TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS Merch Reveals Early Look At Optimus Primal And Returning Bumblebee

@kazuma - Well yeah I guess that's true, but the size isn't the part of the design that I like. But that aside, doesn't Beast Wars happen in an era before humans? I don't think the animals would mind a giant robot that much.

@kazuma - Oh I see, I didn't know that much about the lore. When it comes to the design, I find that the combination of metal and fur/skin to be a bit weird for Transformers in Robot form, and that's why I like this more robotic design. Maybe they could've made them transform from a biological-looking animal to a full metal robot, like that robot chick from Revenge of the Fallen. I just like the idea of them just crashing on a planet full of animals and mimicking the first life form they encounter to the best of their ability, which may happen to not include the ability to mimick organic matter.

@kazuma - oooh rare to meet someone like you my friend! I hope the movie delivers for you.

@kazuma - Well well well , it seems that I've met a fellow TF connoisseur :). Just to clarify on the timeline a bit (for the rest of the folks), originally you had the G1. era (Optimus Prime, Megatron, then Unicorn and all that) then in the distant future the Autobots had ultimately won and were replaced by the Maximals while the Deceptions were replaced by the Predacons (which, if that name sounds familiar it's because they were originally a G1 Deception combiner team of ferocious animals). As @kazuma mentioned, due to Energon supplies running low, they both had indeed been reducing their overall size (a trend that started with the G1 MicroMasters), and at the time the Beast Wars starts they were in a time of relative peace with the more sciencey Maxiamls as the ruling class and the Predacons as the oppressed warrior class. The Maximals came into possession of the Golden Disk (the very same one that we Earthlings launched into space onboard the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions), and the Predacons snatched it and headed off into space lead by a guy who took on the name of his evil predecessor - "Trumpatron", sorry, I meant "Megatron". A crew of Maximals, headed up by Optimus Primal, pursued (obviously I'm abbreviating the story here). By that point in time the Transformers had developed "Transwarp" drive technology which enabled them to transcend time and space, and both the good guys and the baad guys ended up on a prehistoric Earth which was very heavily covered in Energon which, as @kazuma was saying, resulted in both factions having to use organic beast modes to shield themselves from the radiation (in case you ask how is t that some of the characters are dinosaurs (like Megatron) in addition to scanning the surrounding life forms they were also able to scan fossils and such). So thereby began the "Beast Wars", which *spoilers* ended up tying into the original G1 TF mythos. *whew* (I did that all on one breath).

So with all that in mind, it will be interesting to see how they tie it all in with the Bayverse/quasi-rebooted gobbldeygook that is the current TF movieverse. And @kazuma, being as I'm a G1 kid BW was always second place to me after G1 so I would say that G1 Gridlock was always my favorite so I'd like to see him in live action, but we all saw how that turned out, so... maybe Jetfire? No... um, how about Hound? No... Sideswipe? No... well I hear that Wheeljack is in this one and maybe (wait, I'm being told that he turns into a VW minibus) *sigh* Okay, I'll just hope for the best :).

@Fares - Tigatron lived among the other white tigers rather than at the Maximal base. He was portrayed as being very respectful of nature and more in touch with his beast side than the others. I even remember an episode where one of the normal tigers died in the crossfire during a battle (Snowstalker!) and Tigatron was so shook that he decided to become a pacifist and give up the beast wars.

@MCUKnight11 - a quiet place

@HeavyMetal4Life - Bumblebee was a reboot. the only connection to the bay films is the Bernie Mac easter egg.

@Chuck420Taylor - stateside it underperformed relative to the first four.

@Himura -

@1stDalek - Not so fast!

@Waddles - I remember being a kid and being thrilled that Cliffjumper survived Transformers: The Movie. He has survived much else since then.