Transforms from tractor trailer to robot with headquarters and back!
AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME
FUNCTION: COMMANDER
"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."
OPTIMUS PRIME is the largest, strongest and wisest of all Autobots. Feels his role is the protection of all life, including Earth-life. Fights unceasingly to defeat the Decepticons. Splits into three autonomous modules: 1) Optimus Prime... the brain center known as Commander; 2) Roller, the Autobot scout car... a spy who operates up to 1200 miles away; and 3) Autobot Headquarters... the combat deck equipped with a versatile mechanic/artillery robot. Injury to one module is felt by the other two.
- Strength: 10
- Intelligence: 10
- Speed: 8
- Endurance: 10
- Rank: 10
- Courage: 10
- Firepower: 8
- Skill: 10
Transformers Tech Specs
Optimus Prime needs almost no introduction. His tech specs describe exactly how he was portrayed in the cartoon: wise, benevolent, brave, and tough. It's probably because of the stigma of portraying violence in kid's cartoons that we never got to see this side of Prime in the show until Transformers: The Movie was released. Then we got to see him doing what he could really do: taking the point in battle, running Decepticons off the road as a truck and then beating Megatron to scrap with his bare hands. You couldn't ask for a better hero to look up to (no pun intended) than this guy. Watching him die half an hour into the movie was without question the most surprising and moving thing a twelve-year-old boy could ever hope to see in an animated anything.
We were all fairly glad when "The Return of Optimus Prime" was aired some years later, but deep in our hearts we knew that it was a cheat. But no one complained, because frankly Rodimus Prime was a lousy leader by comparison.
In 1988, Optimus Prime was re-released as a Powermaster with an updated tech spec:
AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME
FUNCTION: AUTOBOT LEADER
"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."
The beloved leader of all Autobots. Dedicated to protecting all life forms--mechanical, human, and otherwise. Willing to sacrifice anything in order to end the Autobot/Decepticon conflict. Wise and compassionate...the inspiration that fuels every Autobot. Binary bonded to the super intelligent Nebulan computer programmer, HiQ. In engine mode, HiQ handles all of Prime's power needs. Trailer transforms into armed fortress, complete with laser rifle, concussion blaster, and 2 twin particle beam cannons. Tractor and trailer combined construct Optimus Prime's new super-powered robot form.
- Strength: 10
- Intelligence: 10
- Speed: 6
- Endurance: 10
- Rank: 10
- Courage: 10
- Firepower: 9
- Skill: 10
Transformers Tech Specs
Optimus Prime was re-introduced to the cartoon series in "The Return of Optimus Prime" a year or two before this toy was released, indicating that for once, the cartoon stimulated the production of a new toy instead of simply marketing an existing one. The cartoon version wasn't anything like this, though.
Powermaster Prime looked more or less the same as the old Prime, but the trailer had a whole lot more guns mounted on it now. The cab transformed completely differently, and the result was a robot that looked much, much more like the cartoon Prime than the old toy did. The trailer transformed not into a headquarters/repair bay, but a free-standing defense base. Finally, the truck cab could fold up into a cube which fit into a compartment on the trailer, which transformed into a triply-large body for Prime with shoulder-mounted guns and just a whole lot of bulk. The toy was almost as large as Omega Supreme or Scorponok. Prime was runnin' with the big dogs now.
In the Japanese "Transformers: Masterforce" cartoon, Powermaster Optimus Prime was known as the Godmaster Ginrai and, in his combined form, Super Ginrai.