When a spark goes online, there is great joy...

[GoktimusPrime]

G1 is great as the sentimental favourite, the one that started it all, and so on, but I have to be honest- I don't like those G1 fanboys who always say stuff like 'This suck coz it's not G1, the voices are different, the alt-modes are different, G1 for life etc.'. In my opinion, the G1 show has aged pretty badly, and Beast Wars and Animated are superior shows in terms of story writing, character development, and voice acting. Beast Wars is my all time fave and I own the entire series on DVD, which is part of the reason why I chose my username.

I strongly disagree.

The G1 cartoon has aged and is rather camp full of shallow one-dimensional caricatures, but not the G1 comics from Marvel. Many G1 fans have long preferred the comic books over the cartoon. The comics came out before the cartoon and lasted long after it was cancelled. The G2 comics were also vastly superior over the G2 cartoon (which was nothing more than the G1 cartoon rehashed). It was the G1 comics that portrayed Unicron as a god, gave us Primus and established the Matrix as a divine artifact. And oh yeah, Sentinel Prime originated from the G1 comics too (as Optimus Prime's predecessor). Bludgeon, Thunderwing, the Wreckers, the Decepticon Mayhem Attack Squads, Target: 2006, the Time Wars, the Underbase Saga, the Matrix Saga, the Legacy of Unicron etc etc etc. To me the Marvel comics have always been the "true" G1.

Say what you will about the G1 cartoon, but do not assume that it represents the entirety of G1... because it doesn't. The cartoon ran from 1985-1987 whereas the comics ran from 1984-1992. 1993 if you include G2.

1984

1992

And Transformers Generation 2 gave us Jhiaxus, the Liege Maximo and the Swarm (who would eventually evolve to become the Vok in Beast Wars).

1993 - Transformers Generation 2

The Swarm -->recreated into--> The Vok
(thanks to Optimus Prime )

[Beast_Wars_Superior]

Say what you will about the G1 cartoon, but do not assume that it represents the entirety of G1... because it doesn't.

Nah, I was specifically referring to the TV show. I just don't like it when people say stuff along the lines of 'Beast Wars sucks because they don't turn into vehicles' without even giving it a chance as a TV show in it's own right. I'm not any kind of fanboy, I judge everything on it's own merits.

Welcome. Hopefully your choice of username doesn't get too many people argueing with you. You'll find quite a few G1 fanboys here ready to argue with you about it's merits right away.

I don't mind rational debates, if that's what you mean.

Also, how many posts do I need before my avatar appears?

[Paulbot]

Your avatar should be there... just check in the User Control Panel there's two options Profile Picture and Avatar (these are different images and you'll need to set both)

[King Atlas]

Excellent, another beast wars fan. Are you also interested in Beast wars II and neo?

[TheDirtyDigger]

'Beast Wars sucks because they don't turn into vehicles'

I so agree with you there. Sorry didn't read the rest of your post but the important bit.

Haha...Welcome to the board BWS!
I was busy being a derelict teen/20-something when BW came out so it passed me by like a thief in the night.
I'll watch it one day on DVD. Is it out as a complete series or in Season boxsets?

[griffin]

I'll watch it one day on DVD. Is it out as a complete series or in Season boxsets?

Madman have released it on DVD in season sets, but they aren't as easy to find as their Gen1 releases. Rhino also released them in the US, which is what I have and could be easier to find online, but is in NTSC.

[Pulse]

Madman have released it on DVD in season sets, but they aren't as easy to find as their Gen1 releases. Rhino also released them in the US, which is what I have and could be easier to find online, but is in NTSC.

I've seen 'em in Ezydvd & JB Hifi stores but you've just gotta keep an eye out...

[GoktimusPrime]

I'm not too familiar with either of them to be honest. I have seen some BW2 figures on the net and they seem like pretty outlandish designs. Some look really creative and cool, but others looked pretty bad.

It's Beast Wars II, not 2. Pronounced as "Beast Wars Second," not "Beast Wars Two." Ben Yee calls it "Beast Wars the Second" as it's grammatically more correct in English, but officially it's just "Beast Wars Second."

Toywise BWII Maximals are the same moulds as other BW toys
(e.g.: Tasmania Kid is the same as Snarl, Apache is the same as B'Boom etc) whereas others are repaints (e.g.:Lio Junior is a repaint of Prowl, Powerhug is a repaint of Retrax, Diver is a repaint of Spittor et al). Lio Convoy is an original mould for that line though and the first Transformer to come with a Matrix. The Predacons are also mostly the same moulds from other BW, G1, G2 and Machine Wars figures, some repainted (e.g.: Megastorm is a repaint of G2 Megatron, Gigastorm is a repaint of Trypticon, Dirge is a repaint of MW Skywarp/Thundercracker, B.B. & Starscream are repaints of G2 Darkwing & Smokescreen (in the abandoned colours for G2 ATB Megatron & Starscream), the Auto Rollers are repaints of the G2 Autorollers (but with some abandoned designs for the G2 Autorollers being used for the first time, e.g.: Autolauncher) et al.). Some are retools of other moulds, like the Cyber Beasts, e.g.: Hellscream is a retool and repaint of Cybershark, Max B is a repaint/retool of Wolfang et al. Beast Wars II is thematically interesting in that it's beasts (Maximals) vs machines (Predacons).

The Japanese Beast Wars and BW II lines also had some cool play sets like Volcano Base and Niagara base.

Beast Wars Neo goes back to the original core concept of Beast Wars being "robots in disguise" (i.e.: realistic looking beast modes instead of Fuzors, Transmetals, Cyber Beasts etc) and gave us a lot of really nice new moulds and unique choices of beast modes that we'd never seen in Transformers before (e.g.: woolly mammoth, rabbit, giraffe, horse, queltzacoatlus, gigantosaurus, dimetrodon, ammonite, tanuki, cobra et al.).

Though if you want to teach me more about either of those universes, I'm all ears!

Thy will be done... (warning - SPOILERS!)

Beast Wars II, the Beast Wars movie and Beast Wars Neo are expansions of the Canadian Beast Wars series from Mainframe Entertainment which means that they exist in the same universe.


Optimus Primal with Lio Convoy on the planet Gaea in the Beast Wars movie

In BWII we learn that the Maximals have a Galactic Patrol as a para-military interstellar enforcement agency. The story revolves around one team of this patrol as they battle an insurgent force of renegade Predacons on the planet Gaea. In the end it turns out that the Predacons' commander Galvatron was being manipulated by Unicron. In fact, all Transformers are being influenced by Unicron to some degree. Remember that the Canadian series did point out that the Tripredacus Council and Tarantulas were creations/agents of Unicron*.

In BW Neo we learn that the Maximals have military forces and we also have a peek at the Maximal Council of Elders (aka Convoy Council) headed by Great Convoy. One team of recruits from the Maximal army battles a group of rogue Predacons in a pursuit to collect Angolmois Energy Capsules. Angolmois Energy, aka Dark Essence, is the energy from Unicron which was released when he was destroyed in G1. Unicron's spirit endures and is manipulating Transformers to elicit them to bring about his ressurection. Toward the end of the series after all the Angolmois Energy Capsules are found, Unicron unleashes his demonic heralds known as the Blentrons as well as Galvatron, who is now fully possessed by Unicron. Unicron attacks Cybertron and the Maximal Armada is called into action, literally surrounding Cybertron with Maximal warships in a defensive formation. In one move, Unicron wipes out the entire armada! (zOMG!) and moves in to the core of Cybertron where he possesses Vector Sigma and through it begins rebuilding Cybertron as his new body! (a much better idea than rebuilding Junkion as he'd previously attempted in G1 )

The surviving Maximals make a final stand and Unicron is ultimately defeated with the combined power of Lio Convoy and Big Convoy Matrixes... Matrices. Yeah.

Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo characters also appear in the IDW Beast Wars comics, which Simon Furman has stated is in continuity with the rest of the Beast Wars Universe. The comics does jump through time and space - on Cybertron it appears to occur shortly after the departure of the theft of the Golden Disk but before the events of BW II and Neo. On Earth it appears to occur during the events of BW Season 3.


Lio Convoy's Cybertronian form as portrayed in the IDW comics

Oh, and if you're wondering how the hell Optimus Primal could've travelled to planet Gaea, you can thank the Vok for that. Remember the Season 1 BW episode where Optimus Primal was kidnapped by the Vok device and Rattrap was leader for a while? During that time, Optimus Primal was transported from Earth to Gaea. He assisted Lio Convoy and his Maximals and unleashed the power of his Matrix to become Burning Beast Convoy (Lio Convoy used his Matrix to become Flash Lio Convoy) and defeated Majin Zarak. After that he was returned to whatever dimension it was that the Vok was storing him in, to re-appear on Earth ("Look who's back, and feeling Prime!"). I think that episode was "Chain of Command."

*Tarantulas was willing to kill both Autobots and Decepticons aboard the Ark which is illogical from a true Predacon's POV, but Tarantulas said that he and the Tripredacus Council have "different origins." Later Megatron refers to Tarantulas as "Unicron's spawn."

[Paulbot]

While BWII is correct, BW2 is an acronym commonly used and accepted amongst English-speaking Transfans to refer to Beast Wars Second (It's even used in the TF FAQ) even if it leads to some people calling it Beast Wars 2.

[Beast_Wars_Superior]

The BW box sets shouldn't be too hard to find. Just go to JB Hifi and ask them to order it in. I bought Season 1 and 3 off the shelf, but had to order in Season 2 (arrived in a week though).