Hasbro Equivalent: Beast Wars
Beast Wars Metals was the final installment of Takara's Beast Wars (Japan) , following unique diversions into anime-driven Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo. Metals contained the toys of characters from Mainframe Animation's 3rd season, specificially Transmetals and Transmetals 2. Like the first segment of the Japanese Beast Wars, most of the Metals toys released were featured characters in the cartoon, and most of the non-show characters released in the US Beast Wars were eschewed.
Metals continued many of the marketing themes from the prior series, such as serial numbers consecutive to the end of Neo. The toys continued to be released in custom-sized boxes, none matching the dimensions of any other. Many of the figures were released in versus packs, excepting Powered Convoy and the Transmetal 2 figures. Though the series included Fuzors Silverbolt and Quickstrike, the vacuum-metalized design theme, complimented by intricate paint applications, permeated the line. Many of the figures based on US Transmetals differed from their domestic counterparts. At a minimum, almost all of the Metals figures featured a faction symbol and “Cybertron” or “Destron” tampographs, where the Hasbro Transmetals used the faction symbol and name of the figure.
Other than those identical to Hasbro releases, neither by Sonokong in Korea nor hasbrocollectors.com distributed any of the Metals figures outside Japan. However, a couple figures are particularly desirable stand-ins for US Beast Wars collectors: Rattrap, like the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary version, has much more stable vacuum-metalizing that does not craze or flake off as severely as the original figure. Also, Metals Megatron uses a sturdy blackish plastic for the robot body parts, replacing the increasingly-brittle dark brown of the Western release, which is prone to breakage even with careful transformation.
Metals fully concluded Beast Wars in Japan, as Takara chose to skip over Beast Machines entirely in favor of its new series, Car Robots . Car Robots would pick up a few of the unused Transmetals 2 designs not seen in Metals, but a large number of US Beast Wars toys would go unreleased for the Japanese market. Years later, in 2004, Takara circled back to the Beast Machines idea with Beast Wars Returns, a pared-down version of the Western series.
