The Beast Unleashed @ IA-CON ONLINE

We must finalize our victory! They're headed

for our base! Which means no time to lose. It's

time to transform and roll out! I'm Megatron,

and this is what you have all anxiously been

waiting for. Yes. Welcome to the Beast Unleashed

panel. I'm your host, Steve Megatron. Just a

brief overview about myself. I've been into Transformers

and specifically Beast Wars since the show premiered.

I've been in various forums, websites, etc. of

Transformers over the years, ran a Beast Wars

Transformers website called Predacon Empire for

a time. I also run the still ongoing podcast

All Things Transformers and the podcast network

Geekcast Radio dot com. So enough about me. Welcome

to The Beast Unleashed. The focus of the panel

is to have a retrospective on the series that

changed Transformers forever, and in it we'll

discover why it was important for the Transformers

franchise rebirth, and why it can be 25 years

later, as well as the timeline from Beast Wars,

eh, maybe G1, G2, onward to now. So without further

ado, let's unleash the beast in you. What is

Beast Wars? Beast Wars is a Transformers franchise,

obviously, that began in 1996. Following the

end of Generation 2, it was a massive and great

departure from what we'd had before. It was a

reinvention of the brand, featuring robots that

changed into realistic, organically -styled animals

instead of their traditional vehicles, which,

honestly... I loved it as a kid. Obviously, the

cartoon was another visual break. Being the first

fully CGI Transformer series, although there

have been many that have followed in the time

since, it was the first. And say what you will

about the graphics and the aesthetics of the

day, it was groundbreaking. The graphics we get

today, yes, they're more polished and nicer to

look at, but even back then, I feel like not

much has changed in the aesthetics of how they

move, how they transform. and Beast Wars to modern

Transformers. I mean even back then the Transformers

actually transformed way more than they do now

in a lot of the modern media. So although fans

originally cried a river over truck not monkey,

Beast Wars dramatically reinvigorated the brand

whose sales had been just tanking since generation

two. So speaking of generation two we're going

to discuss Transformers in the 90s and of course,

Beast Wars. And Transformers Generation 2 is

an early 1990s series that really wasn't all

that much of a series because it consisted of

only the original Generation 1 cartoon, just

rebroadcast, repackaged with a CGI animation

laid on top of them. And the most extensive change

was the title sequence, which had been altered

completely, replaced with CGI, basically a glorified

toy commercial. with prime ramjet and it was

only a slight change in content all the other

like instead of the the Autobot Decepticon flip

you'd get the cybernetic space cube and Honestly,

I saw an episode of it back in the day and it

did not interest me whatsoever Which is funny

because I caught it later on the sci -fi channel

when they didn't repackage it unfortunately It

had become really cheap and nobody cared about

it. It was kind of just this kind of space filler

and honestly the only thing good that came out

of Generation 2 was we got some different paint

aesthetics. We got Megatron as a tank for the

very first time. We had another Transformers

GI Joe crossover in that of Generation 2's comic.

The GI Joe featuring Snake Eyes comics introduced

the original Megatron crashing onto Earth and

you had kind of this leftover arc of characters

which it never really quite explains when the

timeline kind of plays into that. It kind of

corresponds a little bit with some of the Generation

1 Marvel comics and you get you know Megatron

coming to the the Cobra organization and them

rebuilding him a body out of a tank. Then you

get the a few of the Autobots that kind of come

in and and some of those were generation 2 characters

some of them not the aesthetic however was a

Little bit of a departure as far as generation

1 and generation 2 then we get the generation

2 comic which honestly I enjoyed for what it

was even though it was a limited 12 issue series

and I Felt like if they'd gone that direction

with an animated series. I feel like they could

have had a better Chance of reinvigorating transformers.

However, they didn't go that route with the cartoon.

It was just they wanted to rehash what they had

Which isn't that much different from what they

do today and they brand a generation to as this

is not your father's Autobot with prime with

a bunch of bullet holes and a lot of a lot of

those aspects attached to him now moving into

why we need slash needed Beast Wars and The reason

is, as a franchise, it was tired. It had been

around since 84, and here we are in the mid -90s.

Ten years later, and they were pretty much dead.

They were on their way out. There was nothing

new coming. It was, it was lacking anything new,

aside from, you know, just rehashing Generation

1, various formats, styles, visual cues, and

repaints. They didn't seem to find any originality

left in the pool. Aside from the comics, like

I said, we had the Action Masters, which basically

killed generation one. The headmasters, the target

masters, those were some good aspects that they

brought into the franchise. However, getting

into the non -transformable Transformers, which

they did again in Beast Machines, it didn't really

help them any. It didn't build their franchise

to anything bigger, to new, to anything that

would draw kids back to it. Most of the kids

that grew up with the original Transformers kind

of were out of it at that point. And Beast Wars

honestly was the first reinvention that kind

of gave it new life. So Beast Wars and Generation

One, although at first the show seemed to be

an entirely separate continuity by the end of

the first season's 26 episodes, give or take

a few episodes here or there, such as we get

the web where Cheetor's knocked out on Tarantulas's

web and you see a little bit of the The cyber

jets you see some transformer buildings. It's

it's on Cybertron and then you see tarantulas

kind of jump up into it which again kind of hints

at generation one then you really don't get anything

else until the appearance of Starscream in possession

Which was one of my favorite episodes, although

it's kind of funny Primal against the sunglasses

in one episode. I love the bloopers that happened

in the show or some of the inconsistencies that

happened in it However, that being said, that's

the first appearance you get of Starscream since

his ghost in the third season of the original

cartoon when he was blasted by Galvatron and

his crew. In that episode of Possession, you

get to see Unicron. You get to see Starscream.

You mentioned the Autobots and Decepticons. You

mentioned Galvatron. And so that's the first

real tie we got to Generation 1. Following that

up, we discovered that this planet is not an

entirely separate continuity. It is revealed

to be prehistoric earth. The characters have

been thrown back in time which time travel is

always one of those things that they can manage

to fix things or to rewrite history and it it's

very helpful in a lot of franchises. I mean look

at some of the Star Trek films they use time

travel it usually turns out pretty good. Looking

at this we have time travel and the end of the

second season we have The Ark finally show up.

You get to see the Autobots, the Decepticons,

lying dormant, Megatron flying over Soundwave's

body, seeing Starscream's face, seeing Prime,

and then you get to see Megatron do what Megatron,

the original, could never do. Kill Prime. Which,

I mean, he did in the movie, if you count it,

or I kinda did that. Megatron did this on his

own, even without his troops in commission. So,

that being said, We have Ravage, who's reinvigorated

and brought back, upgraded as a Predacon. And

that, again, is another drawback to Generation

One, which it was nice to see Ravage show up,

which it was totally unforeseen. I loved how

they used part of Cheetor's transmetal body,

and then they had him still transformed to a

cassette and explain a little bit more at Tarantulas's...

angle of things. However, with the jump of the

agenda and then having the stasis -locked Autobots

and Decepticons, Master Blaster took it to another

level with Megatron mixing with the original

Megatron. And finally, we get the Nemesis two

-parter where the Nemesis showed up. All of this

adding to the rich history that is Generation

1 and further cementing on the groundwork of

G1 without necessarily needing to know it or

to enjoy it, but it added to the enjoyment of

this series. Adding to that, we have two new

factions, technically one. The factions are the

Maximals, the Heroic Maximals, and the Evil Predacons.

The Predacons are taking place of the Decepticons,

the Maximals are taking place of the Autobots.

And the Predacons, although they were a subsection

of the Decepticons back in G1, they're their

own ranking subclass or main class here in Beast

Wars. And I love the logos. I love that you have

the animalistic one for the Maximals. You have

the bug kind of insect look for the Predacons.

Because the Predacons are very much reptilian

or insect based. The Maximals are very much animal

or bird, some kind of an animal, some type of

a mammal to some degree with the exception of

Dinobot. Transmetals kind of throws it in a whole

new direction. But the writing and the rich content,

the show won so many people over, though. The

intriguing stories, the generally high production

value, the characterization was epic. I loved

the characterization, how they evolved from episode

to episode, how you got to learn a little bit

more of each character. They weren't necessarily

focusing on one person. If you look at all of

the modern Transformers, they mostly focus on

either some subset of Prime or generally Bumblebee.

This gave you a little bit of everybody. Everybody

got a little bit of the limelight in there and

it was great. You had great writing. You had

great voice acting. It was very complex. The

overarching plots that connected themselves.

The two -parters were great. The threads that

they they weaved through the series were among

the reasons that this show is cited for this

long -term popularity. Love or hate the graphics.

The stories and the characterization and the

voice acting, you cannot deny, were some of the

most epic we've ever had in Transformers. Some

of the show's mysteries and machinations still

remain topics for fan debates, obviously, like

Dinobot regaining his memory, which they would

have explained had the episode Dark Glass ever

made the time of day. Now, if some of you remember,

I was a part of the project that did the Dark

Glass project. It never got to the visual format.

At the beginning of the show, or this panel,

you saw a snippet of the teaser video which I

re -voiced recently. A lot of things happen.

We have all the vocals, it just never got fully

put together. Life hits everyone. So eventually

that's going to be an audio drama later this

year that I'm putting together. So just stay

tuned for that. So anyways, the show's CGI, though

somewhat primitive by today's standards, it was

revolutionary back then. We'd never really seen

anything like that. Yes, Reboot had a little

bit of that, but Beast Wars took it to another

level. And it's put some later shows to shame.

I mean, look at the 2015 robots in disguise.

Yeah, it's a different aesthetic, but it's still

not as great as Beast Wars was. The Power of

the Primes. Yeah, it had some rich characterizations.

It had some rich animation. It had some rich

CGI, but it's definitely in a different tier.

And you... I felt like the Beast Wars transformations

are a little bit more solid and smooth than some

of the modern transformation that happens in

Transformers. Prime I think is probably the best

we've gotten as far as the transformation and

the flexibility that we've had in any of the

robots in any of the series since Beast Wars.

Now because developing CGI models was at the

time very expensive and time consuming, some

of the characters that we probably would have

liked to have seen that were toys never got to

be on the show. And so therefore there was a

limited number of characters on the screen. And

so although it had less than a lot of the other

Transformers series, it was great in that we

got to focus on a small subset, a small group.

We had literally 10 to 14 characters at any given

time that would show up and you could focus on

all of them. You could You could get into the

little intricacies of each character and it was

it was something that Transformers really didn't

get to do it was mostly about the storyline and

how to just push the characters through it instead

of the journey that the characters had to go

through in that storyline And so you got a nice

little mix of both with beast wars Now, obviously

we had some stasis locked Autobots and Decepticons

arc and a lot of other things which which led

to its its growth and and continuity, but it

also won a Daytime Emmy Award for the outstanding

achievement animation in 1998, which again, I

don't recall any Beast or any Transformers series

since ever getting that. I could be wrong, but

I don't recall any of that happening. So moving

on to the characters, we have the heroic Maximals.

And as you can see from this wonderful graphic,

you can see pretty much everybody and We had

some various transformations along the way. And

that's something else Beast Wars did really well

before I get into the characters that are in

here. We had them turn into beasts. Then we had

a twist on the end of season one where they killed

Primal, then revived him. But the way that they

brought him back was epic. It wasn't some, oh,

I'm such a poor leader. I have to get the Matrix

back to Prime. I see his body, blah, blah, blah.

No, they were like, we need Primal. We need him

now. So they got him. And the transmetal aspect

of having them explaining the second moon being

destroyed and having one moon, so it... obviously

is Earth. And you have the Transmetals. It flips

the dynamics so it creates a new version of the

character, new twists, new turns, new models,

new reason to get the toys instead of saying,

okay, here's Prime for Siege, Prime for Earthrise,

and then here's Prime for Kingdom. They're all

the same toy. Have fun. New packaging, same product.

I'm not knocking the creators of the show. I'm

knocking Hasbro for this because I find that

it's... a little distasteful to sell the same

toy multiple times. Beast Wars, on the other

hand, I know that it created the conundrum of

more money, more models, more time and R &D put

in, but it felt like the transmedals took their

original beast forms to another level. You got

whole new bodies and they were probably the most

accurate character versions that we got out of

all of it was once they hit the transmetal stage

because it didn't have to make them look like

realistic beasts to some degree they just had

to match somewhat of the show aesthetic and I

felt like the original first run of the beast

wars toys which I'll get into later didn't really

match the models all that cleanly or clearly.

And so when we got to trans metals, it kind of

took that evolution and traversed it to new heights.

So we have the heroic maximals of Optimus Primal,

Rhinox, Dinobot, Cheetor, Rattrap, Tigatron,

Air Razor, Silverbolt, Depth Charge, Tigerhawk,

Transmutate. But anyways, the only name that

was really consistent with anything we've had

in the past was Optimus Primal, which was a twist

on Optimus Prime, and Silverbolt, which was a

Generation 1 Aerialbot. Other than that, they

were all new characters, fit all new different

personas, different levels. So I mean, you have

a variety of character archetypes in there. Now

moving to the evil Predacons, you get Megatron,

which gets, you know, taking the namesake of

the original Megatron for various reasons. And

he gets three different transformations, just

like Primal. You get Scorponok, which was an

original transformer name, which they killed

him. uh, Pterosaur, Tarantulas, Waspinator, Blackarachnia

who switched sides which didn't really happen

all that much in the old stuff. Even Dinobot

switched sides multiple times in this show. You

get Inferno, which was again another original

Generation 1 name. You get Quickstrike, Rampage,

another original Predacon name. Dinobot, Transmetal

2. Then you get the Tri -Predicus Council of

Ramhorn, Sea Clamp, and Cacadacon. And then you

get Ravage, who's an original Generation Transformer

himself, not just a namesake. So, I felt like

the variation in the characters, the variation

in the names, their personalities, the voices...

Oh, the voices were epic on all... three like

levels like you get the the rich persona you

get a variation in voice and then you get this

whole like overarching difference I mean just

look at Scott McNeil doing four characters in

the same show has got to be fun yet difficult

and some of them in the same episode specifically

Maximal No More. I just I love the level of quality

that went into the show as far as the voice acting

and the writing. Now getting into the toys as

I mentioned before the the season one figures

weren't as accurate as I would have liked or

as most of us would have liked for the show.

Now a lot of it was paint aesthetic differences,

some of it was just the technology at the time,

but these were infinitely better than what we

got in Generation 1. They matched more closely

because they were animals. You got Cheetor who,

you know, in this image you've got Cheetor, I

had this toy. He wasn't very show accurate, but

it was good enough. And same thing with Rhinox,

Rattrap, Primal. Now Primal, surprisingly, they

did pretty well with its They've improved it

with newer versions, but it's pretty much spot

on. The rest of them they've had, DinoBot specifically

has been one of the most redone toys as well

as Cheetor. I feel like they've had a hard time

doing them unless they do a masterpiece for some

reason. But the toys, again, they were something

different. It was a different generation, a different

style and different mechanisms. Megatron's dinosaur

head had a squirt gun in it. You had DinoBot's

tail which could spin. You had Rhinox's guns

that could spin. Cheetor had his tail was a flip

-up gun and then he had another gun underneath.

Rat Trap, he had the one flip. Some of the toys

they had you could flip the tail and it would

transform them or flip their head. Such as Terror

Soar, Rat Trap, the original Optimus and Megatron

two -pack of the bat and the alligator. So those

were a lot easier to transform and yet they still

look surprisingly good. And you look at some

of the stuff from Kingdom, for example. And I

have the new Rattrap. I have the new Megatron.

A lot of these things are more complicated. And

yes, they're very show accurate to things. They're

very good quality looking. But I've heard issues

with some of the quality control with figures

such as Chidor and Blackarachnia. And the Rattrap

figure I've noticed is a little rough if you're

not quite sure how to get some of the parts apart

to transform them. I had a little difficult time

transforming them, even with the instructions.

And so I kind of missed some of the simpler transformations

that we had back then, which is kind of missing

in today's Transformers. It's the ease of transformation.

And yes, the quality is better on the looks of

the figures, but the transformation makes it

possible where you can break them if you're not

careful. Now moving on to the next part of the

panel, we have the games. Transformers, obviously,

the first game that we got was in 97. And it's

a third -person shooting game released by Sony

PlayStation platform. And it was ported to the

PC platform in 98. I had it. I played it on the

MSN gaming zone. It was a fun death match style

game. Players picked their side and sent their

Transformers on missions against both the opposing

side and the extra dimensional Skrix aliens,

which are almost kind of like the Vox, but something

different. They kind of take over the planet

in different ways. It was a terrible game. The

voice acting was not there from the original

cast. It was very blocky. It kind of put to shame

everything that the cartoon had done. And while

I like the game for what it is, it's a terrible

game. Then we got the Transformers Beast Wars

Transmetals on PlayStation in 99 and 2000 in

America. And then they had it on the counterpart

in Nintendo 64. And this game was just basically

just one -to -one Street Fighter style. And you

duke it out and the game was a little bit better

aesthetics. It had the actual voice cast. You

had some different things like the golden Megatron.

You had Ravage. You had Transmetals that were

in the game. So I would have loved to have played

that, never did, but again, that's one of the

several games. Then we get Dual Fight Transformers

Beast Warrior's Strongest Decisive Battle, which

is a Game Boy Color game. Ridiculously long title.

I've played it on an emulator a while back. It's

kind of fun. It's got kind of short versions

of the characters and you get to kind of... Duke

it out in similar fashion transform and everything.

It's very basic You get some of the Beast Wars

Beast Wars 2 and neo characters and kind of Duke

it out now Then you get into some of the modern

games where they're not really Beast Wars games

they're kind of game transformer games with Beast

Wars in them and that would be The fighter game,

I can't remember the name of it. And then Earth

Wars. And I've got Earth Wars, I've been playing

that. And I have some of the Maximals and Predacons.

And it's fun, but it's still not a true Beast

Wars game. And I feel like we haven't really

had a good Transformers game either since the

War for Cybertron games and Escalation. So moving

into Beast Machines. and its different continuities,

continuations. The original working title for

Beast Wars or Beast Machines, I should say, is

Beast Hunters. And it changed. It was supposed

to evolve the Beast Wars franchise, kind of continue

it with Megatron and so on. It was going to be

another mainframe entertainment show. And then

ultimately, Mainframe dropped the Predacons.

They created the Viacons in place of them. It

was the idea of Mainframe's writers, and they

decided to kind of change a few things. Bob Skewer

had suggestions from Hasbro and Mainframe and

Fox Kids, and they kind of created this new amalgamation,

and it became later Beast Machines. And they

had a lot of continuation to the storyline. They

did a little bit of touching on Generation 1,

but it was mostly a continuation of Beast Wars

and kind of its own thing. You got a little bit

of the prehistory in there, and then they tied

it into BotCon comics and different stories.

And, you know, eventually Hasbro did reuse the

Beast Hunter's name for the third season of Transformers

Prime as a subline. And then, of course, we had

TransTech, which again, it was an original...

planned series to follow up Beast Machines, which

I honestly would have loved to have seen. However,

they went back to the original design of robots

that turned into vehicles. And yes, there were

some variations where they had some beasts in

it, but it was still primarily Generation 1 with

a little bit of the old style Generation 1 Predacon

flair. Not necessarily the same that we got in

Beast Wars. And so It would have begun in summer

2001, but instead got replaced by Robots in Disguise

while Hasbro created the Unicron Trilogy. And,

you know, some of these things have kind of sporadically

shown back up into other continuities, but...

They tried to do something new, is kind of what

I was getting at, is they were trying to reinvent,

and then Hasbro kind of decided, well, we're

gonna go back to this other pool and play in

that direction. And while we would have had some

carryovers from Beast Machines, such as Blackarachnia,

Cheetor, Night Scream, Silverbolt, and Rattrap,

and Depth Charge, we would have got Generation

1 characters in Optimus Prime, Shockwave, Starscream,

and some kind of a transtech Megatron that turned

to a tank, and a character called Immorticon.

And they never really had any reason for canceling

it, other than mainframe had a lot of economic

issues at the time. But again, it is what it

is. Now, Japan took this a step further. They

created Beast Wars 2 and Beast Wars Neo. Beast

Wars 2 is kind of relative in the Transformers

continuity. to Beast Wars and that it didn't

really focus on the same continuity. It kind

of, it took place three centuries after the end

of the Great War, give or take, and it was the,

it focused on Leo Convoy. They had a movie where

they had Optimus Prime will kind of get time

jumped in, but it takes place theoretically way

later in the future of Earth and Civilization's

long moved on and it's been tens of thousands

of years placing it in the distant future to

both Beast Wars and the original Transformers.

Then we get Nioh and it's got a large composition

of new and original molds. You get some that

are from the G2 Machine Wars era, which again,

Machine Wars was another toy line that kind of

stole from the Beast Wars. Titling font, but

it was very much a G to repackaging of European

transformer figures, which again nothing wrong

with those we had the machine words figures.

They were great I would have rather have seen

that than rid at the time but It is what it is.

So Hasbro returned to all of their series Now

while all of these series had elements of Beast

Wars, none of them have truly done what Beast

Wars did with a total return to the original

characters, give or take some elements of various

series and new characters thrown throughout.

Some of these consisted of repaints, redeco's

and other reinvented forms of gimmicks. Unicron

Trilogy gave us minicons, animated and included

the AllSpark. Prime included Dark Energon. Prime

Wars included the core combination in the AllSpark.

Cyberverse brought us the Multiverse. And then...

Through all of those different series, they did

have aspects of at least Predacons. Robots in

Disguise had it. Armada, Energon, and Cybertron

had it. Transformers Animated, we got Blackarachne

and Waspinator, as well as like a little tease

of the Maximals on a prehistoric Earth. Transformers

Prime, we got the Predacons, although a different

version. Same thing with Robots in Disguise.

Prime Wars we got Optimus Primal showing up,

Cyberverse Cheetor shows up. Now that getting

all into the the encompassing of everything that

we have here. We get the reissues, the reboots,

and the movies. Now the movies I have to say

did a good job in reinventing Transformers for

a time. Now it's been well over 14 years since

the first film came out. being that it came out

in 2007. We've had six films, six live -action

ones, each one performing less than the previous

one. The final film in the franchise was technically

a reboot, but did not make more of a story. And

it did, it did fix the visuals. The story was

better, but ultimately it was underwhelming as

essentially more of the same robo kibble. People

were tired of the Bayverse aesthetic and I feel

like that's going to be a problem if they want

to continue with Transformers movies. That being

said, Transformers fatigue. Transformers fatigue

hits China. This was an article from the web

and I knew that this had been posted at some

point. I had to kind of go back and find it because

there was a point in time where the last night

kind of put the last nail in the coffin for the

franchise of the live action anyway it started

getting a little weird started getting a little

out there now while it did play with some originality

with some kind of beastly creatures with with

dragons and and knights and some other smoother

aesthetics that they gave some of the characters

but there was a lot of issues with how it was

staggering they they'd had a lot of different

changes in their films there was a lot of different

things going on at that point, a lot of different

movies that were coming out. The Transformers

franchise just kind of started to dry up. I stopped

caring after the third movie, to be honest, because

there really wasn't anything new that they could

do. It had a lot of poor word of mouth. It had

underperformed kind of everywhere. But honestly,

the film wasn't that great. A lot of the dialogue,

the storylines, a lot of it had kind of waned

since that first film. to be honest and I just

I feel like Transformers kind of lost its way

with the films and that's why they they kind

of jumped ship to Bumblebee and they kind of

course corrected a little bit and then put it

on hold because they're kind of going back to

the drawing board. Now there have been rumors

of a Beast Wars movie these were these were graphics

that were put out by artists that were commissioned

to do things for the last night before the movie.

and these were options that they had for Optimus

Primal and Cheetor. The Cheetor one, for whatever

reason, just recently kind of came out. They

had some of the cat images with the robot. Honestly,

they look terrible. The Primal looks better by

comparison, but they're just terrible. It's more

of the same, the RoboKibble, hard to tell what

they are. When discussing a Beast Wars film,

this is not what I'd hope for or expect. I've

been reading a lot of the message boards on AllSpark,

T -Formers and the such, reading it on Facebook.

People are not enthused by this cheater at all.

If Hasbro goes this direction, they will totally

bludgeon the Beast Wars franchise with this.

People will not care. They may care for the first

film just to see what happens, but I don't feel

like this is going to be something with longevity.

It could be gritty and not have this... Michael

Bay confusing trash heap that we've got in front

of us. I'm not knocking the artists at all because

it is still an artistic feat to reimagine them

in a different way and I applaud them for that,

but this doesn't even resemble Beast Wars in

the slightest and while I commend it, I think

the fans in general are ready for something new.

While this looks Bay -verse and styled, I think

a more subtle approach is required. Quite honestly,

after that second Bay film, I watched them on

streaming because I wasn't going to pay for another

in theater. The first was epic for what it was,

and I enjoyed it. But the rest never really evolved.

They never really did. I mean, they added elements

of things in there. They had a pretender in the

second film. But overall, it's not saying that

they're bad, but each Transformers fan does and

should have an entry point. I'm not a fan of

it past the first film and then the Bumblebee

movie, which fixed some of it. What I'm getting

at here is that Beast Wars has the potential

to take the franchise in movie form. to another

direction. And that direction is this. These

are, one of them is fan art, one of them is a

Prime One Studios toy. This is what I would expect.

We have the CGE to do a real dinosaur, a real

ape, and have them look like real animals. Have

the hair showing on them. They don't have to

be smooth and silky. Have them with this aesthetic.

Have them look good. There's no reason why we

can't have them transform and look like the prime

one studios, figures or statues and robot mode

with all of the hair showing and all of that.

They've managed to do other things with CGI,

looking at the Lion King, looking at a lot of

these, you know, the Jungle Book, a lot of these

live action Disney movies where they have the

animals and they talk and they move and they

they're completely CGI and they're voiced by

an actor. There's no reason why. Hasbro couldn't

do the same thing with a Beast Wars movie. I

think that it would be epic. It would be taking

the original designs, updating them, giving them

a realistic look, and keeping some of the aesthetics

that people expect from them. If they did this,

I feel like we would have a major movie hit,

major trilogy, maybe even longer, something to

reinvigorate the film franchise. I feel like

people would go to see this. because who doesn't

want to see I mean we watch movies like uh King

Kong versus Godzilla which is coming soon why

wouldn't we watch the same thing watch Megatron

versus Primal T -Rex versus giant gorilla I I

don't know or in the very least let's go this

route And then we get into Beast Wars as a new

toy line. Now, granted, we had some nice figures

that came out during the 10th anniversary of

Beast Wars. We had some nice things come out

at the Thrilling 30, which was the 20th anniversary

of Beast Wars. We're at the 25th anniversary

of Beast Wars now. There's so many, we have masterpiece

figures of Primal, we have masterpiece figures

of Dinobot, Tigatron, Blackarachnia, Cheetor,

and we have Megatron. Now, granted, there's some

issues with... some of the figures specifically

Megatron I've heard issues with and they have

they have third party figures which yes there

are knockoffs of some of the Masterpiece some

of them fix quality control issues that Hasbro

had and some of them it's just a blatant knockoff

I mean I'm not saying to support either one I'm

just saying you do what's good for your budget

what you prefer for myself I don't transform

them so I have the Optimus Primal Masterpiece

I would love to get the Megatron and especially

the third party stuff We have Trans Art Studios,

which does, they have an Optimus Primal that's

transmetal, which is transmetal scale. And he

has the multiple face. He has a lot of the aesthetics.

He's chiseled out. He looks like the CGI model.

We have the same thing for Cheetor, the transmetal

version of him. We have one of Ravage. And then

you look at this third party Megatron, this winged,

I can't say the name of the studio because I

don't, I can't put it into words, but they do

this winged dragon. Transmetal 2 Megatron, which

is epic. Yes, there are a few minor flaws with

it. But again, for what it is, you're never going

to see these trans metals or these Transmetal

2 from Hasbro and Takara. At least not in the

near future. So getting them third party, honestly,

is probably the best way you're going to get

them. And I find that The level of technology

and the 3D printing and a lot of the things that

have come a long way since Beast Wars came out

25 years ago, we're getting these show accurate

figures that, for all intents and purposes, just

put the old stuff to shame. Yes, we have new

figures now with Kingdom, and they do put a lot

of the old stuff to shame still. These are still

the best way to get them and still some of the

best aesthetics that we've had on Transformers

and a bunch of variations. uh we're still getting

them with the the beast war style and they're

completely new figures most of them aren't even

re repaintable like the seekers we've gotten

like 10 versions of that and we've gotten 10

versions of prime and ultra magnus whatever and

and but this is something that can stand alone

it does it on its own it it looks great looks

beautiful follows the cgi model warfare cybertron

trilogy Now we get into the War for Cybertron

trilogy, and while I have my gripes with it,

I like what they're doing with it overall. I

like the overall premise. They're retelling Generation

One in a new way to fill in the gaps, to show

how they got to the stage they were at the beginning

of Generation One, to show how they got to Earth,

to show all these different transformations,

all these different journeys that everyone has

gone on. While I'm not keen on the speed of the

voice acting, I do find some of it a little slow

in pace, and I'm a little bothered that they

don't at least have the ability to have union

actors in some of it, namely for certain characters

that are coming up in Kingdom, because they're

either going to be bad impressions or they're

going to be totally renovated, changed, totally

different direction, which honestly would probably

be better in their sake than trying to do really

bad impressions. That being said, I do enjoy

the War for Cybertron's trilogy. I like Siege

for what it is because you get to see a little

bit of the things going on between the various

characters. Now, it becomes more evident the

longer you watch Siege and Earthrise that had

Elita 1 been given command of the Autobots, a

lot of this would have stopped much sooner. They

probably would have never made it to Earth and

Megatron would have been out of commission. There's

just... She's more put together than a lot of

the other characters, but even more than Prime.

Prime and Megatron kind of do this little weird

dance through the entire trilogy so far that

we've had out of the first two -thirds anyway,

and don't really know where they're going. They

know that they have a destiny to fulfill. Megatron

knows he has to kill Prime, or he's gonna end

up with this Galvatron state, and then Prime,

if he kills Megatron, ends up as Nemesis Prime

at some point. And so I like the little bit of...

give and take that they had going on. I like

the new twist of the Quintesson. I like the the

new twist that they put on a lot of the characters,

specifically Bumblebee. And although he's not

a key focus, he still is kind of one of the main

focuses on this. But I really did enjoy the overall.

I enjoyed some of the the voice acting, specifically

some of the ones that are actually at Iacon online

are some of my favorites from the series. So

And I commend FJ for what he's done with the

War for Cybertron Trilogy. It's definitely more

enjoyable than the Power of the Primes, in my

opinion. And it kind of adds a new element. It's

more so, I think, a studio issue than a writing

issue. So we get into Kingdom. Now, if you've

got any of the Kingdom figures, they say... Beastify

the battlefield. Worlds collide when the Maximals

and Predacons join the fight, coming together

with the Autobots and Decepticons in an epic

battle that will alter their destiny forever.

Primal power floods the battlefield as the fierce

beast modes and the Maximals and Predacons are

unleashed. I love this poster. I love the golden

disc. I love the new renditions of the beasts

in it. I cannot wait to see this series. I know

that it comes out, I believe, in May of this

year, and I cannot wait to see it. uh just based

on the teaser at the end of Dino Bot and we get

to see some of just a little bit of the aesthetic

that they're going for and although it's not

the same CGI as Beast Wars I feel like it's going

to be a little bit it's going to be a little

bit different but it's going to be very good

visually I just can't wait to see what they do

with it uh they will have all of the the beasts

of season one At least as far as it shows, they

haven't shown anything with pterosaur or tarantulas

or even inferno. But every maximal is accounted

for, which is a little bit strange to me. So

I'm wondering where they're going with that.

Kingdom and Beyond. So what? I'll be curious

with how many of these characters show up in

Kingdom. For instance, like I said, there's some

missing. However, in this particular art, we

see Polar Claw, which isn't even one of them.

And Magnus is dead, and there are other variables

at play, such as the toy of Dinobot. He's listed

as a Predacon, despite that he may yet be a Maximal.

They may go a different direction with him in

this and just keep him as Predacon. It's hard

to say. The fossilizers are a thing I'm unsure

about, but must be either a Black Arachne or

Scorponok invention. Or just could be something

Megatron's devised from the bones and mechanized

them kind of like he did the clones of Dinobot

or the the Transmetal Raptors in the fourth episode

of season three and One of like I've said my

other concern is the voice cast Again, I've said

my piece. The other aspect is it's rumored to

come With with these characters. I don't know

what we're going to see yet. We haven't seen

the toys and the new models of Tigatron. We haven't

seen the new models of Rhinox or Scorponok yet.

We've seen all the other ones. And to be honest,

they put their original toys to shame. The Black

Arachne and Airazor specifically. Primal looks

pretty close. Megatron does put his old toy to

shame. Rattrap's kind of there. Fedor, I feel

like they never seem to get his toy right, no

matter how hard they try. If Airazor and Blackarachnia

are any consolation, I cannot wait to see the

Rhinox, the Tigatron, and the Scorponok. The

Dinobot already looks great from what I've seen

from the preview images. Can't wait to get my

hands on these. So as you know, there's a new

mini -series featuring the original Season 1

Beast Wars cast. A brand new Beast Wars comic

coming from IDW that reimagines Beast Wars from

the beginning. it's quite honestly just epic

to think about because we had a little bit of

a short -lived comic under Dreamwave. The two

mini -series from IDW called The Gathering and

The Ascending, as well as many universe 3 -H

productions, BotCon comics, the Fun Pub comics,

and the Beast Wars Beast Machines universe. Not

to mention various crossovers from the characters

in regular IDW continuities such as Rat Trap,

Cheetor, and Primal. I'm very excited for this

comic because it gives us a new opportunity to

enjoy Beast Wars and to reintroduce it to a new

generation. Most of the people that didn't grow

up with Beast Wars don't have that love for it

that the people that grew up with it have. And

then of course we have the new toy line, despite

being in the War for Cybertron line, it's Kingdom,

and it's essentially Beast Wars. And it, like

I said, captures the CGI models almost identically

from the original series. Give or take a few

little inconsistencies with paint, They're pretty

spot on. And the best part about these figures

are they're budget priced. They're kingdom figures

that mimic some of the degree of the masterpiece.

These figures are getting Beast Wars toys that

are made in a modern way and detail to get an

almost masterpiece figure. I can't afford the

Beast Wars masterpiece figures personally, but

I can afford these easily. I do have the masterpiece

Primal. And the differences are slight between

him and the kingdom line to the point that if

I didn't have the masterpiece, I'd spring at

the kingdom figure in a heartbeat. I'm just impressed

with these, but what I'm even more impressed

with is their inability to stay on the shelf.

Sure, I see rat trap if I see any kingdom figures

or the reissued leader class Earthrise Optimus

Prime, but these are rare to find and they've

only been out for less than a month for the general

public. I had to hunt between four targets to

get Megatron. And even the Studio Series Scourge.

Yes, I can find Rattrap everywhere. I have not

seen a Blackarachnia or a Cheetor or even Primal

since I got the Megatron. So continuing on, we

have the Masterpiece figures, you know, as well

as updated the Transmetal Beasts, like I mentioned

from third party vendors. These toys are epic

and truly match the CGI models, the figures.

The funny thing was, is as we discussed masterpiece

figures on all things Transformers in the Beast

Unleashed podcast years ago, we were waiting

for good Beast Wars toys that had proper articulation.

While we haven't gotten all the Beast Wars characters

from season one yet, the ones we do have are,

well, a masterpiece to say the least. As for

the third party figures, we have quite a few

vendors out there that are just simply killing

it with their masterpiece level line. And the

details of the transmetals, something Hasbro,

like I said, will probably never get to. And

if they do, it may be sporadic at best. But the

Primal, Cheetor, Ravage are beautiful works of

art, and eventually they'll end up on my shelf.

That's not all, though, as we've also seen an

optimal optimist that is proportioned properly

and magnificent despite possible paint defects

and a mismatched -knee version of Transmetal

2 Megatron. Now the dragon figure, like I said,

it's epic. The optimal optimist figure I've seen

that's out there, it finally fixes the shoulder

cannons that he has an issue on the original

toy and the sizing of the head. It just, it looks

more natural the way that they've beefed him

out. Now... We've also had rumors of a Beast

Wars live -action film and there's so much speculation

going in either direction I'm not gonna add to

that but although it's been swirling for some

time the reality is with the return of Beast

Wars in the toy form and the Netflix series the

reintroduction to the fandom of Beast Wars is

going to cause this to eventually happen. We've

already seen particular test images of Bayverse

versions of them and I think that they would

do best to keep them true to the style and design,

but give them the updated CGI live action animation.

I really do. And I would love to see even more

that the original voice actors join and get to

be a part of it, even if it's a bit of a pipe

dream. What I would love to see even more is

a new miniseries featuring the original season

one Beast Wars cast. And, you know, despite not

having them in Kingdom, we are getting a brand

new Transformers cartoon heavily featuring Beast

Wars era characters, which in and of itself is

a huge win, which if it bodes well and the toys

obviously are doing well, we could be looking

at the possibility of a revival or continuation

by Hasbro with the original voice cast. If nothing

else, a separate series. Again, it's a pipe dream

for the original cast, but I've truly enjoyed

what we've gotten thus far so either way you

look at it it's renewed interest in this part

of the transformers franchise and last but not

least it's just created this resurgence for fans

to jump on board to this series 25 years later

i mean they're a staple of my shelf so do we

need more beast wars transformers i think i'll

let him answer that yes yes Again, thank you

to Iacon Online for this wonderful convention.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to be here in person,

but nonetheless, I'm glad to have been part of

this convention. And you can find out more about

Beast Wars and Transformers by staying things

Transformers. So until next time, thank you guys

for tuning into my panel. I hope that you guys

enjoyed it. I hope that you enjoyed the reasons

why we need more Beast Wars and why it's important

for Transformers revival and If you have any

questions, again, just hit me up on social media.

Thanks again and stay tuned for more from Iacon

Online. I wish to speak to my lawyer.