Iguanus (Predacon) - 1996

Starting right at the start of the Beast Wars' lifespan, Iguanus was one of the very first of the Basics assortment to be released back in 1996, and so is a fantastic kicking off point for proceedings. It would seem though that straight away there's an issue - poor Iguanus is not an Iguana, rather a frilled lizard! It's not certain why, but people seem to think that the toy should have been on before the decision was somehow made to go with the frilly lad instead. Either way, it's a great name.

The art for Iguanus' robot mode actually isn't one of the freakiest we're going to see as we go along, in fact, it looks as normal as you'll get for Beast Wars (which was always going to be on the quirky side - these are animals that turn into robots and vice versa, after all!) - it's actually not a bad representation of the toy within, with the brown and yellow colour scheme coming out quite nicely, it has to be said. The glowing hand also is suggestive of strange powers the character might have, in fact his toy bio also seems to suggest he has the ability to alter devices to self-destruct if he so wishes, in his role as "Demolition Robot" - perhaps he was intended to be Rattrap's opposite number? As he never appeared in the show, we will never know.

The back of the box is a standard affair - in effect a toy catalogue for the other toys in the line, the instructions (VERY reminiscent of the old Mini-Autobot line) and the toy bio, something that all Hasbro and Kenner toys prided themselves on, and a big reason that Transformers had bested the Gobots all those years ago. The art again is show here, as Kenner would have expected most kids to have clipped and saved the bio, rather than keep the card all mint for future bloggers like me to eulogise. Also note the blurb in the top left corner, attempting to tell the story so far, which would soon get contradicted by the cartoon.

The toy itself is great; the Basic 1996 assortment was pretty revolutionary, with it's proto-automorphing and easy transformation. Perfect pocket money toys to grab the attention and get the kids collecting this new era of Transformers. I can certainly say from my perspective that this was pretty mindblowing stuff, not only were these not the Transformers I'd known as a kid myself, these were really well made and well thought out toys, taking the best from the latter years of the vehicle robots and turning them into something wholly new. But this was just the start, and things were going to get a whole lot cooler, AND a whole lot weirder...

(All pictures courtesy of Seibertron.com unless otherwise stated)

In The Beginning...

 ...there was G1, a toy, cartoon, comic book and merchandising behemoth, taking the Eighties by storm and making bucketloads of cash for the company that made it, Hasbro. But by the mid-Nineties, all of this had changed. The kids who had loved the Robots in Disguise had grown up and moved on, and weren't buying the toys, comics, merch and so on. The nostalgia boom that would come in the 2000s hadn't happened yet, so Hasbro kept trying to reboot their flagging franchise, hoping that something, anything, would stick. To cut a long story short, nothing did. Out of ideas, Hasbro decided to move Transformers on to their recently-acquired Kenner division (Kenner, who in the 70's had been visionary enough to take on the world of Star Wars in toy form) to see what they could come up with. What they did, not only revitalised the brand, but also added lore, ideas and concepts that have shaped the brand into what it is today.

Beast Wars first hit the shelves in 1996, to little fanfare. Long time fans of Transformers mostly didn't care for the concept of robots turning into organic beasts (TRUKK NOT MUNKY being the warcry of many a unhappy messageboard user well into the 2000s) but the quality of the toys, along with the ongoing TV cartoon ignoring the original story of G1 Transformers being these strange beasts, and rather going with the tale of two rival teams of Transformers in the far future, the Maximals and Predacons, travelling to the past in search of power and glory on a prehistoric planet.

Beast Wars was eventually a success, then. But what was on the shelves, to try and tempt the kids to look at Transformers in a completely different way? The toys took some popular gimmicks (ball jointed limbs, weapons as part of the alternate mode, even storage in the robots themselves) and incorporated them into the new line. Uniform size classes were introduced, so that kids could ask for an Ultra Class toy for Christmas or birthdays, and use their pocket money for the Basics or Deluxes. Both of these introductions are pretty much the standard even 25 years later.

This blog is about the art and packaging of this new era of Transformers, mainly because I don't see that much online about it, and I really don't think that's fair. This was eyecatching and revolutionary stuff, the new designs being a complete sea change from the completely robotic designs of the previous decade. They were wild, imaginative, sometimes even freakish and scary, and I came to absolutely love them. Even though the budgetary constraints of the cartoon only allowed for a few cast members on each side, the artwork on the Beast Wars boxes and cards gave them so much character, and I personally think it's important to remember and celebrate that.

Not only will I be looking at the art and packaging, but also the catalogues, various weird and wonderful merch, and also the toys, because let's face it, they're quite important too, right? So please, join me on a journey through time and space, to the awesomely amazing world of...BEAST WARS!