What was your favourite episode of Beast Wars? Favourite character? Favourite Toy? What would you like to see more of in the future? Leave a comment and let me know!
Bull Session Favorite episode? Easily "Coming of the Fuzors pt 2". Favorite toy? Either Transmetal Optimus or Transmetal Megatron. Though, the one I was most proud of was Silverbolt, just because he was hard as hell to find.
Coming of the Fuzors pt 2 was great. That's the one with the western showdown right? Out of those three, I think the only one I ever had was Silverbolt; but not the original one. I had the purple repaint from Transformers Universe
Bull Session Yeah. Part 1 ended with the western showdown, but part 2 kept it going throughout. As a huge fan of Optimus Primal, I lost my mind when he made his entrance back in and turned the whole battle around by himself. The problem with the original Silverbolt was that he was shortpacked, so he was much more rare. A very poor decision in my opinion, considering his popularity.
Yep that scene was pretty dope. And ugh yea, shortpacked Transformers were the worst... Sometimes if I found one that was known to be rare at Toys R Us and I couldn't afford it but I knew I'd have the money within a day or two, I would hide it somewhere else in the store where it wouldn't get found, like behind some baby stuff or whatever then come back for it later. Probably not the nicest thing to do in retrospect but I was mad about my TF collection at the time haha
Fun fact: Originally, Starscream was supposed to possess Terrorsaur, not Waspinator. One of the reasons it was changed was because both the characters and their voices were so similar, they were afraid that *no one would be able to tell the difference.*
Haha yea, I read that. It was actually Terrorsaur's VA they got to voice Starscream as well, since his original VA from the 80s had passed away by that point.
@@46chambersoflife Well, I mean, Waspinator himself never really acted like a Starscream. He never had aspirations of leadership except in the occasional deluded fantasy. Terrorsaur was absolutely the more standard Starscream, though Megatron intimidated him out of the more overt attempts early on. It's just, Waspinator was possessed by the "ghost" of Starscream. Terrorsaur is the spiritual successor to Starscream, while Waspinator briefly *literally was* Starscream. Briefly. So, you were kinda both right?
@@Blazieth I remember when I was younger me and my friends use to debate who was who in beastwars,..way before we found out they were completely different characters altogether lol for me I thought Optimus prime-optimus primal Megatron-megatron Starscream-terrorsaur Jazz-rattrap Ironhide-dinobot Bumblebee-cheetor Scorpinox-scorpinox Ratchet-rhinox Etc.
as a teen watching beast wars, the revelation of unicron's head was pretty much a massive mind-blown that I block out all narration in the show to understand what they're actually saying. Only to now when as a adult, rewatching that moment only finally understanding that its just the aliens impersonating the image of unicron as the closest thing prime recognizes so he can "comprehend" their form.
haha yea I was the same way. I had probably single handedly worn down my local video store's copy of '86 Transformers The Movie from watching it so many times, and that moment rocked my tiny little world. One of my older friends had to explain to me that this wasn't *actually* Unicron, which honestly didn't dampen my excitment much :p
I liked Beast Wars as canon future of Transformers franchise series, glad that fucking Michael Bay left Transformers alone & hoping someone could make a Beast Wars movie it deserve. Not that Netflix transformers animated where Cheetor became time travel bullshit with Allspark in him god who wrote that shit..
Interestingly, Waspinator wasn't intended to be the "comic relief" character he became later. His "chew toy" status actually started because the writers found him difficult to write for, apparently due to his manner of speech, but they had to feature him in every episode (at the start, anyway). So they'd often have him show up just long enough for something bad to happen to him so they could fulfill Hasbro's mandate but still not have to use him much. The viewer's attachment to the character was something of a happy (or, in Waspinator's view, probably unhappy) accident.
@@RetroRulzMyTown I don't know, I always found Terrorsaur to be the most superficial of all the preds. I feel like I didn't know anything about the guy while always being able to predict anything he'd do
Me, I was in my mid-twenties Beastwars came out, at first I was a little skeptical about it but I loved the CG look so I gave it a chance and wind up loving it since I was also a fan and a collector of the original transformer line back in 84 and I used to collect the COMic books as well I went on to buying the entire beastwars toyline and still have it to this day and I’m 49 years old
As a Canadian child in the 90s I can tell you that toy sales weren't hurt in the slightest by the censorship. I knew kids who had CRATES of Beast Wars stuff.
Oh believe me, I had ton of Beast Wars stuff too (I'm also Canadian). You just know there was that one kid though who was confused as to why he couldn't find any Beasties toys.
I remember it being called Beasties too. That means they had to record two theme songs! Also I remember Shadow Raiders here being called War Planets in the US
When I came to season one I think my favorite episode was the one where Megatron turned Rhinox into a villain. My favorite part being when Optimus mimics Megatron‘s yes catchphrase as a way of showing he understands that this plan is going to backfire so badly and then it will be so entertaining to watch.
Asking why they're not fighting over Energon sources in the series is like asking why humans aren't fighting over oxygen sources cuz it's pretty abundant and literally all around us
The purpose was to bring Energon back to Cybertron because Cybertron almost ran out of it after the Great War, aka the G1 series. The Maximals wanted to restore Cybertron's Energon resources while the Predacons wanted the Energon in order to restart the war.
I think it's a little unfair to sell Airrazor short. She's the confident daredevil, like a hot-shot fighter pilot. Unfortunately she wasn't in the show long enough to really grow roots like the others, but she definitely had a defined character.
Seems like watching through this has become a yearly tradition for me. Actually, watching your entire Mainframe retrospective as a whole. I miss your videos. I loved the way you did things and I really enjoyed your takes. I hope you continue to do well.
Still an amazing show. I was born in 1990. I grew up with this show, and have bought the complete series on dvd. I always love to re watch every now and then. Great characters and stories.
Yea, Beast Wars is one of those ones that never seems to get old, despite the dated animation. This is probably... the 3rd or 4th time I've re-watched it since it came out on DVD. I think in that time though, I only rewatched Beast Machines once... struggling to remember many specific plot details from that show aside from the basic premise.
Yeah, I remember being so excited when Beast Machines came out because I thought it was going to be Beast Wars on Cybertron....and it was not. It changed waaaay too much. And I didn't buy that one, although I do remember a lot about the show. Did not like what they did with Megatron and Rattrap. I just randomly clicked on this vid, and I really enjoyed it. Good job. I laughed out loud at that part near the start with the pan over to the Star Wars poster lol.
I actually liked the show, and in a reverse way this was how I originally got into G1 transformers. like most British people my dad grew up in the Doctor Who generation England he was well into adulthood and was into metal bands etc by the time G1 aired so never got into it himself so he never got me into this, but he and I enjoyed watching this together, up until the episode Possession I was actually unaware of any wider Transformer universe (I would of been between 5-8 at a time when the internet didn't exist cut me some slack), fast forward several years (around 15-16) still remembering it I came across Possession again and looked up Starscream etc and discovered G1 Transformers, after watching that the whole of Beast Wars made total sense
Who’s here after the new Transformers: Rise of the Beasts trailer 2022!? This is such a great recap! I forgot about all these details I loved so much. Thanks for the video!
I grew up with Beast Wars (or Beasties, as a Canadian kid) while my siblings were 80s kids. While they did watch the original Transformers, they have since said they loved Beast Wars more. We loved the characters (my personal favourites being Cheetor, Rattrap, and Dinobot) and the show combined two things we were interested in: animals and robots. While I was the only one who asked for the toys as a kid, my brother recently asked if he could have my old Transmetal Megatron and Silverbolt for his own collection of favourites. He asked for my Transmetal Rattrap, too, but I told him there was no chance in hell I'd ever give him away. Even if this series isn't as popular or nostalgic as the G1 Transformers, it will always be my favourite and my gateway into the Transformers franchise as a whole.
Hey thanks! I'm actually a huge fan of yours and Preston's; been super into the asoiaf community for years. I have a bunch of Game of Thrones parody videos on this channel and would love some input if you ever had a chance to check em out.
Amazing work my friend! The Beast wars footage is so clean! Best show as a kid for me honestly, one of the first to have a continuing plot and such, its just a shame it was cut so short
"Cheetor is a surrogate for the audience" "rattrap and dinobot can be found complaining about the current conditions or sulking in a corner" As a kid, I was Cheetor. Now as an adult I realize, I am really RatTrap 🤣 Also, Cheetor being the surrogate for the audience (ie- kids) makes a lot of sense for different reasons. He's the youngest, he's impulsive, but also the show and it's sequel Beast Machines treat him as a real main character. Multiple transmetals, love interest, eventually realizing Optimus isn't right ALL the time and that's okay, I can go on and on. But the gist is: Cheetor was a genius character.
I'd say I was in the Generation of kids that was in between G1 and Beast Wars. I grew up first watching Transformers as a little kid then watched Beast Wars when it premiered as a big kid and I loved it.
And so begins one of the best examples of "Even Better Sequel", "Sequel Displacement", "Surprisingly Improved Sequel", "Distant Sequel", and "More Popular Spin-Off" in animation and "glorified toy commercials" history. Addendum: Also, a really good example of how 15:37 actually didn't end up backfiring on the show and its makers.
Think its actually a good thing that they didn't know much about G1,,,What made Beast wars great was that it Differs from G1 and also that there was only few Characters, so they were forced to be creative with the stories and characters, but still within the G1 world,, thats a good thing,that's what made Beast Wars as we got it and not another G1 echo, as we always get since BW,,
Yeah i hope one day Hasbro has enough confidence to make a show that doesn’t have Optimus Prime as I’m kinda getting sick of him being the leader constantly. Robots in Disguise 2015 had no Megatron so I think a primeless show is still possible
My favorite season 1 episode goes to “Possession” due to it introducing the concept of Starscream’a immortal spark. My favorite season 1 character however is actually my favorite Beast Wars character, Inferno. He is a maniac who serves his queen and defends the colony. And his Legacy figure is PEAK!
Indeed, and I would say some of the vehicons characters were interesting. Plus this megatron was a bit more threatening and his fight in the end with Optimus was worth it.
This is still the smartest Megatron I've seen outside of some comics. But my fav was Tarantulas and spiders are my greatest fear but his laugh his plans and his bike mode so cool. This my all time fav 90's show not tied to Batman. Ah the G1 hatred this show got it was so rich.
It's up there for me for sure. Then there's also Gargoyles, ReBoot, X-Men, Batman... From what I understand most G1 people came around once they realized the show was actually really good.
I've met some in person at cons that still haven't. I'm actually that 90's kid that didn't care for X-men and Gargoyles came on a random channel at 5 am for me. So only vague memories of it. Reboot, Beasties, Batman and Freakazoid are what I think of when someone says good 90's cartoons.
Weird that the people where complaining, I was there for the G1 and when I got what that random new show I caught on HBO was, I was just static that the transformers where back in some form (Also it was very lucky that it was about the third or fourth day that our house had cable ever)
I was in college when Beasties premiered here in Canada. The animated series had been over for quite awhile and I wasn't watching any cartoons at the time. I happened upon the first episode 2-parter which they showed back-to-back on YTV. I was hooked by the humour and Mainframe's name as I was a big fan of Reboot. I continued to follow pretty much everything this studio put out until it's demise. My fave episode of season two was the two-part finale, action packed and so cliff-hangery. Loved the whole cast. Even Air Razor, lol, she was introduced quite late so we knew little about her at this time. Great start! Subbed.
Yea... Airazor really got the short end of the stick out of the season one cast. I'll be going over her and Tigatron a lot more in the season 3 video. Thanks for watching!
Yes. When I first saw Beast Wars I was thinking "what the hell? These aren't planes and automobiles". However from the season 1 finale onwards that changed to "Holy Crap! this show is awesome!".
Wow I really wish I could give this video a million likes! You are taking the words right out of my mouth for how I feel about this show! I always felt and thought the same about ReBoot and Beasties! Such a great part of my childhood
Great video again, excellent review and you've added a ton of info that I've never heard of! Thank you! Beast wars was great, too bad it ended the way it did, BUT I enjoyed every second of it. I can never explain why, but Tarantulas was my favourite character
Remembering the day I discovered them, packaging, beastmodes and anticipating seeing Transformers catching my eye, Terrosaur was the first figure. Figures, specifically Scorponok was bought for me even if friends couldnt come to my birthday party that week and I won Armordillo likely being the only child in the locality to enter a competition flyer. Through a haze of pain killers and with fears of meningitis abated, I weakly asked my dad could he arrange the recording of Dark Designs. I saw so few episodes in the following 8 years then finally got the dvds and videos, Optimal Optimus was my reward the next day. My childhood was awesome. :D
Haha! Thank you. That was actually a joke a friend of mine and I would make all the time as kids when we first found out the reason why the show was called "Beasties" here
I can see why you did, because as we all know, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the WORST theatrically released Star Wars movie *ever.* BTW, that's probably the most hilarious thing you did, like... _ever._ I dig the build up to it. P.S. Will you do a full review of -ReBoot season 5- ReBoot: The Guardian FAIL when the second half comes out?
I agree with Ben, I'd like to see you cover more Guardian Code when the second half of the first (and most likely last) season comes out. Also, I'd love to see you tackle Reboot: Paradigms Lost, which was a comic (now rendered non-canon) that acted as the finale to season 4.
I was actually a small child man in the 90's when Beast wars was going strong and I lived in Canada, so I knew the show as Beasties. I was very confused as a child why the toys were "Beast wars" and was convinced for a time that they were like, dollar store boot legs or something
Predacons: Terrasour, waspinator, scorpinox, dinobot, tarantulas, Megatron, quick strike, rampage, inferno, black arachnia, dino clones and ravage. maximals: primal, rattrap, chetor, rhinox, silver bolt, tigertron, airazor, depth charge, dinobot, tigerhawk and black arachnia Predacons technically had one more bot on there side during the war but yeah they didn't outnumber them
The Predacons often had as many or more members of the Maximals. But the numbers of defects/deaths kept things fairly even, numbers-wise. Not to mention they maintained a higher number of larger bots capable of heavier firepower. Plus despite the Maximals catching up with Transmetals, the Preds always seemed to have more flyers.
I was a fan of the original series and I loved this show. I watched it religiously when it aired on YTV. It surprised me greatly to later learn there were fans of G1 that hated Beast Wars.
i was about 10 when beast wars came out, i was vagely aware of the existence of transformers before that and initially, only being aware of some car toys can also transform, i was instantly hooked, every morning it was on(think twice a week)when it played on 'the power block' id be late for school so i could finish watching the episode, and being that young i had no understanding of what a 'season finale' was or even a season, when that episode said The End? i thought that was it, an only rediscoverd the show by the end of season 2, needless to say i got caught but nan what diffrence in seasons, could tell the show got way more serious, charector bios thickened (megatron suddenly became one to be reckoned) but without getting too deep into it i wanna quickly say, this show was unlike anything that came out, an even to this day, it had a story plot so rich that even my dad would enjoy watching the show on his own, hed tell me man they made this show like it was a movie, especially the 2nd an 3rd season whered they have jokes that literally only adults would understand(case in point the agenda- "so where were you? scout patrol. oh yea scout patrol yea scouttin the enemy ye hehe , find any new positions?)😂 i want to say more but maybe on his next vids on season 2 and 3, last thing in case no one knew the show won multiple awards in animated series including best musical score, best action scenes and best realism in facial expressions.... oh yea favorite 1st seanon episodes, pilot sequal, tigatrons debut episode- fallen comrades, gorilla warfare, the trigger 1 an 2, possession, 'asta la vista starscream' and other voices
Ties with TF Prime as the best Transformers franchise. Loved this show growing up. Great characters, great story, big animation bumps as the series progressed (although the lack of shadows most of the time was a notable exception). I still have some of the toys and want to get some of the Masterpiece line. All these years later BW still makes me want to buy toys. While the graphics (especially season1) haven't aged so well, the characters, and story still hold up. I just rewatched the series recently. I'd love to see a graphical remaster of it. Looking forward to videos on season 2 and 3, earned a sub from me!
I've heard TF Prime mentioned as being top notch before, but I've never seen it. I think the Bayformers had soured me a bit on Transformers at that point in my life... Would definitely love to check Prime out at some point. I've also heard Animated was quite good. And yea those Masterpiece figures definitely put me in a toy-buying mood... Thanks for the support!
I remember that show, and watched it as a kid. I don't think I could watch it again as an adult, though. Even what little I *remember* makes me cringe quite a bit.
While season 2 is my favorite, season 1 had some great episodes in it. Like the one where they all go blind, and the episode where Rhinox is infected with a virus that makes him sneeze and fart energon discharges so Rattrap and Dinobot have to work together to find the antivirus. Great show
5:18 I don't remember where I would've read this, but I remember he'd been called Optimus Primal for some time already. I think it was because he was the poor man's Optimus. He was a fanboy of prime, looked like prime, acted like prime, but he sure wasn't. People called him that to make fun of him and eventually he just made it his new name. that's where the name came from. ...if memory serves. Again, no idea where I got this information. I do think Leo Convoy mentioned him by name on Cybertron in a flashback, though.
The “censorship mandate” was specific to the channel that aired Beast Wars in Canada. It wasn’t something the Canadian government mandated. YTV simply didn’t allow the word “war” in show titles. It’s the same reason why the animated series for the War Planets toyline was called Shadow Raiders when it aired on YTV. TekWar was still called TekWar when it aired in Canada on CTV. Storage Wars airs here on OLN. I forget what channel Robot Wars was on. Etc. Funnily enough YTV have aired The Phantom Menace and The Force Awakens in recent years, so I don’t know if they’re all that fussed about this anymore. Anyway call it Beasties or Beast Wars it is still the single greatest television show ever.
I think out of all the characters on Beast wars, Rattrap had to be my favorite. Not only was he a smartass and jerk most of the time, he could actually talk the talk. He was the only character in the entire show to ever kill a Decepticon, and was great when it came to rigging up explosions. Sure, Beast Machines made him a wuss, but before that he was one of the most competent members of the Maximals. Heck, he even became a temporary leader once or twice. Mainframe was great when it came to making actually awesome and likeable comedy-relief characters.
Yea Rattrap is pretty awesome. I remember him always being my fav Maximal when I was a kid, but on this watch through I found myself gravitating towards Rhinox. Also could be that I've still got Season 2 and 3 to go. And yes, what Beast Machines did to *both* of those characters was rather unfortunate...
Oh, I definitely will get into that stuff. Fantastic television writing in general, let alone for a kids' show. It'll be covering that stuff in another video like this for Beast Wars season 2 though; I doubt I'd be making seperate videos for each character. Who knows though!
My personal favourites are a tie between Rattrap and Optimus Primal, the former for most of the reasons stated, and the latter for being a pretty good follow up for his big red predecessors (Optimus and Rodimus Prime). Primal is unique in that he is a competent commander, but he sometimes makes stupid decisions (I.E. getting himself hit by the cyberbee in "Gorilla Warfare"), goes into enemy fire by himself, and often gets talked down to by his colleagues. In short, he's a worthy successor not because he's an incorruptible paragon, but because he's vulnerable and more... *human.* In fact, you could make the case for this being intentional, as in the 2nd season, he's more wiser, and by the 3rd, when he goes "Optimal" to save the universe, he's finally become something like Optimus Prime. Too bad Beast Machines did away with *ALL OF THIS DEVELOPMENT* and derailed him into a mad, raving anti-tech/pro-organic fanatic! Seriously, what is Beast Machines' obsession with derailing characters we loved? Oh, wait... I Know...
I think what Beast Machines did to Rattrap was pretty interesting. If you think about it, him being as impatient and cowardly as he tends to be in Machines makes a lot of sense. He's a logical bot, focused on facts, and getting results. He's got a trick up his sleeve for every occasion, showing on more than one occasion in Wars to basically be a Maximal James Bond/Ethan Hunt/insert your superspy of choice here. He's even quoted on one occasion as stating that "I feel naked without my gun..." In comes Beast Machines. He's trapped in rat form. He can't transform. That's making him edgy; he'd been shown previously to be rather uncomfortable with the idea of being TRAPPED in his Beast Form, even if he does come to be more appreciative of it later in the episode. But then Optimus comes out with some spiritual nonsense about how to transform in the new Technorganic forms. No Command Codes, no quick and easy "press button, get results". He's not a spiritual or patient bot, so he has trouble with it. He gets desperate, as with the rest of the team figuring it out quickly, and kicking ass, he wants to get his transformation on and help! Then it happens. He figures out how to transform. ...Where's his weapon? He's unarmed! The superspy marksman who hates being unarmed *has no weapons*. It's no wonder he's so miserable. But he can use his tail inferface to hack into just about anything, and he grows into that role, actually growing into the role that his old best friend Rhinox used to fill back on Earth. He even eventually finding a bot to develop a relationship with when Botanica gets introduced.
As a kid who grew up in the 90s, naturally Beast Wars was the first Transformers related show I remember seeing. I loved it. But I can see why fans of the first generation would have a problem with it. Aside from carrying over some character names, plot elements, and later building continuity with the original series, the show is an early CGI animal take on the transforming robot format. That doesn't immediately translate love for machines over to love for biology.
The thing about the characters changing their names as assumed in the first episode, actually does make more sense than to assume some were already called their altered animal names before they aquired their beast forms. Like why would Rattrap be called that before he picked a rat body? Its just not clear if Optimus was just Optimus or of Primal was what he changed hime to or if it was his name being a Maximal (implying they were always bound to be animal descendants).
Bull Session loved this show as a kid and even to this day...still got some figures from it... This show overall deserves more praise in its influence. . What are thoughts on beast machines by the way ?
Came back to these retrospectives after rewatching Beast Wars and starting up watching Beast Machines since the first time I wrote the series off as a totally mature and not impulsive 12 year old. I paused shortly after your remark of Scorpinok having the least character development. I totally agree, though after my recent rewatch I noticed something. Scorpinok does the third person simping ONLY around Megatron, but speaks more intelligently and confidently away from him. Clearly he's absolutely loyal to Megs but the fact he purposefully dumbs himself down despite clearly being some sort of programmer and espionage specialist (the whole Cyberbee virus and spydrone useage) makes me wonder if he does it to further inflate Megatron's galaxybrain ego.
I like the animals more than the vehicles tbh. Beast Wars was a great show. I definitely got better as it went along. Early season 1 could definitely be quite silly but there were always great moments to be had. And then Beast Machines happened. Ugh.... Poor Rhinox. You deserved so much better. I liked him a lot. Reminded me of Beast from the X-Men. Kinda sucked he never got an upgrade and went into the field less and less. And that was a great Waspinator voice.
Thank you! I've been practicing that Waspinator voice since I was a kid haha. It was indeed brutal what happened to Rhinox in Beast Machines. He's one of my favs in this show. Pity he never got upgrades
You should do more of the series. I loved Beast Wars when it came out as it is what really brought me into the Transformers universe in the first place.
That's the plan! After ReBoot season 3, I'll likely be hopping back to Beast Wars season 3, etc. Eventually I'll get to Beast Machines as well, and I've been toying with the idea of doing Transformers Animated and Transformers Prime in the future.
Beast Wars was part of my childhood and the reason why I went to see the new Transformers Rise of the beasts movie. I also remembered "Insektors" from my childhood and I looked for it for long but I did not remember the name until today. Today, after over 20 tears, I have a name. Thank you sir!
Oh my word, Insektors. Holy crap what a fever dream that was! Thank you for bringing it up, that would have been lost to my memory. And thank you for the review of beast wars!
In Canada, Ontario at least, there were two channels with this show. One played Beast Wars and the other played Beasties. I'd watch Beast Wars every time because it sounded more serious.
Beastwars would not have been as good if there were heaps of characters with no personalities. A scene I remember: Rattrap and Dinobot arguing with each other while outside on a mission, camera then moves to the base where inside Cheetor is leaning on the control panel grinning while listening to them argue over the radio. ...its those extra character interactions which is what made Beastwars for me. I really loved Possession, how Starscream's body appears in the flash of lightning was so cool for child me. I remember the animation at the time being amazing, and also rare for that time too. Now of course it doesn't look so hot. But I re-watched it all just a few months ago and still love it mainly due to the characters. My favourite character was Cheetor, followed by Waspinator and Inferno. Though really I did like all the characters! They each had such quirks. I still have my collection of original beastwars toys. This was a great video though, thank you, I learned some new things about one of my favourite shows. :)
In the up coming Transformers movies, Optimus Primal better say, "That's just prime." or I'm going to write a letter. Also Megatron better throw a few "yeesss" in there.
Oh my goodness. How did I miss this coming out! I was waiting for this video! Great job as always. As a kid I never really considered how difficult and new this style of show was. Great to know! The nostalgia! Do I need an exuse as an adult to go back and watch this show? :D
![Beast Machines [Part One] Review / Retrospective - Bull Session](/img/n.gif)
What was your favourite episode of Beast Wars? Favourite character? Favourite Toy? What would you like to see more of in the future? Leave a comment and let me know!
Bull Session Favorite episode? Easily "Coming of the Fuzors pt 2".
Favorite toy? Either Transmetal Optimus or Transmetal Megatron. Though, the one I was most proud of was Silverbolt, just because he was hard as hell to find.
Coming of the Fuzors pt 2 was great. That's the one with the western showdown right? Out of those three, I think the only one I ever had was Silverbolt; but not the original one. I had the purple repaint from Transformers Universe
Bull Session Yeah. Part 1 ended with the western showdown, but part 2 kept it going throughout. As a huge fan of Optimus Primal, I lost my mind when he made his entrance back in and turned the whole battle around by himself.
The problem with the original Silverbolt was that he was shortpacked, so he was much more rare. A very poor decision in my opinion, considering his popularity.
Yep that scene was pretty dope. And ugh yea, shortpacked Transformers were the worst... Sometimes if I found one that was known to be rare at Toys R Us and I couldn't afford it but I knew I'd have the money within a day or two, I would hide it somewhere else in the store where it wouldn't get found, like behind some baby stuff or whatever then come back for it later. Probably not the nicest thing to do in retrospect but I was mad about my TF collection at the time haha
Bull Session I did the exact same thing 😁
Fun fact: Originally, Starscream was supposed to possess Terrorsaur, not Waspinator. One of the reasons it was changed was because both the characters and their voices were so similar, they were afraid that *no one would be able to tell the difference.*
Haha yea, I read that. It was actually Terrorsaur's VA they got to voice Starscream as well, since his original VA from the 80s had passed away by that point.
@@BullSession Doug Parker also played Tidal Wave in Armada. Guy's got range.
Growing up I always said terrorsaur was starsscream but dpfanboys always argue its waspinator......in no way did a waspinator match up to starscream
@@46chambersoflife Well, I mean, Waspinator himself never really acted like a Starscream. He never had aspirations of leadership except in the occasional deluded fantasy. Terrorsaur was absolutely the more standard Starscream, though Megatron intimidated him out of the more overt attempts early on.
It's just, Waspinator was possessed by the "ghost" of Starscream. Terrorsaur is the spiritual successor to Starscream, while Waspinator briefly *literally was* Starscream. Briefly.
So, you were kinda both right?
@@Blazieth I remember when I was younger me and my friends use to debate who was who in beastwars,..way before we found out they were completely different characters altogether lol for me I thought
Optimus prime-optimus primal
Megatron-megatron
Starscream-terrorsaur
Jazz-rattrap
Ironhide-dinobot
Bumblebee-cheetor
Scorpinox-scorpinox
Ratchet-rhinox
Etc.
I like it better when there's a smaller cast of characters. It allows for more character development and makes collecting figures of them easier.
Unless it’s beast wars
as a teen watching beast wars, the revelation of unicron's head was pretty much a massive mind-blown that I block out all narration in the show to understand what they're actually saying. Only to now when as a adult, rewatching that moment only finally understanding that its just the aliens impersonating the image of unicron as the closest thing prime recognizes so he can "comprehend" their form.
haha yea I was the same way. I had probably single handedly worn down my local video store's copy of '86 Transformers The Movie from watching it so many times, and that moment rocked my tiny little world. One of my older friends had to explain to me that this wasn't *actually* Unicron, which honestly didn't dampen my excitment much :p
"You could not comprehend our floating head forms, so we shall address you in this floating head form."
I watched it as a little kid and loved it so much.
I liked Beast Wars as canon future of Transformers franchise series, glad that fucking Michael Bay left Transformers alone & hoping someone could make a Beast Wars movie it deserve. Not that Netflix transformers animated where Cheetor became time travel bullshit with Allspark in him god who wrote that shit..
I think you were just a bit thick
Interestingly, Waspinator wasn't intended to be the "comic relief" character he became later. His "chew toy" status actually started because the writers found him difficult to write for, apparently due to his manner of speech, but they had to feature him in every episode (at the start, anyway). So they'd often have him show up just long enough for something bad to happen to him so they could fulfill Hasbro's mandate but still not have to use him much. The viewer's attachment to the character was something of a happy (or, in Waspinator's view, probably unhappy) accident.
Funny to think the writers warmed up to him SO much, that they killed off Terrordactyl so that they could torture Waspinator more.
To be fair to Terrorsaur, he was a "Starscream" character who was overtaken by a better "Starscream" character (specifically, Tarantulas).
True, but he WAS seen as the most fleshed out of the Predacons. But yeah, he was already played out by the time he was killed off.
@@RetroRulzMyTown I don't know, I always found Terrorsaur to be the most superficial of all the preds. I feel like I didn't know anything about the guy while always being able to predict anything he'd do
"Ooooh Waspinator has a headache in his WHOLE body"... hahaha still great
The death of Dinobot is one of the most memorable cartoon moments for me as a child.
"The rest... is silence."
Who hears the intro and can't help but yell "BEAST WARS!" along with it?
Me.
I know a person like me now
BEAST WAAAAAAARRRRRRRSSSS
Yell it way too loud for any non-fans
Me, I was in my mid-twenties Beastwars came out, at first I was a little skeptical about it but I loved the CG look so I gave it a chance and wind up loving it since I was also a fan and a collector of the original transformer line back in 84 and I used to collect the COMic books as well I went on to buying the entire beastwars toyline and still have it to this day and I’m 49 years old
As a Canadian child in the 90s I can tell you that toy sales weren't hurt in the slightest by the censorship. I knew kids who had CRATES of Beast Wars stuff.
Oh believe me, I had ton of Beast Wars stuff too (I'm also Canadian). You just know there was that one kid though who was confused as to why he couldn't find any Beasties toys.
I'm close enough to the border that I watched both Beast Wars and Beasties... which was uh... weird.
Haha! That's funny
I was one of those kids. I STILL have them all in a box. I somehow have all the characters
I remember it being called Beasties too. That means they had to record two theme songs! Also I remember Shadow Raiders here being called War Planets in the US
When I came to season one I think my favorite episode was the one where Megatron turned Rhinox into a villain. My favorite part being when Optimus mimics Megatron‘s yes catchphrase as a way of showing he understands that this plan is going to backfire so badly and then it will be so entertaining to watch.
Scott McNeil remains ne of my favorite voice actors; he can play so many roles at a time.
I found an Optimal Optimus today at a local thriftstore and just got smashed with a wave of nostalgia. I just had to rewatch this again.
I assume you nabbed it
Beast Wars and Reboot were my favorite shows growing up, to this day i still think they were some of the greatest cartoons ever made
agreed on all fronts!
Bull Session can't wait to see your review on season 2 and 3
agreed. I think the animation still holds well today
Yeah same goes for me also they even had similar cgi designs
Asking why they're not fighting over Energon sources in the series is like asking why humans aren't fighting over oxygen sources cuz it's pretty abundant and literally all around us
The purpose was to bring Energon back to Cybertron because Cybertron almost ran out of it after the Great War, aka the G1 series. The Maximals wanted to restore Cybertron's Energon resources while the Predacons wanted the Energon in order to restart the war.
I loved Inferno! FOR THE ROYALTY!!
The Royalty commands it! Burn Maximals!
I think it's a little unfair to sell Airrazor short. She's the confident daredevil, like a hot-shot fighter pilot. Unfortunately she wasn't in the show long enough to really grow roots like the others, but she definitely had a defined character.
Seems like watching through this has become a yearly tradition for me. Actually, watching your entire Mainframe retrospective as a whole.
I miss your videos. I loved the way you did things and I really enjoyed your takes. I hope you continue to do well.
McNeil played all the best characters
Hell yea he did
Upwind of yours, vermin!
Still an amazing show. I was born in 1990. I grew up with this show, and have bought the complete series on dvd. I always love to re watch every now and then. Great characters and stories.
Yea, Beast Wars is one of those ones that never seems to get old, despite the dated animation. This is probably... the 3rd or 4th time I've re-watched it since it came out on DVD. I think in that time though, I only rewatched Beast Machines once... struggling to remember many specific plot details from that show aside from the basic premise.
Yeah, I remember being so excited when Beast Machines came out because I thought it was going to be Beast Wars on Cybertron....and it was not. It changed waaaay too much. And I didn't buy that one, although I do remember a lot about the show. Did not like what they did with Megatron and Rattrap. I just randomly clicked on this vid, and I really enjoyed it. Good job. I laughed out loud at that part near the start with the pan over to the Star Wars poster lol.
The lack of YEEEEEESSSS in this review disappoints me.
D: You're right! I'll definitely have to get some of that in for the Season 2 video
Yesss... you really must. (incidentally, I love that Megatron's last words, in EITHER series, was a big "NOOOOOOO")
I agree or should I say
YEEEEEESSSS
The story telling and story development of this series is my favorite among Transformers series.
I tend to re watch your 90's cartoon reviews when I'm in the mood and they are always entertaining.
I actually liked the show, and in a reverse way this was how I originally got into G1 transformers.
like most British people my dad grew up in the Doctor Who generation England he was well into adulthood and was into metal bands etc by the time G1 aired so never got into it himself so he never got me into this, but he and I enjoyed watching this together, up until the episode Possession I was actually unaware of any wider Transformer universe (I would of been between 5-8 at a time when the internet didn't exist cut me some slack), fast forward several years (around 15-16) still remembering it I came across Possession again and looked up Starscream etc and discovered G1 Transformers, after watching that the whole of Beast Wars made total sense
I am RIDICULOUSLY stoked that this was in my recommendeds. I loved this show as a kid.
Who’s here after the new Transformers: Rise of the Beasts trailer 2022!? This is such a great recap! I forgot about all these details I loved so much. Thanks for the video!
I grew up with Beast Wars (or Beasties, as a Canadian kid) while my siblings were 80s kids. While they did watch the original Transformers, they have since said they loved Beast Wars more. We loved the characters (my personal favourites being Cheetor, Rattrap, and Dinobot) and the show combined two things we were interested in: animals and robots. While I was the only one who asked for the toys as a kid, my brother recently asked if he could have my old Transmetal Megatron and Silverbolt for his own collection of favourites. He asked for my Transmetal Rattrap, too, but I told him there was no chance in hell I'd ever give him away.
Even if this series isn't as popular or nostalgic as the G1 Transformers, it will always be my favourite and my gateway into the Transformers franchise as a whole.
great video. i remember this as a kid....sigh. good times
Hey thanks! I'm actually a huge fan of yours and Preston's; been super into the asoiaf community for years. I have a bunch of Game of Thrones parody videos on this channel and would love some input if you ever had a chance to check em out.
Amazing work my friend! The Beast wars footage is so clean!
Best show as a kid for me honestly, one of the first to have a continuing plot and such, its just a shame it was cut so short
Thank you! Yea, it really is a bummer the series ended so abruptly... gotta sell those new toys, amirite?
"Cheetor is a surrogate for the audience" "rattrap and dinobot can be found complaining about the current conditions or sulking in a corner"
As a kid, I was Cheetor.
Now as an adult I realize, I am really RatTrap 🤣
Also, Cheetor being the surrogate for the audience (ie- kids) makes a lot of sense for different reasons. He's the youngest, he's impulsive, but also the show and it's sequel Beast Machines treat him as a real main character. Multiple transmetals, love interest, eventually realizing Optimus isn't right ALL the time and that's okay, I can go on and on. But the gist is: Cheetor was a genius character.
You don't know how happy this makes me 😊
:) Enjoy!
Killer Waspinator impression. Quite the unexpected surprise gave me a chuckle.
I'd say I was in the Generation of kids that was in between G1 and Beast Wars. I grew up first watching Transformers as a little kid then watched Beast Wars when it premiered as a big kid and I loved it.
You deserve way more subscribers, these Mainframe Entertainment videos are excellent.
Thank you! It's climbing, slowly but surely
Optimus Primal is my fav ,he reminds me of Animated Optimus and RID 15 Bumblebee ,struggling leaders and I always loved that concept
And so begins one of the best examples of "Even Better Sequel", "Sequel Displacement", "Surprisingly Improved Sequel", "Distant Sequel", and "More Popular Spin-Off" in animation and "glorified toy commercials" history.
Addendum: Also, a really good example of how 15:37 actually didn't end up backfiring on the show and its makers.
Megatron has fallen...and he can't get up!
Think its actually a good thing that they didn't know much about G1,,,What made Beast wars great was that it Differs from G1 and also that there was only few Characters, so they were forced to be creative with the stories and characters, but still within the G1 world,, thats a good thing,that's what made Beast Wars as we got it and not another G1 echo, as we always get since BW,,
Yeah i hope one day Hasbro has enough confidence to make a show that doesn’t have Optimus Prime as I’m kinda getting sick of him being the leader constantly. Robots in Disguise 2015 had no Megatron so I think a primeless show is still possible
My favorite season 1 episode goes to “Possession” due to it introducing the concept of Starscream’a immortal spark.
My favorite season 1 character however is actually my favorite Beast Wars character, Inferno. He is a maniac who serves his queen and defends the colony. And his Legacy figure is PEAK!
Wow, it is good to hear that Beast Wars is as good as I remember it being! Man, now I got a lot to watch between this and rewatching Reboot again.
It held up better than I thought it would, yea.
Somewhat nervous about Beast Machines >.>
BM was just not at the same level of quality of BW....
From what I remember, the highlight was the new animation style
Indeed, and I would say some of the vehicons characters were interesting. Plus this megatron was a bit more threatening and his fight in the end with Optimus was worth it.
Beast machines is so monotonous to watch tbh. It just doesn't get to the point and it's SO serious.
one of my favourite childhood memories is just me 4-6 sitting and watching with my dad.
This is still the smartest Megatron I've seen outside of some comics. But my fav was Tarantulas and spiders are my greatest fear but his laugh his plans and his bike mode so cool. This my all time fav 90's show not tied to Batman. Ah the G1 hatred this show got it was so rich.
It's up there for me for sure. Then there's also Gargoyles, ReBoot, X-Men, Batman... From what I understand most G1 people came around once they realized the show was actually really good.
I've met some in person at cons that still haven't. I'm actually that 90's kid that didn't care for X-men and Gargoyles came on a random channel at 5 am for me. So only vague memories of it. Reboot, Beasties, Batman and Freakazoid are what I think of when someone says good 90's cartoons.
Animated Mrgatron disapproves.
Weird that the people where complaining, I was there for the G1 and when I got what that random new show I caught on HBO was, I was just static that the transformers where back in some form (Also it was very lucky that it was about the third or fourth day that our house had cable ever)
Beast Wars & Beast Machines are some of my favorite Transformer shows.
Mine too :D
fun fact the vhs's of "Beasties" were sold under the beast wars title in canada
i have two of them
I was in college when Beasties premiered here in Canada. The animated series had been over for quite awhile and I wasn't watching any cartoons at the time. I happened upon the first episode 2-parter which they showed back-to-back on YTV. I was hooked by the humour and Mainframe's name as I was a big fan of Reboot. I continued to follow pretty much everything this studio put out until it's demise. My fave episode of season two was the two-part finale, action packed and so cliff-hangery. Loved the whole cast. Even Air Razor, lol, she was introduced quite late so we knew little about her at this time. Great start! Subbed.
Yea... Airazor really got the short end of the stick out of the season one cast. I'll be going over her and Tigatron a lot more in the season 3 video. Thanks for watching!
Whoa! You hit that Waspinator voice perfectly!!
Yes. When I first saw Beast Wars I was thinking "what the hell? These aren't planes and automobiles".
However from the season 1 finale onwards that changed to "Holy Crap! this show is awesome!".
Wow I really wish I could give this video a million likes! You are taking the words right out of my mouth for how I feel about this show! I always felt and thought the same about ReBoot and Beasties! Such a great part of my childhood
Here here! Mainframe did some really great work early on. And awesome that they were Canadian, too!
Bull Session
I couldn't have put it better myself!
I honestly really love Beast Wars. It took what I loved, the DinoBots and Insecticons, and made it into a full show and series
Great video again, excellent review and you've added a ton of info that I've never heard of! Thank you!
Beast wars was great, too bad it ended the way it did, BUT I enjoyed every second of it. I can never explain why, but Tarantulas was my favourite character
Thank you! Tarantulas is one of the best characters on the show for sure!
Remembering the day I discovered them, packaging, beastmodes and anticipating seeing Transformers catching my eye, Terrosaur was the first figure.
Figures, specifically Scorponok was bought for me even if friends couldnt come to my birthday party that week and I won Armordillo likely being the only child in the locality to enter a competition flyer. Through a haze of pain killers and with fears of meningitis abated, I weakly asked my dad could he arrange the recording of Dark Designs. I saw so few episodes in the following 8 years then finally got the dvds and videos, Optimal Optimus was my reward the next day.
My childhood was awesome. :D
That *is* awesome!
As is this video, 'Starries' brilliant :D
Haha! Thank you. That was actually a joke a friend of mine and I would make all the time as kids when we first found out the reason why the show was called "Beasties" here
When I first found out about the show my friend's mam called it Beasties. I didn't like it. We watched Robot Wars straight after, stuck with a theme.
1:35 *STARRIES!!!* [dun-dun-du-du-dun]
Considered making it "STARRIES: CLONIES", but figured simpler was better
I can see why you did, because as we all know, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the WORST theatrically released Star Wars movie *ever.*
BTW, that's probably the most hilarious thing you did, like... _ever._ I dig the build up to it.
P.S. Will you do a full review of -ReBoot season 5- ReBoot: The Guardian FAIL when the second half comes out?
I agree with Ben, I'd like to see you cover more Guardian Code when the second half of the first (and most likely last) season comes out. Also, I'd love to see you tackle Reboot: Paradigms Lost, which was a comic (now rendered non-canon) that acted as the finale to season 4.
Yep, definitely planning on covering the second half of the Guardian Code when it comes out.
Paradigm's Lost... we'll see. I read that once, but wasn't it a fan creation?
number one childhood series. so excited about the new masterpiece megatron & dinobot
Those figures are freaking sexy. Yessss...
Scorpinok reminded me of the original Soundwave, the most dedicated characters to the megatrons
I'm hyped for the return of the Maximals, and the Predicons in Transformers War for Cybertron: Kingdom.
I have a deep dark fear that they won't bring the VAs back and butcher the acting.
Meh for that, but man, am I actually waiting for them to return in the sequel to Bumblebee.
I was actually a small child man in the 90's when Beast wars was going strong and I lived in Canada, so I knew the show as Beasties. I was very confused as a child why the toys were "Beast wars" and was convinced for a time that they were like, dollar store boot legs or something
haha! That's funny. I would have probably thought the same if I hadn't had a friend who explained it to me.
"Despite the Predacons have a numbers advantage throughout most of the series."
That's... not true.
Predacons: Terrasour, waspinator, scorpinox, dinobot, tarantulas, Megatron, quick strike, rampage, inferno, black arachnia, dino clones and ravage. maximals: primal, rattrap, chetor, rhinox, silver bolt, tigertron, airazor, depth charge, dinobot, tigerhawk and black arachnia Predacons technically had one more bot on there side during the war but yeah they didn't outnumber them
The Predacons often had as many or more members of the Maximals. But the numbers of defects/deaths kept things fairly even, numbers-wise. Not to mention they maintained a higher number of larger bots capable of heavier firepower. Plus despite the Maximals catching up with Transmetals, the Preds always seemed to have more flyers.
Imagine a remaster of the original series. Just some updated textures, backgrounds and effects.
I was a fan of the original series and I loved this show. I watched it religiously when it aired on YTV. It surprised me greatly to later learn there were fans of G1 that hated Beast Wars.
This was one of the best cartoons on TV at my time and looking at it now I really appreciate the details the creators put into it
The best figure was the dragon megatron. That figure was $30 in 1998 money.
I saw a kid from my high school buying it at toys r us.
i was about 10 when beast wars came out, i was vagely aware of the existence of transformers before that and initially, only being aware of some car toys can also transform, i was instantly hooked, every morning it was on(think twice a week)when it played on 'the power block' id be late for school so i could finish watching the episode, and being that young i had no understanding of what a 'season finale' was or even a season, when that episode said The End? i thought that was it, an only rediscoverd the show by the end of season 2, needless to say i got caught but nan what diffrence in seasons, could tell the show got way more serious, charector bios thickened (megatron suddenly became one to be reckoned) but without getting too deep into it i wanna quickly say, this show was unlike anything that came out, an even to this day, it had a story plot so rich that even my dad would enjoy watching the show on his own, hed tell me man they made this show like it was a movie, especially the 2nd an 3rd season whered they have jokes that literally only adults would understand(case in point the agenda- "so where were you? scout patrol. oh yea scout patrol yea scouttin the enemy ye hehe , find any new positions?)😂
i want to say more but maybe on his next vids on season 2 and 3, last thing in case no one knew the show won multiple awards in animated series including best musical score, best action scenes and best realism in facial expressions....
oh yea favorite 1st seanon episodes, pilot sequal, tigatrons debut episode- fallen comrades, gorilla warfare, the trigger 1 an 2, possession, 'asta la vista starscream' and other voices
Ties with TF Prime as the best Transformers franchise. Loved this show growing up. Great characters, great story, big animation bumps as the series progressed (although the lack of shadows most of the time was a notable exception). I still have some of the toys and want to get some of the Masterpiece line. All these years later BW still makes me want to buy toys.
While the graphics (especially season1) haven't aged so well, the characters, and story still hold up. I just rewatched the series recently. I'd love to see a graphical remaster of it.
Looking forward to videos on season 2 and 3, earned a sub from me!
I've heard TF Prime mentioned as being top notch before, but I've never seen it. I think the Bayformers had soured me a bit on Transformers at that point in my life... Would definitely love to check Prime out at some point. I've also heard Animated was quite good.
And yea those Masterpiece figures definitely put me in a toy-buying mood...
Thanks for the support!
BANANA SLAMA!!!!
Kongo Bongo's hero!
YEA! I remember that series too "Heyyyo here he comes Banana Slama.... "
Hoooo.... HA!
I remember that show, and watched it as a kid. I don't think I could watch it again as an adult, though. Even what little I *remember* makes me cringe quite a bit.
Indeed; I watched through the first 5 mins or so of the pilot when I was making this video and it was... interesting.
I just like how they were able to really connect the old and new Transformers
While season 2 is my favorite, season 1 had some great episodes in it. Like the one where they all go blind, and the episode where Rhinox is infected with a virus that makes him sneeze and fart energon discharges so Rattrap and Dinobot have to work together to find the antivirus. Great show
Excellent work on this review/retrospective! Looking forward to the ReBoot Season 3 review!!
Thanks! Looking forward to watching it :D
5:18 I don't remember where I would've read this, but I remember he'd been called Optimus Primal for some time already. I think it was because he was the poor man's Optimus. He was a fanboy of prime, looked like prime, acted like prime, but he sure wasn't. People called him that to make fun of him and eventually he just made it his new name.
that's where the name came from. ...if memory serves. Again, no idea where I got this information. I do think Leo Convoy mentioned him by name on Cybertron in a flashback, though.
The “censorship mandate” was specific to the channel that aired Beast Wars in Canada.
It wasn’t something the Canadian government mandated.
YTV simply didn’t allow the word “war” in show titles.
It’s the same reason why the animated series for the War Planets toyline was called Shadow Raiders when it aired on YTV.
TekWar was still called TekWar when it aired in Canada on CTV. Storage Wars airs here on OLN. I forget what channel Robot Wars was on. Etc.
Funnily enough YTV have aired The Phantom Menace and The Force Awakens in recent years, so I don’t know if they’re all that fussed about this anymore.
Anyway call it Beasties or Beast Wars it is still the single greatest television show ever.
I'm Canadian and I swear I only ever saw it as Beast Wars never heard anyone call it or remember it as Beasties.
@@deadwinterknight1981 i remember it as beasties lol but remember buying toys with my dad seeing them as beastwars
I think out of all the characters on Beast wars, Rattrap had to be my favorite. Not only was he a smartass and jerk most of the time, he could actually talk the talk. He was the only character in the entire show to ever kill a Decepticon, and was great when it came to rigging up explosions. Sure, Beast Machines made him a wuss, but before that he was one of the most competent members of the Maximals. Heck, he even became a temporary leader once or twice. Mainframe was great when it came to making actually awesome and likeable comedy-relief characters.
Yea Rattrap is pretty awesome. I remember him always being my fav Maximal when I was a kid, but on this watch through I found myself gravitating towards Rhinox. Also could be that I've still got Season 2 and 3 to go.
And yes, what Beast Machines did to *both* of those characters was rather unfortunate...
Dinobot was pretty rad. I'll definitely be talking a lot more about him in the next Beast Wars video.
Oh, I definitely will get into that stuff. Fantastic television writing in general, let alone for a kids' show. It'll be covering that stuff in another video like this for Beast Wars season 2 though; I doubt I'd be making seperate videos for each character. Who knows though!
My personal favourites are a tie between Rattrap and Optimus Primal, the former for most of the reasons stated, and the latter for being a pretty good follow up for his big red predecessors (Optimus and Rodimus Prime). Primal is unique in that he is a competent commander, but he sometimes makes stupid decisions (I.E. getting himself hit by the cyberbee in "Gorilla Warfare"), goes into enemy fire by himself, and often gets talked down to by his colleagues. In short, he's a worthy successor not because he's an incorruptible paragon, but because he's vulnerable and more... *human.* In fact, you could make the case for this being intentional, as in the 2nd season, he's more wiser, and by the 3rd, when he goes "Optimal" to save the universe, he's finally become something like Optimus Prime.
Too bad Beast Machines did away with *ALL OF THIS DEVELOPMENT* and derailed him into a mad, raving anti-tech/pro-organic fanatic! Seriously, what is Beast Machines' obsession with derailing characters we loved? Oh, wait... I Know...
I think what Beast Machines did to Rattrap was pretty interesting. If you think about it, him being as impatient and cowardly as he tends to be in Machines makes a lot of sense. He's a logical bot, focused on facts, and getting results. He's got a trick up his sleeve for every occasion, showing on more than one occasion in Wars to basically be a Maximal James Bond/Ethan Hunt/insert your superspy of choice here. He's even quoted on one occasion as stating that "I feel naked without my gun..."
In comes Beast Machines. He's trapped in rat form. He can't transform. That's making him edgy; he'd been shown previously to be rather uncomfortable with the idea of being TRAPPED in his Beast Form, even if he does come to be more appreciative of it later in the episode. But then Optimus comes out with some spiritual nonsense about how to transform in the new Technorganic forms. No Command Codes, no quick and easy "press button, get results". He's not a spiritual or patient bot, so he has trouble with it. He gets desperate, as with the rest of the team figuring it out quickly, and kicking ass, he wants to get his transformation on and help!
Then it happens. He figures out how to transform. ...Where's his weapon? He's unarmed! The superspy marksman who hates being unarmed *has no weapons*. It's no wonder he's so miserable. But he can use his tail inferface to hack into just about anything, and he grows into that role, actually growing into the role that his old best friend Rhinox used to fill back on Earth. He even eventually finding a bot to develop a relationship with when Botanica gets introduced.
As a kid who grew up in the 90s, naturally Beast Wars was the first Transformers related show I remember seeing. I loved it. But I can see why fans of the first generation would have a problem with it. Aside from carrying over some character names, plot elements, and later building continuity with the original series, the show is an early CGI animal take on the transforming robot format. That doesn't immediately translate love for machines over to love for biology.
My comfort show and favorite season ❤🦖🦍🛸
The thing about the characters changing their names as assumed in the first episode, actually does make more sense than to assume some were already called their altered animal names before they aquired their beast forms. Like why would Rattrap be called that before he picked a rat body? Its just not clear if Optimus was just Optimus or of Primal was what he changed hime to or if it was his name being a Maximal (implying they were always bound to be animal descendants).
This was an amazing video! Please please PLEASE make one for season 2 and season 3, I'd love to find out what you think about them!
Thanks! I'm actually working on the Season 2 video at this very moment. It will be released this week :)
Thanks for this upload man ! Up to last night was watching beast wars..this show still holds up today !!
You're welcome :) I was also really glad it still held up! Can't wait to get started on the other seasons.
Bull Session loved this show as a kid and even to this day...still got some figures from it...
This show overall deserves more praise in its influence. . What are thoughts on beast machines by the way ?
I'll do a video on Beast Machines eventually but TLDR; It's fine. Not as bad as everyone says imo, but also not teriffic.
Scott McNeal hilarious he just did the dinobot voice for the First Warhammer 40k dawn of War.
hah! Really? That's hilarious
Came back to these retrospectives after rewatching Beast Wars and starting up watching Beast Machines since the first time I wrote the series off as a totally mature and not impulsive 12 year old. I paused shortly after your remark of Scorpinok having the least character development. I totally agree, though after my recent rewatch I noticed something. Scorpinok does the third person simping ONLY around Megatron, but speaks more intelligently and confidently away from him. Clearly he's absolutely loyal to Megs but the fact he purposefully dumbs himself down despite clearly being some sort of programmer and espionage specialist (the whole Cyberbee virus and spydrone useage) makes me wonder if he does it to further inflate Megatron's galaxybrain ego.
Man...all the memories are coming back to me now lol
Yea, this whole retrospective is definitely a big nostalgia trip. I've really been enjoying it
Welp, I’ve found another cartoon from my child to put on my “revisit list”. There are quite a few :3
Yes indeed! We had it really good in the 90s...
And now this movie is gonna gain SO much relevancy with the movie teaser released!
I like the animals more than the vehicles tbh.
Beast Wars was a great show. I definitely got better as it went along. Early season 1 could definitely be quite silly but there were always great moments to be had.
And then Beast Machines happened. Ugh.... Poor Rhinox. You deserved so much better. I liked him a lot. Reminded me of Beast from the X-Men. Kinda sucked he never got an upgrade and went into the field less and less.
And that was a great Waspinator voice.
Thank you! I've been practicing that Waspinator voice since I was a kid haha. It was indeed brutal what happened to Rhinox in Beast Machines. He's one of my favs in this show. Pity he never got upgrades
great video man
I grew up on this show..it's kind of funny to look back
You should do more of the series. I loved Beast Wars when it came out as it is what really brought me into the Transformers universe in the first place.
That's the plan! After ReBoot season 3, I'll likely be hopping back to Beast Wars season 3, etc. Eventually I'll get to Beast Machines as well, and I've been toying with the idea of doing Transformers Animated and Transformers Prime in the future.
Aw man, Beast Wars and Prime have got to be some of the best iterations in my book! :D
Yes, we had “Beasties” on YTV. But then we turned the channel to Fox Kids and watched “Beast Wars” 😂 Great logic
Beast Wars was part of my childhood and the reason why I went to see the new Transformers Rise of the beasts movie. I also remembered "Insektors" from my childhood and I looked for it for long but I did not remember the name until today. Today, after over 20 tears, I have a name. Thank you sir!
Oh my word, Insektors. Holy crap what a fever dream that was! Thank you for bringing it up, that would have been lost to my memory. And thank you for the review of beast wars!
you're very welcome
Wasn’t beasties for me, though that could been because it was reruns in the early 2000’s
I wasn't expecting that good of a Waspinator impression.
In Canada, Ontario at least, there were two channels with this show. One played Beast Wars and the other played Beasties. I'd watch Beast Wars every time because it sounded more serious.
A few others have mentioned this, yea. Where abouts in Ontario did you grow up? In Toronto we only had "Beasties".
@@BullSession I was in Kingston. Can't recall now what channel we would get it on.
CAN'T wait for beast machines review!!!!!
Beastwars would not have been as good if there were heaps of characters with no personalities.
A scene I remember: Rattrap and Dinobot arguing with each other while outside on a mission, camera then moves to the base where inside Cheetor is leaning on the control panel grinning while listening to them argue over the radio.
...its those extra character interactions which is what made Beastwars for me.
I really loved Possession, how Starscream's body appears in the flash of lightning was so cool for child me.
I remember the animation at the time being amazing, and also rare for that time too. Now of course it doesn't look so hot. But I re-watched it all just a few months ago and still love it mainly due to the characters.
My favourite character was Cheetor, followed by Waspinator and Inferno. Though really I did like all the characters! They each had such quirks.
I still have my collection of original beastwars toys.
This was a great video though, thank you, I learned some new things about one of my favourite shows. :)
Agreed 100%. Beast Wars is a really great example of the phrase "art from adversity"; it was truly something special. Thanks for watching :)
God I loved the 90’s. It was the complete opposite of the nihilistic nightmare we currently live in.
Beast wars was and still my favorite show and Saint Seiya.
1:23 *insert slow clap here*
Seriously that was hilarious XD
In the up coming Transformers movies, Optimus Primal better say, "That's just prime." or I'm going to write a letter. Also Megatron better throw a few "yeesss" in there.
Loved Beasties back in the day. That's what it was on YTV
The friday evenings, sitting on my dad's bed with a bowl of chips and a pop, watching Beasties on YTV... those where the good days.
Well, they could have always called the series Beast Trek instead.
Actually the writers of the show *do* both mention in interviews that thier favourite aspects of writing the show were the sci-fi element
I think Spock and Kirk would've sued them
@@thisappisbs what about "Beastoids" then?
@@WALDENSOFTWARE I think "beasties" was better 🤣
Oh my goodness. How did I miss this coming out! I was waiting for this video! Great job as always. As a kid I never really considered how difficult and new this style of show was. Great to know! The nostalgia! Do I need an exuse as an adult to go back and watch this show? :D
Thank you :) Yea, they were really pioneers back then with the animation. And the show still holds up!
Also! Kudos on the Waspinator voice
Thank you!
Does anyone remember Shadow Raiders? That had such an interesting plot too