Here's 10 of 1998's Best Transformers Toys

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We're into the Transmetals now!
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Outro Music: Shooting Star by DJ Baker
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Disclaimer: All videos produced on this channel are intended for adult collectors and hobbyists.
#Transformers #TransformersG1 #BeastWars #TransformersGenerations #TransformersMovie #OptimusPrime #Bumblebee #Starscream #Megatron #StudioSeries #EntertainmentEarth

[@Rabbitlord108]

Aw yes. The ten best Transformers toys from the year I was born.

[@wakeangel2001]

It's too bad Waspinator didn't get the transmetal treatment on the show, I can see his jet mode being used for high speed travel while he uses the wasp mode for hovering, and it would have been a match made in heaven for the episode where he gets possessed by Starscream's spark

[@karatgaming5792]

So glad to see one of my favorite Beast Wars toys up at number 1. David Kaye voice: Transmetal Megatron was and still is one of the best Beast Wars figures ever, yes.

[@pokemania6494]

Does anyone else remember his 1000th figure video I can't believe how long it's been since than besides that keep being awesome tjomega

[@cybersilver5816]

I also can not believe how long it has been (I have a 10 day long memory)

[@FaceForward]

Honestly a little shocked to not see rampage on this list at all, his tank mode is hands down the most elaborate vehicle mode conversation for a transmetal in the entire line... That said, I'm thrilled to see my boy Tarantulas as high as he is, he's still one of my favourite toys in the entire history of the franchise

[@samurexatlas7373]

The fact that the Maximal/Cybertron leaders got beat out by a non-leader Predacon is hilarious to me.

[@DarkSilverHedgehog]

I had EIGHT of these figures and I loved them all. The only ones I didn't have were the japanese ones.

[@Trebleshot]

I think Lio Convoy is great but I've never liked the phrase "king of the jungle" when referring to a lion. They don't live in jungles and even if they did, they'd get beat down by tigers (who actually do live in jungles). And I will never not laugh at Galvatron's Comb of Doom. 😂

[@davidanderson4748]

I thought BWII Galvatron had no chance, but then there it is! One of my favorites!

[@leaderoftheautobots1985]

I wonder why they never made an Optimal Megatron for beast machines.

[@medafan53]

Indeed, I imagine if they ever make another Optimal Optimus either he'd come with a swappable head, or they would later release him as Megatron.

[@RialVestro]

The theory is that it's because he's too similar to Optimus just having a different face but that's not even true. Megatron also has different shoulders because Optimus has Maximal insignias molded in and Megatron's shoulders are smooth. Plus Megatron quite famously doesn't have a beast mode which meands the gorilla head isn't there and the chest pannel would have to be remolded because it connects to the front wheel for vehicle mode. They made Possesses Waspinator and literally the only difference is the insignias on the side of his head. They could make Optimal Megatron with a slightly altered paint job like they did with that figure if they're worried about then being too similar. Make the blues purple and the orange more of a redish orange for Megatron.

[@DredgeX97]

I still wish Rattrap's back pack spun around.

[@NightmareZerogbs]

I can't believe Rampage didn't make it into the list, the robot might be clunky, but the crab and the tank are STELLAR

[@XenotHedgehog]

fun fact: all of the transmetals were specifically designed to evoke engineering cues from the previous version of their corresponding character; for example, Rattrap still has his flipchanger engineering, the way his feet fold into the rear wheels is derived from the compartments that once held his blaster, and the two pegs that his feet plug into in beast mode are in the same position as the ones that held the hands in place on the original toy. Interestingly, Waspinator also has flipchanger engineering, despite the original not having been a flipchanger.

[@elrick44]

Y'know it was actually occurring to me today that Cheetor's transformation scheme is still pretty similar between season 1 and his transmetal form. That's actually a cool detail

[@XenotHedgehog]

@@elrick44 You're absolutely correct. in Cheetor's case, the transmetal figure's beast mode head unfolding into his arms, as well as the wings unfolding from his sides, are both derived from how the original figure's robot arms unfolded from the back of the cat. the transmetal's heels folding down from the rear of each foot is also meant to evoke how the toe unfolds from the bottom of the original's feet. the transmetal has waste articulation, just as the original did, and the robot head flipping up from under the chest evokes the original's head swap gimmick. But this rabbit hole goes deeper because the Transmetal 2 toys did much the same thing. On the transmetal 2 toy, you once again have the two halves of the chest opening up, which again evokes the original's arms and the transmetal's wings, the beast head flipping down and in, which also evokes the original, the beast mode legs straightening into the robot legs, which evokes the transmetal, the missile launcher on the back, which evokes the original's water squirter, the tail whip, which evokes the transmetal's weapon, and the shoulders swinging into position, which evokes how the original's beast limbs folded down, not to mention how the torso transforms, which again evokes the original's transformation involving swiveling the waste and neck before folding the chest down and into place, plus the head coming up from under the torso, which evokes the transmetal. Toy engineering is a fascinating subject.

[@GeekWorldOrder]

This was a ride. That may be the most unhinged top 10 TJ has ever done.

[@watermelonspectacles1]

WASPINATOR SHOULDVE BEEN #1!!!!! HES THE BEST TRANSFORMER EVER!!!!!!

[@moonwhooper]

Best wars my beloved, I am curious to see what is the best beast machines has to offer, hopefully night viper makes the list.

[@Tailgate009]

1998, the year I was born. *_Let's go!_*

[@maximaldinotrap]

Next up is 1999 and it probably will have Magmatron considering how TJ nearly shit bricks when he heard that Magma was getting an update

[@MaverickMagnus]

Dude!!!! TM MEGATRON!!! I had that one and its a thing of beauty!! I never had problems with it, no chipping, no breaking, no nothing. Its just amazing!!!!

[@hypermegaman3145]

Wow! This list threw me for a loop, not what I was expecting at all!!

[@larrychilders6599]

5:23 If they did him nowadays he'd be a Voyager class figure with a deluxe size like SS86 Ironhide

[@samurexatlas7373]

Maybe not, the conversion remains very basic. So Deluxe, yes.

[@larrychilders6599]

@@samurexatlas7373 part count could push it to Voyager

[@samurexatlas7373]

@@larrychilders6599 What was Scorponok?

[@larrychilders6599]

@samurexatlas7373 Scorponok was a deluxe, but had the part count to prove it

[@robrice7246]

0:30 - 0:32 These are Transformers that came out on my birth year.

[@blacksoldier430]

I don't know what happened to the engineering between regular beast wars and transmetals but the difference is day and night. it baffles me how much better they got at making the toys like out of nowhere

[@DarkSilverHedgehog]

Time and improved engineering technology

[@michaellombardi1620]

I missed this era. So many wild designs!

[@cuddyfox6973]

This is the reason why I like the Beast Wars 2 toys and their modes.

[@bowserbreaker2515]

Transmetal Rattrap is my favorite Transmetal design. I really am glad he never got redesigned in season three.

[@Undrave]

Transmetal Optimus is one of my favorite figure ever. I got him as a packmate with another figure I actually wanted and it turned out I didn't like the toy I wanted but fell for this Optimus! He feels chunky like an He-Man character and the transformation is fun to fiddle with.

[@chuckskillz5184]

I love everything about this list except that Rampage is missing.

[@mattr75]

Transmetal Tarantulas and Waspinator are phenomenal

[@warehog3000]

I had a transmetal Rattrap that i got second hand that didn't have the tail and loved it. Then i lost its legs an arms...and sill loved it! It was a little poseable robot hamster that transformed into a ratrod and it rolled! So many dumb poses! On one foot Kung foo pose as a hamster? yep! Holding/eating a walnut with its paws wile standing up right? Yep! It was so much fun.

[@MikeD974]

My 10 - 10. Optimal Optimus 9. Spittor 8. Clawjaw 7. Razorclqw 6. Megatron 5. Quickstrike 4. Depthcharge 3. Waspanator 2. Rampage 1. Tarantulas

[@benjaminwiseman6567]

Spittor, Clawjaw, and Razorclaw were great figures, but they came out in 1997.

[@shawnkarg3794]

My fav two Beast Wars figures are TM Tarantulas and TM Megatron, and I was 23 years old when they came out.

[@benjaminwiseman6567]

This was the absolute best year of Transformers toys! My top ten: 10. Transmetal Cheetor 9. Transmetal Tarantulas 8. Depth Charge 7. Transmetal Terrorsaur 6. Quickstrike 5. Rampage 4. Torca (ignoring GPS) 3. Silverbolt 2. Transmetal Rhinox 1. Sky Shadow

[@takanuinuva]

Btw Best of 1994 is straight up deleted. Edit: Reply's not working for me. So just wanted to say. Thx for letting me know.

[@TJOmega]

No it's not, I had to replace it and the second upload just missed the playlist. Fixed now.

[@Ma121Hunter]

man, I reallly want reissues of all these...

[@haydenreviewscustomcombos]

Could you please re-upload the 1994 video?

[@GrimmThyFlesh]

Wait, what happened to it-?

[@haydenreviewscustomcombos]

@@GrimmThyFlesh beats me.

[@jetseekers]

​@@haydenreviewscustomcombos Last I checked it's still up

[@haydenreviewscustomcombos]

@@jetseekers when I went to go check the playlist, in its place it said “deleted video”

[@jetseekers]

@@haydenreviewscustomcombos weird still plays for me You outside the US?

[@tyjohnson7616]

My 2 versions of Transmetal Rattrap could never stand up

[@jamesdashee]

My list would include Torka. Love the Orka/Elephant Fuzor, and his robot mode looks nice as a Maximal. Shame the gold plastic made him fragile though.

[@zoltanperei4789]

Can't belive Optimus got 2 toys in the same year. I tought Optimal was from 1999.

[@willwidrick8039]

1998 may just be the best year for hasbro transformers figures

[@elrick44]

I feel its actually a bit of a fallacy to judge the tertiary transmetal mods by the same standards as full triple-changers. I dont think Primal's hoverboard was ever supposed to be anything more that the equivalent of Tracks's flight mode, either way theyre still a gorilla and a muscle car

[@Benjamin0119]

I'm surprised Rampage wasn't on here. I bought him because I couldn't find Tarantulas, and he's a really fun toy with a fun vehicle mode that compliments his crab mode. Tarantulas is awesome too. I had to get Tarantulas used later on. This is what lead to my teens and adult collecting of Transformers. I have never seen that Galvatron before. Maybe the pictures used aren't flattering, but he just looks overly bulky and silly to me. More like the enemy of ponies than Maximals haha. I figured that Optimus Primal being a gorilla was inspired by King Kong's fight with the T-Rex, who they naturally used for Megatron. A lion would've been perfect though. At least it would have more of a transformation than a gorilla. Transmetal Megatron is pretty great. Mine never broke. But now hearing about the engineering issue, I'm very careful with it.

[@davewire87]

This is a list chock full of toys I either own, wish to own, or wish Hasbro to make new Legacy updates for.

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

There was a south Korean release of Galvatron as "Gigatron Z" with no changes.

[@medafan53]

I could see them, if they ever do a transmetal Waspinator again, doing Starscream as a selects release. Because of your rewrite I also really want them to do that for Beast Machines Jetstorm if he ever gets another chance.

[@SuperGamefreak18]

this is a great video...YEEEEEESSSSS

[@slugmaligma9248]

BEAST FIGURE SUPREMACY!!!

[@Ohmygodiamonfire]

I can't put TM Megatron as no. 1 entirely because of the engineering and plastic issues the far more common western version has. It's a great figure, but it's a held back by that and good luck getting the Takara version for a reasonable price. Personally I'd probably put TM Tarantulas up there as no.1 myself.

[@dylancrossman8502]

A lot of good choices; 1998 was an excellent year for Transformers. With a couple of minor exceptions (like TM Terrorsaur), just about all of them have something to recommend themselves. I'd probably put Transmetal Optimus Primal at the top of the list, because dang, do I love that toy. Easily my favorite BW Primal. For ones that didn't make your list, I really do have to mention by love for TM Rhinox (though he's perhaps best done by his Armada retool) and from BW II, Autojetter. Really interested in how 1999 is going to go. There's some really good Transmetal II's (Prowl, Cybershark, Dinobot) and some stinkers... and a lot of BW Neo toys to love.

[@RialVestro]

My top 10 list for 1998, which is the HARDEST list I've had to narrow down so far. There are just so many good figures it was hard to pick only 10. I want to shout out, the Japanese Cyberbeasts also released this year. They're really heavy retools of existing molds from previous years so I didn't think it right to include them but I REALLY like those figures with their asymetical Cyborg looking designs that I had to at least give them an honorable mention. 10. Silverbolt: I'm starting out strong already because if there weren't so many good molds this year I'd probably put him higher. 9. Cheetor: As much as I try to put my bias for the show aside for these lists I can't help it, I really like Cheetor's original Transmetal design with the flight mode. It's such a simple gimmick but I like him. I did not put him higher because I think there are other figures that did it better. 8. Tarantulus: The vehicle mode is a little bit closer to actually looking like a vehicle. With the 2 wheels you can at least identify it's suppose to be a motorcycle... a motorcycle with a giant spider riding it which is still a little silly but at least it's something. 7. Rattrap: Oddly enough Hotwheels actually also made a little roadster car that looked like a rat and I always really liked this design because it basically took that design from a Hotwheels car I had. There were a lot of other weird vehicles in that same toy line that looked like other things. 6. Depth Charge: I love this figure, funny enough his vehicle mode actually looks like the Star Hopper ship that the character came to Earth in. Wheeljack's ship in Prime also seems to been loosely based on this design as well. 5. Waspinator: I'm putting him pretty high on the list because I honestly think he's one of the best Transmetal toys in the toy line with a vehicle mode that ACTUALLY looks like a vehicle. He just looks like a jet that happens to have a wasp asthetic rather than a beast that just happens to have vehicle kibble stuck to it. I had the yellow version of this mold that came out later but the original red version also has the added benifit of looking like Starscream possessed him again. Of all the Transmetals this one is the one I really wish had made it into the show. 4. Megatron: I'm going to be honest with you... if you put him lower on your list I wouldn't even argue it cause the butt fans and roller skates are a little silly but he's also one of the only figures that can actually use the gimmick in both modes. And I believe he did use it in the show at least once while in robot mode so there's an unintentional 4th mode that you can't really do with any other Transmetals cause their vehicle parts aren't usually still accessable while in robot mode. 3. Lio Convoy: This figure has a lot of gimmicks that don't really hinder it, it's a really cool design. I'm happy I grabbed the Kingdom version. 2. Galvatron: Now where's my modern version of this Hasbro? I love how Galvatron looks in all three of his modes. Why did we never get this in the U.S.? 1. Optimal Optimus: I'll be honest with you, I had forgotten that both the original Transmetal and this version of Primal had both been released in the same year. I thought Optimal Optimus was released a year later along side Dragon Megatron but nope, not according to TFWiki. It was really hard to narrow down my list to a top 10 and I made the executive decision that I was not going to include 2 version of the same character on my list and thus the original hovor board gorilla had to go. I still like that mold but if I'm only going to have 1 Optimus Primal it's going to Optimal Optimus. Side note: There's 2 figures I think might be on TJ's list that aren't on my list. Terragator because half turtle and Buzzclaw, because "half" mantis. And I say "half" in quotations there because I know he's suppose to be a Fuzor with a lizard but all I see is mantis. It's the legs, he's got little lizard legs instead of bug legs but if someone hadn't pointed that out to me I never would have noticed it. I looked at this guy for YEARS and could not tell what he was suppose to be fuzed with. I'd like this guy more if he just was a proper Mantis cause as a Fuzor he's the worst one in my personal opinion. Not a bad toy over all, I just think he's a bad Fuzor.

[@Undrave]

Transmetal Rattrap stands up better than regular Rattrap. I think Airhammer is a cooler basic Fuzor but maybe that's just me, Quickstrike is still cool tho.

[@TFGourmet]

actually, I would place Optimus Primal Transmetal 2 at the bottom of the list... I DONT LIKE THAT MOLD!!!!

[@GriffindorDrago]

Yooo, IM ACTUALLY EARLY FOR ONCE!!! LESGOOO

[@takanuinuva]

Was Silverbolt not released this year? Or was it just the other 10 were just better?

[@TJOmega]

Silverbolt was 1998, but as I said, the features and aesthetic of the Transmetals just overshadows the Fuzors by comparison. Plus it's a REALLY strong year, Silverbolt's a good toy but up against great ones.

[@williambowen4092]

I have rat trap but I don't have his tail. Got him second hand.

[@cabbitkisser2620]

i grew up in the 80's. the beast wars transformers came out after i graduated high school

[@shinkojima8903]

Would it be possible to include pics of the alt modes as well in these lists please? I find I have to use my imagination a lot when watching them.

[@zoltanperei4789]

Please make a video about the Energon cartoon robots' foreign name!

[@todddavis2041]

I love the show itself, but I've never been that big on collection the figures. Though I do have Optimal Optimus and TM2 Megatron, they are such good figures. Lio Convoy and Galvatron are great figures too. I do like Tarantulas & I don't think TJ is wrong about him been the best deluxe transmetal.

[@scarecrow559fresno]

CORE MEMORY UNLOCKED

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

Insanity! I'll shotgun a -tainted oil keg- beverage in the name of the Emperor of destruction Galvatron!

[@chip5838]

Oh boy, so what'sthe best transformers toy from my birth year

[@Stormfin]

Yo, Waspinator is the shizz. I need to get a new one though, mine has awful hips.

[@d.w.saurus5831]

here's hoping for new versions of the transmetals or even better, reissues without the unfortunate issues the og ones have, for the BW 30th anniversary in 2026... F#%$ im old lol.

[@Linchpin_TF]

TM megatron is today unfortunately useless thanks to GPS. my copy is now in a protective case with a grading.

[@NerdRahtio]

I have always hated Optimal Optimus. The colors are weird, the orange doesn’t feel right for primal and non of the vehicle modes look right to me.

[@cliffjumper1984]

didnt know that figure exsisted. but the vehicle mode looks like crap to me IMO

[@subfreq3339]

Obvious waspinator repaint-Starscream??? NA..mate!!! 1☆¤♡

[@TJOmega]

Yes, because Starscream possesses Waspinator in a Beast Wars episode, so it would be a good what if toy.

[@neckpunch73]

Well, i never got the galvatron or the megatron, so can't really agree or disagree. But I can say that Sky Shadow would be at least close to the top of my list, if not the top. For the aesthetic more than anything. It just looks like everything I want in a beast wars character. Sad he didn't make the show, because i think a voyager class re-do of him would be amazing.