Um... maybe you should blame Marv Wolfman as he is the one who wrote the entire storyline, Skir and Co. just wrote the individual episode plots.

 

I liked BM a lot. It has a very "grown up" feeling to it that no other series has yet to have.

 

When are people gonna learn? You can't beat DeepDiscountDVD.com. Only $35.88 for Beast Machines. Granted, that's not alot cheaper than you paid. But it's been that price since the release. No need to wait til it hits overstock.com. I'd bookmark that site. I get all my DVDs from them.

 

I wish that Transtech would've happened. I really feel like there was more to tell after Beast Machines.

 

Beast Machines, to date is still my second fave TF series after Beast Wars. It was very different, but it was possibly the deepest, most philosophical TF series. Racism, genocide, religious obssesion, etc. Crazy shit.

 

Ya I'm definitely in the same boat. Never minded Beast Machines to begin with but always felt it was never the worthy followup Beast Wars deserved, but mostly because I was a ******ed BW fanboy at the time   However after the string of crap we got afterwords I've definitely gained a far greater appreciation for the show now since when I first watched it all so many years ago. Today I really put it almost on the same level as BW, there different types of shows so its really hard to put the two side by side, and BM still may not be BW true successor but its still an awesome addition to the TF universe.

That and Jetstorm just fucking rules  

 

They really need to go back to having americans/canadians writing tf's

They can have it animated in Japan, but the writing needs to be done by western writers.

Also the voice acting seems to better if it's done before the animation.

I'd love to see a new series that has a g1/bw crossover

 

I shop there too, but in this case I paid less after you factor in shipping.

 

I agree, however, I disagree about the animation being done in Japan. Hasbro needs to go back to having Mainframe to the TF series as the CGI in BW and BM are vastly superior to anything afterwards.

Fairy, DDD is automatically free shipping.

 

:Transformers Prority Brakedown:

G1- (early) Make a Japanese Toy line appial to the US, in the form of sub-pare Cartoon. (age range 7-10)
(G1 later seasons)- continue selling toys with said Minorly improved Cartoon (AR 7- 12)

BW- (Early) Make a Show about Beast Transformers to sell their Toys based on said Characters in said show. (AR 6-9)
(season 2-3) Make Show and have toys looks about 98% simular create character depth and try to tie into past Transformer Franchise (aka G1) (AR 8- 13)

BM- (complete show) Take TF franchise and take the story a step further, challenger viewers intelligence and understanding, priority was Story NOT Toys, Toys where designed after Concepts, and animation scrapt designs for a new set and didnt tell Toy Designers. (AR 13- colledge students) *aka WAY above 93% of previous TF fans IQ's*

-Death threats to Company/Story staff, Staff Fired, new Writing Staff brought in-

RID- (filler) Japanese Kids show (aka pokemon) translated, Show designed to sell some new Molds and MANY repaints, LOT of repaints. (AR 6- 10)

Armada- (whole thing) Gimmicks, Gimmicks and More Gimmicks. Story is to Toys as Toys where to Show (crappy) (AR 4-7)

Energon- (Armada season 2) Modify Gimmick concept, add more with some old
thrown in, Add old Movie Villian for Nostolgia (story B, Toys A-) (AR 7-12)

Cybertron- (Energon season 2) Take preivious Gimmicks and add more, run off of old Story line, Improve SOME Toy Concepts, (Toys- A, Story- B+) (AR 11- 15)

Movie- YET TO BE DETERMINED

CLassics- YET TO BE DETERMINED

 

I liked Beast Machines. It was neato. It actually got me back into Transformers.

 

You're evil.
And probably right.

 

While BM did kinda kill a lot of the cool stuff about BW, it kept some of the best elements (having true need to transform- something that only BW and BM really had) and did have a pretty cool story. I liked how it was darker than usual, since the constant human-kid enforced happiness and teamwork gets tiresome after several hundred episodes. I think my main complaint with the show is the toys. Hell, just the character designs even, none of the maximal designs made me want to buy the toys at all. The Vehicons worked, and I've got a few of them, but that's it.

 

Beast Machines? What the....

Oh! Right. Beast Machines. Great show, but it wasn't Transformers.

 

Yeah, the whole "two warring factions of transforming robots led by an Optimus and a Megatron on the planet of Cybertron" thing threw me off too.

 

I have the box set, but haven't watched it yet. I'm curious to see how I feel about it now.

I really liked it back in the day. I hadn't watched most of Beast Wars (the first ep I saw as the one about killer flatulence, and it turned me off for some time), but I had gotten back into collecting the toys.

Most of the issues fans seemed to have problems with - inconsistent characterization, no "real" transformations, innaccurate character models - didn't bother me a bit because I had missed BW. Even now I have little problem with the change in characterization, as the characters often seem to have slight personality changes when they change their bodies (for pretty much all the series).

 

Beast Machines had more depth to it than any other TFs series so far. We had some really rather hard hitting and extremely dark storylines coming into play:
-Primal's religious fanaticism
-Cheetor's dilemmas about having to relieve Primal, his idol for along time,l of his command;
-Rhinox's insanity due to Megatron's brutalising of his spark;
-Megatron's "Final Solution" (pretty much global genocide);
-Obsidian & Strika willingly working for Megatron because his ideals (twisted and evil as they were) coincided with their core programming;
-Silverbolt's utter corruption (leading to easily the best villain we've probably EVER had in a TF show);
-Rattrap's initial descent from a resourceful and capable character into someone who was figuratively and physically ruined, and his gradual coming to terms with it;
-Savage/Noble, probably the most unique character I've seen in a TF show;
The list just goes on.
The writing was top notch; the dialogue superb. Jetstorm's one-liners stand out by far ("Your situation exactly matches your location - TERMINAL!" Priceless. Not to mention his Pokemon dig, an all time classic), and the characterisation of a group of people who thought they had won having their entire lives turned inside out was excellently done. The action scenes were brilliantly staged.
Of course, it has it's downpoints:
-The notion of TFs COMING to Cybertron;
-"I Am Transformed!" (SO glad they dropped that);
-Having to LEARN how to transform;
-The "organic Cybertron" ending;
-Nightscream's extreme DiCaprio-ness;
But despite these things, Beast Machines remains the most unique, challenging and thought-provoking Transformers series that has ever been made.
In today's climate of dumbing cartoons down as much as possible, I doubt we will ever see its like again. And personally, I find that a great shame.

 

I can beat that price, by a long shot. I paid less than $35.88 for BM, BWS2, AND BWS3--COMBINED--by buying them pre-owned between CD Warehouse and MovieStop.

BWS3 cost me $12.99 (+tax)
BWS2 was priced at $9.99, but after trade-in it was FREE!
BM was priced at $14.99, but after trade-in it was about $7 (including tax).

I also bought all my TFG1 box sets pre-owned for what amounted to about 65% off retail.

And if anyone says they can beat these prices, they're either lying or they got their box sets as gifts.

Pre-owned, my friends, is the way to go. And I always inspect before purchase and have not had to sacrifice any quality by buying used. Heck, even the bonus print insert materials were all included.

I do not, however, recommend buying pre-owned online. There's no way to inspect your product prior to purchase. And you could be getting bootleg crap for all you know.

 

I just re-watched the whole series for the first time (my DVD set just arrived the other day) , and yeah, it was a really enjoyable show. Only part that bugged me was the ending- that last little bit felt really, really rushed.
Like Draven said, its a shame, but we'll probably never see a TF show like that again.

Edit- something else that struck me while watching it: having watched all the G1 episodes on DVD for the first time since they aired between now and when BMs was initially on TV, I'm amazed at how much cartoon fanwank they worked in there. The key to Vector Sigma from the "the Key to Vector Sigma", the plasma energy chamber from "Rebirth", the organic stuff predating the TFs from "Dweller in the Depths" (the Trans-organics), the Autobot city of Iacon from "MTMtE", and several other little things I can't think of at the moment.

 

Essentially, what the G1 fanbase is looking for, and has never really ever gotten in the cartoon iteration of the series, was BM's relative tone, characterization and sophistication, but using G1 characters. The G1 cartoon series was good for its time, but the plots were calibrated against kids' interests, not adults. So that's why it appears to pale in comparison.