_Anshin_ wrote:Throwing in my two cents here. While I do like the novelty of Beast wars, I never did think they did much for the franchise. If you look at the cartoon and the toy line it was shorter and less popular world wide (Japan for example I think turned it into Transformers:Car robots.... but don't quote me on that) than G1. As far as comics go they were treated as a G1 Future. The toys were not as big of a selling point as other versions of the cartoon either. Voting in Waspinator is kind of a joke for what it is. Part of the reason people remember him so well is because there were so few characters for the Beast Wars series. I would have honestly considered voting in a Beast Wars character if it was a bit more serious to the story line such as Tigertron, Air Razor, or Blackarachnia. Personally I would have liked to have seen a G1 character such as Shockwave or Jazz make it in before a comic relief character from Beast Wars / Animated. Heck we should have even considered Bayverse before Waspinator only because of the recent popularity. Again I would like to note that I would have rather seen a Beast Wars before a Bayverse character only because I truly dislike the designs for a majority of the Bayverse transformers.
To me, getting into the hall of fame for anything (sports, movies, etc) means that you contributed something to that area and that you have put in the time. Waspinator just didn't do that as much as a G1 that cartoons, comics, and movies are based around.
Well. Beast wars did span 3 years, with over 100 figures and 52 episodes plus a sequel series (Beast Machines with 26 episodes). Japan also added in 2 Beast Wars series on top of that with Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo for another 78 episodes.
Beast Wars was a G1 future from the beginning. Season 2 and 3 tied heavily into G1 (and even in season 1 we had the episode possession where Waspinator was possessed by Starscream's spark).
Just the fact that there is still a strong following for Beast Wars and demand for the figures should tell you that it was quite popular. It revitalized a dead Transformers franchise and showed how storytelling is done right (a method that would be adopted later with Animated and Prime, both very reminiscent of Beast Wars episodic styling).
Waspinator was a joke in Beast Wars, yeah. He was comedic relief, but what has Grimlock really contributed to the franschise that Waspinator hasn't? 'Me Grimlock dumb' really isn't a big contribution. He is a great character, and I love Grimlock to death, but he is as shallow a character as Waspinator can be viewed as (there are a lot of people who hate Grimlock by the way). Waspinator was the guy you rooted for every episode even though you knew he was going to loose.