Master the Beast
The Master the Beast Sweepstakes was a giveaway contest sponsored by Fox Kids and Mainframe Entertainment. It ran from September 13 to October 1, 1999 and was only open to legal residents of the United States. If changing into a Beast Machine sounded cool to you, you could enter the sweepstakes by watching Fox Kids and then writing down your favorite character with your name and address and sending it to the contest post office box. The grand prize winner received a trip for four, valued at $6,200 USD, to Vancouver to visit Mainframe's studios, their face on a Beast Machines poster and "lots" of Beast Wars and Beast Machines toys. One thousand other winners received a Beast Machines action figure.
Notes
[edit]- The toy featured as the consolation prize in the television ad was the basic class figure Buzzsaw. The contest rules state an approximate retail value of the figure at $6.99 USD. While it's unknown exactly which figure or figures were sent to the winners, it's probably safe to say it would have been a basic class figure.
- The contest rules also clarify, somewhat, what "lots of Beast Wars and Beast Machines toys" means. They state that the grand prize winner will receive the "entire line of Hasbro's Beast Machines and Beast Wars toys" totaling 56 toys in all. Since Beast Wars on it's own had more than 56 toys by the time of the contest, it's not possible that the winner got the entire line. Fifty-six does, however, equal the total number of Beast Wars and Beast Machines toys released at US retail in 1998 and 1999. This includes the Beast Wars VHS pack-ins and the Wal-Mart exclusive Transmetal Rattrap. This also lines up when looking at the estimated retail cost of the toys, "approximately $600". In the two aforementioned years there were 17 basics (including the VHS packs) at $6.99 each, 27 deluxes at $9.99 each, 7 megas at $14.99 each, 4 ultras at $19.99 each, and 1 super (Optimal Optimus) at $29.99. This equals $118.83 + $269.73 + $104.93 + $79.96 + $29.99 = $603.44.