My thoughts on Beast Wars so far

I also hated Rattrap but he is the sort of character which quickly grows on you and before you know it, he is one of your favorites!

I think that's because he doesn't fall in the typical pessimist character stereotype. He is pessimistic, rough and annoying but when the moment comes you can rely on him be brave, capable and heroic which is a huge contrast to his 'normal' behavior. This makes the character as multi-layered which you can relate with and eventually like. Typically in cartoons, the annoying cowardly and pessimistic character is just that and you can never rely on him to do anything more as he/she is just there for comic relieve or no reason whatsoever.

I find the difference between the characters of the G1 and BW cartoons interesting.

In G1, there seemed to be a rather disposable approach to characters-understandable given the purpose of the cartoon was to sell toys and do not much else. You didn't get real continuity over several episodes-characters came and went without explanation for most of the time (e.g. Dinobot Island introducing several new characters out of nowhere). There were mainstays, but anyone else just cycled in and out. Personalities seemed to be pretty much one-note plus a speech quirk. Starscream backstabs and whines, Shockwave is logical, Wheeljack is a mad scientist, etc. I suppose the large number of characters had something to do with this.

Beast Wars had the opposite approach. Fewer characters, more individual development. I suppose this may have been because the bios for the BW toys were simply descriptions of them fighting, rather than personalities, so the writers had more freedom. The characters in BW seem more multi-layered. Rhinox could so easily have been the dumb brute, but he's much more than the Maximal strong guy. Rattrap has been discussed above. Dinobot needs no discussion.

The creators of Beast Wars were acutely aware from the outset that by 1997 the children who'd grown up with Transformers during the 1980s were now young adults (now we're old farts :p) and intentionally wanted to cater for them as well as children.

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Originally Posted by SilverDragon

Starscream backstabs and whines, Shockwave is logical, Wheeljack is a mad scientist, etc.

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Actually Shockwave was only the cold logical fiend in the G1 comics which, like Beast Wars, had more complex characters and story arcs. G1 cartoon Shockwave was a brown-noser* to Megatron (with his undying loyalty repaid with millenia of sad lonely isolation -- wonderfully parodied by DrSmoov's Shockwave's Burden :D).

"Shockwave there's nothing to do up there, why aren't you answering?!"

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*Which is bloody impressive for a guy with no nose!

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Originally Posted by kup

No - What makes the Beast Wars character look realistic is synthetic skin on the outside. Notice that when they get damaged and the skin is scraped off, there is metal underneath. It's somewhat similar to a Pretender shell.

Basically if you put a Beast Wars character to the flame and burn all the skin off, you would end up with a robotic animal not unlike G1 beast modes.

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but they were part organic. So they had to have some blood type thing surely?:confused:

[Spoiler Alert]
As a kid in the fourth grade when Beastwars came into play, I loved it from the outset... well, the cartoon anyway.

When I first saw the figures, I feel like such an idiot for this, I thought that some toy company had stolen the idea of transforming robots and used it with animals. Such things like a Spider named Tarantulas, a Cheetah named Cheetor and a Velociraptor named Dinobot, seemed very insulting at the least towards Transformers fans.

Though the figures looked pretty cool, the impact of which can be seen in my collection (link in Sig), It wasn't until I looked closer at the packaging that I noticed that under the Beastwars logo... was the Transformers logo. :p

It wasn't long after that the cartoons aired at 4:30 during Prime Possum, lol, and I was instantly hooked by the characters and the story. It was so reminiscent of the original G1 that it seemed to be a continuation of sorts, this was later confirmed towards the end of the first season.

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Originally posted by GoktimusPrime:
Yet it's the same actor who voices Rattrap also voices Dinobot, Waspinator, Silverbolt, Quickstrike and Cicadacon!...

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I don't mean to nit-pick but Cicadacon never made it into the cartoon, for that matter neither of the Beastwars Gestalts did. :mad:

Autocon: To my understanding they did have some sort of "blood or something", I believe it was the processed energon that they had for blood as Tarantulas makes many references to having Maximals for meals but also there are a number of scenes where various characters eat earth bound fauna, leading to the assumption that they must of had some sort of a digestive system also.

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Originally posted by GoktimusPrime:
I see Beastwars as the Transformers' Renaissance.

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I agree with that thought, whilst G2 had it's moments (figure-wise), Beastwars was much more of a solid effort by Hasbro/Takara-Tomy and it has paid huge dividends and continues to do so today.

All in all it is a great series that has great characters, stories, figures and contributions to the Transformers franchise as a whole.
I hope the next rendition of the cartoons/toys of the franchise has the same level of enthusiasm that went into Beastwars, because in my opinion the only thing that has come remotely close since was Transformers: Animated.

Well said Hursty, I remember watching it on Prime Possum as well :o I also remember racing home on a Thursday afternoon from sport to watch it.

Though I really enjoyed the series, I did not go out collect many BW figures, I have one as my favourite, which is Inferno, but largely didn't want to collect the figures. I could have had a complete collection (if I decided to keep all the figures to myself :p) but I happily sold the lot I bought of a fellow in the states to Hursty a long time ago now it seems.

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Originally Posted by Autocon

but they were part organic. So they had to have some blood type thing surely?:confused:

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In Beast Machines they were part organic, that's why they had to 'morph' in order to transform. That's not so when it comes to the BW cartoon - Their 'organic exterior' had more in common with G1 Pretender shell technology which had no internal organs or blood.

In the early BW toy bios they were indeed portrayed as Cyborgs but since the cartoon decided to forge its own considerably different take, those early bios were abandoned.

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Originally Posted by Hursticon

[Spoiler Alert]

I don't mean to nit-pick but Cicadacon never made it into the cartoon, for that matter neither of the Beastwars Gestalts did. :mad:

Autocon: To my understanding they did have some sort of "blood or something", I believe it was the processed energon that they had for blood as Tarantulas makes many references to having Maximals for meals but also there are a number of scenes where various characters eat earth bound fauna, leading to the assumption that they must of had some sort of a digestive system also.

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Cicadacon did appear in the first 'The Agenda' episode with what we must assume to be his 'Cybertronian mode'. His character model was radically different to the toy but his is a member of the Tripredacus council.

When it comes to consumption of organic food for fuel - A machine doesn't have to be a cyborg to do that. Machines today can use organic fuel for energy. Also remember that the G1 Insecticons used to consume organic produce which they converted to Energon just like the BW characters but they were not cyborgs.

Cars also have a digestive system of sorts but they are not organic, the same goes with other organic fueled machines.

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Originally Posted by Hursticon

I don't mean to nit-pick but Cicadacon never made it into the cartoon, for that matter neither of the Beastwars Gestalts did. :mad:

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He's not called Cicadacon by name onscreen (although he is named in the script) or toy-accurate (although that could be 'justified' by the fact that he hasn't 'yet' been given a beast mode), but General Cicadacon was in The Agenda Part 1 as one-third of the Tripedacus council (along with the other two components of Tripedacus. And the Japanese equivalents of both Beast Wars gestalts were in the Beast Wars II cartoon.)

1AZRAEL1: Cheers dude and yes it is true, without your well appreciated facilitation I'd still be trying to collect 'whole' Beastwars figures to this day, though I'm still missing a couple of pieces. :D

kup: I agree that Beastwars 'organic' exteriors have more in common with G1 Pretender Shell technology than Beast Machines 'true' organic/technological fusion. You would agree though that a 'digestive system' would be a reasonably accurate analogy for the series of mechanical systems required to create energy from the organic matter that they consume yes?, maybe not a literal organic digestive system but a digestive system all the same?.

kup & Sky Shadow: I do stand corrected as I was unaware that one of the three Tripredacus Council members was named General Cicadacon due to the fact that I've not seen any Beastwars II/Neo and I've not read the scripts for Beastwars, a long process and dedication I imagine?. :)
As the onscreen characters seemed to bare little to no resemblance to the Gestalt figures, I drew no connection between the two groups. That being said, upon the new information at hand provided by you guys I can now see how your conclusion works... on paper. :p

The elements of Beastwars make for a very interesting discussion.

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Originally Posted by Autocon

but they were part organic. So they had to have some blood type thing surely?

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Whoever said that they're truly organic? It's most likely synthetic organic material which is able to insulate them from raw Energon radiation but isn't truly organic like the tissue, blood etc. on Terminators. Their skin, hair, fur, scales etc. feel real but isn't.

This is evident from cases such as:
+ Cloudburst and Landmine -- their skin and hair looks and feels real enough that the Femaxian women didn't notice that they weren't really organic. Especially with Cloudburst who was almost snoo-snooed by the Femaxian Queen (who had him stripped down ;D).
+ When Pretenders sustain wounds there is no blood or guts spewing anywhere - just open circuits. Even when a Pretender shell is completely destroyed (e.g. Carnivac) there's a complete absence of blood and guts. e.g. when Thunderwing gave Landmine a "second one" (;)) there was just wires and circuitry exposed.
+ When Beast Wars Transformers sustain wounds there's only exposed circuitry - such as when Megatron chomped down on Optimus Primal's thigh; no blood or guts, just sparks flying.

As I said before, think of it like Alice in Revenge of the Fallen. Her outer layer obviously looks and feels real enough that it fools humans like Sam, Leo and Mikaela into thinking that she's a real human. When she's trying to do snoo-snoo to Sam he doesn't immediately notice that she's not human (other than a slight diesely taste to her kiss :p). And later when Alice was run over by Mikaela we only saw mechanical bits flying everywhere, nothing organic. Japanese Actroids have synthetic skin and hair, but I doubt they'd bleed if you cut one (it'd be damn freaky if they did!).

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Originally Posted by Hursticon

I agree that Beastwars 'organic' exteriors have more in common with G1 Pretender Shell technology than Beast Machines 'true' organic/technological fusion. You would agree though that a 'digestive system' would be a reasonably accurate analogy for the series of mechanical systems required to create energy from the organic matter that they consume yes?, maybe not a literal organic digestive system but a digestive system all the same?.

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They have some kind of system that converts carbon-based organic matter ("food") into fuel (probably Energon). Beast Wars Transformers like Rhinox and Tarantulas are known to consume vegetation and animals.

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Originally Posted by Hursticon

I do stand corrected as I was unaware that one of the three Tripredacus Council members was named General Cicadacon due to the fact that I've not seen any Beastwars II/Neo and I've not read the scripts for Beastwars, a long process and dedication I imagine?.
As the onscreen characters seemed to bare little to no resemblance to the Gestalt figures, I drew no connection between the two groups. That being said, upon the new information at hand provided by you guys I can now see how your conclusion works... on paper.

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Although the Predacon Generals' names were never verbalised in the cartoon, they _were_ called the Tripredacus Council on several occasions. So even without knowledge of the script audiences knew that they were the three members of Tripredacus, even if you didn't know who exactly was Cicadacon, Ram Horn and Sea Clamp.

Listen carefully at 5:44 in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5CmqO-WaHA
"Tripredacus Council now in session." - Ram Horn

And in "The Agenda Part 2" Beast Wars Megatron said, "So, the Tripredacus Council still smooches the skidplates of the Maximal Elders."

Tripredacus doesn't appear in Beast Wars II or Neo, only in the Canadian series. However Tripledux does appear in BWII who does look more like the Tripredacus/Tripledux mould - but they're an entirely different set of amigoes, er, characters. :p
See 1:15 of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC16N6xxaZ4

Arriba!