Ok, so I'm going though a bunch of pics on my computer and I started finding a few that I had forgotten about. As i went through the bunch I came across some older pics I had of the Beast Wars Battle Helmets from the first wave. I know it comes up from time to time as to why they were there. We now know it was an idea scrapped at the last moment before making the show, but the toys were already out. Thus...a quirky gimmick that gets a lot WTF moments from newer fans.

 

So I say we start a topic to help newer fans and old fans alike to find the hidden meaning behind those exrtra wheels or that unused cockpit. If we can, Try to add pics or links of the hidden alt modes and design features in question if you can. Try to avoid fan modes and a throw in Some Fun Facts as well!

 

Q: What's up with those compartments on a lot of early G1 figures?

A: Most early G1 toys were from another toy line called Diaclone and Microman. These toys were actualy robots piloted by tiny drivers. That's where those compartments come in. The yellow door on Bombshell is an example:

Bombshells door is visible here

 

Fun Fact:

Most early g1 cars were made to fit in Optimus Primes trailer! The launcher also is ment to work on them!

 

Fun Fact:

Many G1 toys have alt modes that many new fans didn't know about! Like Optimus Primes "repair bay" or the many Combiner leaders "station" modes like Motor Masters launch pad or Hot Spots Repair Station.

Motor Masters Launch mode

Optmius Primes repair station

 

Q: Why do some of the Beast Wars figures have helmets?

A: It was an unused idea for the show! When the Transformers would go into battle they would have battle helmets.

Wolfangs battle helmet is shown here

 

Q: Why do some of the Beast Wars boxes have 3 logos while others don't?

A: These are known as Tri-Lingual packages and were sold to many different countries and even a few were sold in the US. They were mainly sold in Canada , and Mexico. (edited, they were not sold in europe)

Here is a Tri-Lingual Prowl from Transmetal 2 (black variant shown)

 

Q: Why does my TM Megatron have a small chair on him? Why does my TM2 Blackarachnia have wheels?

A: Tigertron and Megatron from Tranmetals along with Blackarachnia, have several designs that never made it into any continuity. Megs and Tigerhawk were supposed to have drivers, as well as Optimal Optimus. Blackarachnia and Tigertron also had 3rd alt modes never shown in the instructions!

Tigerhawks rarely seen Battle Transport mode

hard to see here, but in megatrons chest is the cockpit for the driver

 

Fun Fact:

Did you know that Night Viper from Beast Machines was ment to hold his weapons?

With a little bit of moving around, Night Viper can hold his weapons, instead of just having them on the sides of his arms.

thats a kool idea. I'm a lifelong fan, and I just learned something.

the things about megs and tiger hawk having extra fetures is new to me i can see why they removed then for BA i mean who would realy want to say they have thier figures riding BA

Any pics of the Blackarachnia other mode?

 

I new about TM2 Megs and Tigerhawk. Wasnt Tigerhawks cockpit meant to house the Vok? At least, that is what I heard, seeing as he is their homeboy and stuff.

Any pics of the Blackarachnia other mode?

 

I new about TM2 Megs and Tigerhawk. Wasnt Tigerhawks cockpit meant to house the Vok? At least, that is what I heard, seeing as he is their homeboy and stuff.

 

I'm not 100% on that either, and I haven't seen pics of the Blackarachnias other mode in a long time, so I don't have pics right now. I'll add them if i can ever find it again :thumb

The deal with the cockpits is that there was an idea at Hasbro to include these little guys with OpOp, TM2 Megs, etc. as a "personification of their sparks". Eventually they realized how super ghey that idea was and dropped it. I believe that the Japanese release of Cryotek has a driver in the seat though.

I really like this thread. I am sure that there are a number of people out there that can share little jewels of knowledge. I had heard about most of this, but like w/ Tigerhawk's chariot mode, I had never seen it before.

 

Very cool thread!!! :thumb

Fun With Tech Specs

 

Starscream and Skywarp's specs were switched. Note that Skywarp has a higher rank and intelligence on his spec even though Starscream is an Air Commander and Skywarp is described as not too bright.

 

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's entire descriptions were swithed. Note how Sideswipe is described as having a jetpack, pile driver arms, and shoulder mounted flare(s!), then look at which of the two toys fits that description.

 

Hot Rod is a doozy. His original specs were astronomically high. We're talking RID high. Then, realizing that this was silly for a char who was really, "just another guy" when the TM version was released they neutered his specs to the point where he's about on par with Bumblebee. LOL its probably best to just average the two.

 

Scorponok is also fun. His original specs were extremely low. We're talking two and threes. They then realized that they had put the little EKG line on the package upside down. In later packages (known as semi-corrected) they had flipped it but not aligned it properly, so all of his stats are low by two whole points (if the stats given by putting in Zarak are an indicator). To get his corrected specs, just raise them all by two.

 

Fun with Turn Coats.

 

The Triggerbots and Triggercons were meant to be divided on technological lines. The Autobots were to have the flip out Chrome accented weapons, and the Decepticons were to have the slow moving jacksprings. For some reason, the jets for each side, Dogfight and Windsweeper, had their factions switched. Also note how their colour schemes would both work for either faction.

 

All of the Con and Bot Pretenders have something in common. All of the Bots are humans while all of the Cons are monsters. Wait not all of them. What about Longtooth and Strangle hold? These two were also switched at the last minute. Note the Con-like Jolly Roger on Longtooth's chest.

Wow this is actually one of those "useful" threads that only appear once in a blue moon.

 

I head that those micromachine beastwars figs (the cm high ones) were actually designed to fit in the cockpits of Megs, Tigerhawk and OpOp (the most obvious yet not yet named). I looked for a while to find the Primal fig for OpOp but no dice...

Q: Why do some of the Beast Wars figures have helmets?

A: It was an unused idea for the show! When the Transformers would go into battle they would have battle helmets.

Actually, they're meant to be "mutant heads," although some of them functioned as battle helmets. A lot of the early BW Transformers had two heads for robot mode - mutant heads and robot heads. For the show, they decided to stick to one version of each robot head per character. One reason could be to reduce the cost of animation, since it would have costed more money to make head variants of each 3D robot model. The head variations did come in handy when it came to differentiating between Blackarachnia and Tarantulas -- although Blackarachnia is just a repaint of Tarantulas, the show featured Blackarachnia with her robot head and Tarantulas with his mutant head, thus helping to further distinguish the two characters cosmetically. Tigatron's Hasbro card/tech specs art does show him with his mutant head, probably to further distinguish him from Cheetor, although Mainframe animators decided to stick with Tigatron's robot head in the show (although his face was altered to make it look different from Cheetor's).

 

But yeah... the show had nothing to do with this concept when the toys were being designed - remember, the toys came first!

 

I new about TM2 Megs and Tigerhawk. Wasnt Tigerhawks cockpit meant to house the Vok? At least, that is what I heard, seeing as he is their homeboy and stuff.

Nope. The figures were originally known as "Spark pilots," and at the time this concept was being pitched around, I doubt HasTak would've been aware of Tigerhawk being a "Vok Emissary." That idea was worked into his tech specs probably towards the end of the R&D stage of the toy - i.e.: after they'd shown the toy designs to Mainframe and Mainframe writers had written up some kind of bio treatment for his show character.

 

Elrod: that's some cool info there, man!

 

What about Longtooth and Strangle hold? These two were also switched at the last minute. Note the Con-like Jolly Roger on Longtooth's chest.

I never knew that, but it does explain a lot. It's also interesting to note that even as an Autobot, Longtooth was quite a dark character, what with the whole Captain Ahab lust for vengeance thing. :P

 

What about Starscream? I doubt he was originally intended to be an Autobot... would he be the only Pretender with a human shell who was always meant to be a Decepticon? I do like how G1 explained why he got a human shell instead of a monster shell though.