Beast Wars: Transformers (toyline)

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With sales of the Generation 2 toyline proving unremarkable by 1995, Hasbro faced a choice: end the Transformers brand for a second time, or completely revamp the concept. They chose the second option, and Beast Wars: Transformers was the result. The toys were initially developed and distributed by Hasbro's Kenner division, but with the massive success of Beast Wars, the parent company eventually reclaimed control of the brand. Beast Wars packaging was branded "Kenner" until the 1998 Transmetals 2 packaging sported "Hasbro" logos again. The European multilingual packaging variants already shifted back to "Hasbro" with the Fuzors and Transmetals.

The new franchise consisted entirely of robots who transformed into beasts: insects, mammals, and more. The traditional factions of Autobot and Decepticon were replaced with heroic Maximals and evil Predacons. Most radically, the beast modes were intended to represent fully natural and organic animals, as opposed to the "mechanical beasts" represented by the likes of Generation 1's Dinobots and Terrorcons.

In the beginning, came the beasts, and all that creeps, crawls and flies. But nature lies, they're robots in disguise!
Transmetals! They're extreme!
Transmetals 2! They're extremely extreme!

The Beast Wars toyline brought poseability to full fruition. Whereas Generation 2 marketed a handful of toys as "super poseable", Beast Wars made it standard for virtually every toy. Heavy use of ball joints gave the figures unprecedented degrees of freedom — often greater than that of a normal, non-transforming action figure. Poseability — a rarity in the days of G1 — became commonplace and expected after Beast Wars.

Concealed parts and weapons also became standard during Beast Wars. Again, Generation 2 had introduced a number of toys whose kibble had a place to store when not in use, but it was Beast Wars that made it a universal feature.

Beast Wars also introduced a standardized system of price points to Transformers: $5 Basics, $10 Deluxes, $15 Megas, and $20 Ultras. The price for Basics eventually rose to $7, but the system remained largely unaltered through the end of Beast Machines. Portions of the system continue to be used today (the Basics were "Scouts" during Cybertron, and the Mega has been replaced with the $20, slightly-larger "Voyager".) A rarely-seen, extra-large Super class was introduced with the Optimal Optimus toy in 1998.

The toyline evolved over its three and a half year run. 1996–97 featured purely-organic beasts exclusively. 1998 was dominated by two sublines: Fuzors, whose beast modes combined aspects of two different animals, and Transmetals, which featured metallic-finished chrome and sleekly mechanical beast modes. In 1999, the Transmetals 2 were the primary offering, featuring asymmetrical and often bizarrely patchwork fusions of mechanical and organic in both modes.

Beast Wars largely ended as a toyline when Hasbro elected to revamp the franchise and re-introduce vehicular Transformers, leading to the Beast Machines toyline. Though a new franchise, Beast Machines continued many aspects of the Beast Wars toyline including a number of major characters, the Maximal faction, and beast forms that combined mechanical and organic aspects. Furthermore, the Beast Wars title would continue to grace sporadic toys such as store exclusives, convention exclusives, a 10th anniversary line in 2006, and another 10th anniversary line for Japan in 2007.

1996

Basic Beasts

File:Rattrapbeastwarsbasic.jpg
Rattrap

Wave 1

Wave 2

Deluxe Beasts

File:BeastWars Dinobot 1996 toy.jpg
Dinobot

Wave 1

Wave 2

Wave 3

Mega Beasts

Ultra Beasts

Ultra-class Megatron. In 1996, this was seriously the most complex Transformer ever.

Comic 2-Pack

Exclusives

Manta Ray

McDonald's Happy Meal

BotCon 1996

1997

Basic Beasts

File:Airazorbwtoy1.jpg
Airazor

Wave 1

Wave 2

Wave 3

Wave 4

Deluxe Beasts

File:BWBantorToy.jpg
Bantor

Wave 1

Wave 2

Wave 3

Wave 4

Mega Beasts

Inferno

Wave 1

Wave 2

Wave 3

Ultra Teams

File:Magnaboss-bw-toy.jpg
Magnaboss

MicroVerse

Exclusives

BotCon 1997

1998

Basic Fuzors

Quickstrike

Wave 1

Wave 2

Wave 3

Deluxe Fuzors

Torca

Wave 1

Wave 2

Wave 3

  • Torca (orca whale/elephant Fuzor)

Deluxe Transmetals

File:Transmetal rhinox toy.jpg
Transmetal Rhinox

Wave 1

Wave 2

Wave 3

File:BW Megatron Transmetal.jpg
Transmetal Megatron

Mega Transmetals

Wave 1

Wave 2

Ultra Transmetals

Rampage

Super Transmetals

VHS packs

Regular

European exclusive

  • Claw Jaw ("Transmetal" Humboldt squid)
  • Spittor ("Transmetal" poison arrow frog)
These two VHS packs featured English/German/Italian trilingual packaging (a unique combination for the line), although it's unknown if they actually saw release outside the United Kingdom.

Exclusives

BJ's Wholesale Club

These two-packs include 1996 Deluxe Beasts, identical to their original releases. The two carded toys are joined together by a larger piece of cardboard.
McDinobot. Not to be confused with MG-Dinobot.

McDonald's Happy Meal

BotCon 1998

1999

Basic Transmetals 2

Transmetal 2 Spittor

Wave 1

Wave 2

Wave 3

Deluxe Transmetals 2

Ramulus

Wave 1

Wave 2

Wave 3

Mega Transmetals 2

Wave 1

Wave 2

Ultra Transmetals 2

File:BWdragonmegs toy.jpg
Transmetal 2 Megatron

Wave 1

Wave 2

Fox Kids Tarantulas

Fox Kids Deluxe Classics

Wave 1

Wave 2

Initial Hasbro solicitations gave the toys in the Fox Kids assortment "power up"-style descriptors, but these did not make it to their final packaging.

Exclusives

Walmart

BotCon 1999

2000

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.
File:Rattrap transmetal2000.jpg
Fox Kids Rattrap
Mutant Razor Claw

Wave 1

  • Rattrap (Transmetal rat, Fox Kids redeco)
  • Rhinox (Transmetal rhinoceros, Fox Kids redeco)

Wave 2

Wave 3

Wave 4

Exclusives

BotCon 2000

2001

File:TripredacusAgent toy.jpg
Tripredacus Agent (Ravage)

Exclusives

Walmart

BotCon 2001

Innovations and lasting effects

  • Beast Wars made ball joints, first used on a wider scale by the Generation 2 Cyberjets, a regular feature of Transformers toys.
  • Beast Wars was also the first toy line to commonly integrate the robots' weapons and accessories into the alternate mode, thus avoiding extraneous kibble (in the original meaning of the term) and/or obvious attached weapons and accessories.
  • As noted above, Beast Wars finally established standardized size classes/price points and multiple assorted waves of the same price point per year.
  • Furthermore, Beast Wars made redecos and retools of toys from previous waves a lot more prevalent than had been the case in previous lines.
  • Lastly, Beast Wars packaging introduced the use of twist ties, to the anger of a lot of fans.

Notes

Foreign names

  • French: Ani Mutants (France), Guerre Bêtes (Canada)
  • Italian: Biocombat
  • Spanish: Guerra Bestias (America)
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