Beast Machines: Transformers (franchise)

Generation 1 continuity family « Beast Machines » Toyline Cartoon Commercials

Beast Machines was a followup franchise to the very successful Beast Wars. Running from 1999 to 2000, its marquee characters were mainly Beast Wars stars, and the associated fiction directly followed the storyline of the Beast Wars cartoon.

Beast Machines featured a distinctive visual style in both its toys and its television series. The cartoon was darker and grittier than its more lighthearted predecessor, and it introduced controversial new elements such as Cybertron's organic core and a more spiritual approach to transformation. It also marked the return of fully-mechanical Transformers in the form of its antagonist faction, the Vehicons.

The Beast Machines franchise featured the following primary components:

• A toyline
• A cartoon series

The Beast Machines continuity would be picked up by the 2003 Universe franchise, which featured a comic series that used the world of the Beast Machines cartoon as its jumping-off point.

Beast Wars Returns

File:BeastWarsReturnsLogo01.jpg

Beast Machines was not released in Japan until 2004, when Takara imported a dubbed version of the television series and some of the toyline as Beast Wars Returns.

The Beast Wars Returns release was far more low-key than the also-imported Beast Wars and Beast Wars Metals. The Beast Wars Returns toys were limited to Toys"R"Us exclusive releases, and the cartoon was aired only on a satellite station. It was also the first Transformers cartoon re-aired in Japan without an all-new theme song.

Notes

Someone spent like five whole minutes on that logo.

• The working name for the line was "Beast Hunters" before it became "Beast Machines." A FoxKids press release said the following about it:

BEAST HUNTERS, the next evolution of the popular Beast Wars franchise, continue their fight against the evil dragon Megatron and his hordes of Predacons in 13 all-new episodes with cutting edge computer animation, action, adventure and humor, produced by Mainframe Entertainment."Fox Kids Fall Press Release" from alt.toys.transformers on February 10, 1999

Ultimately, Mainframe dropped both the Predacons and the humor!

• Since the first episode was aired five months after the press release, in an advance screening at BotCon 1999, the name change to Beast Machines seems to have been a late decision.