Onyx Primal
- Onyx Primal is both a Maximal and a Predacon from the Beast Wars era of the Generation 1 continuity family.
At one time, Onyx Primal was one of the Tripredacus Council's more promising assassins, even if he was given to overblown melodrama. A glory-hog, Onyx quickly takes credit for any nearby successes and is even quicker to shuffle blame for his failures to others.
However, a falling-out with the Predacons has left him with little choice but to join the Maximals. He doesn't like them, and they don't like him, but neither camp is in much position to refuse each others' help. He's an accomplished spy and assassin, though as a Maximal he has little opportunity to practice the latter skill.
Fiction
BotCon 1998 "Visitations" live script reading
Voice Actor: Gary Chalk
Reaching the Omega Point
Though Onyx Primal never appeared in the Omega Point storyline proper, it may have had significant effects on his history. His presence on BW-era Earth is a continuity snag: BW show characters interact with and treat him as though he were a regular teammate, even though he was conspicuously absent from the very tightly-written show with its small cast. It strains credibility to suggest that he was "just off-camera" the whole time. However, if his presence was the result of the corrupt Shokaract timeline, then when that timeline was erased at Point Omega, his history would've been rewritten such that he was never part of the Beast Wars. Whether he would've been a protoform instead or back on Cybertron or elsewhere is unclear. Nonetheless, it's the quickest and simplest explanation for his nonexistence on the BW show.
Toys
Beast Wars
- Onyx Primal (Basic, 1996/1997)
- A redeco of the Basic-class Optimus Primal toy, Onyx transforms from a large vampire bat to robot mode with a one-step spring-loaded transformation. He has two scimitars, stored on the underside of his wings. He is notable for being the first Transformers convention-exclusive toy specifically cast in new plastic colors (the previous years' exclusive was only a repaint, using the same plastics as one of the retail versions of the mold).
- Two different versions of Onyx were available as BotCon 1996 exclusives. The standard version was available to attendees and pre-registrants. However, in a move never duplicated by later convention organizers, a "Dealer Exclusive" version of Onyx was available only to -of course- dealers. This version came in an almost solid-black box, and the only difference in the toy itself is the gold text "BOTCON '96 DEALER EXCLUSIVE" tampographed on his back. A "VIP" (Very Important Predicon (sic)) packaging variant was given to guests of the convention; the toy inside was the same as the normal one.
- Reportedly, BotCon '96 organizers Men In Black had to have a metric buttload of Onyx Primals produced in order to have them at all, and as such ended up with a lot of overstock. So much that for their unofficial convention "TransCon '97", they offered attendees Onyx Primal again.
Trivia
- The original Onyx Primal bio is a pretty direct lift of Samuel L. Jackson's character from the movie Pulp Fiction reciting Bible scripture. This was not the only slapped-on Pulp Fiction reference to happen in BC'96 material.
- Onyx's change from Predacon to Maximal appears to have been a Hasbro-mandated one, due to the original use of the mold being a Maximal. This also resulted in the "Heroic Predacon" Sandstorm for BotCon 1999.
- Gary Chalk's voice for Onyx was based loosely on Jackie Gleason, to go along with Scott McNeil's Art Carney voice for Packrat.
