Fox Kids

Ah, halycon days...

During the 1999-2000 television season in the United States, the Beast Wars cartoon was rebroadcast on the Fox Broadcasting network alongside the first season of Beast Machines. In conjunction with these reruns, Hasbro released a few waves of redecoed Beast Wars toys with the Fox Kids logo on the packaging; hence, these toys have become known as "Fox Kids redecoes" (or more commonly but less correctly, "Fox Kids repaints") among collectors.

Fox Kids would later go on to air the Robots in Disguise cartoon in 2001-2002.

Censorship

The Beast Wars episodes aired on Fox Kids were conspicuously re-edited to remove sequences of graphic and not-so-graphic violence. These edits often took the form of a relatively slow and extremely obvious onscreen fade-to-black; during a prolonged fight scene, several such fades could occur in quick succession. Sequences edited out for Fox Kids broadcast include:

• Tarantulas being impaled by Optimus Primal in "Gorilla Warfare".
• Cheetor being brutally pummeled by Blackarachnia in "The Spark".
• Tarantulas being set on fire by Inferno in "Other Voices, Part 2".
• Silverbolt being headbutted by Blackarachnia in "Proving Grounds".

Though the RID cartoon, adapted from Car Robots, had always been lighter fare than Beast Wars, it too was edited for violent content on Fox Kids. In particular, depictions of characters (especially Autobots) firing missiles or other projectile weapons would be removed. In such cases the cuts were handled much more smoothly and unobtrusively than had been the case with the Beast Wars edits. On one occasion, a sequence of Optimus Prime firing missiles in "Bullet Train to the Rescue" was replaced by a segment of Side Burn's transformation stock footage and an altered voiceover track, making it appear that Side Burn's optical "lens flare" pose had been used as a weapon instead.

In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Fox Kids was leery of cartoon imagery of skyscrapers being bombarded. Several RID episodes were canceled altogether, others never re-aired again, and many significantly edited to remove the offending sequences.

Toys

The following deluxe toys were redecos released in an effort to promote Beast War's rerun on Fox Kids

1999

Maximals

• Cheetor (Cheetah)
• Cheetor (Transmetal Cheetah)
• Dinobot (Velociraptor)
• Rhinox (Rhinoceros)

Predacons

• Tarantulas (Transmetal Tarantula)
• Waspinator (Hornet)

2000

Maximals

• Airazor (Transmetal Falcon)
• Rattrap (Transmetal Rat)
• Rhinox (Transmetal Rhinoceros)

Predacons

• Waspinator (Transmetal Hornet)

The Fox Kids redecos seem to have originated as various "power-ups" for the character they represented. For example, the product listings for Dinobot's Fox Kids redeco named him "Live Wire Dinobot," and Waspinator's first Fox Kids redeco was similarly listed as "Power Flight Waspinator." Although Tarantulas's redeco was represented in-fiction as a Vok-empowered state, none of the other redecos were attempted to be worked into stories, as a powered-up version of the character or otherwise.

Notes

Cute, or not cute? You decide.

• Disney bought Fox Kids in 2002 and renamed it Jetix. As such, it is the Jetix logo that appears on all DVD releases of the Robots in Disguise cartoon (so far).