In my previous post, I made a detailed run through of six of the key Megatrons throughout Transformers history. Now, I may be Decepticon biased, but I think it's only fair for Optimus Prime to get the same treatment. (You can't not like Prime, no matter how Decepticon fanboy-ish you claim to be). Again, I'll give a quick run down, then list them in order of personal favouates.
Generation One Optimus Prime
"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."
The original, 80s era, cartoon hero, this legendary robot of justice graced morning kids TV in thousands of homes. Armed with his Ion Cannon, and bearer of the Matrix of Leadership, this iconic Transformer is easily the most famous of them all. I know this probably sounds like nothing more than nostalgia fuelling my opinion, but you can't argue with the words "Optimus" and "Prime". Oh, and Peter Cullen. Enough said.
Beast Wars Optimus Primal
"Surrender, Megatron! You're scrapped!"
Just like BW Megatron, Optimus "Primal" is not the original Optimus, he just appears later in the timeline. Now, if I'm honest, I don't like his design, or his alt mode, (though I don't like the BW concept in general), or his voice. I suppose he had his cool moments, but in my opinion he just didn't do anything to warrant being as cool as the other Optimus'. And the religeous thing got old. Quickly.
Armada Optimus Prime
"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots."
Armada Optimus Prime is the epitome of homage and ingenuity combined. In fact, his Cybertronian mode, (seen on the wiki if you didn't watch the show), was a G1/RID mock up. On earth, he has a similar alt mode to movie Optimus, but with a robot mode that doesn't look like crap. Oh, and he combines with his trailer to make the huge Super Optimus, (shown in the background of the picture), or with Jetfire to create the flying Jet Optimus, or with Overload to give him two giant Ion Cannons on his shoulders. Or, just all of them at once. Oh, and his voice is awesome.
Movie Optimus Prime
"Give me your face!"
Too tall, too slim, has the wrong alt mode, has the wrong colours, has stupid flames, has a stupid visor that retracts, has big lips, is too complicated, is wierdly overly violent, has crap plans, Peter Cullen didn't get the voice right, (although people don't like too admit it), and for god sake he looks like he's wearing pjamas................ The swords are cool....
Animated Optimus Prime
"So, this is what it feels like to be a hero..."
I know it was meant to be a new take on Optimus, but if they were going to make a protaganist that was abit of a noob, why choose him? Narrow mindedness aside, he also sounds stupid, and the worst part about him, the looks. I know Animated characters are generally out of proportion, but Optimus is out there with the worst of them, especially if you look around the waist area. And he has the oh so popular, ridiculous retracting visor. Although, I do like the axe homage, and at least he's Prime in the sense of being self sacrifising.
Prime Optimus Prime
Finally, we have the 2010 incarnation of Prime. He pretty much looks like G1 but hench, (though his new look for the show looks terrible, check the wiki if you want evidence), and acts more or less the same as well. Not much to be said here except that he's a very good update on the original Optimus.
Again, I''ve only listed the cartoon incarnations of Optimus, and here is how I feel they compare...
Generation One Optimus Prime
Prime Optimus Prime
Armada Optimus Prime
Movie Optimus Prime
Beast Wars Optimus Primal
Animated Optimus Prime
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