Prime Master
- The Prime Masters are a Thirteen-aligned subgroup from the Power of the Primes portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
The thirteen Prime Masters may be small, but the power they hold is anything but—each one carries within them the spark of one of the original Primes, ancient gods of the Transformer race. When in spark mode, the Prime Masters can unite with a larger 'bot, bestowing upon them the powers of a Prime, to wield in whatever manner the bearer chooses.
This vast potential has made the small robots a hot commodity for Autobots and Decepticons alike, so to minimize this unwanted attention, the Prime Masters hide themselves inside special decoy armor, which cloaks their vast power from the outside world.
Fiction
[edit]Prime Wars Trilogy marketing material
[edit]Whether the entity inside Cloudburst's armored shell was the real Cloudburst or something else entirely was a matter of utmost secrecy. Template:Storylink
When gathered together, the twelveTemplate:Sic Prime Masters created the almighty Halo of Primus. The Prime Masters' combined might was too powerful for even the bearer of the Matrix of Leadership to withstand, and thus was the Scepter of Sparks created to channel their power and allow the final Prime to light the Transformers' darkest hour. Template:Storylink
Commercial appearances
[edit]Power of the Primes' sparse commercial support featured a brief elaboration on the Prime Masters:
- The Prime Master of Micronus Prime as represented by a rotating sigil inside of a ghostly cube entered Cybertron's atmosphere and, happening upon a battle between Jazz and Starscream, selected Jazz to imbue with his power, merging with the Autobot. Template:Storylink
Games
[edit]Transformers: Earth Wars
[edit]
The once-mythical Prime Cores—each the "heart" of one of the Thirteen Primes—appeared and fell to Earth, becoming a hotly contested new resource in the Earth Wars. The first three landed in Russia, Indonesia and the American Southwest. Template:Storylink The Russian Core wriggled out of the Autobots' grasp, seemingly choosing to go with Starscream, while the one in America was claimed by Springer and the one in Indonesia caused Rodimus Prime to burst into flame before being claimed by Warpath. Template:Storylink A fourth core displaying energy draining properties was captured by Lugnut in Malaysia much to the despair of the Autobots who had hoped to use it to repair Optimus Prime's fading spark. Template:Storylink The fifth core displayed the ability to rewind time before being captured by Rodimus. Template:Storylink
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Gameplay
[edit]An extension of Earth Wars' extant "Power Core" system implemented as part of an extended Power of the Primes tie-in, the twelve Prime Cores manifest mechanically as items imparting passive stat effects on various combat units or structures. Just like Prime Master powers, these effects are broadly linked to the individual Prime's characterization— Megatronus sets you on fire to continuously damage nearby enemies, Solus spawns turrets a la Template:W, etc etc.
In order introduced, they include:
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Toys
[edit]Power of the Primes
[edit]The Prime Master toys are similarly built to Titan Masters, with the exception that the first wave of figures has a pin in the middle of their bodies instead of a screw (wave 2 onward returns to a screw). They also have their respective symbols on their back instead of faceplates, so using them as heads on Titans Return figures can yield some...interesting results. Outside of these differences, they are fully compatible with Titans Return toys thanks to peg-holes on the bottom of their feet, as well as their ability to sit inside vehicles and weapons like any other Titan Master. Their primary gimmick, however, is to be plugged into the Prime Armor on every Power of the Primes Deluxe and Voyager figure, as well as into the holders of Leader Class figures by replacing their central Matrix crystal.
The decoy armor for each Prime Master is shaped for them to fit inside. While the Prime Masters and Titan Masters can be interchanged with the armor, some figures are either too tight or too loose depending on the Prime Master inside the armor, while some just do not fit at all. The shells also bear peg-holes on the bottoms of their feet, allowing them the same ability to interact with Titans Return toys, though not to the same extent as their innards thanks to their larger size. The shells also come with small weapons with 3mm posts, as well as accommodating holes to carry said weapons. The weapons can also be clipped into the back of the shell's head for storage or folded over to become a Targetmaster-styled weapon. The Prime Master can also be folded up and pegged into posts near the feet to complete the weapon mode.
Regular retail
[edit]| Prime Masters | Titan Class |
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Exclusives
[edit]2018's trio of Special Edition Prime Wars Trilogy Deluxe Class figures each include a variant deco Prime Master, cast in translucent plastic. These releases do not include decoy armor. Additionally, the "Throne of the Primes" exclusive to San Diego Comic-Con 2018 and Hasbro Toy Shop included 4 Prime Masters, three of which are exclusive to the set.
The Throne of the Primes set in particular acts as the finale of the Prime Master gimmick, as twelve of the figures in the owner's completed Prime Master collection are intended to plug into the transparent plastic spinner wheel attached to the back of the cardboard Throne to create the "Halo of Primus." The final Prime Master of the Thirteenth Prime is then intended to either be placed in the chest of the included Prime-ified Optimus Primal figure or inserted into the included "Scepter of Sparks" accessory, though the Scepter can hold a total of four Prime Masters if the owner chooses.
| Special Edition | SDCC 2018/Hasbro Toy Shop |
Notes
[edit]- Whether the Prime themselves or the chosen spark bearer is in control of a Prime Master's body is unclear as Prime Masters do not have significant fiction. Early product descriptions from Hasbro describe Prime Masters as the 1980s Pretender characters serving as carriers of the Primes' sparks, but this was abandoned almost immediately, with single-packed Prime Master packaging implying that the recycled Pretender name is the name of the armor suit for the Prime and not an individual character. Eventually, this resulted in the Predaking, Prime Wars Trilogy Special Editions, and the Throne of the Primes multi-packs naming all Prime Masters as Primes alone with no spark carrier involved.
- The working name for the Prime Masters was "Power Masters", which appeared in some online listings.<ref name="southern">Southern Hobby listing for "Transformers Generations: Power Of The Primes – Power Master Assortment", listing removed but still referenced at TFW2005.</ref><ref name="brandora">Brandora.de listing for "Prime Wars Power Masters".</ref>
- Preliminary information for the Japanese release of the Prime Masters label the decoy armors as "Pretender Suits" (プリテンダースーツ), the same term used for the original Pretender shells in Super-God Masterforce. Hasbro's Power of the Primes online bio page also calls Cloudburst a "Pretender".<ref>Hasbro Power of the Primes website (archived)</ref>
Foreign names
[edit]- Japanese: Prime Master (プライムマスター Puraimu Masutā)
- French: Maître Prime
- Portuguese: Mestre Prime
- Spanish: Maestro Prime
References
[edit]External link
[edit]- Prime Cores at the official Earth Wars wiki