The Beast Wars Road Map

The Beast Wars Road Map »
Publisher	Fun Publications
Published in	Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club #70
Art	Jesse Wittenrich
Managing editor	Pete Sinclair
Continuity	Transformers 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 Universe. He thanks his local counterpart for taking the time to access his database on events surrounding the "Beast Wars," only for "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, only to be himself interrupted by Airazor, who has noticed something off in the distance...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals / Autobots
Legends Rhinox (1) TransTech Rhinox (2) Rattrap (3) Airazor (4)

Notes

• Characters mentioned include: Alpha Trion and Skids.

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.
  • Multiple timelines split off of the Beast Wars cartoon and feed into the Beast Machines cartoon, including:

Continuity notes

• As the Shrouding hasn't completely cut off Axiom Nexus from the rest of the multiverse, the comic must take place some time 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 Universe all the time; he's been seen doing this a few times with his 10.2 ultra-drill in the Transformers Legends comic strips when this was published, bringing over Ultra Magnus in his Transformers 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 Universe from dimensional travelers in his toy's pack-in comic.

Other trivia

• To remind you that the Legends Universe 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.