Hasbro kicked off the new millennium with Beast Machines, a futuristically-styled successor to the popular Beast Wars. The series shifted from the progressively grittier stylings of its predecessor to a more sleek, aerodynamic look, including the packaging and logos.
The series' story took a new direction, pitting the reborn heroic Maximals against Megatron's evil Vehicons. The toys largely stayed in the same size classes based on the precedent set throughout Beast Wars. In fact, Beast Wars still had a glimmer of life, and several Deluxe class toys were released, including as retailer exclusives, although they were relatively scarce as Hasbro tried to push its new Beast Machines product.
Strangely, Takara chose to take Japan in a whole different direction, introducing Car Robots, a G1-inspired series featuring new realistic designs for the Cybertrons and Destrons. The large, well-connected internet fandom in Hasbro markets bemoaned missing out on the Takara series, often spending a great deal of money to import the Car Robots figures.
Takara also began a tradition of celebrating the long-running brand (and G1 in particular) via various smaller side series targeted at older collectors. Super Collection Figure featured waves of small, non-transforming PVC figurines of popular characters from the ‘80s, while some G1 toys were reissued, including new redecos for special events or to commemorate specific moments in Transformers fiction. These lines caught on quickly, and fans clamored for more opportunities to collect the toys of their ‘80s childhoods.
