Fox Kids

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Ah, halcyon days...

Cute, or not cute? You decide.

During the 1999-2000 television season in the United States, the Beast Wars cartoon was rebroadcast on the Fox Broadcasting network's children's programming block (which, depending on the market, may have been on a WB, UPN or independent station, as many of Fox's larger stations, often ones that had switched from ABC, CBS or NBC at some point, did not carry the block) alongside the first season of Beast Machines. In conjunction with these reruns, Hasbro released a few waves of redecoed Beast Wars toys with the Fox Kids logo on the packaging; hence, these toys have become known as "Fox Kids redecoes" (or more commonly but less correctly, "Fox Kids repaints") among collectors.

Fox Kids would later go on to air the Robots in Disguise cartoon in 2001-2002.

1 Censorship
2 Toys
- 2.1 1999
- 2.2 2000
3 Notes
4 External links

Censorship

The Beast Wars episodes aired on Fox Kids were conspicuously re-edited to remove sequences of graphic and not-so-graphic violence. These edits often took the form of a relatively slow and extremely obvious onscreen fade-to-black; during a prolonged fight scene, several such fades could occur in quick succession. Sequences edited out for Fox Kids broadcast include:

Tarantulas being impaled by Optimus Primal in "Gorilla Warfare".
Cheetor being brutally pummelled by Blackarachnia in "The Spark".
Tarantulas being set on fire by Inferno in "Other Voices, Part 2".
Rhinox grabbing and lifting Dinobot by the throat in "Aftermath".
Silverbolt being headbutted by Blackarachnia in "Proving Grounds".

Though, other, non-violence-related edits would also be made (possibly for time constraints), such as cutting Rattrap's immediate reaction to Blackarachnia's slipping away in "Aftermath".

Though the RID cartoon, adapted from Car Robots, had always been lighter fare than Beast Wars, it too was edited for violent content on Fox Kids. In particular, depictions of characters (especially Autobots) firing missiles or other projectile weapons would be removed. In such cases the cuts were handled much more smoothly and unobtrusively than had been the case with the Beast Wars edits.

In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Fox Kids was leery of cartoon imagery of skyscrapers being bombarded. Several RID episodes were canceled altogether, others never re-aired again, and many significantly edited to remove the offending sequences.

Toys

The following Deluxe toys were redecos released in promotion of the Beast Wars reruns on Fox Kids

1999

Wave 1

~~Jungle Roar~~ Cheetor (cheetah, redeco of Cheetor)
~~Live Wire~~ Dinobot (Velociraptor, redeco of Dinobot)
~~Energon Surge~~ Rhinox (black rhinoceros, redeco of Rhinox)
~~Power Flight~~ Waspinator (hornet, redeco of Waspinator)

Wave 2

~~Mech-Tech~~ Cheetor (Transmetal cheetah, redeco of Transmetal Cheetor)
~~Steel Force~~ Tarantulas (Transmetal tarantula, redeco of Transmetal Tarantulas)

Initial Hasbro solicitations gave the toys in the Fox Kids assortment "power up"-style descriptors, but these did not make it to their final packaging. Only "Steel Force" Tarantulas was ever worked into fiction in such a manner, appearing as his Vok-empowered form in "Primeval Dawn".

2000

Wave 1

Rattrap (Transmetal rat, Fox Kids redeco)
Rhinox (Transmetal rhinoceros, Fox Kids redeco)

Wave 3

Airazor (Transmetal falcon, Fox Kids redeco)

Wave 4

Waspinator (Transmetal hornet, Fox Kids redeco)

2000's toys shared an assortment with the Mutant Beast Wars line, and not every wave included a new Fox Kids figure.

Notes

Disney bought Fox Kids in 2002 and renamed it Jetix. As such, it is the Jetix logo that appears on all DVD releases of the Robots in Disguise cartoon (so far).
Transformers alumni Maurice LaMarche, Wally Wingert, Corey Burton and Jess Harnell did voice over promos for Fox Kids including several for the Transformers series that aired on the network.