Overlord (G1)
| The name or term "Overlord" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Overlord (disambiguation). |
- Overlord is a Decepticon Godmaster from the Generation 1 continuity family. He is also known as Gigatron.
Autobots quake in fear when Overlord thunders on to the battlefield. This towering warrior is an amalgamation of the deadliest Decepticon weaponry known, armed with laser blasters and grenade launchers in his stomach, and the terrifying ability to prevent the wounds he subjects upon his opponents from healing. He is even equipped with an internal arms factory. Overlord is formed from two individual vehicles, a tank and a jet, which combine together to form his colossal robot mode, a heavily-armed advance base, or a larger jet capable of space flight.
Fiction
Japanese continuity
The story of the Overlord begins with the mysterious alien energy-being and self-styled Decepticon god, Devil Z, who schemed to create the ultimate lifeform by merging Transformers and humans into one. Devil Z stole a collection of Transformer Transtectors from the G Nebula and brought them to Earth, where he recruited two human beings, husband and wife Giga and Mega, and charged them with creating an army for him. Mega and Giga were both bonded to the largest Transtector, and together, they became the terrifying Overlord, serving as Devil Z's "Ambassador of Destruction" on Earth.
In this continuity, each of Overlord's two components are piloted by Giga and Mega, and are hence known as the Gigatank and the Megajet. As deadly as his "Chōkon Daemon Blast" lasers and "Chōkon Bolt Masher" grenade launcher are, Overlord has little need for projectile weapons: as a Godmaster, he is capable of manipulating Chōkon Power, and can even employ it to inhibit the regenerative abilities of other Godmasters.
Cartoon continuity
Super God Masterforce cartoon
- Voice actor: Keiichi Noda (Japanese)
Lord Giga: *groan*
Giga and Mega took their Transtectors into battle for the first time after a string of failures that resulted in several of the Godmaster Transtectors falling into the hands of the Autobots. The couple had Hydra and Buster lure Autobot commander Ginrai into the desert, and then confronted him as Overlord, immediately proving their superiority by beating him to near-death. Super Ginrai Gets Blown Away in the Desert!? Believing Ginrai dealt with, Overlord subsequently departed into space, taking control of a weather-monitoring base on the moon in order to rendezvous with the approaching BlackZarak there. Ginrai, however, proved entirely too stubborn to die, and, powered-up through his combination with the freshly-constructed Godbomber drone, soon pursued Overlord and engaged him in battle above the moon's surface. God Ginrai - Into the Sky!! During the fight, Ginrai was blindsided by BlackZarak and sent crashing down to the moon, where he found himself hunted by the two powerful Decepticons. Luckily, the Autobot battleship Grand Maximus arrived to help, and the two Decepticon tried to break off the fight an return to Earth. Ginrai and Grand vowed to stop them, and a shot from Ginrai's God Cannon sent Overlord plummeting back to the moon, forcing Giga and Mega to split into their individual Transtectors to soften their impact and save their lives. The Autobot pair managed to drive BlackZarak back to the moon as well, and the dark Decepticon insisted that Overlord return to Earth alone and inform Devil Z of the situation. Overlord refused, furious that anyone other than Devil Z would presume to give him orders, but when Ginrai and Grand returned to press their attack, he realised the damage he had sustained prevented him from carrying on the fight, and he relented. After Overlord departed for Earth, however, the outnumbered BlackZarak was then beaten by Ginrai and sent fleeing back into the depths of space. God Ginrai - Showdown on the Surface of the Moon
Incensed by this failure, Giga decided to reduce Ginrai's power level by destroying Godbomber. A desert again served as Ginrai and Overlord's battleground, as Overlord used his Chōkon Power to create a massive whirling tornado out of the shifting sands, but when he was thrown off balance by a sneaky God Punch attack, Overlord's "Chōkon Tornado" quickly backfired on him and sent him spinning off wildly through the sky. Overlord - Terror of the Chōkon Tornado Despite this setback, Overlord made another attempt to eliminate Godbomber, this time by separating him from Ginrai with an ambush in the American heartland. In their separate Transtectors, Giga and Mega wore down Ginrai until he no longer had enough Chōkon Power to animate Godbomber, but the plan was foiled when the Autobot Headmaster Juniors discovered they could combine their own energy to control Godbomber themselves. With Ginrai and Godbomber reunited, Overlord was sent packing by a blast of Chōkon Power. Destroy Godbomber!!
Overlord later adopted his base mode for the first time to act as a staging ground for the search for the final Godmaster. The search came to an abruptly end, however, when the Godmaster himself, Clouder, sought out the Decepticons, and the villains decided to use his ability to adopt two robot forms to install him as a double agent within the Autobot ranks. Appearance!! The Final Godmaster Using information fed to them by Clouder, the Decepticons initiated a full-scale attack on the Autobots' headquarters, again using Overlord's base mode as a mobile headquarters from which the assault was masterminded. Secret Orders! Destroy the Autobot Base!! When Ginrai (who had been lured away from the base so the attack to begin) returned to aid his fellow Autobots, Overlord transformed to robot mode and again engaged him in battle, intending to keep him occupied until a Seacon force could destroy the Autobot base from within. Although defeated in combat, Overlord was still able to gloat, as Ginrai failed to realise that he was being stalled until it was too late. Furious at his own short-sightedness, Ginrai hurled Overlord and embedded him, head-first, in the side of the mountain housing the Autobot base. At that moment, the base's magma converter power core finally exploded, and Overlord was sent flying over the horizon by a jet of lava. Disaster! The Autobot Base Explodes
Soon thereafter, BlackZarak returned to Earth, and the Decepticons began "Operation M-1" to cut a swathe of devastation across the Earth. While BlackZarak tore through New York, Overlord landed in the heart of Paris, decimating military resistance and destroying the Arc de Triomphe. With these cities in ruins, the two Decepticons began to converge on Tokyo; while passing over China, Overlord landed on the Great Wall and broadcasted a message to the leaders of the world, warning them to surrender or witness Tokyo's destruction. Overlord then carried on his way, easily defeating Metalhawk, Phoenix and Diver when they attempted to block his path. Overlord and BlackZarak soon arrived in Tokyo, and with no surrender forthcoming, began razing the city. In the midst of the chaos, however, Ginrai and Grand Maximus—who had been trapped in a black hole by BlackZarak, and only just managed to escape—arrived to stop their evil deeds. During the ensuing battle, Ginrai manoeuvred himself between the two Decepticons, and dodged at the last second, causing them to blast each other. With his two most powerful warriors damaged, Devil Z called off Operation M-1, and initiated Operation M-2 BlackZarak - Destroyer from Space which involved destroying the Earth's atmosphere from orbit with the unholy Death Para-Machine. Overlord transformed to his "space jet" mode to carry the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors into space for the operation, but naturally, the Autobots pursued their enemies, and Ginrai was able to destroy the Death Para-Machine before it caused irreparable damage to Earth. Crisis! The Day of the Downfall of Humanity
"You do NOT! 'God' outranks 'Overlord'!"
After a battle with Lightfoot in southern Europe, God Ginrai - Save Cancer!? Overlord tried a more underhanded tactic, capturing Autobot Headmaster Junior Shūta Gō, and using him as a bargaining chip to bring Ginrai to the Decepticon base. The battle that followed was distinctly one-sided, as Ginrai was unable to fight back due to Shūta being in danger, but this suddenly took an unexpected turn when Decepticon Junior Cancer turned on his teammates and freed Shūta. Even as the shocked Overlord commanded him to stop, Ginrai got back in the fight, and flattened Overlord before escaping with Shūta and Cancer. God Ginrai: Showdown at the Decepticon Base With the information Cancer provided them, the Autobots were able to stage an all-out attack on the Decepticon base, during which Overlord again battled Ginrai. The fight came to a sudden end when Devil Z merged together with BlackZarak and collapsed the Decepticon base in a failed attempt to destroy the Autobots. The Ultimate Combination!! BlackZarak, the New Lifeform
For a time, Devil Z's hatred of humankind had been steadily growing, and rankled with Giga and Mega, reaching a head when the alien abandoned Wilder and Bullhorn in the ruins of the Decepticon base, and transformed Hydra and Buster into true robots. Battle to the Death!! God Ginrai VS Darkwings Reborn Confronting God Ginrai for one final time in the heart of the Grand Canyon, Overlord vowed to fight him without weapons, battling him only through the use of his physical strength and the power of his human flesh. He didn't explain his motives to Ginrai, but Ginrai observed Overlord's refusal to draw his weapons, and fought honourably. When Grand Maximus arrived on the scene, however, he was not so concerned, and simply shot Overlord out of the sky. Autobots! Desperate Attack!!
After the battle in the Grand Canyon, the Decepticons relocated to the Alps, and the Autobots again gave chase. Overlord was willing to engage the Autobot Godmasters, but the merged Devil Z/BlackZarak entity held him back and instead buried them under an avalanche. Meanwhile, Ginrai again defeated Hydra and Buster, and the two brothers limped back to the peak of the Matterhorn, where Devil Z turned on them for their failure. As their punishment continued, Overlord at last stood up to his emperor and attempted to stop him, only to be on the receiving end of the emperor's wrath. Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z Unexpectedly, Overlord was rescued by Ginrai, and as the Autobot leader began his final battle with BlackZarak, Giga and Mega realized that they owed him a debt of honor for saving them and finally made the decision to turn against their former master. When Overlord attempted to aid God Ginrai in BlackZarak, however, they were struck down and enveloped in a sphere of Devil Z's Devil Power. Devil Z separated Mega and Giga from their Transtectors, bringing Overlord to live as a true super-robot lifeform. As their Master-Braces vanished from their wrists, Giga and Mega died, regretting that they could not settle their rivalry with Ginrai honourably. Alas, there was not even time to mourn, as the new, robotic Overlord lunged for Ginrai, but was tackled by Grand Maximus. Ginrai subsequently united his powers with the Headmasters Juniors to finally destroy Devil Z and BlackZarak, and at the sight of his leader being vaporized, Overlord immediately called for the Decepticons to retreat. As they fled into space, the Autobots' Transtectors were also brought to life, as Overlord's had been, by the death of Devil Z, and they took headed into space in pursuit of Overlord's Decepticons. A Battle... and Then...
Victory cartoon
The now-living Overlord Transtector and his followers rejoined the Decepticon forces in space, and Overlord briefly led the Decepticon army before the rise to power of Deathsaurus. [1] Following this, Overlord commanded the Sector Two Decepticon force, based in the G Nebula, where they battled the Autobots under the command of his old foe, God Ginrai. Planet Micro - The Mysterious Warrior
Zone cartoon
Years later, when the supernatural creature known as Violen Jiger seized command of the Decepticons, his first act was to recruit nine "Demon Generals" from Decepticon history. Overlord was selected to be one of those Generals and was given new power and weaponry to make him an even greater threat than before. At Violen Jiger's instruction, Overlord was sent to the planet Feminia to wreak havoc along with Abominus and Menasor. Together, the three Decepticon Demon Generals destroyed the entire planet and nearly killed Autobot Supreme Commander Victory Saber in the process.
Two-and-a-half months later, Overlord led Menasor, Abominus and Bruticus in an attack on the planet of Zone, gleefully blasting Micromasters and using his trident to slice into Zone Base to retrieve a sample of Energon Z for Decepticon use. With the Micromasters completely unable to harm the Decepticon generals, Overlord left the planet in triumph, handing the Energon Z off the second group of Generals, who went on to attack Earth, but were stopped by Autobot Powered Master Dai Atlas. Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!
Comic continuity
Super-God Masterforce comic
Giga and Mega debuted their Transtectors in an attack on a city, during which they combined into Overlord and devastated the Autobot Godmasters with their Daemon Blast and Bolt Masher weapons. Blindsided and badly damaged by the newly-created God Ginrai, Overlord was goaded into pursuing the Autobot out into space, where BlackZarak was battling the Autobot Headmasters. As BlackZarak turned to face the approaching Ginrai, the cunning Autobot swiftly ducked out of the way, causing Overlord and BlackZarak to attack each other. Gravely wounded, Overlord returned to Earth, while BlackZarak fled back into space. God Ginrai's Amazing Super-God Combination!
Overlord's base mode was employed by the Decepticon to hold Shūta Gō and Cab prisoner, when they attempted to torture the two boys into becoming members of the Decepticons. Their fellow Autobot Junior, Minerva, came to their rescue when she crashed Godbomber through Overlord's walls and freed them, after which Overlord transformed to robot mode to face the approaching Ginrai and Grand Maximus. It wasn't his best showing: after Ginrai combined with Godbomber, Grand crashed his battleship directly into Overlord's face, and God Ginrai used the Headmaster's "Master Blade" to slice off Overlord's legs. Their Transtectors forcibly separated, the battered Giga and Mega escaped. The Earth Family of Good and Evil
From the top of Mount Everest, Overlord rained destruction down on the world using the Decepticons' newest weapon, the AO Laser. When Ginrai and Godbomber arrived to stop him, Overlord turned the laser on them; they dodged, but they had failed to observe the presence of the Decepticons' newest member, the Godmaster Clouder, who reflected the laser beam back at them and knocked them out of the sky. Unfortunately for Overlord, a chance comment from Cancer insulting Clouder's falcon mode plunged the Godmaster into such a rage that he turned on his Decepticon allies and blew up the AO Laser in Overlord's hands. Although Ginrai had been temporarily blinded by the AO Laser, the Headmaster Juniors were able to serve as his eyes and point him in the right direction to unleash his "God Punch" attack, which clobbered Overlord so hard that Giga and Mega actually popped out of his chest. Decepticons' Great Counterattack!
Soon thereafter, when the Autobots were off-Earth visiting their space-based allies, BlackZarak was able to return to Earth, and he and Overlord took the opportunity to attack a city. The Autobots soon returned with, and Ginrai and Godbomber grappled with Overlord, forcing him to separate back into the Megajet and Gigatank. The two Autobots clung onto the separate Transtectors, however, refusing to let them escape, as they waited for the new weapon they had brought back from space, the VX Bomb to detonate. The explosion came seconds later, knocking Mega and Giga's Transtectors offline, but Ginrai and Godbomber survived by combining into God Ginrai. Live? Die?! The Desperate Super-God Combination
When BlackZarak attacked a city, Cancer happened to be here, and BlackZarak showed his disdain for humans by using the boy as a bargaining chip to prevent the Autobots from interfering with his deviltry. Horrified at this treatment of Cancer, Overlord viciously attacked BlackZarak, rescuing Cancer from his grip, but while they were fighting, it allowed the Autobots to take down both of them. Great Turn-Around! Autobots
In light of this act of treachery by Overlord, it was perhaps not surprising that in the midst of his next battle with Ginrai, Overlord himself was the subject of a betrayal. In an attempt to transform himself into the ultimate lifeform, Devil Z fused with BlackZarak, and then turned on Overlord and the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors, attempting to drain theirs and Ginrai's Jinchōkon and take it for his own. They were saved by the Autobot Pretenders, who blocked the Jinchōkon-absorbing beam, and Overlord decided to join with the Autobots in defeating Devil Z. Overlord joined with all the other Transformers in combining their energies into the "Perfect Transform Attack", which finally destroyed BlackZarak and Devil Z once and for all. With the alien's death, the Transformers' Transtectors were brought to life as true super-robot lifeforms, Overlord's included. Alas, Devil Z's energies had also been sustaining the lives of Giga and Mega, and his death also resulted in theirs. The now-living Overlord and Ginrai Transtectors decided to take their troops back into space, where Overlord vowed to defeat Ginrai in memory of Mega and Giga, and for the honor of the Decepticons. The Birth of the Super Lifeforms
Zone comic and story pages
Years after the end of the Masterforce war, Overlord was among the Decepticons recruited by the new Decepticon emperor Violen Jiger to become the strongest of his Nine Great Demon Generals. In addition to his new title of "Super-God General", Overlord was outfitted with new armor and weapons that made him even more dangerous than before. Zone Part 1
One month after the Demon Generals destroyed the planet Feminia, apparently taking the life of the Autobot Supreme Commander Victory Saber in the process, Overlord led Menasor, Bruticus and Abominus in an attack on the planet Zone, where they successfully stole a sample of the super-energy, Energon Z. When the Zone Base transformed into battle mode and opened fire on the Decepticons, Overlord called retreat, seeing no need to stay and fight when the prize was already theirs. Overlord then handed the Energon Z off to the second platoon of generals, who subsequently headed for Earth, but were defeated in battle there by the Decepticon Powered Master Dai Atlas. Transformers: Zone
It wasn't long before Overlord got his own chance to go up against Dai Atlas, but the Powered Master didn't think much of this so-called "Strongest of the Generals," aiming to finish their battle in under eight seconds. Whether or not he achieved this lofty goal is unknown, but he did lay out Overlord with his powerful "Galactic Dash" attack. Zone Part 6
The Generals later schooled Metrotitan and the Metrosquad in the ways of evil, making them formidable foes for the Powered Masters. Zone Part 7
European toy bio continuity
A legend by virtue of his very existence, Overlord is the ultimate Decepticon anti-hero. Emerging to join the Transformers' war at some undetermined point in space and time, Overlord fights alone on the battlefield despite his Decepticon allegiance, a monolithic horror born of "advanced robotic engineering" whose special abilities—including the power to travel across dimensions—come from the "Energon figures" that operate his multiple functions.
To counter the monstrous threat posed by this powerful new breed of Decepticon, the Autobots developed their own new team of warriors, the Motorvators, emulating Overlord's Energon figure technology to make the trio a match for his awesome power. [2][3]
Dreamwave comics continuity
Gigatron was an ancient Cybertronian, who developed an idea to allow Decepticons to survive on alien planets by biologically integrating local inhabitants into their systems. In modern times, Gigatron's records were uncovered and used to develop the Powermaster process. More Than Meets The Eye issue 8
IDW comics continuity
Overlord could be seen in the crowd cheering on Megatron in one of his early gladiatorial matches. Megatron Origin issue 2
Millions of years later, Overlord bedevilled the Wreckers. Last Stand of the Wreckers
Toys
Super-God Masterforce
- Overlord (Godmaster, 1988)
- Japanese ID number: D-307
Not to be confused with Blackstar's nemesis. - Accessories: Giga and Mega Godmaster engines, "Transtector Destroyer Cannon", three missiles, tank barrel, two ramps/shin guards, central ramp, two radar arrays, double-barreled laser, rocket launcher, car
- Japanese ID number: D-307
- Overlord consists of two vehicles, the Gigatank and the Megajet, which are able to combine together to form a robot mode or a base mode. Like any Godmaster (or Powermaster), Overlord is only able to transform when the Giga and Mega Godmaster figures are transformed into engine mode and snapped into place in the sockets on top of the vehicles. Inserting Giga into the tank splits it in half to form legs for robot mode, or alternately, the left and right emplacements of the base (the left containing a fold-out twin cannon, the right a poseable claw arm). Fitting Mega into the jet, meanwhile, unlocks the toy's shoulder articulation for robot mode and its fold-out launchpad for base mode. Once the toy is in robot mode, the figures can be removed from their sockets and fitted into two further ports hidden beneath doors on his chest, which unlock the multi-barreled "Chōkon Daemon Blast" and spring-loaded "Chōkon Bolt Masher" weapons that pop out of his stomach. One figure can also fit into the Roller-style car that comes with the set. There is, unfortunately, not one mode that uses all of Overlord's many accessories. Standing approximately 15" in robot mode, Overlord is taller than most Transformer toys, though certainly not all.
- Overlord's instructions do not feature the additional large jet mode seen in the animated series and manga, as it (like Sixshot's "Wingwolf" mode or BlackZarak's "Dakatsu" mode) was created by the production staff after fiddling around with the toy itself. As such, it's entirely possible to put the toy in this form, although it doesn't rest evenly on a flat surface.
Generation 1
- Overlord (1991)
- Initially exclusive to Japan, Overlord's toy was later released in Europe and Australasia with a veeeeery slightly different shade of purple plastic.
Merchandise
Parody Deformed
- Overlord (1990)
- A small blue and white, non-transforming super deformed model kit of Overlord was available as part of Kabaya's "Parody Deformed" line of candy toys. The eighth figure in the series, he came with a "Transformer PD Type" comic about himself, "Oh, Overlord", and something that could charitably be described as "chocolate".
Super Collection Figure
- Overlord (2001)
- A PVC figure of Overlord was part of the Super-God Masterforce-centric fifth act of Takara's Super Collection Figure series, available in both full colour and metallic silver "pewter" in an equal ratio of one each per case of twelve figures. In eight out of every ten cases, the pewter version of Overlord came packaged with the right leg of the wave's "build-a-figure", BlackZarak, itself also available in full color and pewter versions.
- The colour version of his figure was later released in the fourth wave of Hasbro's Heroes of Cybertron, under the new name of Gigatron.
Heroes of Cybertron
- Powermaster Gigatron (2003)
- Gigatron is a slightly-altered version of the Super Collection Figure Overlord PVC, featuring rounded-off shoulder-cones for safety reasons, plus he used the standard "all clear-red-plastic painted over" coloring process to give him light-piped eyes). He came with the left arm of Fortress Maximus build-a-figurine.
Notes
- Overlord was a new character created for the 1988 Japanese Super God Masterforce series. While all his fellow Godmasters had American Powermaster counterpart characters (Ginrai had Optimus Prime, Lightfoot had Getaway, and so forth), Overlord did not have a counterpart until 2003, when the Heroes of Cybertron line introduced "Gigatron". However, the little-known nature of this character (existing as he did only as an obscure PVC figurine), coupled with the fact that Overlord had been around for fifteen years already, meant that the idea of a Powermaster named Gigatron who existed as a separate character to the Godmaster Overlord didn't really catch on. Surprisingly, Dreamwave stuck with the formula in their More Than Meets The Eye series, briefly mentioning the character as the originator of the Powermaster process, but when the Powermaster appeared again a few years later in IDW Publishing's Last Stand of the Wreckers series, he was "Overlord" once more. With this, there seems little point in distinguishing between the two characters (different as they are), and as such they are included in this article together.
References
External links
- Gigatron's tech-specs — Transcriptions by Neale Davidson
