Line #14 Trivia/BeastMachines


1	* ActingForTwo:
2	** Tankor and Obsidian are both voiced by Paul Dobson.
3	** In addition to reprising his role as Megatron, Creator/DavidKaye also voices Noble/Savage. [[spoiler: Which makes sense, since Noble/Savage ''is'' Megatron.]]
4	* BTeamSequel: ''Beast Wars'' story editors Larry [=DiTillio=] and Bob Forward did not return for this series, likely explaining some of the jarring shifts in tone and characterization.
5	* CreatorBacklash:
6	** During an interview, Creator/GaryChalk said he disliked how his character, Optimus Primal, was turned into a "religious cult leader".
7	** Apparently EVERY actor except David Kaye disliked the show's DarkerAndEdgier tone in comparison to its predecessor.
8	* ExecutiveMeddling: Marv Wolfman had pitched the original outline for the show. However, Fox insisted on Bob Skir and Marty Isenberg being story editors instead due to having worked with them on ''WesternAnimation/GodzillaTheSeries''. This proved to be a shock to Skir and Isenberg themselves, as they had professed a lack of knowledge about the Transformers franchise. Skir had Wolfman write a few episodes so he could still be involved in the show. They also weren't allowed to watch any Beast Wars episodes, as Hasbro felt that series was too continuity heavy, while giving them the lowdown on the G1 series. This resulted in Beast Machines being even more continuity heavy.
9	* FranchiseKiller: Originally, Hasbro planned to continue the Beast Era with a third show called ''Transtech'' but the mixed reception of ''Beast Machines'' and the failure of its toyline (and problems with ''[[Film/ThePhantomMenace Star Wars: Episode I]]'' toys) forced Hasbro to pull the plug on the Beast Era. Furthermore, after ''Beast Machines'' several ''Transformers'' shows would be imported from Japan [[Film/Transformers2007 until almost a decade later]].
10	* RecycledSet: The planet where Botanica acquired her plant mode (since named Regalis V) was previously used in Mainframe's ''WesternAnimation/ShadowRaiders'' as the Jungle Planet.
11	* LateExportForYou: While the series premiered in North America in 1999, it wouldn't premiere in Japan until '''2004'''. This is largely due to the massive failure of [[Anime/BeastWarsNeo Beast Wars Neo]].
12	* MarketBasedTitle: The series is called ''Transformers: Beast Wars Returns'' in Japan.
13	* ScrewedByTheNetwork: This how the show was treated in Japan. After the low sales of ''Anime/BeastWarsNeo'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Beast Wars Metals]]'' toylines, Takara deciced to skip ''Beast Machines'' and replace it with ''[[Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise Transformers Car Robots]]''. When they did dub the series a few years later in 2004, it was a pretty bare-bones dub with no new opening or ending songs like the ''Beast Wars'' dub and was dumped on a small satellite-only channel rather then airing it on TV Tokyo, ensuring that most people in Japan didn't even knew the show existed or was dubbed until the DVD release. The toyline also saw a small print run exclusive to Toys"R"Us Japan, with most figures only have 3,000-4,000 copies made.
14	* ScrewedByTheLawyers:
15	** Originally, Jetstorm's name was going to be the very spoiler-heavy [[spoiler:Skybolt]]. It got as far as some cast recordings before a trademark issue came up. Due to how the original name risked blowing a major twist, this is considered a positive example of this trope and was seen as a relief by the writers.
16	* ShowAccuracyToyAccuracy: One major downside of the show came with Creator/{{Hasbro}} testing out making the same character at different price points (so you can have the characters you want without breaking the bank), but used radically different designs for each size class. The characters were designed at the highest price point but the early toys looked nothing like them and did not sell nearly as well (to say nothing of the quality of the line in general). For comparison here is Optimus in [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Revelations2_Optimus_waves_arms.jpg Beast]] and [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Reformatting_Optimus_Primal_robot.jpg Robot]] form, and here is the [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:BM-toy_OpPrimalDx.jpg deluxe]], [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:BMtoy-PrimalMega.jpg mega]] and [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:RIDtoy-Suprimal.jpg supreme]] versions of the toys.
17	** Part of this was due to the earlier toys using the ''Beast Hunters'' concept art as the basis for the toys, which were changed rather heavily by the time production began. But later toys were usually made in brighter colors rather than what was seen in the cartoon and even toy designs were still being based on early concept art rather than the final CGI models. Takara Tomy did eventually release the line in Japan, alongside the dub, using the existing toys in toon-accurate colors. Due to a limited run, however, these toys are very expensive on the current aftermarket. Hasbro would later produce a more accurate Cheetor in the ''Titaniums'' line and a Tankor in ''Generations'' but the series has otherwise been ignored.
18	** A few color choices aside, the UsefulNotes/McDonalds Happy Meal toys were usually much more on-model to the CGI than most of the official toys were.
19	** The Rattrap toy actually has legs, though they can be folded away for the show-styled wheel mode.
20	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
21	** Story editor Bob Skir ''really'' wanted Nightscream to be a female transformer, with a design and personality much like Newt from ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' - he even "argued 'til I was blue that our new bat be female", to no avail. ExecutiveMeddling ensued. As such, the character ended up an {{Expy}} of John Connor from ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''. Skir has since stated this probably was ''not'' the best idea, even if it gave them a personality to base Nightscream off, because even many fans of ''T2'' found John Connor the worst aspect of the movie (whereas Newt is widely beloved by the ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' fanbase).
22	** In "Fallout", Dinobot's ghost was meant to serve as Primal's guide in the Matrix and his SpiritAdvisor for much of the series.
23	** ''Transtech'', the similarly-scrapped sequel to ''Beast Machines''.
24	** There was originally to be a small section with [[spoiler:Obsidian and Strika]] falling back to Cybertron and [[spoiler:refusing an upgrade]] as self-punishment for their actions while [[spoiler:Megatron]] misled them. It was cut due to time constraints.
25	** Bob Skir and Marty Isenberg were originally set to write their dream project- an ''[[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]]'' cartoon- only for them to get [[{{Railroading}} pulled into this show by accident]]. The resulting cartoon, ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersUnitedTheyStand'' sucked utterly and was quickly pulled from the Creator/FoxKids lineup.
26	** According to Dan [=DiDio=], during the development phase, Creator/SteveGerber pitched his own idea for the show. No details have been released, but [=DiDio=] called it "wildly original."
27	** According to audio commentary on the DVD set, the sparks of Cybertron were going to reject Optimus' plea for help, due to their agreeing with Megatron's point of view. This idea was rejected as it made them [[TheScrappy too unlikeable]] and the staff wanted them to be ''worth'' rescuing.

Context Trivia / BeastMachines