o.supreme wrote:I am first and foremost an original TF fan, but I very much enjoy BW. Still...I think people overestimate recognizability of BW among the general populace. I mean I think it is great BW are getting new toys, and I hope we get more. I also hope the movie next year does well and feels more like BB than any of the Bay Films. But if it still is a decent film, but flops based on lack of brand recognition, sadly, I would not be surprised.
Beast Wars was one of my favourite cartoons when I was a kid, but I do agree with the bit I've highlighted in bold here. You don't really hear 90's kids talk about Beast Wars as much, or in the same way, as they talk about stuff like Batman: The Animated Series, Hey Arnold!, The Powerpuff Girls or Goosebumps. That's not to say Beast Wars isn't popular, the five Beast Wars characters voted into the Transformers Hall of Fame and Optimus Primal winning the Power of the Primes fan vote are proof enough that there's a market for more Beast Wars toys, but as far as gerenal "Mum and Dad taking Little Johnny to the toy store" mass-appeal, probably not so much.
I'm not surprised that the G1 characters in Kingdom and Netflix are selling faster, from what I remember the Thrilling 30 Rhinox, Rattrap and Tankor weren't exactly great sellers. This is why I think almost every Beast Wars related thing we've gotten since the mid-2000's has been some sort of crossover with G1 (or in Rise of the Beasts' case the Baybots and/or Beebots), because a full Beast Wars revival probably wouldn't fare all that well on its own without household names like Bumblebee and Starscream propping it up. Personally I'm fine with this, Kingdom has really re-invigorated my once declining interest in Transformers, and I don't mind seeing Beast Wars characters being integrated into G1 or Movie inspired settings.