Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime is a fictional character from the Transformers franchise. Prime is the leader of the autobots, a faction of transforming robots from the planet Cybertron. The autobots are constantly waging war against a rival faction of transforming robots called Decepticons. He is depicted as a brave, powerful, wise and compassionate leader who puts his talent to use improving the universe around him. Optimus is portrayed as having a strong sense of justice and righteousness and has dedicated himself to the protection of all life, particularly the inhabitants of Earth.^[1] According to Bob Budiansky, co-writer of the transformers series, Dennis O'Neil was responsible for his name.

1 Transformers: Generation 1
2 Transformers: Robots in Disguise
3 Transformers: Universe
- 3.1 3H Enterprises
- 3.2 Toys
4 Unicron Trilogy
5 Transformers
6 Transformers Animated
7 Transformers: Timelines (Transtech)
- 7.1 Fun Publications
8 Shattered Glass
9 Transformers: Prime
10 References
11 Bibliography
12 External links

Transformers: Generation 1

Orion Pax/Optimus Prime
Autobot/Maximal
Optimus Prime box art showing his original G1 toy design
Japanese name	Inochi, Convoy
Sub-group	Action Masters, Autorollers, Combat Heroes, Deluxe Vehicles, Go-Bots, Masterpiece, Primes, Powermasters, Voyagers
Function	Autobot Leader, Supreme Commander
Rank	10
Partner	Roller, Hi-Q, Ironhide, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Jazz, Wheeljack, Prowl, Elita-1, Marissa Faireborn, Ultra Magnus, Rodimus, Barrelroller, Apex Bomber, Ginrai
Motto	"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." (Generation 1) "No sacrifice is too great in the service of freedom." (Classics)
Alternate Modes	Freightliner Cab-over-engine Class 8 truck, Cybertronian truck, COBRA Sentry & Missile System tank, 1920s style truck, Peterbilt Truck, Mid-90s Peterbilt 4964EX Tanker Truck, Lamborghini Diablo, Dump truck, Dodge Ram SRT-10, Nissan GT-R, Bat
Series	Transformers: Generation 1 Transformers: Generation 2 Beast Wars Machine Wars Robot Masters Transformers: Titanium Transformers: Alternators Transformers: Classics Transformers: Universe Smallest Transformers Transformers: Masterpiece Transformers: Music Label Transformers: Sports Label Transformers: Alternity Transformers: Reveal the Shield
English voice actor	Peter Cullen (most appearances)^[2] Roger C. Carmel (when disguised as Motormaster in the episode Masquerade) Ron Hayden (20th Anniversary toy sound base, Universe Flash cartoon)
Japanese voice actor	Tesshō Genda

The first generation Optimus Prime transforms into a cab over truck. Within his chest is a mystic talisman, known as the autobot matrix of leadership or the "creation matrix", carried by all autobot leaders.^[3]

When Optimus transforms, his cab becomes an ion blaster and his trailer disconnects, forming a combat deck. The combat deck supports a mobile battle-station and command headquarters armed with assorted artillery and beam weapons that fire automatically. The combat deck can also serve as a radio antenna for battlefield communications between the autobots. The combat deck also included "Roller", a mobile scout buggy meant to scout behind enemy lines. When Roller is deployed, Optimus can see and hear what Roller sees and hears.^[4] Injury to one component is felt by each of the others. If the combat deck or Roller were to be destroyed, Prime could survive. However, despite the slight degree of autonomy they possess, the combat deck and Roller would not be able to survive without Optimus.

In the animated series, Optimus is able to fire short-range optic blasts, project holographic maps, and deploy hydro-foils, designed by Wheeljack, to traverse bodies of water with ease. In the animated series, Optimus was also given the ability to retract his right hand unit and replace it with a glowing axe.^{[citation needed]}

Across the assorted continuities of the original Transformers universe, there have been various interpretations of Optimus Prime. One of Prime's most notable characteristics over all continuities his unswaying commitment to leadership by example. The animated series' version of Optimus Prime is depicted as a straightforward, wise, and upbeat battlefield general. Additionally, the animated series' version of Optimus dislikes rap music, putting him at odds with music-loving characters like Blaster and Jazz.

In the Marvel Comics series, in addition to these characteristics, Prime is secretly plagued by self-doubt and a conflicted sense of pacifism that often makes him an extremely reluctant warrior. It is occasionally implied that the conflict with the Decepticons lasts so long primarily because of his unwillingness to take a more aggressive stance.^{[citation needed]}

Marvel Comics

Note: Stories from the U.K. Marvel Transformers series are in italics.

In the series released by Marvel Comics, before the Great War broke out on Cybertron, the robot who would be Optimus Prime, before he received the Matrix of Leadership from Sentinel Prime, was a Transformer of note, displaying his skills in the Infraformers Sharpshooting Competition. When the war began, Prime quickly made a name for himself as a combat leader of the Autobots.

On a mission with the Triggerbots to stop Megatron from claiming the Underbase, Prime was forced to jettison the massive databank into space to prevent anyone from acquiring its power. With this action, he proved his wisdom and skill to the Autobot Council of Elders. He continued to move up in rank, eventually becoming the field command over the Autobot armies.

Four million years ago, Cybertron, shaken from its orbit and drifting through space, became threatened when it floated into the path of an asteroid field. Prime led a group of elite Autobot warriors on the Ark, the Autobot starship, on a mission to destroy the asteroids. Although the mission was successful, during the aftermath of this mission, the Ark was attacked by Decepticons hoping to overpower their weakened foes. Intent on keeping the secrets of the Ark from the Decepticons, Prime set the craft on a suicide course, crashing it into the then prehistoric planet Earth.

In 1984, a volcanic eruption re-activated the Ark, which, in turn, brought the Transformers back on-line. Prime led the Autobots in their opening battles to prevent the Decepticons from plundering Earth's resources, but, following their initial victory, the Transformers were all deactivated by Shockwave. Shockwave killed Prime and leeched the energy of the Creation Matrix leeched from his mind. He used this energy to give life to his creations, the Constructicons. Shockwave was unaware that the Matrix was not just a program in Prime's mind, but a physical object in his chest. Before Shockwave could give life to Jetfire, his next Decepticon, Prime transferred the Matrix energy into the mind of Buster Witwicky. Buster used the energy to turn Jetfire on Shockwave, allowing Prime to reclaim his body and retake leadership of the Autobots. As a reward, he gave Jetfire true life.

Meanwhile, the U.K. offices of Marvel Comics were producing their own storylines. Writer Simon Furman offered a different take on Prime, that he was weary of the war he had been forced to fight. In the "Prey" storyline, Prime arranged for Wheeljack to build a copy of himself and destroy it to see how the Autobots could cope without him. Unfortunately, the plan was derailed by Megatron and the Predacons. During the battle, Prime, Megatron, and Ultra Magnus were transported to Earth. There, Prime accidentally interrupted his own funeral service. The theme of war-weariness would again come to the fore in the U.K. strips detailing Prime's U.S. death.

After a period of effective leadership, which saw the activation of several new Transformers including the Aerialbots, who Prime infused with life using the Matrix, Prime engaged Megatron in a video game duel for possession of a super fuel. Prime was victorious, but Megatron implemented a cheat code that killed Prime later. Autobot surgeon Ratchet's subsequent efforts to restore him were unsuccessful, and his body was launched into space. The Autobots were unaware of the presence of the physical Matrix within the corpse. The funeral barge eventually crashed on a giant moon and, as it lay there for an untold time, the Matrix reached out to nearby living organisms, studying and recreating them.

Prime's personality had been copied onto a floppy disk by Ethan Zachary, the technician running the game. He employed Prime in various video game scenarios he developed. Prime's damaged mind led him to believe that he himself was a video game character and, in an attempt to bring him back to life, Goldbug, Joyride, Slapdash, and Getaway took the disk to the planet Nebulos. They built a new body for Optimus Prime and upgraded it with the ability to combine with the trailer to form a larger robot. In an effort to keep Transformers off their planet, the Nebulans had poisoned their fuel. The sensation of dying, however, convinced Prime that he was truly alive and not a game character. To save his life, the Nebulan scientist Hi-Q bonded with him, creating Powermaster Optimus Prime. A UK story set around the same time in UK #198, Prime returned to Earth and tried to rekindle his feeling for the planet. After a battle between his forces and an advance force from Cybertron ruined a small town's Christmas festivities, he realized that bringing the Transformers to Earth was far worse than anything his troops could have done and vowed to protect its inhabitants from Decepticon aggression.^[5]

Optimus Prime's first action as leader was to ally the Autobots with Scorponok's Decepticons to defeat Starscream, who had acquired the power of the Underbase.

In the U.K. Transformers stories, Prime and his Autobots later battled a murderous mechanoid named Deathbringer, a creation of the Matrix.^{[citation needed]}

Later, the Transformers were all transported to Cybertron by Primus to battle Unicron. Although Unicron had tainted the Matrix after killing Thunderwing, Prime managed to successfully reacquire and purify the Matrix. Prime then sacrificed his life one more time to destroy Unicron by plunging the Matrix into his maw. The Powermaster process, however, had been working to fully bond Prime and Hi-Q. Prime's death completed the process, and the two minds and souls became one. Hi-Q's biomechanical body was stripped down and reconstructed by the Last Autobot, resurrecting Optimus Prime once more with the two minds now one. Prime rejoined the other Transformers on the planet Klo and routed Bludgeon's Decepticons.

The sequel series, Transformers: Generation 2, began an undisclosed period of time later. At the beginning of the series, Prime was restored to a form resembling his original body. He and the Transformers found themselves caught in the schemes of a new generation of Cybertronians, led by the icy Jhiaxus, who were colonizing and cyber-forming other worlds. Plagued by nightmarish visions of a life-destroying entity called "the Swarm", Prime looked into Cybertron's past and discovered that Jhiaxus and his kind were the result of an unintentional Transformer reproduction. Their nature and intent, he found, was distilled to the purest, most unemotional form of conquest and that the Swarm was the by-product of this process. To fight this new enemy, Prime and the Autobots entered into an alliance with the recreated Megatron's Decepticons. Though Prime was eventually consumed by the abomination and destroyed, he was able to unleash the energies of the Matrix into the Swarm, purifying it. In parting, the Swarm recreated Prime in a new form, and he and Megatron set out to lead the united Autobots and Decepticons into a new age.

Animated series

Orion Pax

As seen in the episode "War Dawn", Optimus Prime began his life as a robot named Orion Pax, a mostly defenseless dock worker during the Golden Age of Cybertron nine million years ago, with a girlfriend named Ariel and a best friend named Dion. During this time, a new breed of robot with new flight capabilities appeared on the planet that Orion idolized. When Megatron, the leader of the new group of robots, approached him with inquiries about using one of the dock warehouses, Orion was swayed by Megatron. Both Orion and Ariel were severely wounded when Megatron and his forces attacked in order to claim the energy stored there. Searching for someone to help them, the time-displaced Aerialbots took Orion and Ariel to the ancient Autobot, Alpha Trion, who used them as the first subjects for the new reconstruction process he had developed involving rebuilding the frail Autobot frames into more battle-hardy configurations. With this reconstruction, Orion Pax became Optimus Prime, the first of the Autobot warriors.

Optimus took the mantle of leadership as the civil war against the Decepticons erupted, and would remain in that position for the next nine million years. Ariel was rebuilt into Elita One, the commander of the Autobot resistance on Cybertron. The fate of Dion is left unrevealed. It has been speculated by fans that Dion might have become Ironhide or Ultra Magnus just as Orion and Ariel became Optimus and Elita, but this remains fan speculation only, and, his close friendship with Optimus notwithstanding, there is no evidence to support the idea.

As leader of the Autobots, Prime headed up their mission to search for new sources of energy to revitalize the depleted Cybertron. Optimus vowed to Elita that he would return from his mission for her, but just before the launch of the Ark, Optimus was mistakenly led to believe that Elita was killed. Shortly after its launch, the Autobots' craft was attacked by the Decepticons' space cruiser, the Nemesis, and boarded by Megatron and the Decepticons. In the ensuing struggle, the G-forces of a nearby planet pulled both craft down, and the Autobots' ship crashed into a volcano, thrusting all the occupants into emergency stasis. Four million years later, in the Earth year 1984 A.D., a volcanic eruption jarred the ship's computer, Teletraan I, back to life. The computer reactivated the Decepticons, programming them with new Earth-based disguise modes. As a parting gesture, Starscream fired upon the Autobot ship, creating a landslide. The vibrations from that landslide knocked Prime into the path of the computer's restoration beam, restoring him to life, thus beginning the war anew on Earth.

Prime was perpetually at the forefront of the action throughout the early years of the war on Earth, usually confronting Megatron, though in some rare instances, such as against the Insecticon-controlled Decepticons or the Combaticons, teaming up with him for the greater good. He has suffered his fair share of battlefield scrapes, almost meeting his end when his vital cosmotron component was critically damaged by the Decepticon jets and when Laserbeak had his body disassembled and turned into Decepticon trophies, such as a pet "alligaticon" and a defense laser.

Prime suffered a severe, though unfair, defeat when Megatron challenged him to one-on-one combat while imbued with the different abilities of all the Decepticons. Teletraan I, the Ark's computer, discovered the deception in time, and the Autobots were able to drive off the Decepticons. In "Prime Problem", Megatron created a clone of Optimus, which caused confusion with the other Autobots. Windcharger and Spike, however, were able to identify the clone before it led the Autobots into their demise.

In "Prime Target", Lord Cholmondeley, a big game hunter, set his sights on the ultimate trophy, the head of Optimus Prime. In order to lure Optimus in, Cholmondeley captured Tracks, Bumblebee, Jazz, Beachcomber, Grapple, Blaster and Inferno. Windcharger and Huffer were able to avoid being trapped. When Cosmos learned where Cholmondeley was keeping the captured Transformers, Optimus Prime accepted Cholmondeley's challenge to meet him alone. Although interrupted by Astrotrain and Blitzwing's attempt to ally the Decepticons with Cholmondeley, Optimus defeated the big game hunter and freed the Autobots. Cholmondeley and the stolen jet were handed over to the Soviets by the Autobots as punishment for his actions.

Throughout the first two seasons, Optimus Prime has led the Autobots to many victories, such as stopping Megatron from controlling the crystal of power, stopping the Dinobots' rebellion by saving Grimlock, defeating Devastator with his detach arm, helping capture Nightbird, rescuing Blaster and Cosmos from the Decepticons on the Moon with the help of Omega Supreme, and helping save Perceptor and the other Transformers from the cosmic rust disease.

Over the course of the next twenty years, the Decepticons succeeded in seizing control of all of Cybertron, forcing the Autobots to operate from their new city on Earth and two bases on Cybertron's moons. In the Earth year 2005 A.D., Prime, stationed on Moonbase One, dispatched troops to Earth to acquire energy for an upcoming strike on Cybertron. The Decepticons, however, got wind of the plan and used the shuttle run to attack Autobot City. A distress call summoned Prime and support troops to Earth. In the fearsome ensuing fight with Megatron, Optimus Prime sustained fatal injuries, but not before turning the tide of battle and forcing the Decepticons to flee. Despite the efforts of Perceptor, Optimus Prime went offline. The Matrix and role of leader of the Autobots fell into the hands of Ultra Magnus, Galvatron, and, subsequently, to Rodimus Prime. His last words were "Until that day... 'till all are one."

Prime's body was entombed in a massive deep-space mausoleum with the many other fallen Autobots. In 2006, his grave was desecrated and his body reanimated by Quintessons in an attempt to destroy the Autobots by using Prime to lure their space fleet into a trap. The Matrix was able to purify Prime of the Quintesson influence, and he ordered the other Autobots to clear out while he piloted his flagship into the Quintessons' detonator, triggering the explosion of a nearby sun. Prime was supposedly destroyed in the explosion. According to "The Return of Optimus Prime", Prime's body was recovered from the craft by two human scientists, Jessica Morgan and Gregory Swofford, just minutes before the explosion. As their ship departed, it was coated with solar spores, which induce rage and madness in any sentient being they came into contact with, released by the explosion of the sun. Jessica's father, Mark Morgan, loathed all Transformers, and his hatred only grew when an attempt by the Decepticons to steal a heat-resistant alloy he had developed resulted in Jessica being paralyzed. Swofford and Morgan reconstructed Optimus Prime's body, planning to use it as a delivery system for the spores in order to destroy the Transformers.

When they could not reanimate him, they used his body as a lure instead, bringing the Autobots to their lab, where they are infected. As this "Hate Plague" began to spread across the galaxy, Sky Lynx retrieved a Quintesson, who fully restored Optimus Prime to life. Coating himself in Morgan's heat-resistant alloy, Prime reclaimed the Matrix from Rodimus and unleashed its concentrated wisdom to destroy the Hate Plague.

In 2007, following the release of the Matrix's energy, Prime began to suffer from visions which foretold a great transformation for Cybertron. Events began with the Decepticons' theft of the key to the Plasma Energy Chamber, which forced Prime to consult Alpha Trion within Vector Sigma. Prime learned that the mega-computer had orchestrated events in order to restore Cybertron's Golden Age. When the Plasma Energy Chamber was opened and threatened to drive Earth's Sun supernova, Spike Witwicky and the Nebulans, who had become involved in the conflict as a result of these events, were able to drain off the excess solar energy and revitalize Cybertron. With the Decepticons driven off Cybertron and Nebulon free from tyranny, Cybertron enters into a Golden Age of peace and prosperity under the leadership of Optimus Prime and the Autobots.

The seldom seen 5th season re-airing of the show featured the G1 episodes retold by a stop-motion Powermaster Optimus Prime to the live-action youngster Tommy Kennedy. Although no back story was ever provided for how Prime became a Powermaster, the new sequences are said to take place after the four previous seasons. This indicates that Prime became a Powermaster in the original Sunbow continuity.

Although the animated series ended in the U.S. after The Rebirth, Optimus Prime continued to appear in animated sequences of Transformers toy commercials, progressing from Powermaster to Action Master. He even made an appearance as a computer-generated Combat Hero. Many episodes of the series were re-aired to promote Transformers: Generation 2. During these sequences, computer-generated scenes featuring key G1 characters are borrowed from Generation 2 commercials to serve as opening, closing, and commercial bumpers. Optimus Prime is shown in the opening and closing fighting Generation 2's Ramjet.

While the Transformers animated series came to an end in America in 1987 after The Rebirth, production was continued in Japan with three new, exclusive animated series spin-offs to continue the story. The first of these series, Transformers: The Headmasters, supplanted the events of The Rebirth, picking up one year after the events that saw Optimus Prime's return to life.

In the interim year, with the Decepticons defeated, the Autobots entered into an even closer relationship with Earth. The Autobots also began the colonization of other worlds, the first of which was the planet Athenia, where Optimus Prime was stationed. It soon became apparent, however, that the consequences of releasing the energy of the Matrix to cure the Hate Plague were more far-reaching than Optimus had anticipated. Without the energy of the Matrix to act as a balancing factor, Vector Sigma had become destabilized. The Decepticons suddenly returned to exploit this, assaulting Cybertron in order to seize control of the mega-computer. Prime took a squad of troops to aid in the battle on the planet. When the arrival of the Autobot Headmasters tipped the battle in their favor, Prime broke off from the main attack and headed down into the depths of the planet, planning on stabilizing Vector Sigma at any cost.

While the other Autobots searched for the Matrix on Earth, Optimus Prime searched for Vector Sigma, guided through the dangers of the planet's catacombs by the spirit of Alpha Trion. Prime eventually arrived at the computer, only to find his way barred by Cyclonus and Scourge. At that moment, Hot Rod arrived with the Matrix, the same with which Alpha Trion merged, re-energizing it. The Matrix transformed Hot Rod back into Rodimus Prime and, for the first time, the two Primes fought side-by-side and defeated Galvatron.

Before Rodimus could implement the Matrix to stabilize Vector Sigma, however, Optimus Prime merged himself with the computer, restoring its balance to save the planet. Optimus Prime sacrificed himself, dying again only a few short episodes after his rebirth.

Later, Prime would make a final and permanent return in the Japanese Transformers continuity, Battlestars: Return of Convoy. This entry was only available in print, appearing in the TV Magazine, a Japanese publication.

Beast Wars

The Beast Wars storyline featured a new character named Optimus Primal. Though the storyline depicts them as different characters, the commercials and comic which shipped with the original Beast Wars toy versions depicted them as a new incarnation of Optimus Prime in the form of a bat.

Optimus Primal, leader of the Maximal faction in the Beast Wars animated series and toy line, is not Optimus Prime. Primal is one of the Maximal descendants of the Autobots, who took the name to honor Optimus Prime. The same applies to the Megatron of this era. Before the animated series began, Hasbro envisioned Prime and Megatron as their beast counterparts, but once the animated series began, this had already been changed. Design elements, such as Prime's mouth-plate slitted to add an actual mouth for the animated series and the first mini-comic that came packaged with the toys, suggest this. Nonetheless, Optimus Prime and Megatron were a major reason the Beast Wars began.

The Beast Wars were waged on prehistoric Earth, eventually leading to the discovery of the buried Ark. The beast Megatron, following the original Megatron's instructions in a desperate gambit, attempted to change history by killing Optimus Prime, who was still lying in The Ark in stasis lock. Megatron hoped that this would result in the Decepticons winning The Great War and the eventual rule of Cybertron by the Predacons, the descendants of the Decepticons. Megatron unleashed a full-power weapon blast at Optimus Prime's face, delivering a near fatal blow. Optimus Primal, however, took Prime's spark into his body to protect it from surgical trauma while his injuries were repaired. The subsequent power increase caused by Prime's spark's connection to the Matrix augmented Primal into the large, transmetal "Optimal Optimus" form with three alternate modes (jet, land vehicle, and transmetal gorilla). Then, with the repairs complete, Prime's spark was restored, and he briefly activated before sinking back into normal stasis.

When animating the scene in which Primal removes Prime's spark, Mainframe's animators consulted The Transformers: The Movie for reference on the interior of Prime's chest. Not realizing the importance of the Matrix of Leadership, they rendered it as a container for Prime's spark. Beast Wars writers Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward have since claimed that in their view, Prime had not received the Matrix from Alpha Trion at this point, but a later comic produced for Botcon indicated that the Matrix was in fact stored in a secondary compartment, hidden behind Prime's spark. In this particular comic, the alien Vok used the Matrix, the Transmetal Driver, and a control suit once piloted by the Predacon Quickstrike to create Primal Prime.

Beast Machines

A giant statue of Optimus Prime in front of the Cybertron Archives holding two Golden Disks appeared on Cybertron in the Beast Machines series, but was destroyed by the Vehicons in the episode Fires of the Past. When show writer Bob Skir was asked what these two disks were he said that neither the statue nor disks were in the script, but he suggested that they were either the disks from Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes or that Optimus won them in the 2,395,989th Annual Cybertronian spelling bee.

Later in the series, Optimus Primal discovered the ancient city of Iacon deep within Cybertron, where he was approached by a hologram statue of Optimus Prime. As it turned out, however, the statue was Megatron in disguise. Obsidian also comments on how Optimus Primal is not as great a leader as Prime was.

Books

Optimus Prime appeared in the following books:

The 1984 sticker and story book Return to Cybertron written by Suzanne Weyn and published by Marvel Books.
The 1984 sticker and story book The Revenge of the Decepticons written by Suzanne Weyn and published by Marvel Books.
The 1985 Find Your Fate Junior book called Dinobots Strike Back by Casey Todd.^[6]
The 1985 Find Your Fate Junior book called Battle Drive by Barbara Siegel and Scott Siegel.^[7]
The 1985 Transformers audio books Transformers Lightning Strike, Megatron's Fight For Power, Transformers Fight Back, Laserbeak's Fury and Satellite of Doom.
The 1985 audio story Sun Raid.
Decepticons Underground and Autobot Hostage from the 1988 series.

Optimus Prime was featured in the 1993 Transformers: Generation 2 coloring book "Decepticon Madness" by Bud Simpson.^[8]

Fun Pblications

Based on the Classics toy line, the Timelines 2007 story is set 15 years after the end of the Marvel Comics story and essentially ignores all events of the Marvel U.K. and Generation 2 comics. Megatron survived the crash of the Ark on Earth, reformatted himself into a new form, and now leads Ramjet, Skywarp, Soundwave, Starscream and the Constructicons. Optimus Prime has also returned to Earth, commanding Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Grimlock, Jetfire, Mirage and Rodimus, formerly Hot Rod.

In Crossing Over, when the Cybertronians Skyfall and Landquake arrive on Earth unexpectedly, Megatron attempts to destroy them, but Optimus Prime and his Autobots are able to drive Megatron away.

Optimus Prime is among the Autobots present when Megatron attacks Iacon with his new weapon, Devastator.^[9]

Convention comics

Simon Furman's "Alignment", a text story available through Transforce, a British Transformers convention, mentions Prime falling during what was intended to be the final conflict with the Decepticons at Pinea Omicron, long after the events of the Generation 2 comic book. He managed to defeat Galvatron II, but in doing so, was damaged such that Grimlock had to engage a stasis field around him to save his flickering Spark, making Prime a living war monument.

Though Prime's ultimate fate is unknown, in a story entitled "The Last Days of Optimus Prime", also from Transforce, Prime laments the new Transformers age without war and passes on to a Transformers afterlife, referred to as "J'nwan". The story is vague, however, and may be a metaphor for Prime rejoining the Matrix, as his time had come. In this realm, he was approached by the Predacon Sandstorm, who tried to plead for the help of Prime and the other legendary Transformers in dealing with a Unicron/Predacon hybrid named Shokaract. Prime refused, but later led a group of Transformers, including Megatron, Grimlock, and Soundwave), to distract the creature while Primus dealt the final blow.

Dreamwave Productions

In the 21st century reimagining of the original continuity by Dreamwave Productions, Optimus Prime started life as a data archivist known as Optronix, or Orion to his friends. After taking note of a battle where the Autobot leader Sentinel Prime had been killed by Megatron, he was summoned to the Council of Elders and informed that the Matrix had chosen him to be the next leader of the Autobots. He received the Matrix of Leadership shortly thereafter, and arranged for the Autobot evacuation of Cybertron. He intended to leave the Decepticons to their own devices, but a battle with Megatron beneath the planet's surface, accompanied by visions from the Matrix, stirred him on to fight for the safety of his homeworld.

Some time into his role as leader, Prime disappeared with Megatron in a spacebridge experiment, spending a period of time on Quintessa, but returned some time later. Events during this period have gone unrecorded as a result of Dreamwave's closure.

The actual events of the Autobots and Decepticon coming to Earth were never printed by Dreamwave comics, but flashbacks of the events are printed later. These flashbacks suggest that the Autobots allied with humankind and defeated the Decepticons at the turn of the century. They planned to return to Cybertron aboard the newly constructed Ark II, but the ship was destroyed as part of a military conspiracy to take control of the transformers. A terrorist organization, run by the enigmatic Lazarus, was able to seize control of several of the Transformers that fell back to Earth while the U.S. military was occupied with locating Prime's body. Before his departure, Prime had entrusted a small portion of the Matrix to Spike Witwicky, who was forced by the product chief, General Hallo, to use it to reactivate Prime. Functional again, Prime used the Matrix to reactivate more of his fallen comrades, and then faced off against Megatron in San Francisco.

Following the battle, Prime began to experience subconscious urgings, leading both the Autobots and the Decepticons to the Arctic Circle. When they arrived, Shockwave was there to arrest them as war criminals. Shockwave had succeeded in ending the war on Cybertron, but Prime soon fell in with a rebel Autobot group that had discovered Shockwave had greater agenda. Rallying transformers across Cybertron to the cause, Prime faced Shockwave, but was defeated and had the Matrix ripped from him and used to activate Vector Sigma. Before Shockwave could make full use of the mega-computer's data, however, Ultra Magnus, Prime's brother, arrived and bested him. The injuries Prime took during this conflict necessitated a prolonged restoration period in stasis, but Dreamwave's closure meant that Prime never appeared in their pages again.

Art from unreleased issues later showed Optimus Prime awakening from the cryo regeneration chamber and freeing Alpha Trion from Shockwave's lab.

Prime would make one further surprise appearance in Dreamwave's Transformers: Armada comic series, although it would not be the Prime of Dreamwave's first series. When the Optimus Prime of the Armada universe disappeared, pulled into another dimension by the power of Unicron, the Chaos-Bringer sent something back in his stead: a nearly dead Optimus Prime from that universe, who warned the transformers of Unicron's coming into their universe before dying.

Devil's Due Publishing

Optimus Prime would also be a major character in Devil's Due Publishing's various G.I. Joe meets the Transformers series. Devil's Due Publishing does not address Prime's early years, save that he survived an assassination attempt by Bludgeon soon after receiving the Matrix. The traditional Ark storyline left the transformers crashed on Earth. In this series, instead of being reactivated by the Ark, the transformers and the ark were discovered by the terrorist organization called Cobra. The transformers inside were reformatted into Cobra vehicles, remotely controlled by the Televipers. Prime was turned into a Cobra Sentry Missile System tank, which was a 1985 Sears store exclusive red repaint of the HISS tank.^[10] After an attack on a U.N. summit in Washington D.C., Optimus was able to get a message to Wheeljack, alerting G.I. Joe to where the Cobra base was hidden. Subsequently, he and the other captive Autobots and Decepticons broke free. After the ensuing battle, Optimus fought and defeated his enemy Megatron. After Megatron's defeat, the transformers returned to Cybertron in a second Ark Class vessel, but not before giving their human allies the ability to build and use mecha based on Transformers technology.

Prime's homecoming was not all he had hoped for, for Shockwave had taken control of the planet. Prime and the other transformers were forced to go underground, waging a guerrilla war against the Decepticons. Around this time, Cobra would attempt to steal Teletran-3, but their attempt to teleport directly into the chamber would set off a catastrophic malfunction, one that threatened to crack open time itself. Optimus Prime and the Stunticons were amongst those who found themselves sent back in time. Optimus was reformatted into a 1920s semi-truck and was eventually rescued by Roadblock, Beach Head and the Baroness, who helped him capture the Stunticons.

In the wake of this incident, the transformers managed to reclaim much of Cybertron. Mindful of the dangers of allowing humans like Cobra access Cybertronian technology, Prime sent Perceptor, Grimlock, Arcee, and Bumblebee on a mission to Earth. As it turned out, Prime's fears were well founded. The U.S. government had used parts from Megatron to create Serpent O.R., a cyborg designed to be a perfect weapon. A raid by Cobra allowed it to escape and gather an army of Decepticons on Cybertron, killing Bumblebee in the process. Despite the grief of losing Bumblebee, Prime continued on and rallied his comrades to do the same. Attacking the Autobot capital city, Serpentor's forces proved overwhelming, and Prime surrendered to ensure the Decepticons would cease fire and not kill another comrade. Realizing that Serpentor wanted the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, Prime broke free as Serpentor was distracted, but was unable to kill him. He was promptly attacked and nearly beaten to death by Razorclaw and Motormaster. He was subsequently forced to watch as Serpentor opened the Matrix. In doing so, Serpentor was not only reformatted into a transformer-like mechanoid, but was also shown the futility of the fighting by the Matrix. At this point, Cobra Commander was able to take control of Serpentor's body. In an attempt to stop him, Hawk opened the Matrix and was transformed into a great leader, rendering Cobra Commander comatose. As the Joes prepared to head home, Prime promised to record the Hawk-led humans' future.

Prime appeared again in the fourth crossover called "Black Horizon". When Hawk, who had been afflicted by the Matrix, began getting dire visions of a new threat, Prime journeyed to Earth. He took Hawk and Flint to Tibet to discover the source of the problem, only to encounter Bludgeon once again. Prime battled Bludgeon and only won due to intervention by Hawk. Fighting their way into a secret city beneath the Himalayas, the trio realized the extent of the threat. At stake was the impending destruction of humanity by Unicron and the world being taken over by Cobra-La. Optimus and Hawk were discovered by Bludgeon and a group of Cobra-La troops. Prime defeated Bludgeon, then, with Hawk and Joe Colton, gatecrashed the Cobra-La ceremony to sacrifice Firewall to Unicron. Prime was mobbed by Cobra-La warriors and pinned down by a monstrous insectoid creature. Prime demolished them in time to save Hawk from Golobulus. With Cobra-La arrested by G.I. Joe, Prime made sure his comrades were okay before sitting down to watch TV with Eject and Firewall.

In the third series, both Prime and Serpentor indicate that the Matrix had transformed Prime from "a simple archivist" into a great warrior. This indicates that the history of this incarnation of Prime is roughly in line with that of the Dreamwave version.

IDW Publishing

When IDW Publishing received the rights to the series, author Simon Furman was hired to oversee the line. Furman decided that the Generation 1 continuity "was in need of ... a contemporary restart"^[11] so that the comic could retain a modern audience. Furman's revised continuity establishes Optimus Prime as the present-day leader of an Autobot army spread across the galaxy in small units, waging a covert war against teams of Decepticon infiltrators over resource-rich worlds. The Stormbringer miniseries explains that the Transformer homeworld of Cybertron is a dead planet, ravaged by an ancient cataclysm caused by the Autobot-Decepticon War. Prime had been forced to ally with his arch-rival Megatron to end the destruction. In the series, the interference of Jetfire and the Technobots, in a plot organized by the Decepticon Bludgeon, alerts Prime to the possibility that the Cybertronian cataclysm might be re-ignited and spread to other planets. Prime calls in the Wreckers, meeting them on the surface of Cybertron in time to witness the return of the being called Thunderwing, the focal point of the apocalypse. The combined efforts of Prime, the Wreckers, Jetfire, the Predacon-led Decepticons, and a unit of aging Centurion drones are barely enough to render Thunderwing inert.

Bludgeon's recovered files bring Optimus Prime to Earth, where an Autobot detachment led by Prowl has discovered that a Decepticon infiltration unit led by Starscream has broken standard protocol after discovering a new form of Energon. This Ore-13 appears to be the same "Ultra-Energon" that Bludgeon used to revive Thunderwing, who had been dormant for millennia after the apocalypse. Starscream had already used it to fuel a failed attempt to usurp Megatron's leadership, as detailed in the Infiltration miniseries.

In the Escalation miniseries, Megatron engages Prime and, boosted by Ore-13, overcomes him. Believing their leader dead, the rest of the Autobots attempt to buy the newly arrived Hot Rod time to collect the clone. Prime, who had transferred his consciousness to a backup memory in his trailer command post, advised them to exploit Ore-13's weakness and assault Megatron all-out, catalyzing the Decepticon leader's Energon supply and crippling him.

Bumblebee, Jazz, Optimus Prime, Prowl, and Ratchet appeared in a New Avengers/Transformers crossover by Marvel Comics and IDW Publishing in 2007.^[12]

Optimus Prime leads Bumblebee, Drift, Kup, Prowl, Ratchet, and Wheeljack in Las Vegas when a Cybertronian ship crashes, containing Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge, and an infestation of zombies from another universe. Galvatron attempts to take command of the Autobots and, after fighting them, explains his mission to stop an undead infestation. Wheeljack sets up an energy shield around the city to keep the infestation contained, but it only last for 24 hours. Despite the containment effort, Kup realizes that Bayonet, a Decepticon in Galvatron's command, is not all she seems. She turns out to be the extradimensional vampire Britt.^[13]

Kiss Players

This Japanese series, told through radio plays using the Transformers: Alternators Optimus Prime toy mold, branches off from the original animated series. It is set in a different universe than both the original G1 and Binaltech continuities. Set in the year 2006, one year after Prime's death in The Transformers: The Movie and four years before the third season, it sees Prime's corpse covertly transported to Japan by the Earth Defense Command, a government organization. The convoy transporting his body was attacked by a group of female commandos, led by Marissa Faireborn, who had known Prime years ago as a child. Believing they had secured Prime's body, the commandos were taken by surprise by EDC "Kiss Player" operative Ringo and her Autrooper mechanoid partner, who killed them all except Marissa. Marissa went to Prime's body just as an Autrooper began to fuse with it and, reflecting on her childhood memories of Prime, she gave his faceplate a final kiss. This initiated a transformation where Marissa and Prime were fused together and Prime was reborn with a new body, capable of transforming into a Dodge Ram SRT-10.

Marissa and Prime are now on the run from the EDC and are also frequently attacked by the mysterious "Legion" Transformers. When faced with such foes, Marissa unleashes her "Kiss Player" ability by kissing Prime, fusing with him once again, increasing his power so that he can best their opponents. Prime is armed with the Surf Blade, a weapon formed out of Marissa's surfboard, wielded expertly thanks to the knife skills Marissa passes on to him when they merge.^[14]

Binaltech

Due to the interference of Ravage, the same as the one who appears in the Beast Wars, most of the events of the original animated feature do not transpire. The most influential of these events is the Battle of Autobot City. Because this battle did not occur, Optimus Prime and Megatron do not have their final showdown. This means that, for this continuity, Optimus Prime does not die and Megatron is never reformatted into Galvatron. As a result, Optimus Prime is able to lead the Autobots during the Binaltech saga.

Equipped with knowledge of the future and the danger that would soon be threatening the transformers, Ravage's machinations included trapping Megatron and a large army of Decepticons in a spacial rift with the intention of protecting the Decepticons from the approaching Unicron and forcing the Autobots to face the planet-eater unaided. The Decepticons would then be in a position to conquer the victor of that battle.

Aware of the changes to the timestream and the potential for the entire Autobot race to be annihilated by Unicron, Optimus put into motion Operation Distant Thunder, a plan to undo the damage to the timeline caused by Ravage, restoring the events that were seen in the movie. This would mean that saving all the Autobots from Unicron would result in Prime and others such as Prowl, Wheeljack, Ironhide, and Ratchet would die per the original events. They hoped they would be able to at least partially avoid such an outcome by sending a message to their past selves about all they had learned.

Upon discovering that the Matrix was the key to destroying Unicron, Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus went alone to face Unicron while the rest of the Autobots executed the plan to restore the original timeline. They hoped that at least one of these plans would be successful. Prime was injured in the confrontation with Unicron and, although his injuries were not mortal, he passed the Matrix to Magnus, who shed his outer armor and managed to successfully complete the mission, destroying Unicron.

Distant Thunder was ultimately unsuccessful, but as the universe started to rip apart, a black Optimus Prime clone appeared. The Binaltech universe was split into its own separate continuity, while the original timeline was also restored, stabilizing the multiverse. The clone, friendly to the transformers, proclaimed that the Binaltech universe must be allowed to continue, as it was important to the future. Optimus Prime questioned the black doppelganger, who explained only that he carried "the Protector's" spark, but refused to reveal any more detailed information. Soon after, the clone, who was originally developed by Dr. Archeville as a weapon of evil, ejected the spark that had invaded and taken over the black figure, reverting to its original evil programming. The malevolent Nemesis Prime, no longer just a black version of Optimus, escaped.

Per Ravage's original plan, with Unicron defeated, the Decepticons returned to conquer the transformers. Optimus Prime had also planned for this event, and sent Mirage to press a switch, buried deep within Cybertron, that would render all transformers inert. This was seen at the conclusion of the "Five Faces of Darkness" story arc from the original animated series. Optimus hoped that by rendering all the transformers inoperative, the war would be stopped, hoping that the humans would be able to reactivate the transformers in the future. Instead of deactivating all transformers, however, only those with original Cybertronian bodies were deactivated. Transformers with Earth-made Binaltech bodies continued to function. The Autobots effectively won the war, the large army of Binaltech Autobots easily outnumbering the few Decepticons who had managed to procure Binaltech upgrades. The few Decepticons remaining, effectively just Nemesis Prime and Shockwave, escaped with Megatron and their other inert comrades.

With the major threats taken care of, Optimus Prime turned his and the Autobots' attention to identifying and shutting down the rogue projects taking place across Earth using stolen Binaltech technology and secrets. It was during one of these missions that Optimus Prime faced off against Nemesis Prime, both in Binaltech Dodge Ram forms. Initially, things looked bad for Optimus Prime, as he was no match for his opponent's spectral armor. However, the Protector merged with Prime, and the enormous power that resulted allowed Prime to reflect Nemesis Prime's final attack, obliterating the evil Decepticon. Optimus Prime recalls the union of the two sparks being familiar, from an event in the distant past. Optimus Prime is reassured by the Protector about "the seeds of the future" and the Protector is revealed to be Optimus Primal.

Toys

The original Optimus Prime toy patent design. Art by Hiroyuki Obara.

Through the years, there have been many action figures made in the likeness the original incarnation of Optimus Prime, some of which have been featured in fiction, others of which have not. Additionally, some toy makers have made unlicensed toys in his image or accessories for the existing toys.

The original 1984 Optimus Prime toy was part of Takara's 1983 Diaclone toy line named "Battle Convoy". It was designed by the creative design team of Hiroyuki Obara, Shoji Kawamori, famous for his work in Macross, and Kohjin Ohno.^[15] The toy's characteristics, such as the head design and the use of the cab front as the upper torso, have become design elements in nearly every incarnation and variant of Optimus Prime. This particular toy has been reissued multiple times, mostly to commemorate the anniversary of the transformers franchise. Optimus Prime was also released as an Action Master and Powermaster toy in the original transformers toy line.

For the Generation 2 toy line, the original Optimus Prime toy was altered somewhat and an electronic sound maker was added.^[16] Later Generation 2 toys of Optimus were completely new designs, such as Combat Hero Optimus Prime, Laser Optimus Prime, and Gobot Optimus Prime, who could become a red Lamborgini car.

In 2003, Takara introduced the Masterpiece MP-01 Convoy/Optimus Prime. While retaining the original concept of a transforming semi-trailer truck, this die-cast figure incorporated modern toy manufacturing techniques for improved detail and articulation, while, at the same time, captured the look of the cartoon character. It has since been released by both Hasbro and Takara Tomy in different variations.

In 2006, Hasbro introduced Alternators Optimus Prime, which turned into a licensed 1:24 scale model Dodge Ram SRT-10.^[17]

In 2010, a version of the Masterpiece toy, called Masterpiece Convoy Sleep Mode, was released, painted in dark colors to match the appearance of Optimus Prime after his death in the 1986 film.^[18]

In 2007, as part of the merchandising wave for the first transformers film, Hasbro's Playskool line released a Transformers-themed version of Mr. Potato Head based on Optimus Prime. To keep with the potato theme, the toy was labeled "Optimash Prime" and the packaging included the slogan "More than meets the fry", a potato-oriented version of the Transformers slogan "More than meets the eye".

Other merchandise

Optimus Prime is among the three Autobot figures available to play in the Monopoly Transformers Collectors Edition game.^[19]

As the figurehead of the entire Transformers franchise, Optimus Prime has been on more pieces of merchandise than can be stated here. Several statues and busts of Optimus Prime as well as Optimus Prime themed objects have been released by various companies since the return of transformers to prominence, such as the "Optimus Prime Oral Care Station". Other figures released include various PVCs as part of Takara's "Super Collection Figure" line, which were later imported as part of Hasbro's "Heroes of Cybertron" series. Larger "Mega Collection Figure" PVCs were articulated and came with energy axe and gun figures.

Video games

Optimus Prime has appeared in numerous video games since the introduction of the Transformers series. He makes a cameo in the 1999 Beast Wars Transmetals video game for Nintendo 64, where he is killed by Megatron at the end of the campaign, showing what would have happened in the Beast Wars series with a Predacon victory. Prime is also one of the playable characters in the 2003 Japan-only Transformers game for the PlayStation 2 and the 2010 Transformers: War for Cybertron. Optimus Prime is also playable in the Hasbro Net Jet Transformers fighting game Transformers Battle Universe. Three versions of Optimus Prime are playable characters, including the first generation incarnation, his incarnations from the 2007 live-action film, and the incarnation from Transformers Animated. In this game, Optimus Primal is also a playable character. He is a regular character in the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 2003 fighting game DreamMix TV World Fighters. He appeared as a boss in a simple Flash-based video game on the Hasbro web site.^[20]

The first generation version of Prime is also offered as downloadable content for some versions of the 2009 third-person shooter Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

In popular culture

A forty foot (12.2 m) statue of Optimus Prime exists in Kunming city in Yunnan Province, China. It is located near several automobile dealerships.^[21]
In the South Park trilogy "Imaginationland", Optimus Prime is one of the warriors who fight on the side of the good imaginary characters.
A figure in the form of Optimus Prime appears in a pattern of windows and other markings on the background of the game Assassin's Creed.^[22]
Optimus Prime was parodied in several episodes of Robot Chicken. He was voiced by character actor Abraham Benrubi."Abraham Benrubi". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0072344/. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
In 2003, a United States National Guardsman legally changed his name to "Optimus Prime" on his 30th birthday.^[23]
Sheldon Comics includes several comics either containing Optimus Prime toys or referencing the Optimus Prime.^[24]^[25]^[26]
In conjunction with the release of the 2007 live-action film, Hasbro released a Mr. Potato Head version of Optimus Prime named Optimash Prime^[27] and a transforming plush toy called Softimus Prime.^[28]
Optimus Prime is mentioned in the Lemon Demon song "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny".
In the 2006 comedy movie Clerks II, Elias states that his screen name is Optimus Prime.
A Canadian military operation in Afghanistan was code-named "Op Timis Preem".^[29]
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the news media that, "Optimus Prime could solve the current problems in our world."^[30]
At a gathering of Jewish people near the end of the Family Guy episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", Peter Griffin finds out that Optimus Prime is Jewish when the robot arrives at the gathering in vehicle form and transforms, complete with a yarmulke and Tallit.
Legacy Brewing Company from Reading, Pennsylvania, now out of business, made an Imperial India Pale Ale called "Hoptimus Prime". The beverage also appeared in the 2008 Xbox 360 game Fable II.
Optimus Prime is referred to in a verse from the song "Get at Me Dog" by DMX
Optimus Prime was featured in Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy in a short cartoon in which Prime was having sex with a human female in robot mode. When he reached climax, he transformed into vehicle mode and crushing his partner.
In 2011, James Reimer, the rookie goaltender of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, has been dubbed "Optimus Reim" for his positive demeanour and machine-like ability to stop pucks.
Optimus Prime makes a few appearances in Cartoon Network's Mad (TV series). He is voiced by Gary Anthony Williams.

Honors

At BotCon 2010, Hasbro named Optimus Prime as one of the first five robot inductees in the Transformers Hall of Fame.^[31]

Transformers: Robots in Disguise

Optimus Prime
Autobot

Japanese name	Fire Convoy
Function	Autobot Leader
Rank	10
Partner	Ultra Magnus
Motto	"We will put out the fires of evil!"
Alternate Modes	Hino Brandlier fire engine
Series	Transformers: Robots in Disguise Transformers: Universe Transformers: Cybertron Transformers: Titanium
English voice actor	Neil Kaplan
Japanese voice actor	Satoshi Hashimoto

Optimus Prime is the fictional protagonist of the Transformers: Robots in Disguise (Fire Convoy in the original Japanese version) branch of the Transformers universe.^[32] Based on the character of the same name, Prime once again leads the Autobots against the Decepticons. His voice actor, Neil Kaplan, does his voice in a style reminiscent of that of Peter Cullen, the voice of the original Optimus Prime. Wired Magazine nominated Fire Convoy as one 12 most ridiculous Transformers ideas of all time.^[33]

Hidden on Earth as common, everyday vehicles, the Autobots are forced to emerge when Megatron and his Predacons arrive and wreak havoc in their attempts to attain the power of Earth's various energy sources.

In this universe, Optimus Prime transforms into a fire engine. The front section of the vehicle detaches and becomes Prime himself, armed with "Blaze Blaster" cannons. To attack, he is able to use his headlights, known as the "Fire Flash" attack, and leg wheels, known as the "Gyro-Strike". The rest of the vehicle transforms into a mobile battle station/refueling port/communications array and can combine with Prime as additional weapons and armor, forming his super mode referred to as "Super Fire Convoy". The ladder/hose section houses Prime's Power Stream water cannon, capable of shooting freezing streams of water, called his Blizzard Storm attack. It also contains a quartet of rocket launchers. In super mode, his feet contain missile launchers than can mount to the shoulders of his regular robot mode. In this mode, he can fire his fists for his "Flying Fist" attack.