Beast Machines: Transformers (franchise)
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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:
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
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.
