The BEAST WARS are over!!!

And from headquarters ...
"This is Optimus Primal signing off -- the BEAST WARS are over!!!"

Almost four years ago, an adventure in the history of the Transformers began called the Beast Wars. It was a whole new dimension in the fascinating world of the Transformers. The Autobots and Decepticons were but memories in the hearts of fans across the world. Behold the newest phase of the Transformers as the Maximals and Predacons battle on prehistoric Earth in the Beast Wars.

At first, the Maximals and Predacons seemed to take on their own adventures and stories. Hasbro had not yet explained the relation the Beast Wars Transformers had in relation to the original Transformers. Many fans were unhappy that twelve years of the Transformers had seemingly been tossed out the window and totally ignored.

Mainframe Entertainment was given the license to produce the computer animated Beast Wars syndicated show. As the story developed, the ties from the original Transformers and the Beast Wars grew stronger. It was soon discovered within the first few episodes of the Beast Wars that the Maximals and Predacons were the desscendants of the incredible Autobots and Decepticons (respectively). After the first season, the ties had been confirmed by the appearances of the Decepticon Aerospace Commander Starscream's ghost and the alien menace taking on the form of the Dark God UNICRON from Transformers: The Movie.

Man fans began to truly accept the mythos of the Beast Wars as part of the never ending saga of the Transformers. The many upset fans quieted as the Beast Wars nestled itself firmly within the rich Transformers history.

The second season of the Beast Wars continued to develop such popular characters as Optimus Primal, Megatron, Cheetor, and Blackarchnia while introducing new favorites such as Rampage and Silverbolt. Several of the characters parted to another place such as Dinobot who died valiantly in a battle to the end against the Predacons in an effort to save the first prehistoric human establishment. The legions of fans grew even more attached to the story of the Beast Wars.

It would only be a short amount of time until the Beast Wars Transformers, on prehistoric Earth, discovered the legendary, stasis-locked Autobots and Decepticons in the Autobot ship known as the Ark before the volcano erupted in 1984. During this story arc, the Decepticon Ravage, who was granted amnesty into the Predacon ranks after the Great War, paid a visit to the Beast Wars Transformers. The story of the Beast Wars took a new turn as it became the Maximals duty to protect the Autobots from being destoryed by the evil Megatron and his Predacons.

The story of the Beast Wars continued for one additional season. The popularity of both the Beast Wars toy line and television show did not go unnoticed. The toy line maintained its' position as a top five action figure toy line for quite some time, actually giving rivalry to the mega money maker Star Wars toy line also produced by Hasbro. The television show maintained a number one position among syndicated shows for quite some time also. Shortly after the third season began, it was announced by the current staff of the Beast Wars at Mainframe that this would be their last season working on the Beast Wars show. The network mega giant, FOX, purchased the rights from Hasbro to air the show on their stations and also purchased the syndicated show from Alliance who apparently is getting out of syndication.

FOX now owns the rights to air all 52 episodes of the Beast Wars and will be airing the new Transformers computer generated show this fall. The new show ill be titled "Transformers Beast Machines", previously called "Beast Hunters."

Again, many fans have raised their eyebrows at the latest developments of the Transformers. Let it be known that the writers from FOX are paying great attention to the stories that have been written before Beast Machines. They are paying great detail to maintaining the continuity that has already been created.

Will the stories of the Autobots, Decepticons, Maximals, and Predacons continue into the stories about the Beast Machines? Or will something new arise from the ashes of the Beast Wars? Find out through the questions and answers revealed by Bob Skir, Beast Machines writer, elsewhere in this issue of Trans-Forum.

This article originally published in TRANS-FORUM #11 (July 1999) by the owner of SEIBERTRON.com