Nexus Prime
One of the Thirteen, Nexus Prime was created to guard Rarified Energon by Primus shortly after he assumed his planet form, and was known for being an honorable and good-natured warrior.
He is sometimes, unfortunately, known as Nexus Maximus.
Fiction
Fun Publications
Nexus Prime, Vector Prime, and Alpha Trion made a decision to scatter Nexus Prime across the cosmos to conceal the location of the remains of Prima's Star Saber sword, a weapon that could destroy star systems. Using the blade of the Star Saber, Nexus Prime was cut into five other robots: Skyfall, Landquake, Breakaway, Topspin, and Heatwave, who were subsequently lost to the ages.
But the skills of Nexus Prime are needed once again, and now that his components have been called together by Primus, he searches the multiverse for the components to the Star Saber sword, armed with his masterful control over all uses of energon, and ability to manipulate sparks.
Classics
The Caretaker told its components that Nexus Prime was "designated a Prime", like the other original thirteen. Crossing Over: Part 6
Shattered Glass
When Landquake, Breakaway, Topspin, and Heatwave made an attempt to use their powers to revive the recently-assassinated Megatron, they were transported—along with a revived Skyfall—to the presence of Primus in the "afterlife". He gave them a choice of living (or staying dead) as they were, or being reborn as what they were meant to be. After the gestalt members made their deliberations, Primus declared, "The choice is made. Arise, Nexus Prime," as they started the transformation. Reunification: Part 5
Nexus Prime reformatted the dead Megatron into the powerful Galvatron, investing in him some of the power of the Thirteen. The two exited the Decepticon stronghold to counter Omega Doom's offensive, but they were forced to split up when Doom launched a starkilling missile into Cybertron's sun. Though his Decepticon components protested leaving the battle, Nexus Prime knew saving this Cybertron's star system was of more immediate importance. Regardless, he was too late in stopping the missile, and its energies began to destroy the sun. Nexus began to concentrate.
Nexus returned to Cybertron triumphant, having used his own powers to negate those of the starkilling missile, and he made short work of Omega Doom, saving Galvatron in the nick of time. Though there was more on this Cybertron to do, such as finishing Optimus Prime once and for all, Nexus Prime knew he had to leave for another universe. After saying goodbye to Cliffjumper, he entered a portal with Aquarius, trusting fate to bring him to the correct destination. Reunification: Part 6
Wings Universe
Nexus Prime and Aquarius traveled from world to world, but without finding what Nexus Prime was looking for. Eventually, the pair arrived on a Cybertron where they were attacked by a group of smaller Decepticons who thought they had an easy mark. Though Nexus Prime was unwilling to use his more supernatural powers, lest he draw unwanted attention towards himself, he was still able to easily beat their attackers. As they left the group of dazed Decepticons behind, Nexus Prime and Aquarius wandered through a Cybertronian marketplace. Finally, Nexus Prime began to drop hints about what mysterious artifact he was looking for; he hadn't yet clued Aquarius in. Ultimately, Nexus Prime spotted a shipping container with an Cybertron Elite Guard symbol on it. This unlocked a memory in the ancient Transformer, allowing him to determine their next destination. He and Aquarius vanished through another portal to yet another Cybertron, his future travels to be potentially unchronicled. The Coming Storm: Part 1
Prime cartoon
According to legend, at the beginning of time, Unicron and Primus battled each other for eons, with neither side remaining victorious for long. Till, that is, Primus created the Thirteen. These Thirteen defeated Unicron and cast him into space. One Shall Rise, Part 1
Exiles
Known as the "Wizard of Forms", Nexus Prime was all about change and mutability. (A trait he shared with the trickster Amalgamous Prime.) He was the first and greatest combiner, and able to merge together any robots into new combined forms at will, or separate himself into multiple independent components. When standing alone, his body seems to shift or be overlaid with ever changing forms and combinations he might take.
Powerful, proud, and frequently unpredictable even to those who knew him best, Nexus Prime was also full of good humor and could even be a bit of a prankster at times (though Alpha Trion reports not recalling ever having laughed at one of his jokes). He was the "mad experimenter" of the Thirteen. Nexus was fascinated by changing states of matter and the creation of new elements in solar forges. This shared affinity for creation lead Solus Prime, the "Maker" of the Thirteen, to have special (some have speculated, romantic) feelings for Nexus, which in turn seems to have earned him the enmity of Megatronus Prime and Liege Maximo. Megatronus killed Solus Prime in an act of rage, one that drove a wedge between the remaining Thirteen.
After the defeat of Liege Maximo's schemes, Nexus Prime took custody of many of Solus Prime's creations, including the Star Saber, the Cyber Caliber, the Blades of Time, and his own Omni Blade. The Omni Blade was a part of Nexus Prime's body, and he secreted the Cyber Caliber away inside his form as well before splitting himself into five component robots: Clocker, Mainspring, Chaindrive, Pinion, and Cannonspring. Each component held a fraction of the Cyber Caliber within themselves, and was also charged with guarding one of the Blades of Time. Only by assembling the Blades of Time and using them to open a gateway to the hollow realm of Vector Prime could the power of the Cyber Caliber as well be reassembled. What happened to the Star Saber is unknown (perhaps intentionally) but Alpha Trion believed that Nexus Prime left it in the care of another before separating himself.
The sub-selves of Nexus Prime scattered throughout the colony worlds of Cybertron. They remained apart for so long that each forgot their true nature, and no longer recalled being part of Nexus Prime or the Thirteen. All but Cannonspring even forgot their duty to safeguard the Blades of Time and the Cyber Caliber. Clocker and Mainspring wound up on Velocitron, where they remained slightly out of place as mechanics instead of the speed-driven racers who ruled the planet. Pinion ended up on Junkion, assimilating well into the culture (perhaps because the Junkion way of constantly reusing materials appealed to the subconscious preference of Nexus Prime for change). Chaindrive found himself on Cybertron, and eventually became part of the Autobot resistance movement alongside Ultra Magnus and Alpha Trion after the Ark's departure. Cannonspring ended up in a crippled ship in Cybertron's deep orbit, until the prospector Axer triggered some latent transwarp energy on board, transporting them both to Junkion. Cannonspring remained inert for over a million years inside his ship after they crashed.
Nexus Prime began to come together once more thanks to the Matrix, which directed Optimus Prime through space to the various colony worlds. As the Ark came to Velocitron, Optimus discovered two pieces of the Blades of Time and fatefully agreed to bring Clocker and Mainspring on the next leg of his journey when they asked. On Junkion, Prime encountered Pinion while recovering a third Blade, and the fourth was retrieved from Axer. Meanwhile, back on Cybertron, Alpha Trion and Wheeljack concocted a method of sending a scout after Optimus Prime by keying residual Space Bridge energy to the signature of the Matrix. Instinctively, Alpha Trion decided Chaindrive was the proper choice, and he brought with him the fifth Blade. Once all five Blades and the other four components assembled on Junkion, the combined energy was enough to rekindle the inert Cannonspring, bringing him back to full functioning and allowing them to reassemble into Nexus Prime.
Displaying the ability to hold more weapons than an armory, Nexus Prime pulled forth his Omni Blade and passed the Cyber Caliber over to Optimus Prime. Although he refused to kill anyone, Nexus Prime essentially held off the Decepticons and the Star Seekers for a time, on intimidation alone. As Megatron and Thundertron left to pursue other goals, Nexus Prime reclaimed his swords and gave some last words of encouragement to Optimus Prime before splitting himself once more. Reduced to a set of five protoforms, Nexus Prime vanished into space and the annals of history once more. Exiles
Toys
Cybertron, Classics, and Timelines
- Nexus Maximus (2009)
- Nexus Maximus is composed of his five team members, with Heatwave forming his central body component. His limbs' energon weapons form his hands and feet. Similarly to Generation 1's Scramble City-type combiner teams, Nexus Maximus (as well as Superion Maximus, Bruticus Maximus and Constructicon Maximus) features universal connection points for the limbs, allowing many different combinations and even swapping of limbs from different teams. His combined form's head was retooled to give him a unique one, which is an amalgamation of visual elements of its components' own heads: Skyfall's eyes, Landquake's chin, Breakaway's forehead, Topspin's "mohawk", and Heatwave's "ears".
- Nexus Maximus is the combined form of the first five Transformers Collectors' Club freebie toys: Skyfall, Landquake, Breakaway, Topspin, and Heatwave.
Notes
- It's hard to say what toyline Nexus Prime is from, as his components are from multiple franchises. How often does that happen?
- Nexus Prime's backstory bears a noticeable similarity to that of Voltron.
- Fun Publications stated at BotCon 2009 that the official limb arrangement for Nexus Prime is that of the configuration in his instructions. With Landquake as the right arm, Breakaway as the left arm, Topspin as the right leg, and Skyfall as the left leg. Why he was depicted in a different arrangement in the caverns around the Caretaker no one knows.
- Ironically, despite being labeled as an Autobot, a majority of the Transformers that make up Nexus Prime are Decepticons, albeit ones that are disenchanted by the Decepticon cause, misled by deceitful leaders, or a completely different kind of Decepticon.
- Nexus Prime's TFCC profile mentions that he "no longer has an alternate mode", due to being split apart for so long and then reassembled.
- With his components released one at a time, one per year, he's the combiner toy it took the longest to complete in an official capacity.
- Nexus Prime is the second character in Transformers history to share a name with a mobile phone (the first being Optimus Prime, with the release of the LG Optimus). "Nexus Prime" was the production name for the "Galaxy Nexus" produced by Samsung for Google's "Nexus" line of Android OS-based phones.
Naming issues
Fun Publications originally submitted the possible names Prime Nexus and Maximus Prime to Hasbro for the character (reflecting the fact that the character is a Prime in-fiction), Hasbro rejected these, apparently because they are feeling protective towards the use of the name Prime (despite previously having approved the fiction that already named him a Prime, written by their own Forest Lee). Hasbro suggested merging the non-Prime segments of the two names instead... oops.
Apparently neither Hasbro nor Fun Publications did their research when naming Nexus Maximus, because there is another product which shares that name and was, as of May 24, 2009, the top Google result (websites relating to this character have since surpassed it and the product page no longer exists). While it is definitely a "toy", it is most assuredly not intended for ages 5 and up. According to the Fun Publications Club panel at BotCon 2009, Hasbro did a search for the name with "safe search" on, causing them to not see... well, that.
When he finally appeared in person in fiction, his name was given as indeed being Nexus Prime. Which makes much better sense story-wise but deprives us of many cheap and easy joke opportunities. Pete Sinclair posted an image on the Transformers Collectors' Club forums of Aquarius blaming the "Nexus Maximus" name on a bad translation by Beta Maxx.
(The debate is still on as to whether Nexus Maximus constitutes a choking hazard.)
