Transformers: Age of the Primes toyline discussion ll Update: 2026 Product revealed - Combaticons, Beast Wars and more Primes

Platypus Prime

Well-known member
Citizen
I always figured any non-13 Prime after that whole concept was put forwards would just be a normal Transformer who took the title as a symbol. Like the many human monarchs who had some variation of 'god' in their titles for millennia, even the Japanese emperor till comparatively recently, being seen as either a decedent of or representative for their countries god. So ones like Rodimus, Hot Shotiumus, etc make perfect sense.

Meanwhile at the very start if you think of the early Marvel comic, there should have been a single small naturally occurring gear sitting in a puddle (of oil, I assume, water being rather rare on Cybertron), as the first 'living' thing on the planet.

And that little gear was either Optimus Primordial or Primordial Prime, I don't know which.
 
Sabrblade

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
wonko the sane? said:
And all this because I found it surprisingly hard to find a list of JUST the 13 primes toys. I was either getting the entire AOTP run divided by size or individual wiki pages for the characters which are interesting but not useful to me right now.
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Thirteen - Transformers Wiki

tfwiki.net tfwiki.net

Rhinox said:
Are we at the point in the fandom and in fiction where we have Primes (capital P) and primes (little p) now?

"I mean, he's a prime, but you know, not a Prime"
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No, and that's part of what makes it so confusing that we have to specify when we mean "Prime" as in "Matrix-bearing Autobot leader" and "Prime" as in "one of the Thirteen".

Platypus Prime said:
I always figured any non-13 Prime after that whole concept was put forwards would just be a normal Transformer who took the title as a symbol. Like the many human monarchs who had some variation of 'god' in their titles for millennia, even the Japanese emperor till comparatively recently, being seen as either a decedent of or representative for their countries god. So ones like Rodimus, Hot Shotiumus, etc make perfect sense.
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We wouldn't be in this mess if Aaron Archer hadn't decided to make the Thirteen all be Primes. They weren't originally when the group was first introduced as a concept, but when I asked him back at BotCon this year why it was decided to make all of them be Primes when only one of them was ever a Matrix-bearer, he said it was simply to make them all seem special. But that then begs the question of what it even means to be a Prime at all if not simply the one Autobot leader chosen to bear the Matrix (as had been the rule since, like, late Marvel G1), but Archer was like, "Well, that's no longer a concern of mine."

Platypus Prime said:
Meanwhile at the very start if you think of the early Marvel comic, there should have been a single small naturally occurring gear sitting in a puddle (of oil, I assume, water being rather rare on Cybertron), as the first 'living' thing on the planet.

And that little gear was either Optimus Primordial or Primordial Prime, I don't know which.
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Primag2.jpg

Prima.jpg
 
LordGigaIce

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
Platypus Prime said:
I always figured any non-13 Prime after that whole concept was put forwards would just be a normal Transformer who took the title as a symbol. Like the many human monarchs who had some variation of 'god' in their titles for millennia, even the Japanese emperor till comparatively recently, being seen as either a decedent of or representative for their countries god. So ones like Rodimus, Hot Shotiumus, etc make perfect sense.
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Thing is all of the non-Thirteen Primes have been genuinely "empowered" Matrix bearers in at least one continuity.

The idea of just regular bots claiming the Prime title as a symbol was a thing IDW played with, and Aligned and TFO picked up on... but it's hardly a universal thing.
IDW's second continuity, for example, just made Sentinel, Nova, Zeta, and Nominus all the genuinely Primus-approved article after IDW1 made them all pretenders (or genuine Prime turned evil in Nova's case).
And then Nova, Sentinel, and Zeta all get to be members of the Thirteen depending on the continuity for extra levels of nonsense.

Short version is, it's a mess.
 
Cybersnark

Cybersnark

Well-known member
Citizen
I take it that the Matrix-bearing Primes were named because of the Thirteen; the Matrix-bearer is an "honorary" Prime because they carry the Matrix of Leadership, which is a Primal Artifact.

(Which raises the possibility of "false Primes" who might show up bearing other Artifacts, like the Infinite Combinatoric or the Requiem Blaster. . .)
 
Sabrblade

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Cybersnark said:
I take it that the Matrix-bearing Primes were named because of the Thirteen; the Matrix-bearer is an "honorary" Prime because they carry the Matrix of Leadership, which is a Primal Artifact.

(Which raises the possibility of "false Primes" who might show up bearing other Artifacts, like the Infinite Combinatoric or the Requiem Blaster. . .)
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Originally, before Vector Prime and ROTF came along, the setup seemed to be like this: First there was Primus, then the first Matrix-bearer, Prima, was named after him, and then the dynasty of Matrix-bearers known as "Primes" were thus named from both Primus and Prima. The "Prime" title being named after both of them meant it could only come into existence after Prima had already passed the Matrix onto its next bearer, meaning it couldn't and shouldn't have already existed when Prima and the other members of the Thirteen Original Transformers existed.

"False Primes" would then be those who merely assumed the role and position of a Prime but without having been chosen by the Matrix, much like Sentinel in TF One.

This is another case like "Megatron named himself after The Fallen despite The Fallen's real name having been scrubbed from history, lost to time, and unknown to anyone in the present day" where the original lore was ignored because someone in charge had an idea that they thought was cool but didn't bother to stop and think if it actually made any sense with what had already been established beforehand.
 
CoffeeHorse

CoffeeHorse

Hanging in there
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Revenge of the Fallen said:
Honestly I don't even know their names. They lived a really long time ago but then they all died. Except The Fallen. I don't know his name either.
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In hindsight maybe they were on to something.
 
LordGigaIce

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
Platypus Prime said:
So Primal Prime isn't a Prime because he lacks a Primal Artifact?

...I wrote it and even I don't know what this sentence means...
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"Primal Prime" is a great name for Optimus Primal when he gets the Matrix.
But then he got used for a different character.

In my own head canon you have the Thirteen. Then they call killer themselves/went off into space/whatever and there's been a line of singular Primes since.
 
Superomegaprime

Superomegaprime

Wondering bot
Citizen
Personally, I don't care much for the 13 primes, which is why I not been collecting them outside of the Fallen, Nova and Star Convoy, at least from the current line as many of the desgins just don't interst me, my Alpha Trion is the one from the two pack released in legacy with a Orion Pax, my Nove got the DNA desgin treatment plan similar with the Fallen, thou I would love to see a deco done based upon his Dreamwave appearance, so I'm kind of, don't give a hoot about the primes and in my head cannon, they existed once but no longer with a single Prime being someone who leads the people of Cybertron until war breaks out or they surrender the title to pass it to another bot until a day that one worthy of baring the title of a prime arises!
 

Steevy Maximus

Well known pompous pontificator
Citizen
wonko the sane? said:
Yo Sabr, thank you kindly for the link.

The listing for AOTP toys is missing three entries.
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Sabrblade said:
Because Vector's toy was released in Legacy United instead of AOTP, while the AOTP toys for Nexus and Liege Maximo haven't been announced yet.
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Jokes on the wiki, retailer listings point to some form of Vector Prime coming next year!
Now, whether it’s just a rerun of the existing one, a redeco, or a retool of someone like Alpha Trion remains to be seen.
 
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