Beast Wars: Transformers (toyline)
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Easily the most radical move ever made by Hasbro in Transformers history, Beast Wars: Transformers abandoned over a decade's worth of familiar trappings, to drastically re-work the franchise in order to save it from a second (and likely final) cancellation. Now the robots in disguise turned into organic animals. The classic factions were even replaced with the new Maximals and Predacons.
The initial reaction from the early online fandom was less than welcoming. The reaction from the far larger kid market, however, was strong sales the likes Transformers hadn't seen in a long time. Backed by a CGI-animated cartoon, Beast Wars basically saved Transformers, and has become a beloved piece of the line's history.
Overview
With sales of the Generation 2 toyline proving unremarkable, Hasbro faced a choice: end the Transformers brand for a second time, or drastically revamp the concept. They chose the second option, handing the reigns over to their newly-acquired Kenner division.
While beast-mode Transformers had been around since day one, those were robotic beasts. Beast Wars characters took on the appearance of fully-organic creatures, which also affected their robot-mode looks: while there were "metal" parts, the designs were much more rounded and organic in shape if not texture. Faces tended towards the bestial or just straight-up inhuman, even moreso with the first year toys's secondary "Mutant Heads".
The old factions were replaced with Maximals and Predacons, with new faction symbols, though Hasbro/Kenner weren't prepared to completely abandon everything classic: the new factions were led by new iterations of Optimus and Megatron, though their appearances were heavily altered. "Transformers" was still part of the toyline's title, but it was shrunk down and placed below the huge, jagged "Beast Wars" logo. The packaging too was distinctly organic, with red scaly skin as the backdrop, and a massive reptilian eye under the bubble for carded figures. The initial waves even used a craggy, rock-like plastic bubble, though that was quickly replaced by a more normal rounded bubble.
While these aesthetic changes were initially shocking to fans used to the classic series, the line had many features that got fans to warm up to it in short order.
Beast Wars took the popular features of a handful of Generation 2 toys and made them standards across the entire line. Heavy use of ball joints gave the figures unprecedented degrees of articulation, often greater than that of the "normal" non-transforming action figures of the time. Robot-mode weapons were either part of the toy's alternate mode, or at least stored inside them rather than needing to be set aside (and more easily lost). Both of these features would become standards for basically every Transformers line to follow.
Another now-ubiquitous line-wide move was the introduction of a standard system of price points, dictated by a toy's size, not its gimmicks. Beast Wars began with $5 "Basics", $10 "Deluxes", $15 "Megas", and $20 "Ultras", each size class getting physically larger, and packing more and more play features into the toy. (Ultra-class Optimus Primal is friggin' loaded with stuff.) Though prices would fluctuate over the years due to inflation or rising production costs, the basic outline of the system continues to be used today.
Beast Wars was an undeniable success, routinely making high sales marks through most of its life, according to toy magazines like Tomart's (remember when print magazines existed about this hobby?). It typically hovered in the top five best-selling toy lines each month, mostly bested by the newly-revived Star Wars line, the still-strong Power Rangers and the massive rise of toys based on professional wrestling, occasionally popping into the top three places. In fact, when Hasbro elected to revamp the franchise before it could go stale, leading to the direct-sequel, same-main-cast-having Beast Machines toyline, they also kept Beast Wars around in a smaller capacity, with a handful of new products and some recolors of classic characters.
Hasbro Beast Wars toyline
1996
The first year of the line was a shocker to fans, both for its drastic aesthetic change from what came before, and its technical/design changes that gave the toys far more play value. Basic-class toys all have a spring-loaded one-step autotransformation. Deluxe and larger toys all have a secondary "Mutant Head" to change their robot-mode appearance.
Basic class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 |
Deluxe class
| Comic 2-pack
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Wave 1 | Wave 1.5 | Wave 2 |  | ||||
| Wave 3 |
Mega class
- Wave 1
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Ultra class
- Wave 1
- Onyx Primal
- Onyx Primal (Dealer exclusive)
- Airazor
- Razorclaw
- Claw Jaw
- Drill Bit
- Lazorbeak
- Powerpinch
- Snarl
- Spittor
- Cybershark
- Jetstorm
- Bonecrusher
- Manterror
- Grimlock
- K-9
- Retrax
- Inferno
- B'Boom
- Transquito
- Magnaboss
(Ironhide, Prowl, Silverbolt) - Tripredacus
(Cicadacon, Ram Horn, Sea Clamp) - Part of Hasbro's short-lived multi-property micro-play line (before they swallowed Galoob), these slightly-above-Deluxe-size beasts open up into playsets for the micro-figures included.
- Arachnid (w/ Megatron & Razorbeast)
- Orcanoch (w/ Optimus Primal & Tarantulas) Exclusives
Exclusives
| McDonald's | BotCon 1996
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1997
The second year of the line was primarily a refinement of the first, though every class got changed in some broad-strokes way.
The Basic toys dropped the spring-loaded autotransformation in favor of more complex manual conversions. The "Mutant Heads" feature was dropped from the larger size classes (save for the old-mod redecos/retools, of course). Instead of hidden mini-animal partners, this year the Mega class toys had extra "attack modes" that revealed new play gimmicks. The Ultra class toys are not super-huge robots, but teams of three smaller robots who combine into a super-huge robot. (These were also the first new-mold combiner toys (in the US at least) since 1989.)
A new line-wide minor gimmick was added, the "energon chips" which were basically just the old faction symbol rubsigns.
Basic Beasts
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Wave 4
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Deluxe Beasts
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Wave 4
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Mega Beasts
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Ultra Teams
| Wave 1
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| BotCon 1997 |
1998: Fuzors & Transmetals
This year, the line basically split into two sub-groups. The "normal" beasts became Fuzors, robots whose beast modes were mashups of two different animals, leading to some fanciful creatures. Fuzors were limited to the Basic and Deluxe price-points.
The rest of the line was made up of the Transmetals, "Beast Wars turned inside-out": robotic animals with fleshy inner robot parts. Further, the animal modes also had a third pseudo-vehicle form, revealing thrusters or wheels or the like. These modes ended up largely replacing any other gimmicks in the Deluxe-class Transmetals, leaving things like spring-loaded missiles to the larger size classes.
Basic Fuzors
| Wave 1 | Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Deluxe Fuzors
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Deluxe Transmetals
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Mega Transmetals
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Ultra Transmetals
Super Transmetals
VHS packs
| Wave 1
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Wave 2 (European)
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Exclusives
| BJ's Wholesale Club | McDonald's
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BotCon 1998
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1999: Transmetals 2
This year was dominated by the Transmetals 2, where the "beast bits" and "bot bits" ended up in a mangled, monstrous, asymmetrical amalgamation of torn skin and jutting metal blades. The "energon chips" were replaced by spark crystals, colored glass domes with foil-embossed faction symbols inside.
Basic Transmetals 2
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Wave 3
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Deluxe Transmetals 2
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Mega Transmetals 2
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Ultra Transmetals 2
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Fox Kids Deluxe Classics
Celebrating the move to the Fox Kids programming block, a series of special redecos were made available to get classic show characters back on shelves... albeit in some pretty un-show-like coloration. Initial Hasbro solicitations gave the toys "power up"-style descriptors, but these did not make it to their final packaging.
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Exclusives
| Walmart
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BotCon 1999
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2000~2001
Deluxe Beasts
2000's Deluxe assortment featured a mixture of Fox Kids-branded redecoes, with large "NEW!" call-outs, and Mutants, which sported a unique Mutant Beast Wars logo.
| Wave 1 | Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Wave 4
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Exclusives
| Walmart
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BotCon 2000
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BotCon 2001
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Takara Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers toyline
- 1997 — Beast Wars
- 1998 — Beast Wars II
- 1999 — Beast Wars Neo
- 1999–2000 — Beast Wars Metals
Post-Beast Wars releases
While "Generation 1" is the undisputed king of the post-series remake, Beast Wars clocks in at a pretty respectable second place, even having a few mini-lines dedicated to it (even when you discount its direct sequel).
Beast Wars 10th Anniversary (2006)
- Main article: Transformers: Beast Wars 10th Anniversary
Beast Wars Telemocha Series (2007)
- Main article: Transformers: Beast Wars Telemocha Series
- Takara's Telemocha line (a combination of the words "television" and "omocha", the Japanese word for "toy") was much the same as Hasbro's go, being spruced-up versions of the original molds packaged with DVDs of key episodes. However, not only did Takara really slather on the paint, but they made some odd additions to the line, including a couple of characters from Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo, as well as an entirely new Predacon named Wolfang (pronounced "Volfang").
Beast Wars toys in "ensemble" lines
| Timelines
(Axalon Cheetor, Axalon Optimus Primal, Axalon Rattrap, Axalon Rhinox, Darksyde Dinobot) (General Cicadacon, General Ramhorn, General Sea Clamp, Predacon Tarantulas) |
Masterpiece
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Notes
- The early toy-based fictions —the mini-comic from the Optimus/Megatron 2-pack and the early cardback bios— placed the Beast Wars on modern-day Earth, and were a bit cagey as to whether the faction leaders were the old bots rebuilt. This was quickly dropped as the Mainframe cartoon got underway, definitively making this Optimus and Megatron their own bots on a "new" world.
- Beast Wars is the first Hasbro Transformers line to release a female character at standard retail. (Blackarachnia was beaten to overall Western release by Nightracer, a BotCon 1995 exclusive whose characterization was created by the fan-organizer of the event.)
- At some point during the planning for the Telemocha Series, the idea was tossed around to create some brand-new toys for the line. Internal TakaraTomy documents include designs for a jellyfish, a manticore, and a Triffid. The latter was eventually characterized as "Flytrap".
Foreign names
- French: Ani Mutants (France), Guerre Bêtes (Canada)
- Italian: Biocombat
- Spanish: Guerra Bestias (America)
