Beast Machines: Transformers

Beast Machines: Transformers was the only North American Transformers animated series to be fully conceptualized and outlined in advance, giving it a more serialized and linear storyline than the others.

The series was initially going to be titled 'Beast Hunters' before being renamed Beast Machines.

The character Jetstorm was originally named Skybolt, but the writers changed his name to make it harder for fans to theorize a connection to Silverbolt; the first five episodes were originally filed under the Skybolt name and later edited.

At one point in development, Thrust was going to carry Silverbolt's spark, but the writers decided on a whim to have him carry Waspinator's spark instead.

In the episodes 'Home Soil' and 'Savage Noble', the character Thrust makes a gesture similar to a middle finger toward Optimus and Cheetor respectively.

A flashback featuring Waspinator includes cameo appearances by the heads of Inferno and Quickstrike, as well as the pre-humans Hammer, Jack, Una, and others.

The Hasbro toy line for Beast Machines gained notoriety for bearing little resemblance to the show's characters in both shape and color, and for being disproportionately scaled, because the show creators and toy designers developed the characters independently during the first year.

Almost all Beast Machines toy packages featured an illustration of Cheetor on the front regardless of the character or faction inside, with Nightscream being the sole exception.

After Beast Machines ended, Hasbro planned a follow-up series called Transtech that would have combined Beast Wars, Beast Machines, and Generation 1 characters in new organic-looking bodies with vehicle alternate modes; concept sketches and a few toy prototypes were made before Hasbro scrapped the idea in favor of bringing Car Robots to American markets.