| NOTE: This article is about the Robots in Disguise 2001 version of Optimus Prime, for the other versions, go to the disambiguation page. |
| “ | Our power is greater than theirs, because it comes from a place of goodness, not greed. | „ |
| ~ Optimus Prime, Battle Protocol |
Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots, in the war against the Predacons, and the main protagonist of Robots in Disguise (2001).
He is voiced by Neil Kaplan in the Saban English dub (who also voices Hawkmon from the Saban English dub of Digimon Adventure 02) and Satoshi Hashimoto in the Japanese version, Car Robots.
History[]
Backstory[]
Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus were created by Alpha Trion during the Golden Age. The two of them were raised together and saw each other as brothers. After the Cybertron Civil Wars, the Matrix chose Optimus Prime to command the Autobots in stopping the Predacon leader Megatron from ravaging the universe in his quest for energy. Ultra Magnus bitterly left Cybertron that same day.
Robots in Disguise[]
At the start of the series, Optimus, like all of the Autobots, is currently inactive, serving as a fire ladder truck for the local fire department in the hometown of the Onishi family. However, when halfway across the planet, in NYC, when Megatron, leader of the Predacons, attacks the Science Symposium with the intent to kidnap Dr. Onishi, Optimus contacts Koji Onishi, Dr. Onishi's son, and tells him to meet him nearby as, with the fire he was responding to under control, Optimus leaves his human firefighter crew behind to meet up with Koji, and after swearing him to secrecy about what he is about to see, opens the Global Space Bridge to head to NYC. Once there, when Optimus finds himself outnumbered when Megatron calls in the Predacon Trio of Gas Skunk, Dark Scream, and Slapper, Optimus contacts T-AI to activate Battle Protocol and send the Autobot Brothers of Sideburn, Prowl, and X-Brawn to aid him. Despite their support, Megatron escapes with Dr. Onishi, and Optimus promises Koji that they will get him back.
As time went on, Koji was introduced to more members of Optimus' Autobot team, including Team Bullet Train and their combined form of Rail Racer, the Spy Changers, Skid-Z, Tow-Line, the Build Team and their combined form of Landfill, and finally Optimus' brother Ultra Magnus, before being introduced to the largest Autobot on Earth, Fortress Maximus.
Optimus and his team fought Megatron and the Predacons on multiple occasions, but their biggest was when they discovered the crash site of an Autobot shuttle on Castle Peak, containing six dormant Autobot protoforms. Despite Optimus' attempts to claim the protoforms first, Megatron acquired them and took them to the nearby McKinley Army Base to use the vehicles there, combined with his spark, to create the Decepticon Commandos. First was Mega-Octane, then came Rollbar, Armorhide, Ro-Tor, and Movor. When Optimus tried to save a tanker truck full of rocket fuel that was being used as an escape vehicle for Kelly, the woman who always seemed to be at the wrong place at the wrong time during the Autobots' battles, Megatron scanned the truck, Optimus, and Kelly to create the Decepticon leader Scourge, an evil twin of Optimus, whose loyalty was to Megatron.
From there, the Decepticons proved their worth with causing all sorts of trouble for Optimus and the Autobots, including one attempt to sabotage the Global Space Bridge until the sabotage was undone by Wedge and the Build Team. When Ultra Magnus arrived on Earth, looking to claim the Matrix from Optimus, it led to Optimus and Ultra Magnus combining into Omega Prime, which also still allowed Ultra Magnus access to the Matrix as he used the shared power of it between him and Optimus to grant supercharged forms to the Autobot Brothers.
Soon, Autobots and Decepticons converged on some underground ruins that were revealed to be the massive Autobot Fortress Maximus. Not wanting him to fall into Megatron's hands, Optimus assigns the Autobot Brothers and Team Bullet Train to guard the entrances to the cave while the Build Team moved Fortress Maximus to a hidden spot within the city where the Autobot HQ was hidden. Even with Fortress Maximus safe, there was still the matter of tracking down its Headmaster unit, Cerebros. The Autobots are able to attain all of the O-Parts that would help lead to Cerebros, and the O-Parts lead them to the Sahara Desert to find the Orb of Sigma. However, when the two globes merge, Optimus loses all contact with T-AI, who had merged with the O-Parts to help decipher their data. Despite interference from Megatron, the Predacons, and the Decepticons, Optimus recovers the combined globe thanks to Sideburn and Koji and they are able to take it back to Autobot HQ to recover T-AI safely, who then provides the data she recovered to locate Cerebros. Unfortunately, Cerebros falls into the hands of the Predacons and Decepticons, now led by a more powerful Galvatron, but after several attempts to control Fortress Maximus, including Scourge attempting to overthrow Galvatron with it, fail, Cerebros falls safely into the hands of the Autobots, where it reveals how it and Fortress Maximus work regarding the bio-signatures of Autobots and humans and their willingness to protect the Earth from harm. However, the Autobot HQ falls under attack from the Predacons and Decepticons after Sky-Byte tailed Koji there, but Optimus is ready for it, taking off with Cerebros while sending out an unsecured mayday call to lure the Predacons and Decepticons away, while Koji is taken to safety by the Autobot Brothers before they head to join the fight. When Optimus reaches the rendezvous point and is surrounded by the Predacons and Decepticons, he reveals he lured them into a trap as all of the Autobots are there, but so is Galvatron, who summoned his command ship, the Megastar, to face off with the entire Autobot team. Not even Landfill, Rail Racer, or Omega Prime are able to damage the Megastar, but Wedge's willingness and courage to protect the Earth enables Cerebros to summon Fortress Maximus into the fight, who easily tears down the Megastar with his ultimate attack, but Galvatron survives, drains Fortress Maximus of his energy, and then threatens to harm the children of Earth if the Autobots don't surrender. Although the Autobots attempt an escape through the Global Space Bridge, Galvatron tries to destroy them, and his own men, by rupturing the tunnel and flooding it with magma, but everyone survives. However, badly injured, Optimus tries to continue the fight before being dragged away by Ultra Magnus to safety when the other Autobots sacrifice their energy to Galvatron to give Optimus time to escape. Nevertheless, Optimus asks his brother to help him one more time to stop Galvatron, and surprised by Optimus' request and how it wasn't an order, due to his freelance nature and how he refused to act like an underling to Optimus, Magnus agrees to aid his brother in stopping Galvatron once and for all, and they unite into Omega Prime for the last time, ordering T-AI to transport Omega Prime and Galvatron to the Earth's core via the Global Space Bridge and seal it behind them.
Optimus and Ultra Magnus have a difficult time fighting Galvatron with how much stronger he was from the energy he siphoned from the Autobots and especially Fortress Maximus, but when Koji contacts the children of Earth to send energy to Fortress Maximus, the lumbering Autobot sends the energy to Omega Prime, allowing him to summon the Matrix Blade, with which he is able to finally defeat Galvatron, with the feedback from the strike reopening the Global Space Bridge so Omega Prime can escape.
Optimus later meets up with Koji to let him know that the Autobots will be hanging around a bit longer on Earth while Fortress Maximus and Ultra Magnus escort Galvatron, Scourge, the Commandos, and the Predacon Trio, back to Cybertron to be incarcerated on the asteroid prison colony for their crimes.
Trivia[]
- Optimus Prime transforms into a Fire truck.
- In the Japanese version, Car Robots, Optimus is dubbed Fire Convoy, and a separate character, as it was part of the same continuity of Generation One.
- Optimus Prime also forms Super Mode, which is similar to the future Unicron Trilogy version.
Gallery[]
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 Heroes
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Disambiguation pages Beast Era Robots in Disguise (2001) Team Bullet Train Build Team Others Unicron Trilogy Transformers Animated Elite Guard Dinobots Cybertron intelligence Others Prime Wars Trilogy Dinobots Shattered Glass Cyberverse EarthSpark Malto Family Terrans Decepticons G.H.O.S.T. Others | ||