[3] Of the Transformers animated series produced in North America, Beast Machines was the only one to have been completely conceptualized and outlined in advance, lending it a more serialized and linear storyline than the others.

Following their victory in the Beast Wars, the surviving Maximals – Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Blackarachnia and Rattrap – finally return to Cybertron only to discover that their people have vanished, and the world is now ruled by the mindless Vehicons.

With the odds stacked against them, the Maximals set out to free the sparks of their people, discover what really happened to their allies Silverbolt and Rhinox, and bring organic life to Cyberton once more.

Notable changes to character names occurred, with "Skybolt" altered to "Jetstorm" to avoid revealing Silverbolt's connection to the Vehicon faction.

Furthermore, cameo appearances of characters like Inferno and Quickstrike, along with pre-human figures Hammer, Jack, and Una, were included in flashback scenes.

The Hasbro toys for Beast Machines gained notoriety for bearing little resemblance to the show's characters, both in shape and color.

Many concept sketches and even a few toy prototypes were made, but Hasbro scrapped the idea, bringing Car Robots to American markets as a placeholder until Transformers Armada.

Concept sketches or prototype toys have been seen for Blackarachnia, Cheetor, Depth Charge, Megatron, Nightscream, Optimus Prime, Scavenger, Shockwave, Soundwave, Starscream, and a new character called Immorticon.