Leader-1 (Armada)

Leader-1 is a Mini-Con from the Armada portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

This is every day of his life.

Leader-1 was once a wise and benevolent leader of the Mini-Con settlements on Cybertron, but when Megatron appropriated the Mini-Cons for his evil purposes, he kept Leader-1 as his own personal attendant. Megatron was cruel to the peaceful Mini-Con, delighting in his misery, and all Leader-1 could do was silently plot his escape.

Slowly, maliciously, a dark corner was being tugged at within Leader-1's mind, as he realized he enjoyed his growing love for domination and sadism. One day, he insists, he'll do away with Megatron once and for all, in the most humiliating and painful way possible. It will be a delicious irony.

Japanese name: Barrel

Fiction

Animated continuity

Armada

Voice actor: SFX

Leader-1 is adorable.

Early in the search for the Mini-Cons scattered across Earth, Megatron found a Mini-Con panel near the Decepticons' base on the moon. He activated the panel, and Leader-1 appeared, who Megatron quickly reprogrammed. Returning to the base, Megatron chastised the other Decepticons for missing a Mini-Con who was right under their noses all this time.

Leader-1 spent most of his time perched cutely on Megatron's shoulder, only springing into action when Megatron needed to unlock one of his powerlinx features.

After Megatron was upgraded into Galvatron, Leader-1 was replaced by Clench.

Toys

Armada

• Megatron w/ Leader-1 (Ultra-Con, 2002/2003)

Japanese ID number: MD-01

Available only with the larger Megatron toy, Leader-1 transforms into a Cybertronic buggy with twin top-mounted blasters. He also has multiple "gun" configurations that allow him to be mounted on Powerlinx plugs or held in the hands of most Unicron Trilogy toys.

This mold was also used to make Clench and Caliburn. He shares engineering with the Cybertron new-mold Mini-Con Drill Bit.

• Megatron Supermode w/ Spark Barrel (Ultra, 2003)

Japanese ID number: MD-08

In Micron Legend, Megatron kept the same Mini-Con in his new form, as opposed to Armada where it was a new character. This version of Leader-1 is basically identical to Clench.

• Black Megatron w/ Barrel (Black) (Ultra, 2003)

A contest prize limited to 100 pieces, Megatron and Leader-1 were redecoed in primarily black with dark purples, grays and olive-greens. The contest was listed in the June 2003 issue of Tele-V Magazine in Japan.

Merchandise

A small soft-plastic mini-PVC of Leader-1 came with the Mega Super Collection Figure version of Megatron.

Trivia

• Leader-1's name is a homage to leader of the Guardians from the Tonka GoBots toy-line/cartoon of the 1980s.

• During the course of American dub of the Armada cartoon, several characters were mistakenly referred to as "Leader-1". Sparkplug in particular seemed to bear the Leader-1 brunt.

External links

• Leader-1 at TFU.info