Quote Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev View Post
In this case I don’t reckon Beast Wars was THE big game changer - but it’s fine if you do. Just don’t speak for the rest of us. Personally BW marked the lowest point in my toy collecting over the past 35 years.
Fact: Beast Wars boosted Transformers sales massively. By 1997 Beast Wars had become the third best selling action figure line after Toy Story and Star Wars.
This isn't my opinion. This is based on sales figures.

Compare TF shopping during the G2 years vs the BW years.
Compare the online fandom during the G2 years vs the BW years.

And bear in mind that the success of Car Robot and successive Transformers lines is thanks to Beast Wars. Car Robot was basically Beast Wars engineering with licensed vehicles. This in turn inspired Binaltech and Masterpiece. I still find design elements in MP and CHUG toys today that originated in BW. And this is why I generally don't get that excited about CHUGs or MPs based on BW toys vs those based on G1. If I look at say BW vs CHUG Waspinator (easy like for like comparison cos they're both Deluxes) I can see that neither toy is really better worse than the other. But when I compare say G1 vs CW Powerglide (and a G1 Mini-Bot would be roughly the price of a Legends Class in today's prices)... there's no comparison; CW wins hands down. I have yet to see any BW based CHUG or MP toy that I thought was, relative to price point, outright superior to the original BW toy. And this isn't because the MPs or CHUGs are lacking but just because BW was so good; a lot of the improvements on the more recent toys are superficial embellishments (e.g. screen accuracy) rather than something more substantive.

I've got TR Seaspray sitting on my desk atm. Looking at this toy I can see things like:
* Superior detailed sculpting
* Superior durability
* Painted decos instead of stickers
* At least 9 points of articulation in the robot mode
* Weapon is incorporated in the alt mode
Guess what? This all came from Beast Wars! This is why Beast Wars was the game changer. The main innovation that Car Robot gave us was combining BW engineering with licensed vehicles. Otherwise there wasn't a whole lot of new innovations from that line. And it wasn't even consistently applied across the line whereas BW was. With Car Robot we had: Fire Convoy, God Magnus, Gigatron, the Car Robot Bros, Team Bullet Train and the Buildmasters and that was it. Everything else in that line were repaints of existing G1, G2 and BW moulds (Predacons, Combaticons, Spychangers, Brave Max). And while Gigatron was a new mould he was a Predacon made in the BW aesthetic. Don't get me wrong, I really do love Car Robot a lot... but I don't think it was the big game changer that BW was.

I'm NOT saying that you have to love Beast Wars, but simply acknowledge the lasting impact that it's had on the Transformers brand that is still felt today.
I'm not talking about any individual's personal experience (that's anecdotal) but the overall impact that these lines have had on the entire brand and fandom as a whole.