General Bio[]
Universe: Beast Era
Transforms into: Silverback Gorilla
Faction: Maximals
Voiced by: Gary Chalk
Appearances: Beast Wars Cartoon
As the Beast Wars animated series began, the Axalon and the Darksyde emerged from the transwarp portal above prehistoric Earth. With both ships badly damaged in the firefight and plummeting towards the planet's surface, Primal ordered that all stasis pods in the Axalon's hold be jettisoned into Earth orbit. Surviving the crash, the Transformers discovered that the planet was saturated with dangerous levels of energon radiation, and adopted organic-skinned "beast modes" to shield themselves from its effects; Primal assumed the form of a silverback gorilla. One of his first major battles on Earth was a duel with the renegade Predacon Dinobot, whose life Primal then saved—grateful, Dinobot joined the Maximals, and Primal dubbed the ensuing conflict for control of the energon the "Beast Wars". Primal could not suspect, however, the true agenda Megatron was working towards, or the lengths he would go to see it complete. This deadly mission came to light with the arrival of the Predacon secret agent Ravage, who had tracked the transwarp explosion that had killed Primal back to its source. Ravage aided Primal and the Maximals in finally capturing Megatron, but switched sides when he discovered that Megatron was following instructions left by his former commander, the original Megatron. Ravage liberated Megatron, who headed directly for the ancient Transformer spacecraft, The Ark , which lay buried on Earth, with the intent of killing the legendary Optimus Prime, thereby ensuring Decepticon victory in the war to come. Primal and his Maximals pursued him, but failed to stop him delivering the deadly blast. With time itself in the balance, Primal sought to forestall Prime's death by taking his spark into his body while his shell was repaired. With the power of Prime's spark now inhabiting his frame, Primal's body was changed once more, mutated into a new "Optimal" form, half Maximal – half Autobot, with which he fought back the Predacons and saved Prime's life. Even in his new body, Primal was subject to even more bodily invasions. After being infected with delirium-inducing cyber-venom from Tarantulas while battling Megatron's new cloned Cyber-Raptors, Optimus fell victim to the treacherous Predacon again. This time he had developed a method of controlling his body by remote-piloting it with a suit of armor manipulated by Quickstrike. With Optimus under his control in this manner, Megatron was able to duplicate the process that had upgraded his foe, merging his spark with the original Megatron's and assuming a new transmetal dragon form. This, coupled with the addition of Tigerhawk to the Maximal forces, led Primal to suspect that these events were playing out in accordance with the Cybertronian holy text, the Covenant of Primus. Realizing that Megatron sought to use the crashed Decepticon warship, Nemesis, to end the Beast Wars, Primal engaged him in a final confrontation, although per the covenant, he was aware he would not succeed. Salvation came in the form of Megatron's Transmetal II clone of the original Dinobot, who turned on his commander, allowing Rhinox to crash an Autobot shuttle into the Nemesis, blowing it out of the sky. With all the other Predacons dealt with, and Megatron finally their captive, the Maximals clamped him to the hull of the Autobot shuttle, and, with the Beast Wars concluded, headed back to Cybertron.
Beast Machines[]
Universe: Beast Era
Transforms into: Silverback Gorilla, Jet and Land assault vehicle, Techno-organic Gorilla
Faction: Maximals
Voiced by: Gary Chalk
Appearances: Beast Machines Cartoon
On the Maximals return trip to Cybertron after the end of the Beast Wars, Megatron was able to break free and exited the timestream, returning to Cybertron before the Maximals. When the Maximals arrived on the planet at their intended destination time, they found a world that Megatron had conquered using a transformation-freezing virus and an army of Vehicon drones. Exposed to the virus, Primal, Rattrap, Cheetor and Black Arachnia were reverted back to their original beast modes and left almost amnesiac, fleeing from the Vehicons. Primal was contacted by the ancient Cybertronian computer known as the Oracle and led the Maximals beneath Cybertron's surface, where the Oracle used its powers to reformat them into new technorganic bodies immune to the virus. Primal's new form was that of a technorganic gorilla, but he soon discovered that transformation was no longer simply a matter of command codes and on board computers - now, he and the Maximals had to find their “spiritual” centers and focus upon their transformations. Using the power of the Oracle, Primal could technorganically reformat other Maximals that required it, such as Nightscream. Led by Megatron to believe that he had lost the Beast Wars and caused the current state of Cybertron - all of its inhabitants' sparks removed and held captive by Megatron - Primal's fixation on correcting his mistake lead to a mindset comparable to zealotry. Through his connection to the Oracle and the visions it gave him, Primal learned that the computer wanted Cybertron to become a wholly organic world, and he would rarely entertain suggestions from his troops. The revelation that Megatron's Vehicon general Tankor contained the spark of Rhinox hit Primal hard, even more so when Rhinox revealed that he had adopted Megatron's techno-centric viewpoint. Using the Oracle to feed Primal a false vision, Rhinox tricked Primal and Megatron into unleashing the powers of the Plasma Energy Chamber and the Key to Vector Sigma respectively, almost destroying the planet. Primal saved Cybertron by taking the energies into his body, which was destroyed, and was then reborn by the Oracle with a new understanding - the Oracle did not desire a completely organic Cybertron, but a balance between the organic and technological. With the Oracle now downloaded into his own mind, Primal redoubled his efforts to achieving the perfect technorganic Cybertron. Megatron, however, was able to deceive him and acquire a portion of the Oracle data by posing as a holographic recording of Optimus Prime - but Primal was able to use this mind-link to his advantage, by stealing from Megatron's mind the knowledge of where the captive Transformer sparks were concealed. Attacking Megatron's "Grand Mal" spacecraft body to liberate the sparks within, the Maximals ousted his spark and seized control of the craft. A retaliatory attack by the Vehicons crashed the ship, and the Maximals subsequently fell one by one until only Primal was left to face off with Megatron, who had installed his spark in a copy of Primal's old "Optimal" body. The two enemies fought in a battle that raged across Cybertron until Megatron finally captured Primal and prepared to absorb all of the sparks into his own, and use the Key to Vector Sigma to convert Cybertron into the perfect techno-sphere. Primal struck back, however, using the strength of the sparks to force both himself and Megatron tumbling through the portal the villain had opened to the planet's core, where, using the power of the Oracle that existed within both of them, Primal sacrificed himself and Megatron to reformat Cybertron into a technorganic paradise.
Robot Heroes[]
Optimus Primal has currently appeared in the Robot Heroes line one time, and was expected to appear another time:
- In his black. blue and white look from the Beast Wars cartoon in the Tarantulas and Optimus Primal 2-Pack
- He was supposed to appear in his black, blue and orange look from the Beast Machines cartoon in the Optimus Primal and Jetstorm 2-Pack, but it never made it to stores
Images[]
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