It's Beast Wars II, not 2. Pronounced as "Beast Wars Second," not "Beast Wars Two." Ben Yee calls it "Beast Wars the Second" as it's grammatically more correct in English, but officially it's just "Beast Wars Second."Originally Posted by Beast_Wars_Superior
Toywise BWII Maximals are the same moulds as other BW toys
(e.g.: Tasmania Kid is the same as Snarl, Apache is the same as B'Boom etc) whereas others are repaints (e.g.:Lio Junior is a repaint of Prowl, Powerhug is a repaint of Retrax, Diver is a repaint of Spittor et al). Lio Convoy is an original mould for that line though and the first Transformer to come with a Matrix. The Predacons are also mostly the same moulds from other BW, G1, G2 and Machine Wars figures, some repainted (e.g.: Megastorm is a repaint of G2 Megatron, Gigastorm is a repaint of Trypticon, Dirge is a repaint of MW Skywarp/Thundercracker, B.B. & Starscream are repaints of G2 Darkwing & Smokescreen (in the abandoned colours for G2 ATB Megatron & Starscream), the Auto Rollers are repaints of the G2 Autorollers (but with some abandoned designs for the G2 Autorollers being used for the first time, e.g.: Autolauncher) et al.). Some are retools of other moulds, like the Cyber Beasts, e.g.: Hellscream is a retool and repaint of Cybershark, Max B is a repaint/retool of Wolfang et al. Beast Wars II is thematically interesting in that it's beasts (Maximals) vs machines (Predacons).
The Japanese Beast Wars and BW II lines also had some cool play sets like Volcano Base and Niagara base.
Beast Wars Neo goes back to the original core concept of Beast Wars being "robots in disguise" (i.e.: realistic looking beast modes instead of Fuzors, Transmetals, Cyber Beasts etc) and gave us a lot of really nice new moulds and unique choices of beast modes that we'd never seen in Transformers before (e.g.: woolly mammoth, rabbit, giraffe, horse, queltzacoatlus, gigantosaurus, dimetrodon, ammonite, tanuki, cobra et al.).
Thy will be done...(warning - SPOILERS!)
Beast Wars II, the Beast Wars movie and Beast Wars Neo are expansions of the Canadian Beast Wars series from Mainframe Entertainment which means that they exist in the same universe.
Optimus Primal with Lio Convoy on the planet Gaea in the Beast Wars movie
In BWII we learn that the Maximals have a Galactic Patrol as a para-military interstellar enforcement agency. The story revolves around one team of this patrol as they battle an insurgent force of renegade Predacons on the planet Gaea. In the end it turns out that the Predacons' commander Galvatron was being manipulated by Unicron. In fact, all Transformers are being influenced by Unicron to some degree. Remember that the Canadian series did point out that the Tripredacus Council and Tarantulas were creations/agents of Unicron*.
In BW Neo we learn that the Maximals have military forces and we also have a peek at the Maximal Council of Elders (aka Convoy Council) headed by Great Convoy. One team of recruits from the Maximal army battles a group of rogue Predacons in a pursuit to collect Angolmois Energy Capsules. Angolmois Energy, aka Dark Essence, is the energy from Unicron which was released when he was destroyed in G1. Unicron's spirit endures and is manipulating Transformers to elicit them to bring about his ressurection. Toward the end of the series after all the Angolmois Energy Capsules are found, Unicron unleashes his demonic heralds known as the Blentrons as well as Galvatron, who is now fully possessed by Unicron. Unicron attacks Cybertron and the Maximal Armada is called into action, literally surrounding Cybertron with Maximal warships in a defensive formation. In one move, Unicron wipes out the entire armada! (zOMG!) and moves in to the core of Cybertron where he possesses Vector Sigma and through it begins rebuilding Cybertron as his new body! (a much better idea than rebuilding Junkion as he'd previously attempted in G1)
The surviving Maximals make a final stand and Unicron is ultimately defeated with the combined power of Lio Convoy and Big Convoy Matrixes... Matrices. Yeah.
Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo characters also appear in the IDW Beast Wars comics, which Simon Furman has stated is in continuity with the rest of the Beast Wars Universe. The comics does jump through time and space - on Cybertron it appears to occur shortly after the departure of the theft of the Golden Disk but before the events of BW II and Neo. On Earth it appears to occur during the events of BW Season 3.
Lio Convoy's Cybertronian form as portrayed in the IDW comics
Oh, and if you're wondering how the hell Optimus Primal could've travelled to planet Gaea, you can thank the Vok for that. Remember the Season 1 BW episode where Optimus Primal was kidnapped by the Vok device and Rattrap was leader for a while? During that time, Optimus Primal was transported from Earth to Gaea. He assisted Lio Convoy and his Maximals and unleashed the power of his Matrix to become Burning Beast Convoy (Lio Convoy used his Matrix to become Flash Lio Convoy) and defeated Majin Zarak. After that he was returned to whatever dimension it was that the Vok was storing him in, to re-appear on Earth ("Look who's back, and feeling Prime!"). I think that episode was "Chain of Command."
*Tarantulas was willing to kill both Autobots and Decepticons aboard the Ark which is illogical from a true Predacon's POV, but Tarantulas said that he and the Tripredacus Council have "different origins." Later Megatron refers to Tarantulas as "Unicron's spawn."
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