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[CyclonusArmada]

Transformers was Dead

Lets be honest with the end of Sunbow in the early 90's and soon after the Marvel series, interest in and popularity of the 'Formers trailed off into virtual nonexistance. Yes G2 continued in this void for some time yet never captured the hearts and minds attention of G1. The fans were growing up, moving on and as the Takara series was Japan only for many years most of us walked away from our favourite Bots and Cons. Personally I moved onto comics and X-Men in particular, but thats a story for another forum.

Cue 1996 and a bold new beginning.

G1 was considered a "Stale Property" at the time which is hard to believe now but such was life. So a near total revamp was used for BW. Yet instead of the creatively bankrupt reboots we get today instead BW was geared as the future and continuation to the original G1 series canon and thus new concepts were added to that mythos: Smaller forms, more integrated altmodes, cumulative weaponry and perhaps the greatest unsolved question the series posed: Just how did the Great War end?

I could go on and on here but I think i've rambled enough for an opening to the thread. So Beast Wars: Love it? Hate it? Trukk not Munky?

TERRORIZE!!

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[Verno]

Love it, without question.

It's what got me into the TF franchise. I was 10 in 1996, the perfect age for indoctrination

The writing for TF fiction has never again been as great, the story-lines as grand or the climaxes as massive.

And the show won an Emmy for Primus' sake!

Love it.
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[Oracle1984]

Had always been a "Truck -- Not Monkey" guy. But watched the series through recently, and agree it was really well done. Something special. Wish I had time to go back and re-read the IDW Beast Wars comics in light of having now seen the series.
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September 17, 1984. MTME Part I. The world changed forever.
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"Nobody ever died for a typewriter." Road-Block, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel) #69 (p.4)
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(Okay to print)

[DanielW]

I'm a monkey - not truck guy actually.
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Ohh 'Eck!

[bassbot]

I was a young teenager and raced home to watch it after getting homework done. It formed my early geeky years and made me appreciate Transformers so much more than I did as a kid with the TV cartoon and toys.

LOVE IT. Think it should stay complete and relatively untouched too.
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[CyclonusArmada]

In hindsight it did have its faults: the cop out ending to The Agenda, the whole Cheetor/Tigatron & Tarantulas/Black-Arachnia palette swap thing although the latter is a roundabout homage to the G1 seeker idea really.

The 'Trukk not Munky' people I always assumed simply either haven't watched it or given it a chance. I mean you watch Code of Hero, Transmutate or The Agenda and you don't like it, well to paraphrase Peter Griffin: You're dead inside.

Code of Hero itself is powerful stuff. Probably the most noble death a Transformer has ever had in a series.
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[DanielW]

umm They aren't palette swaps, they individual designs. Blackarachnia looks nothing like Tarantulus.
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Ohh 'Eck!

[CyclonusArmada]

[DanielW]

I don't know - Scorponok in G1 comics, Prime in the 86 movie, Prowl in Animated are just as moving iMO.
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Ohh 'Eck!

[CyclonusArmada]

[ssg 4 life]

still wish idw would do one final bw series leading into bm, which they clearly set up with that shot of megatron on cybertron after the defeat of shokaract
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[FDrowned]

I only found out about the Dinobot suicide thing recently when I rewatched the series via YouTube

Damn you GMTV and your editing in order to give the accursed Mr Motivator more screen time.


But yes, BW was my first proper taste of Transformers. Me and my mates used to collect of the figures and then re-enact certain fight scenes from the tv show.

Everyone in my class watched the show, we all used to act out scenes from the show during break time (using ourselves, not the toys)

Of course the sequel had to air on a channel we didn't get.
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"Running away with a Spaceman in a box, anything could happen to you"

[CyclonusArmada]

Same here. I only watched BM (which technically makes Beast Wars the longest running TF series @ 5 seasons) a year or two ago when I spotted the boxset in Blockbuster. More on BM a little later in the thread though. ITV used to cut so much out of Beast Wars and you only found out about it much later on VHS/DVD (EG at one point Primal yells at Silverbolt over Black-Arachnia and they cut him yelling mid argument, for some odd reason???)
The suicide moment did make sense though given Dinobot's character. Which isn't a statement you would normally use in any series and yet BW handled it very well. Proof that 'light hearted moments' were definitely out of Season 2.
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[Cyberstrike]

IMHO The Transformers: Beast Wars ties with The Transformers: Beast Machines for the best TF series and the Japanese series Beast Wars II is the worse.

I have only see the first 3 episodes of Beast Wars Neo and it's not enough for me make a fair opinion on it.
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Fit to print, but remember this: I would rather hated for being honest than being loved as a liar.

[CyclonusArmada]

To be honest it was only the character designs I didn't like about BM. The story was quite decent in my opinion. Obviously Rattrap suffered design-wise more than most.
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