Primal Prime


 * Primal Prime is a Maximal from the Beast Machines era of the Generation 1 continuity family.



Primal Prime is, essentially, the Living Matrix. Born from the Vok's fusion of their knowledge, detritus left aboard the Ark, and the Matrix of Leadership, Primal Prime possesses great power and understanding. However, he is still technically a newborn, whose memories are faint shadows of those long departed. He worries that he is too detached, too gullible, to lead his troops sufficiently. These crushing doubts are seemingly his only weakness.

Primeval Dawn comics


After the Beast Wars, sensing the approach of a new enemy, the Vok reanimated Tigerhawk's binary spark and used it to create Transmetal Tigatron and Airazor. Travelling to Earth themselves, the Vok used the Optimal Optimus control suit, the Transmetal Driver, and the Matrix of Leadership hidden within Optimus Prime to create their new emissary: Primal Prime. This new hero's spark, widsom, and power would all be donated by the Matrix itself. Primal Prime met the newly recreated Tigatron and Airazor, warning them darkness would be coming and that he would be responsible for it. Nevertheless, the Maximals still decided to follow Primal Prime and went in search of more comrades to help their cause.

Primal Prime carried the Matrix of Leadership into battle with Tarantulas (whose apparent Vok-caused death had all been a ruse allowing him to steal their power) and his minions. In a tragically decisive battle, Tarantulas torn open Primal Prime’s chest and removed the Matrix, gloating about the beginning of the "End of Days." Airazor bemoaned the fact that, by separating the Matrix from Optimus Prime and containing it within Primal Prime, the Vok had dissolved "the primal forces that bound it to a leader-born," making it vulnerable to Tarantulas's goals.



The shock of the Matrix' forcible removal sent Primal Prime into a sort of limbo, with the Maximals assuming his synapse network had been burned out. While in limbo, Primal Prime communed with the Vok, who divulged their origins as the Swarm and said they were “of the source, of the core, forever committed to the safeguard of The Plan.” The Vok then went on to merge with Primal Prime using him as a vessel, a pure font of energy to rival the Matrix itself. The newly Vok-empowered Primal Prime emerged behind Tigatron and prepared to go into battle.


 * (Note: Due to 3H's loss of the Transformers license, future installments of the story were canceled, so the events between this point and the beginning of "Wreckers" (see below) were unknown for many years. On December 3, 2007, artist Dan Khanna posted a quick summary of the end to Primeval Dawn.  The Vok-powered Primal Prime was to ultimately defeat Tarantulas in battle, and along with Waspinator, Packrat, Spittor, Sonar, Ramulus, Fractyl, and Tigatron, he would travel to Beast Machines-era Cybertron in a "stable transwarp portal.")

Universe: Featuring the Wreckers comics
After arriving on Cybertron through a transwarp portal from Earth's past, Primal Prime and his entourage of Beast Wars rejects were suddenly under attack from Vehicon drones. The Wreckers commander Apelinq intervened, inoculating Primal Prime and his team from Megatron's virus, moments before Apelinq was attacked by Mirage and the two vanished into that same transwarp portal. By the time Apelinq had found his way back, Primal Prime had taken command of the remaining Wreckers (which after Megatron's takeover, was seemingly comprised of just Rodimus). Primal Prime seemed natural in the role, so Apelinq took a backseat.

Later in the Battle for the Sparks, the Wreckers rescued Optimus Primal and Nightscream from attacking Vehicons. After Apelinq and Optimus Primal caught up on their forgotten history together, Primal and Nightscream accompanied the Wreckers on their visit the Oracle, where other small groups had also been summoned. Unbeknownst to Primal Prime, the Oracle was actually a tool of the Quintessonss, but despite this deception, Vector Sigma was able to break through the Oracle shell program and give Primal Prime a genuine order.

Primal Prime and his Wreckers were to travel off-planet. After Rodimus sought out Arcee, and while being joined by Cyclonus, Skywarp, and Rotorbolt, the Wreckers fought their way through an army of Vehicons to secure an Autobot shuttle. Succeeding, they left Cybertron for their mysterious destination.

Shortly after liftoff, the Wreckers detected a stowaway on board. Devcon, a former bounty hunter and Peace Marshal, had started tearing up the place and bullying everyone who crossed his path. Primal Prime, Apelinq, and Rodimus managed to settle him down, but Devcon still begrudged the Wreckers for harboring Predacons and former Decepticons amongst their ranks.

Suddenly, their shuttle was sabotaged from within, and to Primal Prime's horror, Packrat detonated the back half of the ship, removing the Wreckers in the front half of the shuttle from risk, but killing Sonar, Spittor, and the Deployers. Primal Prime had separated Packrat and prepared their injured for repairs when he received a call inside his mind from Alpha Trion, warning him of a traitor amongst their ranks.

Upon landing on Archa Nine, Primal Prime formed a scout team composed of Ramulus, Apelinq, himself, and their new medic-bot CatSCAN. In the woods, they found themselves surrounded by the natives, and after a misunderstanding, they were introduced to the natives' Transformer guardians, Glyph and Tap-Out. The pair had been stranded on Archa Nine for several hundred years and now watched over the Akalouthans and the mysterious artifact they worshiped, the Divine Light. Suspecting the object was what the Oracle had sent them after, Primal Prime retired to Glyph's library, allowing the event Alpha Trion had warned him of to come to pass. Wishing to steal the Divine Light, Cyclonus damaged Rotorbolt, killed Packrat, and was about to escape Archa Nine with the object when Primal Prime and the others returned to find him. After mocking them for their inability to function as a team, thus allowing him to steal the artifact easily, Cyclonus left. Primal Prime hung his head in shame, knowing he'd failed.

In the aftermath of their betrayal on Archa Nine, Primal Prime retreated into himself and the Matrix. Ultimately, Primal Prime decided that the Oracle chose him for a purpose, and that he should have faith in himself and in his team, no matter what had transpired. Gathering the Wreckers, he told them to prepare to leave Archa Nine immediately, for he had been given a new destination during his communion with Primus. However, Apelinq's skepticism continued to nurture, and the others had growing doubts of their own.

They traveled to an icy planet ten systems away, and Primal Prime ordered Apelinq, Rodimus, Arcee, and Ramulus to follow him quickly outside, while Apelinq protested their hastiness. Apelinq's worries were, for the moment, unwarranted, as the sole inhabitant of the planet seemed to be the excommunicated Quintesson Al-Badur. Though the Wreckers eyed him uneasily, he was willing to tell them the history of the Quintessons' attempts to use Vector Sigma to enslave the Transformers race. When Al-Badur revealed that the Oracle itself was a Quintesson creation devised to control Vector Sigma, Primal Prime was taken aback. Had they been led astray this whole time?

However, for Apelinq, the pieces now fit together, and he recounted how the real Vector Sigma had broken through the Oracle shell program, giving them a real mission. Primal Prime was reassured during the brief moment before the Sharkticons attacked. Though the Sharkticons were armed with strange (yet somehow familiar) technology, they were eventually overtaken by the Wreckers. With Al-Badur, the Wreckers left once again, but this time for Cybertron.

fanclub

Beast Machines

 * Primal Prime (Super, 2000)


 * Primal Prime, a red and blue retool of Optimal Optimus, was available in limited quantities of 10,000. Like Optimal Optimus, Primal Prime featured electronics and four transformations -- robot, ape, jet, and armored transport. When a back section of the cannon module was pulled, its eyes and shoulder-mounted missile launchers lit up and the launchers fired. It came with four missiles, two of which stored on its legs. Its forearms featured blast-away armor plates that could also be pegged to its upper arms.  The red and blue colors are designed to make him look more like Optimus Prime.


 * The mold previously fired its missiles and lit up lights in its head simultaneously. Primal Prime was retooled to have separate triggers for the lights and missiles, so as to avoid kids (or adults) shooting themselves in the face.

Titanium Series

 * Primal Prime (6-inch Cybertron Heroes, 2007)


 * Titaniums Primal Prime is -naturally- a redeco of the Optimal Optimus toy..

Trivia

 * Primal Prime really takes the whole "amalgamated Matrix bearers" thing to heart. In "Departure" he borrows iconic poses from both Optimus Prime (his "main event" leap in End of the Road!) and Ultra Magnus (his dramatic pointing in The Transformers: The Movie).  He may be conspiring with Ramulus, however, who helps set up the first homage by paraphrasing Thunderpunch's line.