Optimus Prime (Armada)

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

Optimus Prime is the Autobot leader in the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

Freedom is the right of all sentient beings...unless they turn into guns.

Optimus Prime fights for truth, justice, and the Autobot way. He has led the search for the Mini-Cons, faced the resurrection of a dark god, and now aims to stop Megatron from obtaining the Cyber Planet Keys. He's also died a couple times, and tends to find a second-in-commandy-type to combine with to form a super robot.

He thinks Hot Shot has leadership potential and tends to recruit teenage children.

Japanese Name: Convoy (Armada), Grand Convoy (Energon), Galaxy Convoy (Cybertron)

Fiction

Animated continuity

Armada

Voice actor: Gary Chalk (US) Toru Okawa (Japan)

Optimus Prime initially appears in the first episode of Transformers: Armada, "First Encounter", rescuing three human children from the Decepticon leader, Megatron. He befriends these children and introduces his crew of Autobots to them.

He soon leads his crew around the world, searching for the long-lost Mini-Con Transformers, before the Decepticon forces can take them and use them for their own evil deeds. However before long, the Autobots must face the arrival of the dark god, Unicron.

File:Optimusprime ut armada px.jpg

Optimus Prime (Powerlinx) during the years between the Unicron Battles and Energon

Energon

Voice actor: Gary Chalk (US) Katsuyuki Konishi (Japan)

Upgraded into a new form, Optimus Prime has made peace and teamed up with the humans on earth. Bearing the Spark of Combination, which allows those who carry it to combine with others who carry it, too. He soon bestows it upon the majority of his Autobot soldiers, and together they face the return of the evil Unicron...

Cybertron

Voice actor: Gary Chalk (US) Taiten Kusunoki (Japan)

Facing the peril of his home planet being engulfed by a black hole created by the destruction of Unicron, Optimus Prime (remodelled once again) leads the Transformers to Earth, and thus, to safety, and they begin to look for a way to save their planet, in the Cyber Planet Keys. However, Prime soon finds the Decepticons are back, and they, too, are searching for the Planet Keys.

Dreamwave comics continuity

Armada

Optimus Prime is notified by Hot Shot that the Decepticons are attacking Mini-Con villages. Later on, when the war comes to Earth, he saves the kids from Megatron, who is trying to get the Mini-Cons that they have befriended. After retrieving a Mini-Con escape pod in Alaska, he is suddenly pulled into an alternate reality Cybertron, one in which Unicron has already decimated the planet and is preparing to return and consume it. He is ultimately rescued by Jetfire and Over-Run, and uses his knowledge of the fate that awaits Cybertron to rally both Decepticons and Autobots together and defeat the Chaos Bringer.

Energon

Ten years after the defeat of Unicron, Over-Run showed Prime how to commune with Cybertron itself. Doing so reformatted the Autobot leader into a body capable of Powerlinking with a team of 'drone' vehicles, and granting the ability to combine with each other to other Autobots.

Upon returning to Earth, he decided that the Autobots will no longer hide from the inhabitants, but work with them openly. This decision led, among other things, to the Autobots' induction into the UN.

When last seen (before the bankruptcy of Dreamwave Productions), he was trapped in the remains of Unicron, after Megatron's trapped spark used him to regain his freedom.

Toys

Armada

• Optimus Prime (Super Base, 2002/2003)

Japanese ID number: MC-01

The first Unicron Trilogy Optimus Prime toy transforms into a longnose truck cab of made-up model. His clear-plastic smokestacks can detach and form a double-barrelled pistol for robot mode. Prime can also form the upper half of a super robot mode, which can connect to his trailer or to Armada Jetfire in his combined robot mode to form "Jet Convoy". The super robot's right hand has an LED in it to light up either of Optimus' hand-held blasters, or the Star Saber sword. He came with his Mini-Con partner Sparkplug. his robot-mode chest can flip down to reveal a non-removable Matrix.

The toy's primary gimmick is its auto-transforming trailer. When activated, trransforming Optimus to robot mode causes the trailer to autmoatically flip open and form a Mini-Con base, with tower, spring-loaded missile launchers and storage bays, and other Mini-Con Powerlinx-activated gimmicks. Transforming Optimus to super robot half causes the trailer to fold in and stand up, forming legs for the super robot. Some of the base mode's armanets are still available in this configuration.

Both the super robot mode and the trailer's base mode can have Armada Overload's cannon mode attached for added firepower.

The Takara version of Optimus is slightly different from the Hasbro version, using bright yellow plastics in place of the Hasbro's gold.

Late in the Japanese run, Optimus toys in Jusco stores came with blind-packed "Space Galaxy" versions of the individual Destruction Mini-Con Team members, one toy per box.

• Optimus Prime (Supercon, 2003)

Japanese ID number: MC-06

A smaller version of the Super Base toy, this version of Optimus retains the altmode and coloration, but has no trailer or super robot connectivity (though he can still pull the trailer). He retains to flip-down chest in robot mode, but has no molded Matrix. Instead, the toy is designed for maximum posability. Attaching a Mini-Con to the Powerlinx plus on Optimus' back activates a double-fisted "punching" gimmick. He came with the Mini-Con Over-Run. It's worth noting that this Optimus is the shortest of the Armada Supercons in robot mode. His smokestacks can come off like the Super Base version, but lack the "gun" mode or any other method of connectivity to Optimus.

The first releases of Supercon Prime had silver roof-lights. Later, the lights changed to yellow, and an Autobot sigil was tampographed onto his hood, but only on the Hasbro release.

This mold was also used to make Armada Nemesis Prime and Universe Ultra Magnus.

Shipping in a great many waves throughout most of the later run of the line, Supercon Optimus became a notorious pegwarmer.

• Optimus Prime (Happy Meal, 2003)

• Powerlinx Optimus Prime (Super Base, 2003)

• Crystal Convoy (Supercon, 2003)

• Battle for the Matrix (Multi-pack, 2003)

A K-Mart exclusive set released on "Black Friday" (the day after Thanksgiving, the most hellishly busy shopping day of the year), this set consists of Super Base Optimus Prime, Jetfire, their respective partner Mini-Cons Sparkplug and Comettor, the Adventure Mini-Con Team, and oddly enough, Longarm. Optimus Prime's red plastics and paint were replaced with gold, the only changes made to anyone in the set.

• Magna Convoy Set (Multi-pack, 2003)

Energon

• Optimus Prime (???, 2004)

Japanese ID number: SC-01

• SL Grand Convoy (Deluxe, 2004)

Japanese ID number: SC-13

• SL Grand Convoy w/ Kicker (multi-pack, 2003)

Japanese ID number: SS-03

• Optimus Prime versus Megatron (multi-pack, 2004)

• Optimus Prime (Happy Meal, 2004)

• Optimus Prime (Happy Meal, 2004)

A redeco of the super mold was planned to be released with Smallest Transformers Optimus Prime as a Target exclusive, but was cancelled.

Cybertron

• Optimus Prime

Japanese ID number: GC-01

• Optimus Prime (Burger King)

• Optimus Prime (deluxe)

• Optimus Prime (Legends of Cybertron)

• Sonic Convoy

Japanese ID number: EX-02

• Galaxy Force Optimus Prime

Attacktix

• Super Optimus Prime (Galactic Showdown, 2006)

• Super Optimus Prime (Booster, 2006)

External links

• Optimus Prime at TFU.info
• Energon Optimus Prime redeco with Smallest Transformers Optimus Prime gallery]

From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.