Transformers Reviews News on Seibertron.com

Seibertron's Roundtable Review for Transformers Rise of the Beasts

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 32,427

This film is ok. It's basically dollar bin Marvel with skybeams, an army of no name villains that come out of nowhere for the finale that takes place in a drab CG landscape. BUT this is still a step in the right direction for a Transformers film. It does a lot of things right like have a focus on the robots, have action scenes you can follow (mostly), no annoying human characters, minimal bathroom humour and lots of transformations. While this all sounds like basic asks for a Transformers film, you'd be hard pressed to find any film from the live action Transformers franchise have all of those requirements outside of Bumblebee. Not to say Bayverse elements are completely gone though.

As I wrote previously, the reboot/not a reboot discussion does not matter if elements from Bayverse are still found within this film. And Bayverse Optimus is here, big time. Not only is it the same face as the earlier Bay films (which looks worse than before in the more G1 style helmet) but his personality is exactly the same, very focused on violence in both his dialogue and his actions. It really surprised me how this film almost goes out of its way to be different from the earlier Bay films, getting a lot of elements right, but sticking the same Optimus at the core of it. So if people want this to be a different continuity, then sure, fine, you now have a new Bayverse continuity, nobody wins here.

The script also suffers from a lack of polish. This is more mcguffin centric then probably any previous Transformers movie to date (which is insane to type) and instead of giving us something clear, you get a really needlessly complicated artifact which turns the writing into utter nonsense. It's a key that hasn't been seen for one thousand years. But it's made by the Maximals who are the future of the autobots and developped this technology that Unicron needs to travel across the universe even though Unicron himself provides Scourge, his henchman, with technology to travel across the universe. It's just nonsense.
More gripes of mine include minimal time spent on Cheetor and Rhinox who have little to no lines in the film and are only seen in their robot modes for a grand total of 15 seconds (not an exageration, you are free to time it yourself), and never in a clear shot. For a film called Rise of the Beasts, you'd think the beasts would be the main selling point, instead of Optimus Prime just wanting to rip spines apart, but no.

So while the film finally has all the pieces there, and gets the idea of what a live action Transformers film should be like, the finished script just isn't compelling and the final action set piece has all the negatives both fans and critics are tired of with Marvel films. I will give it this though, Steven Caple Jr did an excellent job on the pacing. This film just zips right through but the scenes never feel disjointed within the quick pace either. It's very basic go from point A to point B stuff, but I think it's a good foundation for these films going forward, which is why I am still excited for what is to come in this franchise. I would rate this just slightly above average as a film. In terms of Transformers films, I don't think it's on the same level as Bumblebee. It's closer to the first Transformers film, and while that first Michael Bay film might be a better movie, I would say Rise of the Beasts is a better Transformers Movie, which actually matters to me more when all is said and done.

- William-James88

I thought the movie was really good. I enjoyed it a lot. I would probably rank it with DotM right now as my favorite TF movie.

The standout star of the movie absolutely was Mirage. I loved him, and he got a ton of screen time and lines, and he even had a nice character arc throughout the story while keeping it fun. I am so glad that we got him, and I really hope that sequels will use him as well as they did here.

Primal was my 2nd favorite of the movie. Ron Perlman really nailed him. You can tell he learned some stuff from PotP, and had much better direction here. His voice really added gravitas to all of what Primal did. I really liked him. Well done.

Scourge would be the 3rd guy that stood out to me in the movie. Peter Dinklage did a great job as his voice, and he certainly got some great money shots. The opening scene of him coming out of the woods to confront Apelinq was awesome, that was so cool! I also appreciate how it took Mirage, then Noah, then Prime, and finally lava to get to him. He was a cool villain for sure.

The rest of the cast was pretty good too. There really wasn't a bot that was bad. Maybe a few under-used, like Rhinox and Wheeljack, but they are still there for sequels, and pretty much everyone got a stand out character moment. I personally loved how they handled Wheeljack.

Plot of the movie was good, it was definitely breakneak speed, could have used maybe 10 extra minutes to slow some stuff down a smidge. But there really wasn't a lag in the movie at all.

I love how Prime just has bots around the world, so Wheeljack was already prepping for their arrival, and Stratosphere was an uber. Which, BTW, winning line from Mirage: I'm walking to peru!

I think it ended up being a good movie. It was certainly strong, and I would argue that AOE is the only movie that came close to the level of characterization of the cast. There was a strong bot cast, and some good humans, and some good moments as well.

I loved it, glad it's finally here, and I will gladly see it again.

- D-Maximal_Primal

Full Plot Breakdown of Transformers Rise of the Beasts with Spoilers Abound

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 68,584

Actar wrote:Alrighty!!! Here is what you guys have been waiting for. A full plot summary of Rise of the Beasts. This is based completely on my memory. I usually have a pretty good memory, but please remember that I only watched the movie once, and I was really hyped. So, please forgive me if I get some details wrong. Also remember that there is also a ton of heart, characterization, and atmosphere that comes through the dialogue, jokes, and cinematography that I cannot recreate here. That said, here we go:


At the beginning, we have an opening narration from Primal introducing Unicron as a dark god from legends. Unicron nears the Maximal homeworld and sends down Scourge and his minions in order to mine the planet for their technology before he eats it up. The technology that the Maximals have is the Transwarp Key. Scourge comes down, not in a ship alt-mode, but in a literal small ship that he steps out of. (Spotted a Predacon emblem as one of Scourge's trophies here.) We see Cheetor, Airazor, Apelinq, and Primal evacuating to their escape pod/ship. Apelinq is the leader of the Maximals and asks Primal and the others to use the Transwarp Key to escape. He decides to stay behind and fend off Scourge to buy them some time to escape. He names Primal the new leader of the Maximals. Apelinq and Scourge fight for a bit, but Scourge kinda catches Apelinq off guard and uses his giant blade thing to stab and kill him. The other Maximals escape through a transwarp portal to what is implied to be a prehistoric Earth.

We get introduced to Noah and Elena. Noah is struggling to look for a job to support his family. His brother has a blood disease (I think sickle cell disease), and they can't afford the treatment. Elena is an intern at a museum, but she's more passionate and knowledgeable about history and artifacts than the actual staff. Noah tries to apply for a job but doesn't get it because of his apparent inability to work in a team from his military days. Elena notices a bird sculpture with a Maximal symbol and bizarre markings recovered from an auction. She gets interested it in and analyzes it. While analyzing it, she breaks it, and inside is a glowing crystal thingy (the Transwarp Key) that activates and emits an energy signature that can only be seen/felt by the Autobots/Terrorcons/Maximals. At this time, Noah was desperate for cash, so he decides to take up Reek's offer to steal rich people's cars and sell them. After breaking into Mirage, Noah gets a change of heart. It is here when Optimus notices the transwarp signature and puts a call out to all the Autobots to assemble. We see Bumblebee and Arcee leap into action. Noah hears Optimus's call on the radio, and Mirage takes him along for the ride. This is where we see the police chase from the trailers.

Once at the warehouse, Noah and Mirage start to bond. When Optimus arrives, he is annoyed that Mirage has brought back a human. Arcee scans Noah's face, reads his bio, and notes that he's an ex-soldier. Note that Optimus in this early part of the movie is really jaded and grumpy. Essentially, he feels like it's his fault that the Autobots are stuck on Earth and that anything that happens to them on Earth is his responsibility. Optimus really wants to get the Transwarp Key so that they can finally go back home. They want to get the Transwarp Key from the museum, but they can't just go and reveal themselves. So Mirage volunteers Noah. Noah can sneak in and grab the Key for them. In order to convince Noah, Mirage says that he can transform into any kind of car he wants, transforming into a Lambo and an F1 racing car. Noah can sell him for cash, and Mirage can sneak off later. Optimus distrusts humans and says that humans will only prioritize their own kind, but he agrees to the plan. Bumblebee says that humans are his friends, but Optimus says that because one was kind to him doesn't mean that all will be. It is at this point that Scourge, Nightbird, and Battletrap arrive (after noticing the energy signature) and they head to the museum as well.

At the museum, Noah sneaks in on Mirage, transformed into a garbage truck, and tries to convince Elena to give him the Key because giant robots want it, but she doesn't believe him. The Terrorcons attack, and she has no choice but to believe him. Scourge unleashes two Freezers to chase them while the Autobots come in to engage the Terrorcons. Noah and Elena manage to run out of the museum and evade the Freezers. The battle outside is intense, with Scourge beating Prime rather soundly, despite Prime whipping out his axe. Scourge says, "And you call yourself a Prime. Primus will be ashamed." Nightbird blasts the humans with a bomb, and I think it is here where they drop the Transwarp Key and the Terrorcons get it. Nightbird really reminds me of Shatter in terms of her voice and mannerisms, and Battletrap even gets a line or two. Battletrap's wrecking ball can also grab onto things to add extra weight and mass to his swing, which I thought was cool. Scourge "kills" Bee and takes his Autobot emblem. Scourge is about to kill Prime too when Airazor swoops in and blasts the Terrorcons with fire. They decide to retreat because they already have the Key.

Optimus and the gang follow Airazor to figure out what's going on. Optimus is really broken up about Bee. Airazor explains that she is a Maximal, "a warrior from both your past and future" (not sure what this means... any reference to time travel in this movie is really vague and never explicit) and talks about Unicron and Scourge. Optimus knows of Unicron. Airazor notes that Scourge is infused with "dark energy" and that Unicron controls Scourge's soul. Here, it is revealed that Scourge only has half of the Key because the Maximals broke it into two to keep it safe. Airazor thinks that she is the last of the Maximals as she hasn't seen the others in a long time as they split up a long, long time ago and went into hiding. Scourge has an audience with Unicron telepathically, and Unicron tortures him because he only has half of the Key. In reality, Scourge writhes in pain while floating in the air.

Elena figures out that the other half of the Key must be in Peru because the same symbols on the bird statue were only ever recorded on a temple in Peru. The Autobots are now going to go to Peru, and Noah insists on coming along. Here, it's interesting to note that Noah wants to go not to help the Autobots, but because he wants to get the other half of the Transwarp Key to destroy it so Unicron has no hope of ever coming to Earth. However, this will doom the Autobots to remain on Earth, but Noah only wants to look out for his own, proving Optimus' original perception of humans right. Of course, Optimus himself only cares for his own kind as well. In this sense, Noah and Optimus kinda mirror each other, and this sets up the best conflict and character arc of the movie, IMHO.

They then set off to Peru on Stratosphere. In Peru, they meet up with Wheeljack, who helps track down the temple entrance with Elena's coordinates. It is at an old church. Mirage gives Noah the gauntlet gun thingy. There is a huge parade/celebration going on, and Noah and Elene take a leaf out of the Autobots' book and hide in plain sight by blending into the crowd. Arcee sits hiding in Wheeljack in robot mode, which I found rather cute. Prime and Mirage are in vehicle mode. Here, there is a ton of dialogue between them while they're in vehicle mode, which is something that I don't think ever happened in the other movies and adds a ton to the bots as Transformers characters.

They manage to get to the entrance where they solve a puzzle, and they descend into the caverns Indiana Jones style. Scourge and the Terrorcons arrive, and Scourge sends a Freezer after the humans. Once Noah and Elena reach the temple, they discover that the other half of the Transwarp Key is no longer there. It had been moved. The Freezer attacks Noah and Elena, and they run deeper into the caverns. The Autobots spring into action, and so do the Terrorcons. There is a huge battle on the road and a rematch between Prime and Scourge. Nightbird and Battletrap fight Arcee, Wheeljack, and Mirage. During this battle, Noah figures out how to use the gauntlet gun and blasts the Freezer. They then emerge out of a cave in the jungle. Airazor blasts the bridge to prevent Scourge and the other Terrorcons from following. Scourge then fires a crab needle thingy that latches onto Airazor and begins corrupting her with Scourge's essence. This allows Scourge to track her and slowly turn her evil.

Outside the cave in the jungle, this is where we get the scene from the released clip. Primal appears, and so do the other Maximals. Prime and the other Autobots jump in, and Airazor comes in to defuse the situation and introduce the other Maximals. Primal says that he's named after Optimus himself, "the legendary warrior of Cybertron," and that it's an honor to meet him. Primal and the others explain that they have the other half of the Transwarp Key. He also says that Maximals are an advanced race dedicated to the expansion of life throughout the universe, but now they're just staying on Earth to protect the life here and to protect the Transwarp Key. The Maximals lead them to a little village of humans, the descendants of the tribe of humans who have watched over the Maximals and have shared their culture with them. The Maximals reveal that the humans are in possession of the other half of the Key. Prime is surprised that the Maximals trust the humans so much. Primal tells Prime that there is "more to them than meets the eye." Then, Primal shows Optimus raw energon deposits in the valley. Prime wants to use the energon to revive Bee, but the energon is inert and cannot be activated without great power. Still, Prime lays Bee, whose body was brought there by Stratosphere, on some energon. At night, Elena tries to convince Noah to not destroy the Transwarp Key.

The next day, Elena wakes up and sees Airazor going berserk. She flies off, and Prime and Primal realize that Scourge and the other Terrorcons are coming. Noah puts on the gauntlet gun and is about to destroy the Transwarp Key, but Prime pleads with Noah. Noah struggles but finally decides to not go through with it. The Terrorcons arrive and manage to snatch the Transwarp Key while Airazor comes in and snatches up Elena. Primal jumps in to save her. Primal and Airazor fight, and Airazor regains some of her senses, enough for her to plead with Primal to do what is necessary. It's a really poignant moment as Primal kills Airazor, something he doesn't want to do because there are so few of them left.

Now, Scourge has both halves of the key. He goes to the top of a mountain/volcano and combines the two. This (or maybe Unicron's power) creates a tower for Scourge to set the Key in, and it starts to open a portal in the sky for Unicron to come in. From the walls of the tower spawn a ton of Terrorcon drones. Noah refuses to give up and says that he will not give up fighting. Prime and Primal agree to fight, but they need a plan. The only way that they can shut down the tower without destroying it and causing a huge explosion that will essentially kill them all is by entering a special access code. Elena comes in clutch again when she realizes that one half of the code was on the bird statue and the other half was in the temple. Prime realizes that they each have been fighting their own fights when they should be fighting together. He finally learns to trust Noah and Elena. The Autobots and Maximals will fight the Terrorcons while the humans will sneak in through the tiny access tunnels and go to the console in the middle of the tower to enter the code.

The big fight begins. This part is simply awesome. However, there are too many things to remember, and the sequence in my mind is a bit messed up, so I'll just mention the main parts that stood out to me. Arcee, Wheeljack, Rhinox, and Cheetor focus on taking out the drones. Prime and Primal fight Battletrap. Primal cuts off Battletrap's arm and leg, and Primal smashes Battletrap with his own wrecking ball. Prime does a "He was mine!" bit with Primal. There's a bit during the battle where we see Primal without his faceplate, but it's just a quick flash. During the battle, there's a pulse from the tower, and the energon in the valley seems to react to it. Bee starts to buzz back to life. Mirage takes on Scourge to distract him, but Mirage gets punched aside and Noah gets discovered and pulled out of the tunnel by Scourge. Elena rushes ahead to the console. Mirage knocks off Scourge's mask, and it's literally just like MCU Ultron's face. Not really a hint of Prime, so those who were theorizing that Scourge was Bayverse Prime (including myself) will be disappointed. Regardless, Mirage shields Noah from Scourge's cannon fire. It looks like Mirage is dead, but he comes back to life for just a bit before telling Noah to "take over the wheel." He transforms around Noah and becomes Noah's exosuit. Noah starts to take on Scourge but is obviously outmatched. Prime then comes in to fight Scourge together with Noah. Scourge once again overpowers Prime. Unicron appears overhead and sends in his ball drones.

All hope seems to be lost, but Stratosphere flies in overhead and Bumblebee jumps out, taking out drones and shooting Scourge, giving them a chance to recover. Nightbird flies up and grabs Bee, and Scourge shoots at Bee. Bee manages to use Nightbird as a shield. One of her wings comes off, Bee stabs her with it, she explodes, and Bee does a superhero landing as Nightbird parts rain down. All this time, Elena was running from a Freezer, trying to get to the console, and entering the access code. Even though she manages to enter it, the console gets destroyed as Scourge and Prime fight. Scourge asks Unicron to send in more reinforcements, and Unicron does. This is where the giant Scorponoks appear. Prime cuts off Scourge's arms, rips out his head/spine, and takes back Bumblebee's Autobot emblem. Now, there's no choice left but for Prime to destroy the tower/Transwarp Key and sacrifice himself. Noah and the others start to run away. Prime destroys the Transwarp Key, there's an explosion, and everything starts to get sucked back into the portal. Just as it looks like Prime is about to be pulled in, Noah grabs onto Prime's axe and the suit kinda anchors itself to the ground. But it's no use. Noah also starts to get pulled in. But that is when Primal grabs them and yanks them to the ground. (ARRIVAL TO EARTH PLAYS HERE!) This is where Prime does that breakdance transformation and Noah rides on his back from the trailers. They speed away, and the entire thing blows up. After the battle, Noah is seen taking the exosuit back on Stratosphere.

Primal says that Unicron is not dead and that Unicron is instead trapped and could return. Optimus says "Let him come." instead of the "Let them come." from the trailer. Optimus gives an "I am Optimus Prime" speech about losing the Transwarp Key but how they have gained an ally in a battle that they can only stand a chance to win together.

Noah goes and applies for another security job. He sees on a TV that Elena gets recognition for the temple discovery in Peru. He gets an interview with a guy. Guy surprises Noah by knowing about his exploits and that he saved the world. He says that they know everything. Guy promises Noah that his brother's medical fees will be taken care of because Noah saved the world. Guy asks him and his big friends to join them as "we are in the middle of an ongoing war" (the line from the TV spot) and hands him a business card. He tweaks a plaque on the wall, and it opens to reveal a base/hanger thing. Noah flips over the card, and it says G.I. Joe on the back.

In the mid-credits scene, we see Noah putting the finishing touches on a junker car made up of different parts. Surprise! It transforms into a red/silver Mirage (might have been just rusty, seen only from the back). Noah managed to restore him from the exosuit.

THE END

Stratosphere is old like Jetfire. He's Scottish as well. He only does transport, doesn't fight, and transforms on screen twice.
Airazor doesn't transform into robot mode.
Transit is not in the film.
Rhinox has no lines that I can remember while Cheetor has a few. Their bot modes are also blurry and hard to see as they're always fighting. This is pretty much my biggest let down when it comes to the film. Cool scene of Cheetor throwing his spear to save Noah, though.
I don't remember if Wheeljack has his head fins out in the battle scenes. It was kinda hard to see anyway...
This film has the most amount of on-screen transformations and transformer dialogue out of any film. While some characters have much more dialogue than others, they all have personality.
The action is cohesive and choreographed. Some of the best in the franchise.
If I didn't know about how messy the production process was, I wouldn't have been able to guess it from watching the film alone. It's a very focused and tight plot with no unnecessary B plot like some of the other movies.
There is no post-credits scene.

- Prime (Best development)
- Primal (Best overall)
- Mirage (Best personality)
- Airazor (Great performance, key to many scenes)
- Scourge (Great villain for Prime/Primal)
- Nightbird (Great voice, standout in fights)
- Arcee (All around okay)
- Cheetor (A couple of lines that evoke the original character)
- Stratosphere (Interesting alt-mode, unique transformation)
- Bumblebee (Doesn't do anything for most of the movie)
- Battletrap (Great in fights, nothing much else)
- Wheeljack (Nothing character)
- Rhinox (Biggest disappointment)

Would be my rating.

Transformers Generations SELECTS Reformatted Galvatron video review.

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 57,462

Video review of Transformers Kingdom Puffer and Road Ranger

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 39,151

New Video Review of Transformers Kingdom Leader Class Galvatron

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 27,419

Haslab War for Cybertron Unicron Review Round Up

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 33,518

New Video Review of HasLab Transformers War for Cybertron Trilogy Unicron

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 34,218

First Haslab Transformers Unicron Video Review

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 29,389

IDW Transformers #26 Review

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 29,229

Snoreworld
A Review of Transformers #26

Spoiler Free-ish

He did look like Optimus all along anyways

Even he looks bored and he's the one talking

My bad, there's also standing and talking

Features special preview of Botbots Titan Class

At least it still looks nice

Verdict

That's not how these scores work

Final Score
.
out of

Transformers Beast Wars Beast Generations Mook Review

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 150,565

Sabrblade wrote:My copy arrived in the mail from HLJ last Friday, December 11, and only now have I had the chance to talk about it.

Before I get into the book itself, I gotta say that the preview pages seen earlier in this thread must have been very early production pages since none of them are in this book. The book's pages aren't even red, they're white. Some of the toys seen in those pages aren't even in the book either. Namely, of all those Blackarachnia toys, the Animated, Legends, Universe, and Binaltech ones are not in the book. In fact, that collection of Blackarachnia toys itself isn't present either. The ones from that group that are in the book are found in their respective sections instead of grouped together like that. Basically, none of the pages in this book look anything like those sample pages.

And now, onto the book.

The cover is as shown below, but printed in black-and-white. The colored version is included, but as a dust jacket over the book's actual cover.



On the back is a list of all the series covered by this book: Beast Wars, Beast Wars II, Beast Wars Neo, Beast Wars Metals, Animorphs, Beast Machines "Transformers: Carrobot", Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Beast Wars Returns, "And… The Aftermath".

At the bottom is a row of eleven symbols, the same eleven seen on the front cover: Maximal, Predacon, Blentron, Animorph, Mutant, Technorganic Maximal, Vehicon, Dinobot, Autobot, Decepticon, and Combatron.

Like the front cover, the back is colorless in light gray while the back dust jacket is in green with a Beast Wars green eye surrounded by red scales.

The inside flaps of the dust jacket feature old advertisement text from the original Beast Wars toyline. On the front flap is the Japanese catalog text that translates as follows:

From beyond the end of the universe, in search of mysterious Power Energy, the super robot lifeform "Transformers" have arrived! The evil "Destron" Transformers who attempt to conquer the universe by abusing Power Energy, and the righteous "Cybertron" Transformers who fight to stop them. With special abilities, each transforms into a different creature! At last, a new battle has begun. Will it be the heroic Cybertrons or the evil Destrons that will win this battle!?

On the back flap is the classic English text from the 1996 Beast Wars packaging:

BIO-GENETIC ENGINEERING HAS ALLOWED THE TRANSFORMERS TO CREATE A PERFECT CYBERNETIC FUSION BETWEEN FEROCIOUS ANIMALS AND MECHANICAL TRANSFORMERS TECHNOLOGY. THE RESULT: HEROIC MAXIMALS VS. EVIL PREDACONS! ROBOT WARRIORS DISGUISED AS WILD ANIMALS IN AN EXPLOSIVE FIGHT TO THE FINISH! THE BEAST WARS HAVE BEGUN ...COLLECT THEM ALL!

The front flap also has a photo of all six deco releases of Transmetal Rattrap: Takara, Hasbro, Fox Kids, Walmart, 10th Anniversary, and the Japanese jigsaw puzzle one. Likewise, the back flap has a photo of seven versions of the Cheetor toy: Fox Kids, 10th Anniversary, Telemocha Series, Hasbro blue eyes, Hasbro red eyes, Hasbro green eyes, and Takara's second-run version with the green cheetah eyes and orange robot eyes.

Inside the front cover is a large photo of RID Air Attack Optimus Primal (not the Japanese Encore version, the Hasbro Toys'R'Us version). Behind this is an Introduction page written almost entirely in Japanese (as is every page in this book, which I'm saying now to avoid having to repeat it throughout). It appears to cover a brief overview of the Transformers brand's history, and contains a short timeline of events from 1984 to 2021, skipping over many years unrelated to the Beast Era.

The Table of Contents shows that the book is divided into three main parts:

• Part 1: Chronicle (pages 4 to 98)
• Part 2: Backstage (pages 99 to 129)
• Part 3: Documents (pages 130 to 143)

Part 1: Chronicle is the largest part of the book, containing a near-complete coverage of almost every single Beast Era toy ever produced (I say "near-complete" and "almost every" for reasons to be given later). Toys that had variants get coverage for most of those as well. For instance, the original Cheetor toy gets coverage for its original green-eyed version, its blue-eyed version, its red-eyed version, and the Japanese rerelease with green cheetah eyes and orange robot eyes. But in cases like Transmetal Rhinox having had dark teal and pale teal Hasbro variants, only Rhinox's darker Hasbro variant is shown alongside his pale gold Takara version.

This section begins with the year 1997, the year Beast Wars came out in Japan. All of the toys covered in this year are those released in Japan, which were first released in the West in 1996, as well as the overseas releases that Japan didn't get. 1998 covers the toys of Beast Wars II, the non-show Fuzors, and the Video Pack redecos of Airazor, Razorclaw, Claw Jaw, and Spittor. 1999 covers Beast Wars Neo's released toys, the unreleased Unicron prototype, the Beast Wars Metals toys, the non-show Transmetals 2 toys, and the entire Animorphs toyline.

Of note about these years is some selective coverage between certain toys that were unchanged between the Hasbro and Takara releases. For instance, B'Boom, Snarl, Claw Jaw, and Powerpinch are omitted from the book because of Apache, Tasmania Kid, Scuba, and Scissor Boy having identical toys, and yet, both Video Pack Razorclaw and Injector are individually covered in addition to the identical Rockbuster and Latolata. Also of note are the facts that the Japanese names of Razorbeast, Transquito, and Scarem are given in this part as レイザーバック ("Razorback"), トランスキュート ("Transcute"), and スクリーム ("Scream"), respectively. Iguanus is even given two Japanese names written as イグナー／イグアナス ("Igunar / Iguanus").

2000 covers Mutant Beast Wars, a number of the Lucky Draw figures for Beast Wars II, Neo and Metals, and the entire line of Car Robots (including Lucky Draw Black Super Fire Convoy and the complete version of Brave Maximus). The book then jumps ahead a few years to 2004 to cover the Japanese Beast Machines line, Beast Wars Returns. It then jumps backward to 1999-2000 to cover the Fox Kids Beast Wars redecos released in those years. It then progresses forward again to 2000 proper to cover the Hasbro Beast Machines and Dinobots lines. 2001 covers the Battle for the Spark subline of Beast Machines toys, and 2002 covers the Air Attack Optimus Primal and Megatron Megabolt toys from Robots in Disguise. A separate "2001-2003" section then covers the entire Robots in Disguise toyline from Hasbro, and I do mean the entire line: All of the same molds released in Car Robots plus all of the Hasbro-exclusive non-beast toys and redecos.

Following this is what the book refers to as "The Aftermath", Beast Era toys released after the era's end. Beast Wars Reborn, Beast Wars 10th Anniversary, Beast Wars Telemocha Series (including the super rare Mini-Con Dragoyell), the Beast Wars Masterpieces from MP-32 Convoy (Beast Wars) to MP-50 Tigatron (Beast Wars), and the five Wave 1 Beast Wars toys from the (as of this typing) forthcoming Kingdom line (though, sadly, Megatron uses the TakaraTomy stock photography with the orange face and other wrong colors).

Also in this Aftermath part are some things labeled as "Extra", which are additional Beast Era-related toys released in other lines. These include:

• RobotMasters Beast Convoy Black Version
• Universe (2003) Optimus Primal
• Microverse Orcanoch and Arachnid
• Titanium Series 6" Optimal Optimus, RID Optimus Prime, and BM Cheetor

There is also a short essay column about the Transmetal toys pictured with a purple-blue variant of Optimus Primal.

Now, of all of the toys covered in this part of the book, there are a few missing. In particular, none of the following are in this book:

• Any toys from BotCon or the Collectors Club; not even the BotCon Japan Grizzly-1 and Double Punch
• Any of the 2003 Universe toys (aside from the aforementioned Optimus Primal)
• RobotMasters Burning Beast Convoy and Beast Megatron Black Version (the normal RobotMasters Beast Convoy and Beast Magtron are included with their Telemocha Series redecos, but these two are not)
• RobotMasters Lio Convoy (either version), Bound Rogue, and Psycho-Orb
• Legend Commander Collection Convoy (Beast Wars) and Lio Convoy
• Any of the Lucky Draws from Beast Wars season 1
• About half of the Lucky Draws from Beast Wars II, Neo, and Metals
• Any of the Car Robots Lucky Draws (except for Black Super Fire Convoy and the complete version of Brave Maximus)
• Any of the 2009 Universe, 2014 Generations Thrilling 30, or 2014-2019 Legends toys of Beast Era characters
• Power of the Primes Optimal Optimus and Throne of the Primes
• Encore God Fire Convoy, Returns Convoy, and the two Big Convoys
• Masterpiece Burning Convoy and Shadow Panther
• And, as mentioned above, any secondary Hasbro variants of the Transmetal toys (aside from the aforementioned purplish Primal that's given its own essay column).

And yet, despite all of these omissions, this section does feature a ton of obscure Japanese merchandise, such as:

• Collection Figure and Metal Monument Convoy and Megatron
• Cybertron Buster role play gun
• Cybertron Mobile Base playset
• Laser Light Yo-Yo
• Lots and lots of mini-figure series for Beast Wars season 1 and Beast Wars II
• Matrix Cannon role play gun
• Spy Shot & Claw Gun (or Crow Gun) role play gun
• PVC figurines for Beast Wars Neo
• The Spark driver figures that were originally going to be included in the cockpits of Optimal Optimus, Tigerhawk, and Dragon Megatron
• A Japanese cover for the first Animorphs novel "The Invasion"

Part 2: Backstage contains concept sketches for toys both released and unreleased, as well as interviews with seven people involved with the Japanese Beast Era.

The released toys whose concept sketches are featured are:

• Bat Optimus Primal
• Alligator Megatron
• Razorbeast
• Iguanus
• Terrorsaur
• Dinobot
• Waspinator
• Tarantulas
• Gorilla Optimus Primal
• Rhinox
• Airazor
• T-Rex Megatron (with an actual left hand inside his tail weapon)
• Scorponok
• Transmetal Optimus Primal
• Transmetal Rattrap
• Transmetal Cheetor
• Transmetal Megatron
• Transmetal Tarantulas
• Transmetal Ravage
• Animorphs Jake/Tiger
• Mutant Soundwave (originally meant to be Animorphs Marco)
• Mutant Icebird (originally meant to be Animorphs Jake)
• Mutant Poison Bite (originally meant to be Animorphs Rachel)
• Beast Machines Supreme class Cheetor
• Beast Machines Megatron
• Microverse Orcanoch, Arachnid, and their mini-figures

Among the unreleased concepts included are:

• Early designs of Cheetor as a cougar (often mistaken for a wolf) and a lion
• Several early designs for Depth Charge that look drastically different from the final version, some of which are even completely organic, non-Transmetal versions
• A triple-changer Optimus Primal that changes into a gorilla and an eagle
• A triple-changer Cheetor that changes into either a cheetah and a shark
• A triple-changer Dinobot that changes into either a raptor and a cobra; all three of these were proposed "power up" forms for the three
• An early design for Lio Convoy that more greatly resembles Optimus Primal, has a big axe weapon, and a small bat companion
• An early concept for the Animorphs toyline that involved not transforming toys but instead articulated endoskeleton figures that could be covered with human and animal skins to change them between each form
• Early concepts for Animorphs Tri-Rex that, while functionally similar to the final version, somehow look even more freakishly disturbing than the final version
• "Mutant Beast Wars"-style Animorphs animal-to-animal concepts for a "Bee Frog" (either Ax or Visser Three) a "Piranha Condor" (one of the boys), and a "Ram Dragon" (a Komodo dragon, that is, also one of the boys)

There are also concepts for some gimmicks that never happened.

• Bat Optimus Primal with flapping wings
• Insecticon with a pullback motor in beast mode
• Tarantulas with a spring-loaded autotransformation that bounces up with the push of a button
• Gator Megatron with a button-activated chomping gator mouth
• T-Rex Megatron with a projectile-launching T-Rex head that fires like a missile from its neck with a pull of its beast mode tail
• Gorilla Optimus Primal with two flails and a set of two spiked clubs that he holds and spins around in beast mode
• Scorponok's Cyberbee drone originally being a little scorpion drone
• T-Rex Megatron with an extending T-Rex head much like the extending tail arm that his final toy had
• A sort of "Pretender"/Super Mode" version of T-Rex Megatron where a small kibble-less robot figure compacts into a torso mode while a large T-Rex toy turns into a humanoid suit of armor for the torso figure to slot into, and armed with a large trident weapon; think Powermaster Optimus Prime or Star Saber for this gimmick
• A G1 Optimus Prime figure that turns into an Army truck and combines with an organic lion figure that forms armor for Optimus to wear
• One of Depth Charge's early concepts has little shark minions that shoot out of his beast mode mouth and transform into their own robot modes, making Depth Charge a sort of Beast Wars version of Soundwave/Blaster. One of these concepts even has the little shark minion as a dolphin instead
• A triple-changer "Buffalo Crab" Fuzor with two beast modes: a water buffalo and a fiddler crab
• A triple-changer "Shark Mantis" Fuzor with two beast modes:a hammerhead shark and praying mantis
• A Fuzor combiner formed by an eagle and an ostrich fusing to make a "Bigbird" (kind of a large bird with arms; funnily enough, this is the same descriptor for G1 Deathsaurus's altmode)
• A Fuzor combiner formed by a frilled lizard and a rhinoceros fusing to make a Triceratops
• A Fuzor combiner formed by a spider and an ant fusing to make a scorpion
• Early concepts for triple-changer "Beast Machines" that have an organic beast mode and a mechanical vehicle mode: One that turns into a helicopter and a dragonfly, one that turns into a racecar and a crab, and one (that looks a lot like Optimus Primal) that turns into a four-legged cannon tank and a gorilla
• A "Battle for the Spark" bird with a wind-up wing-flapping gimmick in its Spark
• A "Battle for the Spark" figure of Obsidian with a wind-up propeller-spinning gimmick in its Spark
• Wind-up Spark boxes that could be inserted into Vehicon figures to unlock pop-out weapon gimmicks (sort of like what Mini-Cons and Cyber Keys would later do in Armada and Cybertron) or inserted into Cheetor for a beast mode head-turning gimmick
• Spark Crystals that resemble little Matrix cores and could be pushed to activate either a pop-out weapon on an early Optimus Primal design or a spinning rotor and lights and sounds cannon on an early Vehicon design
• A removal Matrix core-looking Spark Crystal that could be inserted into the hips of a very early Maximal design that would later become Cheetor, with the Spark Crystal activating pop-out cannons on its thighs
• A removal Matrix LED battery that could be inserted into an early Vehicon design's chest or arm to activate lights and deploy an arm blade

The rest of this section contains lengthy Q&A interviews with the following people:

• Hideaki Yoke (餘家英昭) – toy development
• Kozo Itagaki (板垣 耕三) – toy marketing / producer
• Takio Ejima (江島多規男) – toy development
• Hisashi Yuki (幸 日佐志) – toy development
• Kōjin Ōno (大野 光仁) – toy development
• Ryōka Yuzuki (柚木 涼香) – Voice actor for Blackwidow (Blackarachnia)
• Yoshikazu Iwanami (岩浪美和 ) – Japanese version director / story editor

Part 3: Documents features the Beast Wars Data Box with lists of all the toys, episodes and movies. In particular, the specific Japanese toys that were sold in the U.S. through HasbroCollectors.com and Target are given their names written in English: Lio Convoy, Galvatron, Shadow Panther/Tripredacus Agent (both names, yes), Magmatron, Stampy, Saberback, Longrack, Archadis, Mach Kick, and… Colada! Yep, "Colada" finally has an official source for his name spelled as such, rather than the longstanding Engrishy "Cohrada" spelling.

Likewise, Razorbeast, Transquito, Iguanus and Scarem have their name written in Japanese as レイザーバック ("Razorback"), トランスキュート ("Transcute"), イグアナス (イグナー) ("Iguanus (Igunar)"), and スクリーム ("Scream"), just like in Part 1. Though, of further note is that Wolfang's name is spelled correctly in English, when in Part 1 his English name was misspelled as "Wolfgang". A similar typo appears in Part 3's list of the Beast Machines toys where the word "Heroic" in "Heroic Maximals" misspelled as "Hiroic". Other small typos like this appear throughout the book, but nothing too major and only noticeable if one is actively looking for them.

Finally, the episode guides for each series/movie arrange them in accordance to their Japanese airdates, so they are given in the following order:

• Beast Wars season 1
• Beast Wars II
• Beast Wars Special
• Beast Wars Neo
• Beast Wars Metals: Convoy's Great Transformation (the Japanese theatrical release of "Cutting Edge")
• Beast Wars Metals/Beast Wars seasons 2 & 3
• Car Robots/Robots in Disguise
• Beast Wars Returns/Beast Machines

All in all, the most interesting stuff in this book for me is all of the unreleased concepts for figures and gimmicks, but as a fan of the entire Beast Era, this book is a fine overview for much of the era's toy history.