

    Though one could likely headcanon that The Manta Ray is a pre-transmetal Depth Charge if you wanted too do so & so get a double homage.

    One other idea that might work is to reimagine the premise with small toys - like basic class - say Pre-Transmetal versions of the Transmetal 2 Basics & Fuzors or even the Mutants as Transmetals.

    It's a bit like those long forgotten ideas shown at Botcon of a Fuzor Optimus Primal, or a Transmetal 1 Blackarachnia. (Some of those had a bit of a dan cougar vibe to them too).

    But there is some merit there is juggle types around to make sequel and prequel character types. - One could even perhasp make a Transmetal 2 Airazor and Transmetal 2 Tigertron and say they are what they are after they are split and resurrected (for example)

    But I don't know will Kingdom be around long enough to inspire people to go all beast themed ?

    I do still dream about that quality Beast machines Silverbolt mould for example - and I'd not even mind to much to see some version of Nightscream that was a bit less weird looking and a more appropriate size (as I was never able to find the downscaled KO)

    A creative KO maker could make a remould of The core robot of Tripredicus as a Megatron I guess. Since the Telemanga reissues never completed the team.
     
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2020
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  5. Verno

    Verno Beast Wars Collector

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    Buzzsaw bio: "My bite is worse than my bark."

    Civil and sophisticated yet very cruel and destructive. Approaches his lethal tasks like a fine artist. Each deadly mission is like working on a new masterpiece. Can pinpoint and photograph a thumbtack from 20 miles away. Flies at 250mph. Carries twin mortar cannons. Diamond-hard, micro-serrated beak can carve up almost any opponent. Due to large ego, will often sulk rather than proceed if his plans go astray.


    Snapper bio: A terrorizing turtle with secret speed! Turbo-driven quad thrusters ignite from below his armor-plated shell to send him screaming through murky earth swamps like a heat-seeking missile! When hydraulically hinged jaws snap down on their victims, the terrifying sight reminds one of a trash compactor crushing a soda can - except soda cans don't scream for mercy!

    So the biting nature of the snapping turtle beast-mode could have been behind the choice of name.
     
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  6. Afterburner

    Afterburner For your health

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    This is a wealth of new information. What fun to see behind the scenes and dream about what could have been. I liked the idea of continuing the original continuity straight up, and even more so in hindsight. That's not to say Beast Wars wasn't great for what it was, it was. But it did start the precedent of rebooting, even if it was in the end not really a reboot (or soft reboot depending on the angle). Which has not led to great things fictionally for our franchise and is a major part of the problem going forward. If the original continuity had simply continued to progress you have to wonder where we would have ended up instead and if it wouldn't have been in a much tighter, much more accessible, much less fractured place.

    Amazing to put into place the Prowl inspiration in Cheetor's head and the dragonfly Megatron inspiration for the Predacon logo.

    I again encourage anyone in the fandom with information like this to share to come forward and share it. Hoarding this information is not only selfish, it's really counter productive to our understanding of our hobby.
     
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  7. Oniconvoy

    Oniconvoy The other black repaint

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    Which original continuity is that? Cartoon? Japanese series? Marvel comics? Ladybird books?

    I can’t imagine what a mess a 45 year old single continuity would be at this point. Such an unwieldy beast would be absolutely impenetrable to new fans, a nightmare of contradictions, and stagnant to innovation.
     
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  8. Afterburner

    Afterburner For your health

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    That's extremely negative, pessimistic, and ignorant of the reality of other successful brands.

    The continuity may have had variations, but they were still one in the end. There was still a flow, there will still many constants. Everything wasn't upended simply to be replaced with what has often times turned out to be worse versions of the same general concept, only to be quickly thrown away again. When you can't decide whether or not your singularities are even singularities any more and end up with sometimes singularities, that tells you there are serious conceptual and fictional problems with your brand.

    It's not unwieldy to have one Universe when done correctly. It just takes planning and discipline. Do you think Star Wars has suffered because it has one main continuity that has continued (and continues to endure)? Other brands find major success in finding ways to continue their story, not just retell it in lesser forms over and over again. The idea that you can't be accessible just because you are continuing a story is not a well thought out argument - even a new story picks up somewhere. New stories have to establish everything just the same as a continuing story could do.

    There is a balance to be had between old and new, but starting from scratch constantly (and in low quality) certainly isn't it. TransFormers is significantly, and I mean significantly held back by it's fiction which at it's best is still mostly supported by old Marvel concepts and profiles anyway. There was definitely a better way forward. Beast Wars was brilliant not to completely go out on it's own, and largely owes it's continuing popularity in the fandom to the fact that it mattered greatly to THE continuity. There is power in that kind of fiction that has now been lost.
     
  9. Oniconvoy

    Oniconvoy The other black repaint

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    Disney gutted 30+ years of Expanded Universe continuity when they took over the Star Wars brand because it had become bloated, unwieldy, self-contradictory, and impenetrable to new fans and creative talent. I loved those stories, but it was the right call for the health of the mythos moving forward.

    Star Trek has done the same with the Kalvinverse. Marvel and DC have had endless reboots and retcons to try to streamline their continuity over the decades. It’s inevitable with a franchise of this time span.
     
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  10. ron8675309

    ron8675309 Exploding Salamander Of Exploding Salamanders

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    I can't look away from four-armed Dragonfly Megs. It's like the Ark of the Covenant.

    It is telling how much this has influenced modern TF product design in that nearly everything at one point was just either Optimus or Megatron. Throw in Bumblebee, Starscream, Grimlock, and Soundwave, and you have the entire modern toy cast. :p 
     
  11. fschuler

    fschuler Post Count Inflated With Hot Air TFW2005 Supporter

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    Just think...we coulda had “TRUKK NOT PUSSY” instead of what we actually got...missed opportunity, IMO...lol...
     
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  12. Verno

    Verno Beast Wars Collector

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    It's obvious now that Kenner (who had been handed the reigns to the Transformers brand by Hasbro) had the initial idea of simply taking G1 characters and putting them in animal bodies. Only later on did this evolve into the Beast Wars we know with it's introduction of new characters.

    Looking at the line-up from 1995/96, it's worth pondering who may have initially been who. Was Wolfang meant to be Hound? Armordillo as Ironhide? Hopefully as more wonderful pieces like these come to light, we may get more revealed, and find out at what point the switch was made.

    Iguanus - Iguanus
    Rattrap -
    Razorbeast -
    Terrorsaur -
    Armordillo -
    Insecticon -
    Snapper - Buzzsaw
    Optimus Primal (Bat) - Optimus Prime
    Megatron (Crocodile) - Megatron

    Dinobot -
    Tarantulas -
    Waspinator -
    Cheetor - Prowl
    Rhinox -
    Wolfang -
    Blackarachnia - Redeco
    Buzz Saw - Redeco
    Tigatron - Redeco

    Polar Claw -
    Scorponok - Shockwave

    Optimus Primal (Gorilla) -
    Megatron (T-Rex) -
     
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  13. SPLIT LIP

    SPLIT LIP Be strong enough to be gentle

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    I find it hilarious that at some point in 95/96 someone at Hasbro was like “nah, too many of the same character, it’ll be too boring” and yet apparently that lesson was not learned by modern Hasbro. :lol 
     
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  14. Primeultra

    Primeultra Well-Known Member

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    No they most certainly were not

    From day one of the franchise transformers Consisted of several different continuities that while based on a single concept still differed from each other in different degrees
    considering Disney dropped Decades of story continuity when they took over I don’t think this was a good example to make
     
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  15. Afterburner

    Afterburner For your health

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    No, the point is exactly what I said it was. It's all still one continuity. That doesn't mean there aren't retcons and the like. Did Star Wars 7-9 tie to 4-6? Yes, that's why the hype was what it was. If it was simply "Star Wars: Armada" and nothing that came before mattered at all, the response would have been appreciably less. This is obvious if you bother to know what drives people to care about something. The Madalorian isn't just popular because it's good. In the end, what cemented Beast Wars status for many is how it tied into what mattered to all of us. Even if G1 was told through many various means and ideas, it's really all working towards the same goal in the end. That's part of any continuity. Rebooting constantly without any ties to what came before, on the other hand, is not.
     
  16. Primeultra

    Primeultra Well-Known Member

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    No the point is Transformers was never just 1 single continuity but several

    We aren’t talking retcons or changes to stories that emerge over years, we are talking about 2 completely different histories that can not be reconciled into a single timeline and both Originating from the very start of the brand

    For a few examples just from the 2 best known Continuities , Autobots /Deceptacon war took place over 9 million years in the G1 cartoon.....In the Marvel comics it was only a few thousand years

    In the Marvel comic the war as started by Megatron, in the cartoon the war started years before Megatron was created

    In the cartoon Optimus was once known as Orion , not so in the marvel comics

    Cartoon Dinobots created on earth 1984, Marvel comics they came from Cybertron on the ark

    And I’m sure I don’t have to mention the huge difference between who and what created the transformers between these two continuities

    These are not retcons but 2 completely different takes on the series that were worked on Independently of each other , by completely different people with out any attempt at working towards the same goal story/continuty wise
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2021
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