Posted: 04 March 2008 at 7:33pm | IP Logged

Animutants??? Or do you mean Animorphs? If you do mean those, stay well clear, theyre not TF's per say, and have nothing to do with Beast Wars.

There were 3 seasons to Beast Wars, and then came Beast Machines.

Beast wars characters went through various changes during the shows run. Without spoiling the series for you, at a stage of BW, an event happens which causes Transmetals, and a few other suprises too....which helped build characterisation.

However, with the toys, there have been several re-releases, anniversary releases, and japanese collection releases. All vary in colour iirc, but are the same character/toy.

In regards to Primal, there are 3 variations of his character, Optimus Primal, Tranmetal Primal, and Optimal Optimus, who is the Primal clostest to having a G1 form.

Thats as far as my help can go, as im more of a Beast Machines fan myself.

Posted: 19 August 2008 at 12:28am | IP Logged

Beast Wars is an interesting line to collect, its easily theline I have the most figures for. Quite apart from more organic forms, the engineering that went on for these toys is amazing and they get ever more complex as the line matures. You can also very clearly track the development of the line. The design and execution of the later figures is streets ahead of the initial figures.

from the 'Red box' series one and two (figures that are purely organic in alt. mode and come on red backing cards/ boxes):

Basic Assortment: Razorbeast, Powerpinch, Iguanus, Insecticon, Snapper, Airrazor, Spittor (the predacons got the better deal in the early stages of the line in terms of look and alt mode). Most of these basic figures just require a touch to transform.

Deluxe Assortment: Dinobot, Cheetor (clumsy alt.mode,but robot is cool), Bonecrusher, Manterror

Mega Assortment (boxed): Scorponok, Inferno, Transquitto, B'Boom

Combiners: Magnaboss and Tripredacus (awesome figures and quite complex transformations. Tripredacus is the better of the two - Magnaboss relies on a heavy contribution from Ironhide the elephant, who as a consequence has a poor robot mode of his own) 

Ultra Assortment: Hmm, I have mixed feelings about both Megatron and Primal on their initial release. Primal has a decent robot mode with loads of weapons and accessories, but isn't that great in gorrilla mode. Megatron is okay, has a neat transformation, but just lacks...something.

I can recommend all of the subsequent figures. The Transmetals are all excellent, particularly Rampage and Depthcharge (Ultra Assortment), Optimal Optimus is perhaps the weakest, only by virtue of some abysmal 'transport' modes.

The fuzors are fun ( I really like Injector - ridiculous though he looks), best being Torca and worst being Airhammer (A flying Hammerhead shark. As good as it sounds.).

Where the line truly excels is with the Transmetal 2 line - these are like the transmetals, but without the pointless 'third' mode, greater detail and more complex transformations (particularly on Scourge). One to watch out for is Cackle (also known as Jawbreakker to our US cousins) - transforming him to and from beast mode rapidly scrapes the vacuum metalised plastic from his body. Black Arachnia is an awesome figure in beast mode, but a little top heavy as a robot, but looks way more female than her original release (a repaint of Tarantulas).

TM2 Megatron is awesome, easily my favourite. I'd save Tigerhawk as a collection filler - he's nowhere near as good as I thought he would be, I think its just down to the sculpting of the Tiger head more than anything - its a bit weak!

Beast wars figures in Europe came in what is known as 'Tri-logo' packaging as it shows 'Beast Wars Bio Combat Transformers'. On the continent where English is less common 'Ani Mutants' appears under the Beast Wars logo. Packaging variations on the European figures can also be seen on the reverse of pack - we have no Tech Specs to speak of, unlike the states.

Spittor and Clawjaw were available as Transmetal repaints with PAL VHS tapes of 'Aftermath' and 'The Coming of The Fuzors part 1'. The US also got repaints of Razorclaw and Airazor (i think) with different episodes in NTSC format tapes. In th UK, Woolworths also offered the following promotional items: A Beast wars colour change glass and Beast Wars part 1 on tape. Toymaster also gave away a free watch, and most irritatingly of all, Toys R Us gave away the opening episode of Season 3 as a promotional tape - irritating as this episode was missing from Universals' Beast Wars Season 3 VHS Tapes (vols 1-4). As they advertised at the time, Season 3 had "Never Been Seen on TV" in the UK, so why they mucked about with its release like thi is beyond me, but I digress...

That's the basics. There are a good six or seven convention exclusive figures, plus the Japanese Lines Beast Wars II (which mixes in vehicular transformers - mostly G2 repaints) and Beast Wars Neo.

Hope that helps

Posted: 19 August 2008 at 9:15am | IP Logged

cloudrunner wrote: ^ great 1st post!   I agree with pretty much all of it.  The 1st line of action figures, IMO were the best, but my favorites are rampage, depth charge, and the transmetal optimus and megatrons.  Optimal Optimus and Transmetal 2 megatron are great eye candy to display but forget trying to remember how to transform them into their various modes.  Great collectors' items though.  The only ones I'm missing are Blackarachnia, Tigerhawk, and the original waspinator.

Thanks man  I forgot to mention the first release Deluxe Cybershark, which is probably the best of the inital Deluxe figures. The shark mode is odd as its supposed to be a hammerhead, but mixes in Tiger shark markings and the bulk of a great white!

I'm missing first release Black Arachnia and Tigatron from the core line. I'd also quite like the japanese Tripredacus Agent Ravage/Jaguar figure, but he seems a little on the expensive side from what I've seen.

I'm starting to dabble a bit in the Japanese series - they have some er, interesting beast choices in their lines!

Posted: 19 August 2008 at 5:22pm | IP Logged

My Waspinator is known as a Animutant too - I think my instruction manual describes it as the ability to change his head from a Robot head to a Mutant head (I keep the Mutant head on him since it looks closer to the cartoon version. The Robot head, well, doesn't)

Posted: 19 August 2008 at 6:55pm | IP Logged

Most of the Deluxe and up figures have a 'mutant head'. There were an added play value gimmick.As you say, some were more obviously used in the show. There were plans to feature these in the TV show as battle helmets, but it was thought that it may complicate the animation overmuch. On the R1 DVDs there are some rough animatics featuring some of the Maximals and Predacons with the helmets/mutant heads.

Posted: 27 August 2008 at 2:23am | IP Logged

Hey,if you ever need some info on Beast Wars,I'm your man. I pretty much watched the entire series excepted for a few episodes on either tvlinks or youtube.

P.S.

Click on my dragon eggs so they hatch before they die.