Powermaster

The name or term "Powermaster" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Powermaster (disambiguation).

Don't try this at home.

Like the Headmasters and Targetmasters, the Powermasters are binary bonded to a smaller partner, most often an organic Nebulan, who serves as an external power supply. As a result, Cybertronians who undergo this procedure can survive in environments without access to energon for prolonged periods of time. However, serving as an organic battery means that their Powermaster partners possess unnaturally high metabolisms, and must eat huge quantities of food on a regular basis just to keep themselves from starving to death.

When normal fuel sources are available, a Powermaster partner can also function as a power booster or turbo accelerator, giving the Transformer he is bonded to a surge of additional power for increased strength or speed in dangerous situations. This benefit allows a Powermaster to be much faster or stronger than most normal Transformers for brief periods of time.

Over time, the bonding procedure for Powermasters seems to be similar to that of some Headmasters, in that there is a risk of both partners being absorbed into a single being with only one mind and identity.

A Powermaster can't transform from alternate mode into robot mode without their partner.

They’ve got the power to surprise!Commercial tagline.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

After months of devastating war on their planet, the Nebulans no longer cared whether the Autobots or Decepticons won, as long as the fighting stopped. When the forces under the command of Fortress Maximus and Scorponok left their planet for Earth, Brothers in Armor!! the Nebulans took advantage of the opportunity to poison all of their fuel and energy sources, tainting it in order to render it unusable by any Transformer.

The scientist who had devised the toxin, Hi-Q, soon had a falling out with his partner Hi-Test, who was jealous over Hi-Q's success. When a pair of Decepticons named Darkwing and Dreadwind appeared to menace the planet, and were immobilized by the tainted fuel, Hi-Test saw an opportunity to act. Undergoing a binary bonding process with the inert Decepticons, Hi-Test changed himself and his ally Throttle into the first Powermasters. Using this new process, the Decepticons were able to function on the poisoned planet of Nebulos by using their Powermaster partners as living batteries.

A small team of Autobots arrived on Nebulos, hoping to construct a new body for their leader, Optimus Prime. Seeing the Decepticons running rampant, they tried to stop their reign of terror, but soon began to run low on fuel. Hi-Q took action and used the same binary bonding process as his rival Hi-Test, bonding himself to the body of Optimus Prime. His fellow scientists, with one exception, followed suit in bonding themselves to fallen Autobots as well. The revitalized Autobots quickly defeated the two Decepticons. People Power!

Most of the Transformers known as "Powermasters" were the result of this initial bonding—the procedure is otherwise quite rare.

Transformers Comic-Magazin

Powermaster is the highest rank a Transformer can receive, with Megatron and Optimus Prime as the Powermasters for their factions. Darkwing and Dreadwind possess Powermaster rank as well, but have not been seen taking the lead.

Rodimus Prime, the Autobot commander on Cybertron, only has Headmaster rank and so is subordinate to Optimus.

The writers for Germany's Transformers Comic-Magazin hadn't paid much attention.

The Transformers cartoon

At some point after 2006, Optimus Prime became a Powermaster. Season 5: More than Meets the Eye, Part 1

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

An ancient Cybertronian known as Gigatron was responsible for the creation of the Powermaster process. It was designed as a way for them to survive on any world. By capturing hostile natives and reformatting them as biological power sources, they could greatly reduce their dependency on energon. The process was perfected on Nebulon. Organics who undergo the binary-bonding process are indistinguishable from their fellows when not wearing Powermaster armor, though they have enhanced strength, endurance, and mental abilities. More Than Meets The Eye #8

TransTech

After a bad experience with "colonists" from the Aurex Cluster, Nebulos made their atmosphere poisonous to Cybertronian life. In order to safely go undercover on this world, Vector Prime was binary bonded with Safeguard, a friendly native, who became his Target/Powermaster. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/11/01

Beast Wars: Uprising

The Powermaster process was devised by Galvatron after the Scouring of Nebulos. Having gotten a taste for binary bonding with the Headmaster and Targetmaster process, he wanted more, and hit upon the idea of turning living beings into living batteries. But Nebulos had been devastated, and couldn't be used to provide test subjects. Then he found willing allies in the Malignus of the planet Rebirth. It was Nucleon who perfected the process and, unwilling to subject anyone to something he was unwilling to try on himself, who became the first Powermaster. Almost immediately thereafter, Galvatron merged Powermaster technology with Headmaster and Targetmaster tech, creating the Triple-Threat Master process. Other Decepticons were also upgraded with the Powermaster process, before the Autobots arrived on Rebirth, now fully under Decepticon control and renamed "Master". The Autobots likewise managed to use the Powermaster tech for their own troops, and the infamous Decepticon Zarak made himself a Headmaster / Powermaster fusion. A Brush With Infamy–Prologue

After Trypticon was severely injured during the Great Push, Full-Tilt underwent the Powermaster process to become Trypticon's T-cog. Intersectionality

Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Powermaster technology was invented by the transtector factory computer in G Nebula 89 as part of its mission to find ways of merging organic and mechanical life. Millennia ago, the constructed but unprogrammed Powermaster bodies were stolen by Devil Z, who altered them into Godmaster transtectors by exposing them to both Zodiac and Angolmois Energy. LG-EX Grand Maximus Optimus Prime later adopted a Powermaster body, his partner being the Nebulan Hi-Q. Nucleon Quest Super Convoy bio LG-EX Metroplex

Games

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Powermasters were "sentient engines" capable of regulating the metabolisms of their partners and increasing fuel efficiency thanks to an integrated matter-to-energon transference module. Hi-Q invented the Powermaster process, but the technology quickly became commonplace. The Enigma of Combination

Toys

The Transformers

Powermasters (1988) Darkwing (w/ Throttle) Doubledealer (w/ Knok & #ToysSkar) Dreadwind (w/ Hi-Test)		Getaway (w/ Rev) Joyride (w/ Hotwire) Optimus Prime (w/ Hi-Q)		Slapdash (w/ Lube)				This is Dreadwind... not like it really matters, or like anybody cares.
The Powermasters were sold boxed at various price points. They were one of two flagship gimmicks in the 1988 line, the other being the Pretenders. Most are fairly chunky and simple figures, considering their large size. Each toy features a small mini-figure (two in Doubledealer's case) which folds up into an "engine" block. Plugging the "engine" into a slot on the toy's vehicle mode deploys a button which unlocks the joints required to transform the toy into robot mode. While Autobot Powermasters can fit Decepticon engines into their sockets and vice-versa, they will not unlock their transformations, though engine blocks are not figure-specific and any Autobot engine can be used for any Autobot Powermaster with the same being true for Decepticon duos.

Fiction-only Powermasters

• Clio / Patra
• Gigatron / two unidentified partners

Notes

• The Powermasters design concept began life as a successor to the Headmaster gimmick of the previous year and started out as Engine Masters where the figures would be unlocked with a key before evolving into what we know now.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Powermaster (パワーマスター Pawāmasutā)
• Hungarian: Erőmester ("Powermaster")

See also

• Godmaster