I just finished watching the final episode on Beast Wars on youtube tonight and I got to say I thoroughly enjoyed the show. I wanted to thank you all for comments here that convinced me to give the show a shot.
I've only recently gotten back into Transformers and I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed Beast Wars. I was a big fan of Gen 1 when I was a kid, but lost touch with Transformers as I grew up. Back in the late '90's I would see Beast Wars toys in the toys aisle and have to admit the thought of beast mode transformers offered little appeal. I had no interest in the line at the time.
Fast forward to a few years ago when I decided to start picking up a few G1 transformers off ebay to satisfy that little boy still in me. After getting a couple and loving them immensely I started watching old episodes of G1 on the 'net. I was hooked. At the time I was anxiously awaiting the 2007 movie and slowly catching up on all the years that I missed. After seeing the movie my interest was growing and then I got hooked on Transformers Animated (great show by the way and I've collected a good part of the figures by now). After a while I had worked my way through G1 and was caught up on TA episodes so I slowly caught an episode of the more recent Transformers series like Cybertron, Energon, etc. here and there. I wasn't impressed, but I kept seeing people here rave about BW and I finally decided to give it a shot a couple months ago. I must admit at first I was prejudiced against it due to me, at the time, preferring vehicle forms to beast modes. As I watched the early episodes I could see the show was well written and the character development was excellent. As the show tied back more and more to the original G1 show I was hooked. I never thought I would have liked this, but in the end it might be my favorite series ever. Thanks everyone for concvincing me to give BW a shot. It was worth it and who would have known that an old G1 guy would now consider Waspinator to be one of the best Transformer's characters ever.
Since I have completed the series the next best question is should I check out Beast Machines or not?
I'm like you. Maybe I was a little more biased against beast wasrs cause I saw it once in the 90's and was completly turned offto the beast forms.Robots turn into Trucks, not monkeys...et al.
I climbed back in to tf's with the RiD car brothers and never looke back... until I read about what a great show BW was. Yep, they were right, it is great. I'm still biased towards vehicle lt modes yet I can appreciate what BW is.
Haven't seen Beast Machines, but it sounds rather good. It was not as well recieved as BW was, but seems to have aged well. Marty Isenberg (Transformers Animated) is onboard for BM so it can't be all bad.
another tf fan wrote:I'm still biased towards vehicle lt modes yet I can appreciate what BW is.
Sort of sums up where I stand on Beast Wars... I'm not keen on animal modes, and could never see myself owning a BW toy (I think I've had three over the years that have all been swiftly moved on), but you can't begrudge just how good the TV series is.
It remains my favorite series still. I was late to watching it as well, as it just seemed odd to me, and when it originally came out I wasn't really collecting toys anymore, even though I did buy 3-5 BW figures when they were at retail.
I don't really see any conflict with them not having vehicle modes, it always made more sense to me after watching BW, that the perfect disguise for a race of aliens who can scan anything and emulate it, would be organic lifeforms.
Its hard to argue the excellence in the acting and writing that went on in that series though. I think Animated is the only other series that even comes close to hitting the proverbial nail on the head in the same manner.
Cliffjumper wrote:Cars are cooler than rats. That simple for me
Ditto.
I've always been iffy on the BW Maximal's Beast Modes. They seem too... human for me. For me, it's okay when cars and dinosaurs and robots and tanks and creepy insectoid creatures talk.But to see them cheetahs and rhinos.... creeps me out, somehow.
Beast Wars have got solid characterization and continuity, as well as good voice acting and dialogue. (Armada's simple 'yes sir no sir' leaves a whole lot to be desired.)
Beast Machines also has good animation, characterization and continuity onto itself. Also, the Vehicons are just damned wicked cool. The thing that upsets it? Those techno-organic stuff. Damn it to hell.
I love the Beast Wars series. Even today, despite Animated, it is still my favorite animated series. I really must look into getting the DVDs. The toys themselves, well, some I really like but others just never appealed to me. As of now, I'm going to be getting rid of a lot of my BW figures and keeping a select few; however, I admit that I will be getting the Universe 2.0 Dinobot figure since I really liked his character in the series.
I also liked Beast Machines. Not as much as BW, but I still enjoyed it. Hell, I even like Nightscream. A lot of the toys didn't appeal to me, and I think I only had one or two which are no longer in my possession.
Now, despite all that praise, I do prefer vehicular modes to animal modes.
Yeh, just to clarify, it's that I prefer TFs to turn into machinery... It's just more appealing to me being robot-mad. BW does deserve some respect as a toyline for moving away from the "Oh great, another ****ing sportscar" school of thought, but the end result of a lot of shell-formers and gangly, ugly toys put me off the figures... it's a testament to the writing, though, that I really don't care what they transform into (the same as the way Scorponok turning into a big green piece of crap doesn't hurt my enjoyment of his comic development), or even that it's CGI (a style I've never been that fond of). I just wish we had a vehicle-based show with such sophisticated writing.
Yeah, I think the Beast Wars series' strongest point was how well they developed the characters. In G1 and Armada, we only got a few episodes with each character, before everyone was replaced by a new wave of toys that were now filling the shelves. In Beast Wars they stuck with a core group of about 10 characters and only added maybe 12 more throughout the entire 3 years of the series. This gave them the opportunity to really flesh out the characters. Also, it was clear that the writers were writing for both children and older fans at the same time.
The character personalities themselves were also very unique. I don't think a character like Inferno could possibly work in any other series, but in Beast Wars he was absolutely perfect.
Beast Machines on the other hand, although it might sound cliche, sucked. Bob Skir is a lousy hippy who should never have been allowed near a TF series, and I will keep this opinion until the day I die. No love for Beast Machines.
I agree completely, there is a trend that the better written series have been universaly popular with both fans and newcomers to Transformers (with the exeption of Armada, why was that popular for newcomers?) With Animated and Beast wars the focus on characterisation and a familiar, consistent cast lineup with good representations of good, evil, noble, kooky etc has proven to be a real winner. In fact I think almost every toy fad or popular series has shown this from Teenage mutant hero turtles to Pokemon. Also the narrative structure alows people to dip in and out of the series and not miss much wich was not evident with Cybertron. Quite why the series such as BW that show a notable or controvertial change such as turning into animals, not machines remain such fan and newcomer favourites is also intersting to note.
I'm doing something like this for media coursework btw and I'd really appriciate your thoughts on the matter.
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A Chinese cartoon where the robots turn into blingwads!
I'd say check out Beast Machines too, CJ. It goes with the BW continuity with some more of those G1 tie ins you like. It is alot different from (and not as good as) BW, though, with more... mysticism? I guess. I don't care for all that zen crap myself, but it all takes place on Cybertron, and you should see what they do to the poor planet.
Oh yeah, don't worry, they do away with that "I am transformed" crap after first season.
You know, Cybertron (Cartoon) doesn't get much love around here. There is weakness in it's narative but I have always thought it was a very good Transformers cartoon.
I really couldn't get into Energon and Armada but Cybertron was pretty mesmerizing to me. The story arc may not be as beautifully executed as Animated or Beast Wars but it was going somewhere.
The stock fight scenes and dumbed down dialog do hurt the series. No doubt about it, yet the plot was good and the Cyberkey McGuffin is at least as plausable as Transformers' All Spark cube.
The toy line was very good as well. It really seemed to take a good dose of G1 homage, The best Parts of Energon and Armada and combine them into a well designed and wide array of toys.
I am one of those who thinks Animated is at least as good as BW. From the story arc to the fleshed out main cast the show really is fantastic.
Lest us never forget Cybertron, though. It was the show that brought Transformers back from the RiD, Armada and Energon doldrums.
Yeah, I like Cybertron too. Its my third favorite series actually. I agree it had some awesome moments, I especially like Starscream's character in Cybertron. I am also really drunk right now. I'll probably have more to say about this tomorrow
I still haven't decided whether I like Animated or Beast Wars better. Not that it is that important since I enjoy them both. I do think Beast Wars has a leg up for more mature fans by being a darker storyline. I was surprised, but appreciative, that the storyline including characters being killed. TA is a little more kid friendly and hasn't really done that yet.
On the other hand, TA has an advantage in that it is a reimaging of characters that I loved as a kid. The first time I saw the Elite Guard episode I nearly fell out of my chair when the ship's ramp lowered and there was Jazz. He was one of my favorites as a kid and now I can't wait for Wheeljack to work his way into the series. I also prefer vehicle modes to Beast modes, with the exception of the Dinobots, so TA rocks there too.
It is actually pretty impressive for cartoons that are meant to advertise toys that at least two of the series that actually turned out be great entertainment. One problem with TA is that it is making me appreciate the 2007 movie less and less. While I love giant freaking robots that transform into cars and planes the horrible humor and over the top action scenes really do not a great movie make. Still, I can't wait for ROTF since giant freaking robots are just way too cool.
Personally speaking I'd say I prefer Animated as it has more respect for what's gone before and, as a Decepticon fan, I feel it has the more interesting characters. While I'm well aware of how she's viewed on these boards I'm not afraid to say that I agree with Raksha when it comes to Beast Wars.
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I also prefer vehicle modes to Beast modes, with the exception of the Dinobots, so TA rocks there too.
