At the beginning of Beast Wars: Transformers (1996), a series of protoforms were deployed into space. However only a few (Blackarachnia, Tigatron, Airazor, Silverbolt, Quickstrike, Transmutate) fell to Earth and were seen throughout the show, so it's possible that not all of them were recovered. This premise serves as a loose inspiration and backstory for this series.
In Japan, the "Optimus Prime" character was always titled "Convoy". In this series the Convoy has a "Lio" attached to his name to represent his alternate mode ("Lio" is Japanese for "Leo", the lion), and to emphasize his status as a heroic leader (which the lion also represents).
The Maximal Lio Convoy's alternate mode is a white lion. This is a homage to the renowned Osamu Tezuka creation Kimba the White Lion (1965), whose hero Kimba was a white lion and fought for justice, peace, and preservation of the natural world.
The Maximal Santon's name is a pun on his weight: "San" means "three" in Japanese, while ton is a unit of weight. Thus Santon means "Three-Ton".
The leader of the Predacons is named Galvatron, after Megatron's successor in The Transformers (1984). This series is a loose sequel of Beast Wars: Transformers (1996), where Megatron was the main villain, so it follows thus that his successor would appear here.