Bot a Day: Daily Drawings

Starting the final phase of the Beast Era, when in 1999-2000 the Beast Wars series ended and was replaced with Beast Machines. In the narrative, only the heroic Maximals kept their animalistic roots, though they tended to turn into mechanical beasts rather than organic ones. They fought against Vehicons, villains that turned into vehicles.  First up, here is Blackarachnia, who has switched allegiances and is now a Maximal. She turns into a techno-organic spider. 

The last of the strange Beast Wars Mutants is Icebird, who transforms from a polar bear to a snowy owl. The bear head can pull back to reveal his robot head, the last vestige of his since mutated-away robot mode. Icebird was available in 2000. 

The next Beast Wars Mutant is Poison Bite. He turns from a scorpion to a very colorful barracuda. His robot face is concealed in the sting at the end of the scorpion tail, which is pretty darn creepy. Poison Bite was available in 2000. 

Next in the Beast Wars Mutants line is Razor Claw. Though a single-word version of this name has been used before, this is a new character and not the Predacon lion or the Predacon crab from before. He has no robot mode, but turns from a velociraptor into a wolverine. In raptor mode, his robot head can pop out from the dino head. He was available in 2000. 

Finishing off the Beast Wars line with their most peculiar subgroups: the Mutants. Beast Wars Mutants are neither Maximal nor Predacon, but are former Transformers that have lost their ability to return to robot mode. Instead, they change from one animal to another. Soundwave here turns from a bat to an alligator. He has no robot mode, but there is a robot face lurking in the bat's mouth. The Mutants were actually a reuse of designs originally intended for the Animorphs toyline that fizzled out in 1999. This subset was available in stores in 2000 with each mutant sold separately.  This is the 300th daily drawing posted in 2021. This year has flown by.  

Tripredacus Agent has a bit of a convoluted identity. He is intended to be the same character, Ravage, from Generation One who appeared in an altered, future form in the Beast Wars cartoon . This character was homaged as Shadow Panther , because the name "Ravage" couldn't be used on product due the trademark having lapsed since the 80s. This Shadow Panther was also known as Tripredacus Agent, who was upgraded into a Transmetal form, with that particular alias in 2001. All of these toys are, in one way or another, redecos and/or retoolings of a Cheetor toy too. This Tripredacus Agent turns into a mechanical hunting cat. 

Arcee, the female Autobot made famous in The Transformers: The Movie (1986) did not get a toy until 2001, incongruously as a Beast Wars -styled toy. She was a Botcon 2001 exclusive, limited to 1200 pieces and sold alongside Tigatron . She is a slight retool and pink and white redeco of 1999's Transmetal Blackarachnia . She turns into a mechanical spider.