AllNewSuperRobot wrote:I do find it strange how they downplayed the pre-existing animals of G1 when Beast Wars came into being. One two of the Five Dinobot dinosaurs made it into the Mainframe show, in Megs and Terrorsaur. Plus the ironic Maximal inclusion of Rhinox and Primal, in comparison to their Predacon and Horrorcon predecessors.
If Beast Wars had been made today, no doubt everyone would have been recycled, even down to the names.
When BW was made, the idea of a 'legacy character' was only
barely formed, with only Optimus Prime/Primal and Megatron being deemed important to the brand. The rest were often just some cool name they slapped on a character (Scorponok, Rampage, Dinobot, Silverbolt and Inferno being prime example within the show itself). That era up until the Unicron Trilogy (and even that was playing fast and loose beyond the most major of archetypes) the brand was seen very differently.
Its the bay movies and the massive '80 nostalgia boom which has led the franchise down the path of always sticking to the same design for every same character. During Beast Wars, the fanbase didn't really exist in its modern form yet. Appealing to the now adult G1 kids wasn't the intent. Its just the BW show decided to tie into the original cartoon (and comics), slowly winning over the fans when initially the show was seen as some abomination. The TRUKK NOT MUNKKY reaction, while overblown, was understandable because from the '80 to the late '90 there were only two incarnations of the brand: cartoon and comics, with the Japanese stuff being known but not very accessible.
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