- Action Masters are a subgroup in the Generation 1 continuity family.
Alive! Alive! Alive!
Action Masters are Transformers that traded in their ability to transform to become stronger, faster, and more alive. As the Autobot/Decepticon war drained more and more of their resources, a new source of fueling, Nucleon, was discovered which would grant Transformers amazing power, but at a cost. To compensate for their lost ability to transform, the Action Masters built transforming partners and (massive) vehicles to aid them in battle.
A few Action Masters managed to retain (or possibly regain) the ability to transform; they are known as Action Master Elites.
Fiction
Toy packaging blurb
According to the toy packaging Optimus Prime went searching for new energy sources and, within the heart of a black hole discovered Nucleon: a miracle fuel that made Transformers stronger, faster, and more alive, but cost them the ability to transform. Soon the Decepticons stole the technology and created Action Masters of their own.
This story was later referenced with the Japanese release of Nucleon Quest Convoy, a black repaint of Powermaster Optimus Prime who was given the backstory of being Prime specially outfitted for this trip into the black hole.
Marvel Comics continuity
Grimlock heard rumors of a new miracle fuel on the planet Hydrus 4. Against orders he stole the non-functioning bodies of his fellow Dinobots and headed there to find out. What he descovered was a ruined world filled with creepy, obsessive, rotting zombie-like beings warning him that it was all because of Nucleon. Being Grimlock, he then went ahead and used the fuel anyway, first on himself then to revive his fallen teammates.
Grimlock soon found parts of his body inexplicably seizing up, and began to fear that he should have listened to the creepy dying robots after all. After returning to the Ark Grimlock used the Nucleon to repair all the damaged Autobots in the ship's medical bay (as well as Megatron, whom he didn't know was there). Following the Transformers battle with Unicron Grimlock froze-up entirely. It was then that Hi-Q (in the process of mergeing with Optimus Prime) saw with "Powermaster eyes" that Grimlock wasn't malfunctioning, but changing. He used his Powermaster abillities to speed-up the process and Grimlock burst forth in his new, more-powerful Action Master form.
- (Note: Grimlock is the only actual Action Master to appear in the US comics. Other Action Master toys are represented, but not having been changed by Nucleon they are likely not actual Action Masters. Simon Furman has commented that if the comic book had continued we would have seen other Transformers become Action Masters, and we also would have seen a follow up to the hints that Nucleon effects everyone differently, with some Transformers being affected by it in various alternate ways.)
Japanese continuity
Optimus, and Megatron's pre-G2 bodies share a striking similarity to their Action-Master toys. Likewise Optimus Prime has been documented as searching out a New Energy source called Nucleon that's located within a black hole. Finally, Optimus Prime's Actionmaster was sold with New Years Convoy, and described as the intermediate form between Prime's various G2 Bodies.
Fandom reception
- I DEFINITELY like my transformers to transform. Down with the action masters. --Posted to alt.toys.transformers by Josh Freeman Frankel, 02-25-1994 [1]
The Action Master toyline, depicting the obvious oxymoron of "Transformers who don't transform," generated initial ire from some fans. This was magnified as Action Masters were released in the final year of the original Transformers toyline in the US. When Transformers was summarily cancelled in North America, some fans blamed the gimmick for the death of the franchise (despite the wide variety of other factors that doubtlessly were involved).
One aspect Action Masters is notable for, however, is the mass reintroduction of "classic" characters. New toys for old characters was not a theme the original toyline visited very often, and so to have a single subline with so many recurring favorites was, at the time, a novelty. In addition, the classic characters were designed to more closely resemble their cartoon counterparts. For much of the Season 1 and 2 cast, the original figures having been designed years before they were stylized and simplified for the cartoon, these Action Masters were the closest likenesses of their fiction representatons ever.
As with many other changes to the Transformers brand, initial hostility towards Action Masters from the fandom eventually became less intense, and diversified into a broad range of opinion. Many of the most in-demand vintage (and therefore expensive) Transformers toys are Action Masters, and new characters from this subgroup are still harkened back to in newer toylines. For example, Axer shows up in the Robots in Disguise toyline, Armada Overload has design elements based on Rollout, and Cybertron Smokescreen's colors are a partial homage to Rad.