Power of the Primes (toyline)

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Power of the Primes is a subline imprint of the Generations toyline, and the third and final portion of the Prime Wars Trilogy.

First revealed in mid-2017 at San Diego Comic-Con, Power of the Primes, in keeping with the previous two toylines, features a line-wide gimmick: "Prime Masters", small Titan Master-type figures that represent the sparks of the Primes. Unlike Titan Masters, Prime Masters are available only in their own pricepoint, where they are packaged with Pretender-style decoy armor, but can interact in some way with all larger assortments.

Legends Class figures retain the ability to seat a small figure in alt-mode, whilst the Deluxe and Voyager Class pricepoints see the return of Combiner Wars-style Combiners. The combination joints remain unchanged, whilst the hand/foot system is tweaked: all Deluxes now include a hand, and all Voyagers a pair of feet. These accessories (dubbed Prime Armor) also facilitate the Prime Master integration for those size classes: Deluxes can use their hand as chest armor, into which a Prime Master spark mode can slot, and Voyagers can use their feet as forearm bucklers, which similarly fit a Prime Master. All Voyager Class figures also include an Enigma of Combination, shaped like a Prime Master spark mode, that can fit onto their combined mode chest.

Finally, Leader Class figures feature an "Evolution" gimmick, wherein each toy includes a Deluxe-sized character who can "evolve" into a Prime by combining with additional armor. Each Leader includes a uniquely-colored Matrix of Leadership, the central crystal of which can be removed and replaced with a Prime Master.

Similar to Combiner Wars (except for US-released Deluxe Class figures) and Titans Return, all figures from Legends Class upwards continued to include character cards, except this time there were variants of every figure, each including one of twelve different character cards that contain a combination of the character with one of the twelve Prime Masters.

Ahead of the line's release, a fan vote took place to determine a character who would become a new Prime in both the toyline and accompanying stories, with Optimus Primal claiming victory, and a place in the Leader Class assortment.

Toys

Prime Masters

Wave 1 Liege Maximo (w/ Skullgrin decoy armor) Micronus (w/ Autobot Cloudburst decoy armor) Vector Prime (w/ Metalhawk decoy armor)

Wave 2 Alchemist Prime (w/ Submarauder decoy armor) Alpha Trion (w/ Landmine decoy armor)

Wave 3 Megatronus (w/ Bomb-Burst decoy armor) Quintus Prime (w/ Decepticon Bludgeon decoy armor) Solus Prime (w/ Octopunch decoy armor)

Legends Class

Wave 1 Beachcomber Dinobot Slash Skrapnel Windcharger

Wave 2 Battleslash Roadtrap Autobot Tailgate

Wave 3 Autobot Outback Cindersaur

Deluxe Class

Wave 1 Autobot Jazz Dinobot Slug Dinobot Swoop Dreadwind

Wave 2 Blackwing Dinobot Sludge Dinobot Snarl Autobot Moonracer Terrorcon Rippersnapper

Wave 3 Terrorcon Blot Terrorcon Cutthroat Terrorcon Sinnertwin

Wave 4 Autobot Novastar

Voyager Class

Wave 1 Dinobot Grimlock Starscream

Wave 2 Elita-1 Terrorcon Hun-Gurrr

Wave 3 Inferno

Leader Class

Wave 1 Evolution Rodimus Prime (w/ Autobot Hot Rod) Evolution Optimus Prime (w/ Orion Pax)

Wave 2 Evolution Rodimus Unicronus (w/ Nemesis Hot Rod)

Wave 3 Evolution Optimus Primal

Power of the Primes (TakaraTomy)

Unlike its predecessors in the Prime Wars Trilogy, Power of the Primes was not rolled into Legends or Adventure in Japan. Instead, Takara's Power of the Primes (パワーオブザプライム Pawā obu za Puraimu) line forgoes the usual cartoon-accurate repaints or retools that signified Takara's take on other portions of Generations and features toys that are identical to their Hasbro versions down to the last factory-applied sticker.

Wave 1 (25–05–2018) PP-01 Micronus PP-02 Liege Maximo PP-03 Vector Prime PP-04 Dinobot Slash PP-05 Windcharger PP-06 Beachcomber PP-07 Autobot Jazz PP-08 Rodimus Prime PP-09 Optimus Prime

Wave 2 (30–06–2018) PP-10 Alchemist Prime PP-11 Dinobot Slug PP-12 Dinobot Swoop PP-13 Dinobot Snarl PP-14 Dinobot Sludge PP-15 Grimlock

Wave 3 (28–07–2018) PP-16 Moonracer PP-17 Dreadwind PP-18 Blackwing PP-19 Starscream

Notes

What, were you expecting accurate naming?

• Just like Titans Return had the early working name of "Titan Wars", it appears Power of the Primes was initially going to be called "Prime Wars" before that name was promoted to the overall title of the entire trilogy. Inevitably, several online retailers and distributors still list the figures under that name.
• Along the same lines, the working name for the Prime Masters was "Power Masters", which again still appears in online listings.
• Power of the Primes toys made their global retail debut at Target stores in the United States on November 11, 2017, roughly a full month before they were expected to be sighted anywhere worldwide. Given that Transformers toys, going for roughly a decade, had been consistently sighted first in Hasbro's Asian markets, this came as a big surprise for the fandom.
• Meanwhile, wave 2 of the Legends Class made a brief (apparently premature) retail debut in Singapore just a few days before New Year's Eve of 2017, despite none of the figures having been officially acknowledged by Hasbro yet by that point. A few weeks later, the wave was also released at UK retail.