My son actually got the deluxe Optimus Primal as a present years ago. I was thoroughly unimpressed. The beast and robot modes just look too similar.

wow, how old are you?

 

32. Why do you ask?

So. you had a child fairly young? like 21? I mean. how old was the child during beast wars? 1?

See, I like the BWR 10th set (the original BW molds), but I loathe the 10th ann. hasbro reimaginings. They are ugly.

So. you had a child fairly young? like 21? I mean. how old was the child during beast wars? 1?

 

He was born in 94. He caught the tail end of BW I think, and most all of BM.

Rodimus VTS: What are you talking about? Megatron never brought the old TF designs back. The Vehicons are still the same scale as Maximals and Predacons and not to scale to the Autobots and Decepticons. In fact, in Transformers Universe when the Autobots return to Cybertron they look positively gigantic compared to the BMTFs - like the image of Sideswipe, Sunstreaker and Trailbreaker just towering over Cheetor.

 

If you'd recall, when Micromasters were first introduced into G1 it was clearly stated that they were created as a means of conserving Energon. At the end of the Great War, Rodimus Prime pushed for all Transformers to undergo the Maximal Upgrade in order to become more fuel efficient, an upgrade which most Transformers underwent. We know that Ravage underwent this process and was rebuilt as a Predacon. Rodimus Prime (who renamed himself as simply "Rodimus") underwent this process too, although he retained his Autobot identity and later led the new generation of Wreckers during the Beast Machines era.

 

Also, iirc the BW DVD audio commentary also mentions that the BW TFs are more fuel efficient than G1 TFs.

 

It doesn't matter if they transform into beasts, vehicles or trees... the fact is that they are smaller than G1 TFs because they're based on a more fuel-efficient design.

the original reason was that they wanted to make the G1 Transformers look more "mythic" as compared to the BW guys, so they made them a lot larger..... from artistic license, retcon is born

Cuban Pete: Yeah, that was explained in the audio commentary - Bob Forward said that pretty much a lot of stuff in Beast Wars was just made up on the fly and later retconned. Although the BW continuity seems really cleverly planned out, Forward argues that it was really just a series of convenient coincidences. Forward said that they would pretty much write a certain concept in and worry about explaining it more in depth later.

As for the plot wise there weren't any trucks or cars on prehistoric earth comment why would that matter after all the bots on Cybertron were all beastformers. You'd think that a planet full of machinery would be a rather un animal friendly place. I think the energon over load was just a plot devise to keep them from staying in bot mode all of the time.

 

Whatever gave you the idea that the Maximals and Predacons still on Cybertron were beastformers? None of the shows have given hints to the altmodes of the TF's on Cybertron. Actually, the only truly canonical information we have, is Megatron pre-T'rex robot form and it really doesn't look like anything, but certainly not a beast.

 

As for other sources, Furman's Ultimate Guide lists that Megatron was a battle platform on Cybertron, while Primal had been a Monster Truck. The new Botcon figures kind of follows this, by giving Megatron the CD Red alert mold while Primal get the Crumplezone mold; the rest of the characters are all given vehicle modes as well. In the recent BW comics by DW/IDW there also doesn't appear to be any beastformers on Cybertron.

 

Well the fact is that in the episode where the Tripredicus counsel sends Commander Ravage through the transwarp to prehistoric earth they show the counsel and they were obviously beastformers, also you've got Nightscream, and Savage/Noble who were both beastformers on Cybertron. So I'd assume that Nightscream, and Savage/Noble were beastformers before the Maximals arrived back on Cybertron after the beast wars. Oh yeah Ravage didn't need to be reformated to a beast mode once on earth, and he wasn't surprised by the Maximal, and Predacons beast forms. Also if they were still Autobots, and Decepticons on Cybertron why would they change their names on earth just because they became beastformers?

Um, you know that a BWTF and a Beastformer are two completely different things, right? A Beastformer is actually the TF equivalent of a Battle Beast - in fact, the exact same toy... the only real difference being that Beastformers exist in TF continuity whereas Battle Beasts don't.

 

Anyway, some things to point out...

1) Tripredacus were NOT beast-moded Transformers... if you look at them, there are NO organic beast kibble on their robot forms at all. In fact, there's no real alt mode kibble of any kind on them. :P Compare their show forms with their toy forms and you can see the massive difference between what they look like with and without their beast mode kibble. In the cartoon continuity, Tripredacus never came to Earth and thus never acquired beast modes. In the toy continuity, they clearly did.

Here's a comparison...

 

2) Nightscream originally had no beast mode. He only acquired one when he fell into the extreme lower depths of Cybertron and scanned ancient DNA - which itself was proof that Cybertron once harboured organic life.

Here is what Nightscream originally looked like before he acquired a beast mode.

 

3) Savage/Noble was not a "naturally" created Transformer and he certainly was not well adapted for the Cybertronian environment that he found himself in. His creation was a freak event and he was a misfit who stuck out like a sore thumb, hence why he was forced to go into hiding a lot... his sole friend being the Maximal emo-kid Nightscream.

 

4) Ravage wasn't reformatted on Earth because he wasn't intending on staying there terribly long and thus had no intention of adapting to the Earth's environment. Besides, he had a cloaking device. d: His orders were quite simple - find and terminate Megatron.

 

5)

Also if they were still Autobots, and Decepticons on Cybertron why would they change their names on earth just because they became beastformers?

Ummm... huh?! What are you talking about? NONE of the Autobots and Decepticons changed their names during the Beast Wars/Beast Machines era - except for Rodimus Prime who had changed his name to just "Rodimus" when the Great War ended. Grimlock was still called Grimlock and Ravage was still Ravage.

:pfx

 

Plus, about Ravage, he didn't really need to change his alt mode, because with the Energon stabilized (due to the Transmetal wave), there was no need for animal modes other then to blend in -- which he didn't want to because, as Goki pointed out, he wasn't there to stay for any longer then absolutely necessary.

 

As for Ravage not being surpised by the animal modes of the Maximals/Predacons. Two points:

 

1) We can assume that adaption to local circumstances is quite normal for the transformers. They did it when they crashlanded on Earth (G1), there was no qualms whatsoever in BW about changing the altmodes, and in BM Botanica has done the same on the planet she was on (and, fo course, in RiD, Armada & Cybertron we see it as well). We could even speculate (based on BW & BM) that they even sent out exploration teams to other planets in part to get new alt modes (to enrich their culture).

 

2) Their stay on Earth had taught the TF's that organic life exists (in the comic this was unknown prior to awakening on Earth). Probably as a result of this (and the Pretender technology), part of difference between the Maximal/Predacon and their ancestors, is the ability to gain an organic looking altmode (although, it is possible that this is part of the Maximal/Predacon upgrade, since Arcee also took an organic animal mode). This doesn't mean every TF on Cybertron has an organic mode (although a lot probably have one after BM to fit in), but it does mean that there's no need for Ravage to be surprised that in the BW they've taken organic beast modes.

 

5)

Also if they were still Autobots, and Decepticons on Cybertron why would they change their names on earth just because they became beastformers?

Ummm... huh?! What are you talking about? NONE of the Autobots and Decepticons changed their names during the Beast Wars/Beast Machines era - except for Rodimus Prime who had changed his name to just "Rodimus" when the Great War ended. Grimlock was still called Grimlock and Ravage was still Ravage.

 

I think he means faction names. If so, that's not the case. When they left Cybertron, it was populated by at least Maximals (largest group), Predacons, Autobots and some remaining Decepticons. The Maximals and Predacons are completely new groups.

During the BW/BM era, Autobots and Decepticons still exist on Cybertron, but they are minorities. The vast majority of the Transformers population is Maximal and Predacon.

 

Just expanding on what Rawhide said, adapting organic beast modes is nothing new to Transformers. All the way back in G1 the Transformers had the ability to adapt organic beast modes. When the Ark dispatched the Dinobots to the Savage Land they were supposed to acquire beast modes to blend in that bizarre part of the Antarctic and battle Shockwave, but due to extensive damage to A.U.N.T.I.E., the Dinobots were mistakenly given mechanical dinosaur modes instead of realistic organic ones. In IDW's Spotlight comic, you can see how the Dinobots would've looked like had they been able to properly scan in real dinosaur-based beast modes.