Beast Wars is a Transformers franchise that began in 1996, following the end of the Generation 2 toyline. It was a massive reinvention of the Transformers brand, featuring robots that changed into realistic, organically-styled animals instead of the traditional vehicles or mechanical beasts. It also did the seemingly unthinkable and replaced the original two factions, the Autobots and Decepticons, with the Maximals and the Predacons. Though originally decried by fans, the Beast Wars dramatically reinvigorated the brand, whose sales had been flagging under the Generation 2 franchise.