thoughts on the Beast-era

"What? Transformers made from animals instead of vehicles and stuff? Doesn't sound so great, throw it to Kenner division, maybe they can make a quick buck or something."
Beast Wars, Machine Wars, Beast Machines... seeing a pattern? Coming soon: "Wars Wars"
User avatar
Sparky Prime
Supreme-Class
Posts: 5225
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:12 am

Re: thoughts on the Beast-era

Post by Sparky Prime »

Gomess wrote:Perhaps there should just be an "other series" forum containing the ones Sparky lists, and modified regularly as time goes by, as different series rise or lower in prominence? I admit that could require some pretty heavy moderation, though. =/
I'm not suggesting to sort them by prominence. I only said it that way to justify why G1/G2 is separate from the Beast era while everything else is grouped by continuity, and the one "misc" group.
Dominic wrote:But, that runs the risk of creating yet another category that is effectively "misc".
And what's wrong with that?
And, there are enough continutity references, (determined largely by when the show came out more than anything more substantive), to place it in the Beast Era.
As I've already pointed out several times, no there is not. Nothing definitively links CR to the Beast Era in continuity.
Onslaught Six wrote:Also: Fire Convoy has a Matrix Shard. Or Energon Matrix or whatever you want to call it. The same thing LioConvoy and Big Convoy have. So he definitely has to be from then.
At the time, Takara considered the Matrix simply a powerful badge of office every Convoy has regardless. Just because Fire Convoy has a Matrix doesn't mean he came from the Beast Era.
User avatar
Gomess
Supreme-Class
Posts: 2767
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:10 am
Location: Eng-er-land

Re: thoughts on the Beast-era

Post by Gomess »

But look at the toys that were invented for CR; don't they scream "Beast Era" before anything else?

Still with you on the Misc. Forum idea tho'.
COME TO TFVIEWS oh you already did
User avatar
Onslaught Six
Supreme-Class
Posts: 7023
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:49 am
Location: In front of my computer.
Contact:

Re: thoughts on the Beast-era

Post by Onslaught Six »

And remember, CR is what Japan got instead of Beast Machines. The fact that it came out later in the US is pretty irrelevant.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
Image
User avatar
Sparky Prime
Supreme-Class
Posts: 5225
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:12 am

Re: thoughts on the Beast-era

Post by Sparky Prime »

Gomess wrote:But look at the toys that were invented for CR; don't they scream "Beast Era" before anything else?
Honestly, no. They've always been in a league of their own to me, with a level of complexity not really seen in the Beast Era.
Onslaught Six wrote:And remember, CR is what Japan got instead of Beast Machines. The fact that it came out later in the US is pretty irrelevant.
They didn't get Car Robots instead of Beast Machines. It takes time to dub episodes, which is why they created Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo, to fill the void while Beast Wars Metals was dubbed, and Takara didn't want to wait for it again. And then a few years ago they decided to go back to Beast Machines as "Beast Wars Returns".
User avatar
BWprowl
Supreme-Class
Posts: 4145
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:15 pm
Location: Shelfwarming, because of Shellforming
Contact:

Re: thoughts on the Beast-era

Post by BWprowl »

Sparky Prime wrote:
Gomess wrote:But look at the toys that were invented for CR; don't they scream "Beast Era" before anything else?
Honestly, no. They've always been in a league of their own to me, with a level of shellmastery not really seen in the Beast Era.
Fixed that for you.

Seriously though, I'm actually with Sparky on this one, RiD mainly belongs in a Misc. forum or something of the like. It's the quintessential filler/transitional line. Japan got it while Takara waited for BM to get dubbed, and America got it while Hasbro scrapped TransTech and came up with something else. And while RiD's success may have inspired Hasbro to go the route they did with Armada, it really has nothing else to do with that series.

S'yeah, I say chuck it in with Universe and Classics. RiD eventually morphed into a prototype of the Universe line, and then Universe came back from the dead and merged with Classics to become Universe 2.0. And now that whole thing's making a comeback as Generations. As far as Hasbro's Marketing department is concerned, these series all belong together! :D

-BW "I'ma go ahead and repost this in that poll now" prowl
Image
User avatar
Onslaught Six
Supreme-Class
Posts: 7023
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:49 am
Location: In front of my computer.
Contact:

Re: thoughts on the Beast-era

Post by Onslaught Six »

I don't see where you guys are saying "Car Robots was to wait for BM to get dubbed." If that was the case, BM would have come out before 2006 or something there.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
Image
User avatar
Gomess
Supreme-Class
Posts: 2767
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:10 am
Location: Eng-er-land

Re: thoughts on the Beast-era

Post by Gomess »

I can assure you all, Japan was by no means "waiting" for BM to be dubbed. Beast Wars Returns wasn't exactly successful.
COME TO TFVIEWS oh you already did
User avatar
andersonh1
Moderator
Posts: 6323
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 3:22 pm
Location: South Carolina

Re: thoughts on the Beast-era

Post by andersonh1 »

Gomess wrote:But look at the toys that were invented for CR; don't they scream "Beast Era" before anything else?
I just don't see that. They really don't resemble the Beast Wars/Machines figures (apart from the repaints like Sky Byte of course). RID original figures are pretty much unique in their complexity and look.
User avatar
Gomess
Supreme-Class
Posts: 2767
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:10 am
Location: Eng-er-land

Re: thoughts on the Beast-era

Post by Gomess »

Well yeah, hence "*before* anything else". But if you had to justify their place in the toylines, don't you see them as a natural progression from BW, rather than a precursor to Armada?

...So who thought RiD would be the most popular subject in the Beast forum once Synjo left?
COME TO TFVIEWS oh you already did
User avatar
andersonh1
Moderator
Posts: 6323
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 3:22 pm
Location: South Carolina

Re: thoughts on the Beast-era

Post by andersonh1 »

Gomess wrote:Well yeah, hence "*before* anything else". But if you had to justify their place in the toylines, don't you see them as a natural progression from BW, rather than a precursor to Armada?
I don't know about a natural progression, no. Transtech would have been the progression. RID is a "back to basics" reboot with influences from the beast era toys, like the ball joints, and some of the more detailed scuplting. But then ball joints go back to G2, and rubber tires go back to Diaclone and G1. RID mixes and matches some of everything that came before. It's a culmination of everything that came before it, not just a further refinement or evolution of the Beast Era.

There's a burst of creativity in the line that probably came from the break away from designing beasts and Cybertronian vehicles. It really does feel like something fresh and new, not an extension of Beast Wars design philosophies.

And I can't seperate the toyline from the fiction attached to it. Robots in Disguise is a clean break from all previous continuity. There's no real link between RID and either Beast Wars or Beast Machines.
Post Reply