The Energon Pub

Its sucks, but it looks like we need to repopulate these forums so let me kick it of with something close to my heart Beast Machines.

As time has gone on and as my appreciation of Transformers has matured I've have found myself more and more impressed with Beast Machines as a series. Its quickly become my favourite in fact, I'm not sure if that's due to my never ending love for the underdog or just that its so different, so innovative a series that I cant help but appreciate what a brave move it was to even make it. Sure some of the choices in character direction were ill concieved, it lacked a lot of the comedy of the Beast Wars series, and the character morphed rather than Transformed, but that aside it looked awesome and had the darkest, deepest storyline Transformers has had since the Transformers G2 comics. So what do you guys think? Awesome or appalling?

Yours AK

I actually got sick of Beast Machines half way through the first season and stopped watching it. There were just so many things I couldn't understand or stomach about the things that ruined the Beast Wars characters that I loved. Especially Rattrap and Rhinox. I have, however, always wanted to sit down and watch the series in its entirety just to make sure I hadn't made any horrible snap judgments about it.

You know, I just started watching the series on DVD, and I really like it. The story lines could be better, but the animation is great. Plus it's all on Cybertron, which makes it so much better. No humans. SO much better.

Granted, the toys were pretty much crap.

B wrote:No humans. SO much better.

Granted, the toys were pretty much crap.

See, that's how I explain it growing on me. When it was airing, the only TF shows before it were G1 and BW, which are a lot better than it is. But, now, we have seen just how far off canon they can take the shows (and live movie) that BM is, not an excellent, but a good TF show.

Seen the series through a couple times. Not exactly "ace", but still rather good. One thing that I like about it is that advertising took on second or maybe even third degree of importance. When you get right down too it, only the first wave or so of figures and a few others even made it into the show. To me, this shows that Transformers was kind of trancening it's "30-minute toy commercial" ideology, and went in the direction of "this is a sci-fi drama/action show". And the last episode was really, really good. I loved that battle between Primal and Megatron, and it problaby ranks up there as one of the most vicious fights in Transformer history.

However, my big turn-off of the series was just how dark it was literally. Sure, it had nice animation, but the lighting was more often than not very dark and dank, so it was hard to appreciate it. And the fight sequences were kind of boring at times early on, with the animeish static backround when they jumped into battle, constant deflecting of bullets, etc. And you can only blow up so many drones before it gets boring, in my opinion.

Still, the bad far outwieghed the good.

Duke of Luns wrote:To me, this shows that Transformers was kind of trancening it's "30-minute toy commercial" ideology, and went in the direction of "this is a sci-fi drama/action show". And the last episode was really, really good. I loved that battle between Primal and Megatron, and it problaby ranks up there as one of the most vicious fights in Transformer history.

Indeed this did appear to be the first TF shoe that was more about the characters and the story than it was about selling a toy line. Mainframe we liberated very early on by the massive differences between the toys and the concept designs they were given to animate from. If any Transformers show can be considered worthy of comparison with 'grown-up' sic-fi shows it was Beast Machines.

And yeah that fight it the final episode was the greatest fight in Transformers TV history, it send shivers down my spin every time I watch it.

Yours AK

at first hated it. but now i love it.

Beast machines is my Favourite TF series, Enough said!

I have trouble deciding which I like better. Beast Wars or Beast Machines. They're both excellent in different ways so it's hard to compare them in my mind. But the story in BM was truly topnotch and went way out in left field which no one had seen in am animated program. Plus like others said, that final battle between Primal and Megatron was sweet. Soooo much stuff got blown up.

i loved beast machines truth be told, it was beastwars grown up. i was over all dissapointed by the toys, but the show was great and innovative.

i didnt like the drastic change in megatrons character, with little explanation as to why. beast wars megs would have never honerd a promise like his beast machines version did.

and while i didnt like the change in rhinox, i do understand it pretty well, and i think it was pulled off with class.

and i didnt like botanica, not because she was a plant transformer, but rather because to me her character seems empty, more like filler then anything else.

i loved the savage/noble concept, and jetstorm remains one of the collest jet transformers since starscream.

while i didnt like the dramatic change in megatron, he was easily the coollest villion in a very long time. he truly was satan in transformer form.

favorite beastmachines quotes :

primal: "if you wanna act like a bunch of suly farm animals then be my guest"

"forget the seeds of the future, im burrying you in the past!"

and silverbolt when he decided he needed to be cold to focus on beating megatron:
"untill the threat of megatron is quelled, love is a luxury i cant afford."
scream: "did he just say.. quelled?"

proving he was still silverbolt at heart

It had both good and bad points, and while I enjoyed it, I feel the bad far outweighed the good. I will admit that I'm going by what I remember from when it was being broadcast as I've never yet been able to find the DVD set, so I may not be remembering things as clearly as I believe I am.

That said, I do remember that the animation looked very flat to me. The characters looked great, but the backgrounds really looked painted into place. Details, even on characters, that should have been modeled into the 3D structure looked 2D because they were simply painted on, and that always bugged me. Finally, the explosions didn't even look like explosions, but rather like some kind of liquid or bubble. All in all, I felt the animation was several steps down from BW.

As for the story, the pacing of the story arc for the series was horrible. Things seemed to develop very suddenly between episodes, and the episodes themselves seemed like they focused more on side stories than on developing the actual story arc they were supposed to deal with in the series. The episodes themselves, though were well written and the characters consistent within the personalities established for the series, though they were not always consistent with their BW personalities.

Finally, the ending of the series pretty much ruined the whole thing for me. Instead of actually striking a balance, they went with the goal Optimus was pursuing in the first season, a goal I seem to recall him renouncing early in the second season.

Overall, I enjoyed the series, but I'd hardly call it the best TF series ever, or even place it in the top 5.

Immortal Starscream wrote:i loved beast machines truth be told, it was beastwars grown up. i was over all dissapointed by the toys, but the show was great and innovative.

That pretty much sums it up for me. I saw BM for the first time recently on DVD and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd rate it as one of my favourite TF series along side Superlink and Beast Wars.

they have yet to show beastmachines on dutch tv

Beast Machines took a darker direction than any previous Transformers series, and I liked it. Some people don't like seeing characters they think of as noble turn savage or vice versa, but the ambivalence between good and evil, between organic and technological, and between spiritual and material were tensions that the show explored in ambitious ways. It didn't always succeeds in its bold attempts, but I find myself perplexed by the degree of dislike some fans feel for the series.

Ultimately, Beast Wars struck a slightly more successful balance between caring sincerely for its characters while not taking itself too seriously, and viewers accustomed to its storytelling might've found Beast Machines too off-putting. Watch it on its own terms, though, and it's a great cartoon.

Only saw a few episodes. Rhinox had just found the Oracle was the end of the last ep I saw before Youtube removed them all. And since it was never on English telly, nor can you get the box set here, I guess I won't see any more. However, from what I did see, I liked it. It wasn't as good as G1 or BW, but it was better than Cybertron.

I loved Beast Machines when it aired on TV and I love it now. I wish they did do the toy advertising in the show because I wanted to see the dinobots and Mirage. I'm not necessarily keen on how it ended, I thought it was abrupt in order to move on to the next toy line. I felt there could have been more story particularly to allow other characters to get involved. G1, BW, & BM were the only Transformers cartoon series I watched religiously. Everything else sucked.

Of all the beast wars series, my favorite would be neither of the two American series. Beast Wars II was one of my favorites, blows RID through Cybertron out of the water. I usually am a truck not munky kinda guy, but the beast wars II "Movie" was amazing.

Down_Shift wrote:Of all the beast wars series, my favorite would be neither of the two American series. Beast Wars II was one of my favorites, blows RID through Cybertron out of the water. I usually am a truck not munky kinda guy, but the beast wars II "Movie" was amazing.

I've never found a good place to watch these care to share?

Yours AK

Alex Kingdom wrote:

Down_Shift wrote:Of all the beast wars series, my favorite would be neither of the two American series. Beast Wars II was one of my favorites, blows RID through Cybertron out of the water. I usually am a truck not munky kinda guy, but the beast wars II "Movie" was amazing.

I've never found a good place to watch these care to share?

Yours AK

Well I bought the DVDs off of Ebay a while ago, (Burnt and no subs or dubs) I know it sounds weird, but the series was so well done that you didn't need to understand what they were saying to understand what they ment. If anyone gets the chance, I highly recommend those two even if you can't make out what they are saying.

Tripredicus is the greatest combiner ever. Mostly because his three components are all Mexican sounding drunks! Makes for a good watch.

I've seen the first six episodes of BWII when they were dubbed in English. They were decent, and I wouldn't mind having them.

I can truly say I appreciate Beast machines more now then when they originally aired. I bought the DVD set a few months ago and love the set.

I loved BM. Not as much as BW, but it was still a good series. Fewer references to G1, but I was okay w/that. I absolutely loved the music, especially the chase & fight music,it was upbeat & put you in the mood. Still, there were those moments where I didn't particularly like it, as in how the characters didn't actuall transform, they more shape shifted. Still okay. But what made it great was the story. It was way moer darker than BW, & I liked that a lot. Like how Megatron became more ruhtless & less comedic. Silverbolt as well. Up until the finale, he was a real machine, like how he tried to destroy Megatron single handedly. But then there was the finale. Something no one saw coming. Megs in Primnal's old body. Now that adds to the irony & coolness. I just loved it. BM was one of the best series IMHO.

Decepticlone Soundwave wrote:I loved BM. Not as much as BW, but it was still a good series. Fewer references to G1, but I was okay w/that. I absolutely loved the music, especially the chase & fight music,it was upbeat & put you in the mood. Still, there were those moments where I didn't particularly like it, as in how the characters didn't actuall transform, they more shape shifted. Still okay. But what made it great was the story. It was way moer darker than BW, & I liked that a lot. Like how Megatron became more ruhtless & less comedic. Silverbolt as well. Up until the finale, he was a real machine, like how he tried to destroy Megatron single handedly. But then there was the finale. Something no one saw coming. Megs in Primnal's old body. Now that adds to the irony & coolness. I just loved it. BM was one of the best series IMHO.

one of the best line from the show:

"What are you doing?!"

"Plating the seeds of the future. There must be balance Megatron, not only between the organinc and technologic, but between eternall enemiies, between you and I!"

I've only seen BM the once, when it was aired on Fox Kids (as was) a few years back. It was ok, not great, not BW great, but something to watch if there's nothing else on. For my money, it was too full of plot holes to regard as a great show, but too good a storyline and too full of good characters to dismiss as complete rubbish. A wasted opportunity, maybe, but not the worst effort of anything I've seen.

I liked it quite a bit, though I liked Beast Wars more.

My only problems with Beast Machines were:

1: Turning Blackarachnia into a whiney, anorexic good girl. She was always "Waaaaah, Silverbolt, waaaah!" or talking about honor, freedom and goodness.....this is Blackarachnia were are talking about here

2: Turning Rattrap into a crippled Mickey Mouse. He would have never made a pact with Megatron during the Beast Wars. And Rhinox was te handyman, Rattrap was the spy/fighter. And you'd think on the entire planet, Rattrap could have found one single handgun?

3: The clay-like explosions.

4: The overall idea of Planets good, Robots evil. As well as the Maximals having 'learn' how to transform, and the whole jedi-zen diciplines they had to undertake. Or the sudden hatred of Organics by Megatron, he was quite impressed with the organic based technologies and weapons the Vok used. And no explaination for Megatron's scar or those painting in the citadel walls.

5: Teletubby land.

6: Fox Kids! thinking it was a good idea to repeat the first season over and over untill Augest of 2000, where as YTV aired the second season in Febuary of 2000. Fox Kids! only aired season two once because they said ratings were not so good.....well, duh! What do you expect from constant repeatings.....that's how you killed Monster Rancher & Roughnecks, Fox.


I feel I am also one of the few that liked the Beast Machines toys. The Maximal toys were pretty nifty, I think. And the toys did sell for like a year after Beast Machines ended up untill Robots in Disguise.