Onyx Primal
- Onyx Primal is a Maximal or a Predacon from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family. He is evidently also known as Blackie.
At one time, Onyx Primal was one of the Tripredacus Council's more promising assassins, even if he was given to overblown melodrama. His movements are utterly silent, and in bat mode his "stealth cloak" can shield him from most scanners. A smug 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
3H comics
- Voice actor: Garry Chalk (English)
Onyx Primal and Packrat were in Predacon territory investigating a fallen meteorite when they stumbled across a Predacon "plot device". They fought over the artifact amongst themselves but were immediately attacked by Vice Grip and Fractyl. After Onyx Primal stashed the artifact in a rock crevice, a shadowy figure stole it and vanished.
The Predacons continued their attack, but Silverbolt and Rattrap appeared overhead to rescue the Maximals, even though they were mere "repaints". Vice Grip and Fractyl's defeat was followed by Optimus Primal's arrival. Onyx Primal and Packrat argued over whose fault it was the artifact was lost.
Ultimately, they blamed Megatron. Visitations
Toys
Beast Wars
- Onyx Primal (Basic, 1996/1997)
- Accessories: 2 electron-scimitars
- 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. (Most of the art associated with Onyx shows these swords held in the same fist as a sort of double-bladed weapon.) He is notable for being the first Transformers convention-exclusive toy specifically cast in new plastic colors (the previous year's exclusive was only a repaint, using the same plastics as one of the retail versions of the mold).
- He came in a large box with no real padding and incredibly low-resolution artwork on the cover half. A "VIP" (Very Important Predicon [sic]) packaging variant was given to guests of the convention; the toy inside was the same.
- He was available exclusively to pre-registrants and attendees at BotCon 1996... at first. Reportedly, BotCon '96 organizers Men in Black had to have a 1700 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. And in hotel rooms "coincidentally" within the facilities for later BotCons... plus they had another way to move more of them...
- Onyx Primal (Basic, 1996)
- Accessories: 2 electron-scimitars
- In a move never duplicated by later convention organizers, a "Dealer Exclusive" version of Onyx Primal was available only to -of course- dealers. The toy is almost identical, having "BOTCON '96 DEALER EXCLUSIVE" tampographed on his back in metallic gold paint.
- This version came in a black box with silver lettering, and included a silver sticker showing which number of the limited amount you had. Exactly how many of these boxed pieces were given out is unknown... and how many more Onyxes with the back-tampo were made and not given to dealers is also a mystery, as quite a few eventually ended up on eBay without box or sticker, reportedly from a former Hasbro/Kenner employee.
Notes
- 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 BotCon 1996 material.
- Onyx Primal's faction is generally in flux.
- The original BotCon 1996 bio said Onyx was a Predacon assassin.
- In 1998, Hasbro/Kenner decided retroactively that Onyx was a Maximal, reportedly due to the original use of the mold being a Maximal. (This also resulted in the "Noble Predacon" Sandstorm for BotCon 1999.) This change prompted a second bio, crafted for the BotConBeyond site (linked below), and it seemed to recast Onyx Primal as a deeply flawed individual, a transparent critique of the individuals who created him. The 1998 voice actor script reading, "Visitations", likeways portrayed him as a Maximal.
- A decade later, Beast Wars Sourcebook presented Onyx as a Predacon assassin again, this time as a dark creature of the night.
- Garry Chalk's voice for Onyx was based loosely on Jackie Gleason, to go along with Scott McNeil's Art Carney voice for Packrat.
- According to the toy database section of Beast Wars Universe, Onyx Primal was given the alternative name "Blackie" because someone at Men in Black was a fan of the Microman franchise. M114 Blacky was a black and yellow Microman from 1975 who had "great knowledge of universal science".
- Beast Wars Universe goes on to say that Onyx Primal's black color scheme was chosen by his designer to enhance the mold's inherent resemblance to Batman, an action figure license also held at the time by Kenner.
