Overlord (Masterforce)


 * Overlord is a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.



Overlord is the battlefield leader of the Decepticons during the Masterforce War, serving as the so-called "Ambassador of Destruction" under Devil Z. As the combined form of the two human Godmasters, Mega and Giga, Overlord comprises a tank and jet which can combine to form a robot mode, a heavily equipped advance base, or a larger jet capable of space flight.

Super God Masterforce cartoon
Voice actor: Keiichi Noda (Japan)

The story of Overlord begins with the mysterious alien energy-being, Devil Z, who sought to create the ultimate super-robot lifeform. Stealing a selection of Transformer Transtectors—lifeless robot bodies designed to merge with smaller robots—from a sector of space known as G Nebula 89, he scattered them across the Earth, intending for them to absorb the planet’s energies, known as Chichokon, in addition to the heavenly Tenchokon energy they had acquired from the G Nebula. Alongside the largest of the eight Transtectors brought to the planet, Devil Z slumbered deep within an ocean trench, awaiting the day that his plan could come to fruition, when human souls would bond with the Transtectors, endowing them with Jinchokon, the power of Man, and giving the resultant lifeforms, the Godmasters, the power over the three primal energies of life. That day came when two human beings, a husband and wife named Giga and Mega, came into Devil Z’s service and were both bonded with the largest Transtector. The duo now controlled the dual aspects of the Transtector; Giga piloted the "Gigatank", while Mega controlled the "Megajet".



With Devil Z already having brainwashed BlackZarak, the commander of the evil Decepticons—currently engaged in battling the heroic Autobots in the depths of space—Overlord was branded as a Decepticon, ambassador to Devil Z's emperor. While Devil Z’s other agents, the Decepticon Pretenders and Headmaster Juniors, kept the small Autobot force remaining on Earth occupied, the so-dubbed "Lord Giga" and "Lady Mega" set about locating other Godmasters on Earth, finding the German brothers Hydra and Buster and recruiting them to the Decepticon side. After the two groups of Decepticons were then gathered together under Giga and Mega’s command, a race ensued between the Autobots and Decepticons to locate the remaining Godmasters, only for the Autobots to acquire three.

Incensed by this failure, Giga and Mega took matters into their own hands, taking their Transtectors into battle for the first time. Luring the Autobot commander Ginrai into the desert, Giga and Mega confronted him as Overlord and immediately proved their physical superiority by thrashing him so badly that he was near death. Overlord subsequently departed into space, taking control of a weather-monitoring base on the Moon in order to rendezvous with the approaching BlackZarak there. Pursued by Ginrai, now merged with the drone Godbomber as the powered-up God Ginrai, Overlord and BlackZarak battled him and the Autobot battleship Grand Maximus. Refusing to follow Overlord’s instruction to return to Earth, BlackZarak ultimately met defeat and fled back into space.



Overlord later adopted his base mode for the first time to act as a staging ground for the search for the final Godmaster, and again to mastermind the assault of the Autobot base. When BlackZarak returned, Devil Z’s plans escalated to the destruction of all human life on Earth, shocking Giga and Mega; where Devil Z had come to fear the power of Jinchokon that dwelled within all human beings, the couple celebrated their humanity. Dissension grew as Devil Z fused with BlackZarak and abandoned the Headmaster Juniors in the ruins of the destroyed Decepticon base, and Buster and Hydra, believing that their inability to defeat Ginrai was the result of human limitations, were transformed into fully robotic beings through Devil Z’s power. Confronting God Ginrai for one final time, Overlord vowed to fight him without weapons, battling him only through the use of his physical strength, through the power of his human flesh. When Devil Z turned on Buster and Hydra for their own failures, however, Overlord attempted to stop him, only to be on the receiving end of the emperor’s wrath. Rescued by God Ginrai, Giga and Mega finally turned against Devil Z, but when they aided God Ginrai in combating their former master, they were struck down and forcibly separated from their Transtector, which was brought to life through Devil Z’s power. As their Masterbraces vanished from their wrists, Giga and Mega died, regretting that they could not settle their rivalry with Ginrai honourably.

With the subsequent destruction of Devil Z at God Ginrai’s hands, the now-living Overlord Transtector fled into space with the other Decepticons and joined with the main Decepticon force in space.

Victory cartoon
The now-living Overlord Transtector briefly led the Decepticon army before the rise to power of Deathsaurus. Following this, Overlord commanded the Sector Two Decepticon force, based in the G Nebula, where they battled the Autobots under the command of his old foe, God Ginrai.

Zone cartoon


When Violen Jygar seized command of the Decepticons, his first act was to recruit nine "Demon-Generals" from Decepticon history. Overlord was selected to be one of those Generals and was given the rank of Super God General as well as new power and weaponry to make him an even greater threat than before. Overlord was sent to the planet Feminia to wreak havoc along with Abominus and Menasor. Together, the three Decepticon Demon-Generals destroyed the entire planet and nearly killed Victory Saber in the process.

Later, he lead an attack on the planet of Zone, gleefully blasting Micromasters and using his trident to slice into Zone Base to retrieve a sample of Energon Z for Decepticon use. With the Micromasters completely unable to harm the Decepticon generals, Overlord left the planet in triumph, returning the Energon Z to his master.

Super-God Masterforce manga
Whereas the anime did not explain how Mega and Giga came to serve Devil Z, the manga strongly implied that they were a couple who had died at sea, and Devil Z, from his ocean trench resting place, recovered and reanimated their bodies. The characters are cast in much more of a "parental" role for the Headmaster Juniors than in the anime (where the idea is only dabbled with), as if to give the couple the family they never had the chance to start before they died.

Giga and Mega debuted their Transtectors in an attack on a city, only to be blindsided by God Ginrai and goaded into pursuing him out into space. BlackZarak, however, was waiting for them, but God Ginrai was able to dodge their attacks and cause them to damage each other. Indeed, Overlord was no stranger to chassis-shattering damage in the manga, at one time actually having Grand Maximus's battleship mode crash straight into his face, and being punched by God Ginrai so hard that Giga and Mega popped out of his chest.

During the final battle, the merged Devil Z-BlackZarak entity turned on Overlord and the Decepticons, who then teamed up with the Autobots to unite their energies in a final attack that destroyed him. The destruction of Devil Z caused the energy sustaining Giga and Mega to cease, and they died.

Generation 1

 * Overlord (1988, Japan; 1991, Europe)
 * Japanese ID number: D-307
 * Accessories: Giga and Mega Godmaster engines, "Transtector Destroyer Cannon", three missiles, tank barrel, two ramps/shin guards, central ramp, two radar arrays, double-barreled laser, rocket launcher, car.




 * Overlord comprises the Megajet and Gigatank, which are, officially speaking, able to combine together to form a robot mode or a base mode. Like any Godmaster (or Powermaster), Overlord is only able to transform when Giga and Mega are fixed in place. Inserting Giga into the tank splits it in half to form legs for robot mode, or alternately, the left and right emplacements of the base (the left containing a fold-out twin cannon, the right a poseable claw arm). Fitting Mega into the jet, meanwhile, unlocks the toy's shoulder articulation for robot mode and its fold-out launchpad for base mode. Once the toy is in robot mode, the figures can be removed from their sockets and fitted into two further ports hidden beneath doors on his chest, which unlock the multi-barreled "Chokon Daemon Blast" and "Chokon Bolt Masher" weapons that pop out of his stomach. One figure can also fit into the Roller-style car that comes with the set. There is, unfortunately, no one mode that uses all of Overlord's many accessories.


 * Overlord's instructions do not feature the additional large jet mode seen in the animated series, as it (like Sixshot's "Wingwolf" mode or BlackZarak's "Scorpention" mode) was created by the cartoon's production staff after fiddling around with the toy itself. As such, it's entirely possible to put the toy in this form, although it doesn't rest evenly on a flat surface.


 * Initially exclusive to Japan, Overlord's toy was later released in Europe, Australia and New Zealand with character re-imagined as a Powermaster, bonded to nameless "Energon mini-figures". Logically, it can be assumed that this toy represents a different character than the Japanese Mega-Giga-Overlord (just as, for example, Cab is a different character from Hosehead).  Interestingly, though, his on-package bio includes a line which, apropos of nothing, notes that he has the ability to "traverse the dimensions."  This perhaps could lead one to theorize that the toy is the wholly robotic Overlord who exists post-Masterforce, having traveled from his home universe into the world of this late-run UK/EU/AU/NZ toyline. This is, of course, idle speculation.

Merchandise
A PVC figure of Overlord was part of the fifth act of Takara's Super Collection Figure series. It was later released in the fourth wave of Hasbro's Heroes of Cybertron, reimagined as a Powermaster named Gigatron.