IDW's series were too cluttered. I liked that the Beast Wars cartoon managed to keep the cast down to a few who we got to know well and didn't have to show each new toy (and yes budget restraints were a part of that, but those restraints can be a good thing sometimes). Then IDW comes along and throws in all the remaining toys over the course of a few issues. Then they bring out another miniseries and dump in a bunch of the Japanese toys as well. And the sourcebook is okay (a step up from Armada's but well below Dreamwave's G1 book) but between the missing art, trying to American-ise BWII and BWNeo and errors, it's not a must have.

I did like Don's art on the book, and his pre-earth modes designs for the Predacons are really nice.

All the Dreamwave material is available in a single omnibus book so it's easy to get all of this in one go if it's still in print. (although don't be misled, Omnibus doesn't mean a nice oversize book like a Marvel Omnibus, the BW Omnibus is smaller than a regular comic)

But overall, the focus away from the core characters of Beast Wars, and making it a comic to "sell toys" that were years off the shelf don't make them must reads. Beast Wars's 1990s CGI gave the series a look that a comic just can't match.

Oh and I can't read them, but the Beast Wars manga always looked impressive or amusing. Who wouldn't love manga Rattrap or Gigastorm?