Unicron War

The Unicron War is a campaign from the Generation 1 continuity family.

The Unicron War refers to Unicron's attack upon Cybertron and his efforts to destroy the Matrix of Leadership. Unicron's threat is successfully repelled by a joint effort between the Autobots and the Decepticons (but mostly the Matrix of Leadership).

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

The Unicron War spun directly out of the events of the Battle of Autobot City. The planet-eater Unicron was first drawn to the Transformers on Earth and Cybertron when the dying Optimus Prime bequeathed the Autobot Matrix of Leadership to Ultra Magnus. Unicron recognized the Matrix as the only thing capable of eliminating him and so, seeking a means to destroy it, began what would be known as the "Unicron War".

Following the Battle of Autobot City, Decepticon leader Megatron and several of his injured subordinates were thrown out of Astrotrain and set adrift in outer space. Unicron sought to use these discarded Decepticons as his servants. Upgrading Megatron into Galvatron and the other Decepticons into Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps, he charged them with the mission of destroying the Matrix.

After a brief trip to Cybertron to reassert his authority as leader of the Decepticons, Galvatron then led his forces back to Autobot City on Earth. Now under the command of Unicron, Galvatron's single goal was to destroy Ultra Magnus and the Matrix within him. When Ultra Magnus and several other Autobots fled in shuttles, Galvatron and the Decepticons gave chase, shooting one shuttle down on the planet Quintessa, and seemingly destroying the shuttle piloted by Ultra Magnus. Galvatron, thinking his mission a success, returned to Unicron.

It was a ruse, however, and Ultra Magnus and his Autobots had escaped to the Planet of Junk. Informing Galvatron of his failure, Unicron dispatched his servants to Junk to finish the job. Galvatron was more successful on his second attempt, blowing Ultra Magnus to pieces and stealing the Matrix for himself.

Galvatron, desiring freedom from Unicron, attempted to wield the Matrix against his master. Unfortunately, he was not capable of opening the device and was promptly eaten. Enraged by his servant's behavior, Unicron transformed to robot mode and swore to destroy all of Cybertron in retaliation. Shockwave quickly ordered all Decepticons to engage in a counterattack on their foe, though their firepower proved ineffective.

The Autobots, both those who had been stranded on Quintessa and on Junk, arrived to aid in defending Cybertron, joining forces with the Decepticons in battle. Several Autobots invaded Unicron by flying their ship through his eye, though were met by his inner defenses. The Autobot Hot Rod became separated from his teammates and ran afoul of Galvatron (still carrying the Matrix). Galvatron initially asked for Hot Rod's aid in destroying their common foe, but still under Unicron's control, was forced to fight his would-be-comrade, instead.

The battle continued until Hot Rod removed the Matrix from Galvatron's possession, transforming himself into Rodimus Prime. Throwing Galvatron into deep space, Rodimus Prime then opened the Matrix, causing a devastating chain reaction within Unicron's body. Rodimus and the other Autobots escaped just as Unicron's body exploded, with only his head left to sightlessly orbit Cybertron. The Transformers: The Movie

Following the end of the Unicron War, the Decepticons, who had previously been in control of Cybertron, were driven from the planet by the Autobots. The Decepticons would eventually seek asylum on planet Chaar. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1

Galvatron would eventually crash-land into a plasma pit on the planet Thrull. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 2

Unicron's head would continue to orbit Cybertron for many years, causing various sorts of trouble. Ghost in the Machine Grimlock's New Brain

Beast Wars Neo cartoon

The energy released by his destruction would be known as Angolmois energy. It would eventually be used to resurrect the planet-eater, who would make a second attempt to destroy Cybertron many hundreds of years later. Unicron Revived!?

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

On the Edge of Extinction!

Classics

Classics continues from the Marvel US series, and does not include the UK stories or any subsequently published stories.

In 2012 when facing off against his negative polarity counterpart, Octopunch boasted that he had survived the Unicron War. Invasion

Ask Vector Prime

In a hybrid universe created by the machinations of Sideways and Gong, the Unicron War incorporated the GoBots. After a few quantum destabilizations—first pitting the Autobots against the Renegades, and later the Decepticons against the Guardians—the reality coalesced into an amalgamated universe that incorporated both GoBots and Transformers. In this strange timeline, Leader-1 perished at the hands of Megatron, passing the Guardian Matrix of Leadership on to Major Mo. Unicron reformatted Megatron into Galvatron to seize the Matrix, with Fracture and Deadlift in place of Cyclonus and Scourge.

Kup, Hot Rod, and the Dinobots crashed on Antares III, where they battled Master Renegade and his Monster GoBots, while Springer, Arcee, and Major Mo encountered and allied with the Rock Lords on Quartex.

During Unicron's final assault on Cybertron, Vector Prime managed to intervene from behind the scenes. The two universes were set back on their correct courses, allowing Hot Rod to open the Autobot Matrix of Leadership and save the day. Echoes and Fragments

Notes

• In Japan, the term "Unicron War" was coined by the writers of the Transformers 2010 story pages (most likely by Masumi Kaneda) as a means to describe the events of The Transformers: The Movie, which would not be released in Japan until 1989. With the events of the Unicron War being referred to extensively but never seen, it gained a mysterious and almost legendary quality, both among the characters in the series and the audience observing the fiction. The term is still used in Japanese fiction to refer to the conflict to this day.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Unicron Sensō (ユニクロン戦争, "Unicron War")