Transformers Beast Wars

I must have been 17 or 18 when me and some friends accidentally stumbled on this show while waiting out a rainy day at sea... and we where immediatly hooked.

See, we are all from that 80s generation that grew up with the Transformers, and suddenly we saw them back on television, but differently.

This show was one of the first to use `3D` styled computer animation graphics, and back then that was rather renewing, and we saw Optimus and Megatron again.  Though this proved to be `others` then the ones we knew, as it is a rather complicated series about a time paradox that gets a rather unexpected conclusion by the end of the third season, it was also a tale about loyalty and friendship.

In these series, you have the Maximals, decendants of the Autobots, and the Predacons, descendants of the Decepticons, having crashed back on a primeval Earth, unbeknowst to themselves.

Various robots did switch sides during the series, and it was even revealed that some of them where indeed heroes of the ones we grew up with (Dinobot for example turned out to be none other then mighty Grimlock), and we even had an appearance of Starscream.

During an energy wave, some of the robots evolved, and some fell in the line of duty as this series did tackle `personal loss` as well, wether it was Megatron not caring if one of his incompetent minions fell or the Maximals mourning a lost friend.

It`s just a pity that due to budget restraints, not all the robots released in toyform (and there where some damn cool ones in that) made it to the screen.

And it had another great attraction pole, namely this guy, who probably has become the most `cult elevated` Transformer of the series (though I always was fond of italian scoundrel Rattrap).