The Beast Wars Road Map

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"The Beast Wars Road Map"
Publisher	Fun Publications
Published in	Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club #70
First published	August 2016
Art	Jesse Wittenrich
Managing editor	Pete Sinclair
Continuity	Legends / TransTech

TransTech Rhinox contacts his Legends double for some information on the multiverse...

Synopsis

With the Shroud making it increasingly difficult for the Transcendent Technomorph to stay in touch with the multiverse, Rhinox turns to one of the few remaining universes that he is still able to contact: the Legends World. He thanks his local counterpart for taking the time to access his database on events surrounding the "Beast Wars" while he still can, but the excited Legends Rhinox to question him over why Axiom Nexus doesn't simply have Alpha Trion open up some gates for them. Legends Rhinox goes off on a tangent, wondering whether Dimensional investigator Skids has isolated them with his "Quantum Keep-Out Seal", only to be politely interrupted by his double. TransTech Rhinox resumes talking about the "Beast Wars", explaining its importance on a multiversal-scale and how many universes "orbit" the main core, only to be himself interrupted by Airazor, who has noticed something off in the distance...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Axalon Trading Company
TransTech Rhinox (2)	Legends Rhinox (1) Rattrap (3) Airazor (4)

Notes

• Characters mentioned include: Alpha Trion, Skids, Larry DiTillio, Bob Forward, Predacus, original Beast Wars bio Optimus Primal, original Beast Wars bio Megatron, Timelines Packrat, IDW 2005 Windblade, Henkei! Henkei! Dinobot, Henkei! Henkei! Cheetor, Air Attack Optimus Primal, Cybertron Sky Shadow, Alpha Quintesson, Prime Leo Prime, Prime Optimus Prime, and Prime Gaia Unicron.

The Road Map

• The Beast Wars Road Map separates continuities using five different methods of classification.
• The first method uses an orange box; this is used only to classify "The Source", a Generation 1 continuity family created by Beast Wars head writers Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward, blended from the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon and the Marvel The Transformers comics.
• The second method covers the main pieces of Beast Era fictions the others branch off of: the Beast Wars: Transformers, Beast Machines: Transformers, Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers, and Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Neo cartoons. They are given large, green-bordered boxes, with the logos for each cartoon within.
• The third method covers timelines that split off of or feed into multiple stories, contained in green boxes. These include:
  • The Marvel The Transformers comic, and the Marvel Transformers: Generation 2 comic, which splits off the "source" timeline and feeds into the Beast Wars cartoon.
  • The Sunbow The Transformers comic, which splits off the main source and feeds into multiple timelines.
  • The various 3H Productions Beast Wars comics, prose stories, and script-reading, most of which were part of the "Reaching the Omega Point" storyline, splitting off from the Sunbow cartoon and dipping into the Beast Wars cartoon.
  • The BotCon 2006 Transformers Timelines comic, "Dawn of Future's Past", a direct prequel to the Beast Wars cartoon. It is fed into by multiple timelines, including the original Sunbow cartoon, the Fun Publications Sunbow-based Transformers: Wings Universe stories, and the BotCon 2016 IDW Publishing Combiner Wars comic, "Dawn of the Predacus".
  • Somewhat confusingly listed amongst these is the Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals video game, splitting off of season 2 of Beast Wars. It loops around based on the various endings of the game, splitting into points both near the beginning of season 2 of Beast Wars and at the end of season 3.
  • Multiple timelines split off of the Beast Wars cartoon and feed into the Beast Machines cartoon, including: the "Primeval Dawn" back-up strips published in 3H Productions' Transformers: The Wreckers comics; "Ain't No Rat", a comic published in Dreamwave Productions' 20th Anniversary Transformers Summer Special; and IDW Publishing's Transformers, Beast Wars: The Gathering and Transformers: Beast Wars: The Ascending comic mini-series.
  • Timelines splitting off of Beast Machines include the 3H Productions Transformers: The Wreckers and Transformers: Universe comics, and the BotCon 2014 Transformers Timelines "Hoist the Flag" comic, part of the Wings Universe timeline.
• The fourth method consists of black boxes with white borders, timelines that branch off of/feed into specific points that aren't connected to at least one of the four cartoons or the main timeline. These include:
  • The original 1996 Beast Wars: Transformers toyline bios, set in the modern day, with Optimus Primal and Megatron being new versions of the original Optimus Prime and Megatron. They lead into the "Optimus Primal vs Megatron!" mini-comic included with the two-pack of Primal and Megatron's Basic-class toys.
  • The Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity family, which is connected to both the Sunbow cartoon and the four Beast Era cartoons on this timeline.
  • The BotCon 2005 Transformers Timelines "Descent into Evil" comic, which leads into the Beast Wars cartoon timeline.
  • The Fun Publications Transformers: Classics timelines, which split off the Marvel comics and into the "Beast Wars Shattered Glass", where Autobot and Decepticon dimensional refugees from the Classics timeline ended up on the prehistoric Earth of the Transformers: Shattered Glass universe, becoming Maximals and Predacons.
  • The Transformers Timelines "Collections" comic featuring Packrat, serving as a prequel to BotCon 2015's "Cybertron's Most Wanted" comic, splitting off of the end of the Beast wars cartoon.
• The fifth type is continuities that don't feed into any other, which orbit around the various cartoons they're based on. Represented with white text, they become more bold the closer they are to the various continuities, while those that are in other continuity families entirely are nearly invisible. These include, in order from brightest to darkest:
  • The various toy bios of the post-1996 Beast Wars: Transformers toyline, the Beast Machines: Transformers toyline bios, and beyond.
  • The 1997 Beast Wars: Transformers video game.
  • The Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers, Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Neo, and Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals mangas.
  • The Duel Fight Transformers Beast Wars: Beast Warriors' Strongest Decisive Battle video game.
  • The IDW Publishing Transformers: Beast Wars Sourcebook.
  • The 2005 IDW Generation 1 continuity. Specifically listed are "MTMTE" (The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye), "EXRID" (The Transformers: Robots in Disguise, later retitled The Transformers, which was given the name "Ex-RID" by fans), The Transformers: Windblade, and The Transformers: Sins of the Wreckers. Robots in Disguise featured several Beast Era characters like Rattrap, Waspinator, and Tankor, whom also appeared in More than Meets the Eye during the "Dark Cybertron" crossover. The beast colony planet of Eukaris appeared in Windblade, inhabited by many Beast Wars characters. Sins of the Wreckers featured Tarantulas as the main antagonist, served by the anarchist organization Mayhem, which counted several Beast Wars characters among its members.
  • The Henkei! Henkei! Transformers pack-in mini-comics. Specifically, it mentions volume #11 (included with Dinobot) and volume #8 (included with Cheetor).
  • The IDW Publishing Transformers vs. G.I. Joe comic, which featured a Decepticon version of Blackarachnia in issue #5, and mentioned the Maximal and Predacon inhabitants of Uranus in issue #13.
  • The world of the Transformers Legends gag manga, which features a "dream dimension" inhabited by chibified versions of the Maximals and the Predacons as office workers.
  • The Robotmasters series, which featured several time-traveling Maximals and Predacons appearing in the modern day of the Autobot/Decepticon war in 2004.
  • Transformers: Binaltech and Transformers: Alternity, which feature a version of Optimus Primal as the multiversal hero known as the Protector.
  • The DK Publishing guidebook, Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, which has sections on both Beast Wars and Beast Machines.
  • The Recordicons comic strip published in the Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club magazine, which featured several Beast Wars installments.
  • Transformers Device Label, which had toys of Cheetor and Tigatron.
  • The 2001 Transformers: Robots in Disguise toyline, which featured Air Attack Optimus Primal as a "spirit guide" for Optimus Prime. He would become the Protector seen in Binaltech and Alternity, as detailed by the Facebook incarnation Ask Vector Prime.
  • The Beast Wars of the Unicron Trilogy, including: the Beast Wars mentioned in the Cyber Key Code bio for Transformers: Cybertron for Sky Shadow, which stated that Jetfire got the name for his Decepticon disguise from a Predacon of the same name; the prose story "Fire in the Dark" from the Transformers Legends anthology, a story set in the Transformers: Armada continuity that had a version of the Beast Wars in its past; and the Beast Wars that took place in the realm of Alpha Quintesson, described in a post from the Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime.
  • The Beast Wars of the live-action movies continuity, including: the Beast Wars implied by the Transformers: Movie Prequel, which had a fragment of the Golden Disk as part of the collection of Walter Simmons and Theodore Joseph Wells in issue #2; and the Sector Seven Alternate Reality Game promoting the first movie, which had the Beast Wars as a real event that inspired the Hasbro toyline.
  • The Beast Wars of Transformers Animated, mentioned in the section on the Great War in Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II as taking place on Animatron during the tail end of the conflict.
  • The Japanese Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Prime toyline, specifically mentioning Leo Prime (whose bio revealed he was the dimension-hopping Beast Wars II Maximal leader) and the Optimus Prime & Gaia Unicron two-pack (the bio included with the two-pack described how Leo Prime forged the Gaia Armor from the body of one of Unicron's avatars for Optimus).
• Finally, a line leads off from season 2 of Beast Wars, which leads to "A Change to the Agenda" on the next two pages, telling the supposed origin for the Beast Wars: Uprising universe.

Continuity notes

• As the Shrouding hasn't completely cut off Axiom Nexus from the rest of the multiverse, the comic must take place sometime before "Out of the One, Many" and concurrently with the Rook - Axiom Nexus News: Investigative Journalist and Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News Reporter Facebook pages.
• Rhinox mentions that Alpha Trion opens up dimensional portals for the inhabitants of the Legends World all the time; he's been seen doing this a few times with his 10.2 ultra-drill in the Legends comic strips when this was published, bringing over Ultra Magnus in his Legends toy's pack-in comic, Chromia in the pack-in comic for Blackarachnia, Alexis Thi Dang in the pack-in comic for Armada Starscream Super Mode, and Springer in his toy's pack-in comic. Rhinox also brings up Skids, who attempted to block the Legends World from dimensional travelers in his toy's pack-in comic.

Transformers references

• The icons on Legends Rhinox's computer desktop include: the Hasbro and TakaraTomy logos, the "ancient Autobot" symbol on the forehead of the "Ancient Robot" from The Transformers episode "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4", the standard Autobot symbol, the Cybertronian Knight symbol from "Hoist the Flag", the Beast Wars Maximal symbol (colored red rather than the standard green, as it was depicted on the inversely colored backside of Beast Wars toy packaging), the Earth Defense Command logo from the third season of The Transformers, the TransTech Autobot symbol, a "trash" icon, and the symbol of the Wreckers, introduced in 3H Production's The Wreckers comics.

Other trivia

• To remind you that the Legends World is of Japanese origin, Legends Rhinox addresses TransTech Rhinox as "Rhinox-sensei".
• Writer Jesse Wittenrich contacted Hayato Sakamoto for his approval to use the characters, who called them "cute".

Errors

• "DiTillio" is mispelt "DiTillo"
• A few pieces of Beast Era media are missing, such as "Theft of the Golden Disk", "The Razor's Edge", and Beast Wars Reborn.