Top 5 Best Transformers Beast Wars Characters

People LOVE Rhinox. And I've never understood it. Nothing against him, but I always saw him as one dimensional (much like Scorponok). In many circumstances, he's the Maximal's deus ex machina. And ironically, the only thing that made him interesting to me was when he became Tankor in Beast Machines. Which is almost unanimously hated

Pretty shocked to not see Primal on this list...

shajaki wrote:People LOVE Rhinox. And I've never understood it. Nothing against him, but I always saw him as one dimensional (much like Scorponok). In many circumstances, he's the Maximal's deus ex machina. And ironically, the only thing that made him interesting to me was when he became Tankor in Beast Machines. Which is almost unanimously hated

Pretty shocked to not see Primal on this list...

I think it's more of the implicit parts of his character, and what stories could've been told to expand on it. That and the fact that he doesn't really have any primary vices. Although I haven't watched to series in a while, so don't take my word for it.

How is Una not the number one character? She outsmarted Megatron.


Why world hate Waspinator?

I can't find a fault with the top 3.
4. Waspinator, really this show was defined by the predacons. Every single one of my top 5 was a predacon at one point. Waspinator may not have good at anything except being the scrappy. Everyone loves to see him blow up, get beat on, and just be miserable.
5. Tarantulas, the guy was like shockwave and starscream had a love/hate child. Even Megatron was never as downright disturbing or manipulative as him. There were a lot of episodes I watched just to see how awful tarantulas would be. But he never had the charisma of Megatron, so much farther down the list.

Honorable mention to inferno for constantly protecting the queen!

I can't say a top 5 because I love the show as a whole. Two things that I like about the show are:
1. How developed all the characters are. They each get to shine and they each get their own personality. For the most part those personalities aren't just -insert cliche here-. Even the characters that are cliches (such as Waspinator is slapstick comic relief, Cheetor is kid friendly character...) still were fleshed out. They still felt "alive" and reacted according to their character mostly.
2. The villains didn't outpace the heros. What I mean by that is some shows the villains are the real highlight and the heros are just there to have good vs bad. But to me this show had cool on both sides, and the heros could be just as interesting as the villains. The heros didn't get bogged down by "I have to be good so I am going to be boring good" but still didn't fall into the "I have to be cool so I'm an antihero" that the 90's especially fell into. Both sides got victories and the Maximals didn't win all the time just because the Preds were "bumbling idiots."

no rattrap, this is a joke right?

honestly there are so many good characters in the show you could make a top 15. everyone's top 5 list would probably look different.

While I am glad not to see the always annoying Rattrap or Quickstrike on the list, I cannot agree with Dinobot especially as no. 1.

He's one of the most overrated characters in the franchise and his voice acting was terrible. Someone got paid to do it?!?

Silverbolt, Inferno, Ravage, Waspinator, Airrazor, Tigatron, Cheetor and Terrorsaur were much more likeable characters.

Beast Wars Megatron is the best cartoon Megatron. I wish there had been more seasons of Beast Wars just more more of that Megatron.

Not bad. My list:

5. Rattrap
4. Optimus Primal
3. Blackarachnia
2. Dinobot
1. Megatron

Honorable mention: Tarantulas (just for the fact that he was a Tripredacus agent the whole time)

Trans-mutate is certainly one of mine. Beast Wars, despite the primitive CGI; really knew how to use body language to its advantage and that is extremely evident in Trans-mutate. There's so much expression in one episode and you really feel sorry for the thing.

Great list WJ! Thanks.

Great topic. The Beast Wars story was awesome! The characters were great!

Dinobot is one of the best characters ever.

My Beast Wars list would go more like this.
5:Dinobot
4:Silverbolt
3:Depthcharge
2:Megatron
1:Waspinator
Waspinator, to me, was the best characters, because he simply just would not die, and in the end he became friends with the humans.

Ultimate Weapon1 wrote:Waspinator, to me, was the best characters, because he simply just would not die, and in the end he became friends with the humans.

You have a weird definition of friends.

Windsweeper wrote:While I am glad not to see the always annoying Rattrap or Quickstrike on the list, I cannot agree with Dinobot especially as no. 1.

He's one of the most overrated characters in the franchise and his voice acting was terrible. Someone got paid to do it?!?

Silverbolt, Inferno, Ravage, Waspinator, Airrazor, Tigatron, Cheetor and Terrorsaur were much more likeable characters.

you realize dinobot, waspinator, rattrap and silverbolt all had the same voice actor, yeah? scott Mcneil?

Dinobot as number one is an obvious choice. Best transformers character ever.

But five is a number too short. Top ten would have satisfy every body.

in order : Rampage/Depthcharge, Tigatron, Inferno, Cheetor, Rhinox, Waspinator, Black Arachnia, Megatron, Rattrap, Dinobot.

Gingko wrote:Dinobot as number one is an obvious choice. Best transformers character ever.

But five is a number too short. Top ten would have satisfy every body.

in order : Rampage/Depthcharge, Tigatron, Inferno, Cheetor, Rhinox, Waspinator, Black Arachnia, Megatron, Rattrap, Dinobot.

I think 5 is the right number. Once you get into the top 10, you're pulling in half the cast . You'd be debating the merits of Inferno vs. Cheetor rather than some of the best characters in the show.

Pretty much everyone aside from Scorponok and the two monkey kids are good, really.

I can agree with this list. Maybe I'd move 5 but i don't know for who. Everyone is awesome.


Oh, and waspinator and Inferno also kept their original season 1 bodies all the way up to the end.

The only problem with Beasts Wars was it was stopped too early. I always wanted to see what would come from the "Spawn of Unicron" which I believe is what Megatron refereed to Trantulous as at one point. It just seems like they had some many threads that could have been pulled if Hasbro hadn't decided to move on to Beast Machines.

unicron spawn was written to be nothing more than the equivilant of saying son of a bitch. There was no deeper meaning to it originally.

The Joker/Batman dynamic of Rampage/Depth Charge was very important. Gave them both a solid foundation and rivalry, and I always liked Depth Charge cause he just seemed cool. But...

...there's the Transmutate episode. This was the only episode to really explore Rampage's personality outside of his homicidal/bring pain to everything tendencies. He actually cared for something in that episode, we got a glimpse into a spark that maybe has only ever known pain and misery(Project X was a "dirty secret" after all). There's an untold story there that would be fascinating to explore(and I do have an idea for a fanfic to that extent...).

kurthy wrote:Once you get into the top 10, you're pulling in half the cast .

Yes, and it could be funny. And it is already.

Dinobot and Megatron were my 2 favorite characters from the series, so this is good with me. Rhinox is a good character too, probably my favorite Maximal other than Primal

Gingko wrote:Dinobot as number one is an obvious choice. Best transformers character ever.

But five is a number too short. Top ten would have satisfy every body.

in order : Rampage/Depthcharge, Tigatron, Inferno, Cheetor, Rhinox, Waspinator, Black Arachnia, Megatron, Rattrap, Dinobot.

I know its easy to think that more is better, but you give a stellar example as to why it might not satisfy everyone. Your list doesn't have Optimus Primal, arguably the main character of the series (though I personally feel megatron shares a similar spotlight). So he is bound to have lots of fans, he was even the first Beast Wars MP figure. So just imagine how it would look like if i made a list of top 10 BW characters, and it doesnt include primal. The discussion would no longer be about who should be in a top 5 and instead be about Primal's absence.

A Top 5 Worst (or "Least-Good") BW Characters list oughta roll some heads.

Sabrblade wrote:A Top 5 Worst (or "Least-Good") BW Characters list oughta roll some heads.

Sooo it would go something like:

5. Tigerhawk

4. Air Razor

3. Una and Chak

2. Quickstrike

1. Skorponok

I liked Airrazor

And what's wrong with Tigerhawk? When he first showed up I wanted his toy BADLY as a kid. And then I got mad when he got killed off two episodes later. I wanted more of him. He was epically awesome, darn it!

Sabrblade wrote:And what's wrong with Tigerhawk? When he first showed up I wanted his toy BADLY as a kid. And then I got mad when he got killed off two episodes later. I wanted more of him. He was epically awesome, darn it!

Kinda the problem right there. He appears and gets killed off. Yes I know it's because his toy/character was in limbo, and it is neat it ties up a cliffhanger from mid-season 2, but he's a footnote at best. But that's Season 3 in general to me: introduce a whiz bang cool toy, and then don't really DO anything with it(barring Depth Charge).

As for Air Razor, she's not bad, and was another flyer. However, other than being a love interest for Tigertron and the Mcguffin for a really good episode("The Spark"), her impact in the show was minimal.

And this list was just off the top of my head. Who would you guys rank lower?

My top 5.

1. Dinobot : He possessed half of the main traits of G1 Cartoon Cyclonus. Dinobot's sense of "Predacon honor" and preference for a bold pursuit of conquest over a worthy enemy was essentially Cyclonus, reimagined and delved into further due to BW better character focus on character development than G1 Cyclonus benefitted from. To those who may not recall clearly, Dinobot, while very similar, to an even greater extent than Cyclonus was more loyal to a higher principle than serving his commander. Dinoboot took it further changing sides, holding off on ruling out a return to the Predacons until just before he died in "Code Of Hero" .G1 Cyclonus more subtly showed this willingness to call his own shots in "Webworld" and "The Big Broadcast Of 2006" ,and cut his own deal(in the name loyalty to Galvatron) with the Quintessons in "The Face Of Njika". Dinobot is arguably the most memorable from Beast Wars, because his choices ultimately had the most impact on the tide of the Beast Wars. Dinobot remaining with the Preds would have likely been an insurmountable advantage in their favor in hindsight.

2. Rhinox : He was basically the "Zen Master" of the Maximals, and possessed that higher understanding of the big picture the rest of the characters in the show lacked. I always dig that Rhinox had the audacity to defy the "will of The Matrix" when he resurrected Primal into the blank protoform in "Coming OF The Fuzors".Suggesting to place Transmutate in stasis lock. Those events lent a sense of darkness to his ethical perspective that took me by surprise after watching him sniff flowers,and letting a huge fart in S1 of BW. The other thing that intrigued me about Rhinox, was how "Dark Designs seemed to be the template for how (as Tankor)he behaved starting in "Beast Machines - Revelations".

3.Rampage .It's hard not to like a bad guy who used mental and physical tactics so evenly.He was somewhat under-rated in this regard. He openly expressed desire to terminate pretty much half of his team.As much of a lone wolf as Dinobot was, Rampage also had that mindset, albeit in a more Starscream-like treacherous manner. BW dropped the ball when they failed to let him get the device that controlled his spark even if only for one single episode. Can you imagine what would have had happened had he gotten ahold of the removed portion of his spark? I can, and it's disappointing we never got to see that.

4. Tarantulus came off to me as essentially being Starscrem in every sense of the character. Someone mentioned how Megatron referring to him as Unicron's spawn was like saying "son of a bitch". He actually mentioned his and the Tri-Predacus council having other secret origins from some of the Predacon alliance. As was the general trend with that entire series, he was never fully tapped into, and they wasted a chance to provide a better understanding of the Predacon Alliance itself once it was revealed he was among the secret police. That backstory/sidestory went pretty much nowhere in Season 3 of BW. That being said he was the scariest character and he got the absolute darkest scenes in the entire show. While Megatron,Rampage, and Inferno were more oof the character you wouldn't want to fight against, Tarantulus was the monster under your bed. The creepy green spider eyes certainly lent to that.Torturing Cheetor & TigerHawk, eating a mouse, trapping a deer. The demented personality put him high on my list as a pure bad guy despite my desire for more.

5 Optimus Primal was the typical Optimus-like character in many of the obvious ways, but on the other hand he was a one bot summary of several different post-G1 cartoon iterations of Optimus Prime. Primal in the Beast Wars cartoon was more naïve, less dominant, and had more arrogance on display than what I would expect from a character dubbed Optimus. His interactions with Blackarachnia, Cheetor, Depth Charge, Dinobot, and Silverbolt in particular, were the most interesting because they were larger tests of his patience.Those specific interactions illustrated his transformation to a more mature leader later on after he had interfaced with Primes Spark in "Optimal Situation". Winning over greater cooperation from each in Seasons 2 and 3 were earmarks of his development into more of a typical Optimus Prime- type. Given his rank the often independent, and detrimental actions of some of the other Maximals presented him as being less in control. The BW Optimus Primal was a lot like TF Animated Optimus in a lot of ways.I guess the regular open questioning and defiance of his authority came off that way to me. Beast Machines completing this personal evolution, to a place of higher maturity, understanding, and getting greater respect for his leadership by the Maximals gets him on the list despite predictability about him. That's why I have him at 5. Primal wouldn't make my top 5 list without Beast Machines, but because it was part of a greater character arc it falls safely in. I could have fit several others in at 5th for reasons of their own, but Optimus is Optimus.

ProtoformXScream wrote:The other thing that intrigued me about Rhinox, was how "Dark Designs seemed to be the template for how (as Tankor)he behaved starting in "Beast Machines - Revelations".

I wish that similarity had been intentional, but it was a coincidence since Beast Machines had a different creative team from that of Beast Wars who didn't go back and draw that much from Beast Wars when creating Beast Machines. In fact, Tankor-Rhinox's snarling mad attitude that made him sound like he was out of his right mind, when he told the Maximals how he had changed his views towards Megatron's agenda of technological perfection, was all done on Richard Newman's part as Bob Skir had originally intended for that scene to play out with Tankor-Rhinox speaking calmly and in his right mind. Instead, what we got was more like how Rhinox behaved in "Dark Designs" and, even though it went against what was planned for that scene, I'm glad for it.

ProtoformXScream wrote:3.Rampage .It's hard not to like a bad guy who used mental and physical tactics so evenly.He was somewhat under-rated in this regard. He openly expressed desire to terminate pretty much half of his team.As much of a lone wolf as Dinobot was, Rampage also had that mindset, albeit in a more Starscream-like treacherous manner.

The guy's heart was literally being held and tortured by Megatron. Of course he'd be wanting to kill the guy who held his very fate in the palm of his (Megatron's) hands, especially since Megatron only ever treated him like some kind of animal. And, well, Rampage was insane. A complete psychotic. Hannibal Lecter in robot form.

ProtoformXScream wrote:Someone mentioned how Megatron referring to him as Unicron's spawn was like saying "son of a bitch". He actually mentioned his and the Tri-Predacus council having other secret origins from some of the Predacon alliance.

That only came about after the show was over. Bob Forward meant for the line to refer to the very insult that you mentioned, but fans of the time took it literally and wanted it to mean more than it was meant to. As such, the BotCon fiction of the early 2000s took the line and ran with it, much like how Terrorsaur's line to Cheetor of "Welcome to the dark side!" in "Equal Measures" was interpreted by fans to refer to the Predacon ship itself when it originally wasn't. Hence now we're stuck with "Darksyde" and the Tarantulas having ties to Unicron.

Moreover, when Tarantulas said that he and the Council have different origins from those of other Predacons, Larry DiTillio suggested them as having originated from the Cybertronian Empire of the G2 comics led by Jhiaxus and Liege Maximo. The later Wings Universe fiction from Fun Pub would eventually pay homage to this by having the Predacons implied to be descended from pods of clones taken from Jhiaxus's lab, but with Tarantulas's and three other pods being mysteriously different from the others...

My list:

1) Dinobot
2) Rattrap
3) Tarantulus
4) Blackarachnia
5) Tigatron


1) I know, a typical answer. Although there are people who feel the character is overrated, there was a level of depth to Dinobot that simply stood out to me (and still stands out to this day). He held a deep level of honor, conviction, development, and commitment (regardless of the consequence) while still holding true to the idea that flaws and imperfections exist in everyone, regardless of their qualities. A character like him, in my opinion, did not come around again until Micron Legend’s Starscream. Essentially, what I admire from the character is that he is timeless (there is something to take away from the character, regardless of age) and impacted the story in a very great way. His dialogue was well written (a little Shakespeare with a side of being a smart ass and sometimes very meaningful), and he died knowing very well who he was and what he stood for. Twice.

2) Rattrap...I can see why a lot of people wouldn’t like him, but I loved the smart ass realist with explosives. Even though he wasn’t the most influential character in the series and didn’t develop very much, his actions influenced other characters to a greater degree (humbling Cheetor to aid in him acting more as a team player, challenging Dinobot’s loyalty which bound him to honor his commitments by the character that he was, etc). He was entertaining and helped to build meaning in the series, even if he didn’t develop much on his own.

3) My reason for liking this character was actually mentioned in an earlier post. While the character didn’t change much, his actions and archtype actually had a purpose as the story unfolded. Most Starscream type characters are pretty linear in their reasons for plotting and deception. The ‘Megatron is unfit to lead’ mentality, primarily. To have another underlying purpose and origin (being a member of the Tripredacus Council’s secret police and acting on their accord) gave extra layers to the archtype this character represents. The character, himself, was very sinister and boogieman-esk, which I also appreciate very much.

4) Blackarachnia was ever-changing and developing. I simply liked her character arch for the majority of the series. She was crafty and resourceful, independent, ambitious, and reliable in battle. The whole bad girl persona and appearance was played well until season 3. In season 3, she just felt like a walking toy commercial to me: cheesy dialogue and being more flashy in appearance while being less of a stand-alone personality as a whole.

5) I appreciated Tigatron’s philosophical perception of the war and the environment. Unlike almost every other character in the series, Tigatron had a deeper understanding of what war would cost (rivaled only by Rhinox but on another level, entirely) to both the warriors and the battlefield. He knew, possible better than any other, what was worth fighting for and how to define the peace the good guys fight so diligently for (to define by defining - not to say that his definition was the absolute correct one). He also questioned them and what they stood for on several occasions (The Trigger, Part 2 and Law of the Jungle are good examples of this).

I appreciate the reasoning behind why people like the characters that they do. It's easy to learn things that weren't apparent before.

Everyone aside from Scorponok was well written (Scorponok was just a bit dull really) but if I had to pick favourites, Blackarachnia would be top of the list. She could be hilarious, adorable, terrifying and alluring, sometimes all at once. She's definitely the best written female Transformer we've ever gotten IMO.

Dinobot was amazing too (fun fact: the voice Scott did for him is based on Chris Latta's Starscream, but much lower), and had THE best death in Transformers history. A shame Dark Glass was cancelled, because that would have been the cherry on the diesel sundae of perfection that was his arc.

Megatron...I think nothing else needs to be said. It's BW Megatron.

As BW is my thing I'll give both my 5 best and worst characters. Please note, being almost exclusively a fan of villains, my list will reflect that preference.

Best

1. Rampage - Practically the perfect villain. In any other continuity, a Predacon/Decepticon leader.

2. Megatron - The most successful Megatron ever. He never just bragged, he got things done.Yesss

3. Tarantulas - I've always had a soft spot for the "mad scientist" types.. and spiders.

4. Rhinox - My favourite Maximal, the brains of the team as well as the early muscle. Plus: Chainguns of Doom!

5. Inferno (Season 1 & 2) - He reminds me of a more powerful, albeit mad, version of Sunbow Soundwave. An interpretation of the G1 character I really liked.

Honourable mention - Depthcharge, if only he had been in the series for longer.

Worst - In no particular order

Silverbolt - His dialogue, his characterisation et al, all of it really grated on me. I really dislike comic relief characters.

Quickstrike - As above

Black Arachnia - Started off interesting and that vanished with the appearance of Silverbolt.

Waspinator - Again, comic relief UGH

Scorponok - What an insult to the name... and the toy. To quote Megatron "incompetent bug"

Dishonourable mention - Terrorsaur, they really didn't need to push him as BW Starscream. The trope only ever worked with the original. Ultimately he was a wasted opportunity.