I have to say, every time I hear someone say that Transformers was 'Saved' by Beast Wars, pretty much most of what Trevor has said goes through my head.
Even the sculpting on early G1 Toys was outstanding, how else could they have such accurate representations of all those G1 era cars.

I'm not saying Beast Wars didn't do a lot of good for the Transformers Brand, but it didn't 'save' it. In my mind probably the biggest thing Beast Wars taught Hasbro was that if you recreated/retold/reinterpreted/restarted the show to some degree every few years it would be more likely to interest a new wave of children.

Beast Wars was an important chapter in the 35 year history of transformers but it's hardly any more important than any other chapter/era.