Powermaster
| The name or term "Powermaster" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Powermaster (disambiguation). |
- Powermasters are a cross-factional subgroup from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Like the Headmasters and Targetmasters, the Powermasters are binary bonded to a smaller partner, most often an organic Nebulan, who in this case serves as their external power supply.
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 Transformers cartoon
At some point after 2006, Optimus Prime became a Powermaster. Season 5: MTMTE, 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. Bonus Edition Vol. EX Optimus Prime later adopted a Powermaster body, his partner being the Nebulan Hi-Q. Nucleon Quest Super Convoy bio Bonus Edition Vol. EX
Technology
As with the other binary bonding technologies, the Powermaster procedure requires extensive cybernetic surgery and specially designed power armor used by the subject. These changes allow an organic being to transform into a powerful engine and bond themselves to a properly modified Transformer. The initial advantage to this procedure was survival: When all the ordinary fuel sources on the planet Nebulos were rendered toxically radioactive, the Powermasters provided an alternate source of energy.
When non-toxic 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.
Drawbacks
While serving as an alternate power source the Powermaster partners had extremely high metabolisms, meaning that they need to eat large quantities of food at regular intervals just to keep themselves from starving to death. People Power! [1]
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. This happened to Hi-Q, who over time began to change and merge with his Transformer counterpart until he actually became Optimus Prime. End of the Road!
A Powermaster can't transform from alternate mode into robot mode without their partner.[2] Slapdash's toy bio Prime Bomb!
Toys
Generation 1
- Powermasters (1988)
- Darkwing / Throttle
- Doubledealer / Knok or Skar
- Dreadwind / Hi-Test
- Getaway / Rev
- Joyride / Hotwire
- Optimus Prime / Hi-Q
- Slapdash / Lube
- 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.
Fiction-only Powermasters
References
- ↑ Specifically, if we consider that 1 gallon of gas equates to 31,000 calories ([1]), assume that a Transformer gets relatively poor "gas mileage" (12 mpg), and runs 24 hours a day, that would mean that a Powermaster using only food for energy would need to consume somewhere between 3 and 4 million calories a day! A triple "Whopper" with cheese is 1250 calories, so that would mean that, for example, Hi-Q would have to consume about 3,000 triple Whoppers a day to power Optimus Prime for 24 hours of action. Even at $4 a burger, that would be $12,000 worth of food a day. Assuming someone else was preparing and/or ordering the food, and assuming that it took 3 minutes to wolf down such a burger, Hi-Q would only be able to consume 480 burgers a day if he ate 24/7.
- ↑ Toy mechanics
- ↑ Letters Page to Marvel UK 315 at Transfans.co.uk
- ↑ Gigatron's Heroes of Cybertron toy bio.
- ↑ More Than Meets The Eye #8
