One of the most successful franchises of all-time, the Transformers comics and toys got a major boost in popularity when they aired an accompanying animated series for three years, starting in 1984. They also released Transformers: The Movie in 1986. Although the American series was cancelled in 1987, the success of the Transformers remained strong, especially in Japan, which continued to run episodes and even launched a new series called Transformers: The Headmasters in the same year. American audiences would have to wait until 1995 for a new Transformer series, however, which arrived in the form of Beast Wars:Transformers. Not surprisingly, its debut coincided with the launching of an entirely new line of Beast Wars toys.

Beast Wars: Transformers was set three centuries after the original series where the fighting had yet to subside between various factions on the planet Cybertron. On one side of the futuristic battlefield was the Maximals, led by Optimus Primal. They were in pursuit of the sinister Predacons, led by Megatron. As a result of a time/space warp, both sides ended up on ancient Earth, about the time that man was beginning to emerge. With an abundance of energon crystals on the planet, the bots had a seemingly endless supply of energy sources but the purity of these crystals proved to be a little to strong for them. As a result, both sides proceeded to splice their genetic code with DNA from native species, creating the transforming robots that everyone has come to know and love. Megatron was able to transform into a purple and red Tyrannosaurus Rex, which Optimal Primus transformed into a metallic blue gorilla. The other members of the Maximal side included Cheetor, Silverbolt, Rattrap, Tigatron and Rhinox, while the Terrorsaur, Waspinator, Scorponok, Inferno and Tarantulas took up arms for the Predacons.

It was immediately clear from the ratings that the Transformers franchise had re-emerged with a new hit on their hands, both on television and with the toy line. The fully computer-animated series, complete with relentless robotic battles and stunning CGI effects breathed new life into the series and brought an entire new generation into the Transformers world. Beast Wars: Transformers ran from 1996-1999.