Rodimus Prime

Rodimus Prime is a fictional character from the "Transformers" universe.

Transformers: Generation 1

Transformers character
name = Rodimus Prime


caption =
affiliation = Autobot
subgroup =
function = Autobot Leader
partner =
motto = "Experience is the benchmark of maturity."
alternatemodes = "Cybertronian" RV'Truck
series =

voiceby = Judd Nelson (Movie)
Richard Gautier (TV Series)
Hiroya Ishimaru (Japanese)

Rodimus Prime is the upgraded, reformatted form of the youthful Autobot Hot Rod, and the Chosen One of Autobot legend who would rise from their ranks and open the Matrix of Leadership to "light [their] darkest hour", marking him as the new Autobot commander.

Although Rodimus speaks with the savvy voice of a seasoned veteran, in truth, at his heart, he is still Hot Rod, and bears the burden of leadership heavily, constantly second-guessing himself and feeling that he can never live up to the legacy of Optimus Prime. He can, on occasion, be hot-headed, tending to act first and ask questions later, but he has dedicated himself to the preservation of life in its myriad forms. He transforms into a futuristic recreational vehicle (resembling 1980 concept car, the Citroën Penthouse CX) and in robot mode, wields a photon eliminator that shoots high voltage electricity.

Rodimus Prime, like the other new characters created for "", was designed for animation first, and had his toy and comic book design created based on these designs. However, as with the other characters, these two versions of the character were based on an earlier design, while his animation model underwent further modifications before being finalized; the basic differences between the two are the distribution of color around the body (notably, the toy/comic's red legs, which are grey in the cartoon), and the movie's use of dark magenta in place of red (although, in the third season of the cartoon series, Rodimus is usually colored maroon instead of the magenta seen at the end of the movie). In the same style as Optimus Prime’s toy, the Rodimus toy's trailer disconnects from the cab and unfolds into a battle station; in the animated series, this feature was not included, and the rear portion of Rodimus's vehicle mode is consistently (bar one anomalous instance) shown to unfold from his legs.

Animated series

In the year 2005, when the massive planet-eating robot Unicron attacked the Transformers' homeworld Cybertron, Hot Rod confronted the Decepticon leader, Galvatron (who used to be known as Megatron), within the giant’s body. In the struggle that ensued, Hot Rod seized the Matrix from around Galvatron's neck, and, bathed in its power, was transformed into Rodimus Prime, who easily picked up Galvatron and hurled him through Unicron's body and far into space. Rodimus proceeded to open the Matrix, destroying Unicron body with its energies and establishing himself as the new Autobot leader.

Rodimus did not have time to rest on his laurels as commander, immediately finding himself and the Autobots targeted by the Quintessons, who lured him to their planet of Quintessa and detonated it in hopes of destroying the Matrix. Rodimus and the Autobots survived, however, and Rodimus proceeded to voluntarily short-circuit himself to allow his life-force to enter the Matrix, feeling that the answer to the mystery of the Quintessons' identity lay within it. His hunch proved correct – the Quintessons, he discovered, were the Transformers' creators, and Rodimus knew that the future would be a difficult time for the Autobots.

As 2006 rolled in, Rodimus and a group of Autobots were attacked by the Decepticons while on a space voyage, and were forced to set their damaged craft down in the massive space-borne mausoleum that housed the bodies of deceased Autobots, including Optimus Prime himself. However, much to everyone's shock, Prime appeared to be very much alive, and Rodimus gladly relinquished the Matrix to him, reverting to Hot Rod again. Alas, it was soon revealed that Optimus had been reanimated by the Quintessons to serve as a weapon to attack the Autobots; Hot Rod was forced to battle him, but when the Matrix overrode Optimus's Quintesson programming, he returned it to Hot Rod, making him Rodimus once more, before apparently sacrificing himself.

At this point in the future, the Autobots had become something of a group of peacekeepers among the many races in the galaxy, and Rodimus would attend many meetings, parties and conferences to this end, most notably chairing the peace conference between the planets of Xetaxxis and Lanarq. Despite the brave public face he wore at these events, his own doubts continued to plague him, and he was particularly fazed by Galvatron’s threat of an "ultimate weapon", though the revelation that this was a bluff stirred him to action. Later still, Rodimus was among the Autobots who had their minds transferred into synthetic human forms by crimelord Victor Drath, who used their Transformer bodies to commit crimes. While Ultra Magnus, Arcee and Springer tackled this problem, Rodimus returned to Drath's compound where he was aided by Drath's moll, Michelle, between whom a spark of romance seemed to bloom, until she betrayed him to Drath. Through a combined effort, however, Drath was brought to justice and the Autobots regained their bodies.

Rodimus was forced to face down his fears once and for all when the Decepticons began a series of attacks on Japan. Overwhelmed by the different responsibilities and directions he was being pulled in, Rodimus went joyriding and was attacked by the Stunticons, losing the Matrix in the ensuing crash, which was acquired by the Decepticon Scourge. While Rodimus became Hot Rod again – and was not eager to change back – Scourge was warped and enhanced by the Matrix and led another attack on Japan. Counseled by a martial arts master on "giri" – the burden hardest to bear – Rodimus realized that the Matrix was his burden, and that he had been chosen to bear it; battling Scourge, he recovered the Matrix and resumed his role as leader.

Some time thereafter, Rodimus began to experience disturbing dreams, filled with images of Optimus Prime, which again brought his leadership doubts to the fore. Discovering that two human scientists had recovered Prime's body just before his apparent sacrifice, Rodimus raced to their lab, only to discover that the Transformer-hating scientist, Mark Morgan, planned to infect them with hate-inducing solar spores. Rodimus was able to avoid immediate infection, recovering Prime's body and shutting down Metroplex to protect him, but was eventually hunted down by Ultra Magnus and Wreck-Gar and infected. Meanwhile, at Rodimus's earlier command, Sky Lynx acquired a Quintesson, who successfully restored Optimus Prime to life; coating himself in Morgan's heat-resistant alloy, Prime recovered the Matrix from Rodimus and used its energies to cure the plague, reverting him to Hot Rod once and for all. Optimus once again assumed command of the Autobots, which Rodimus was all too happy to give up.

In "The Transformers: The Movie", Rodimus Prime was voiced by Judd Nelson, but as with all the feature's "celebrity voices", Nelson did not return to perform the character in the episodes that followed the movie. Ted Schwartz was originally cast to replace Nelson as Rodimus, but he in turn was replaced by Dick Gautier, who performed Rodimus (and Hot Rod) over the ensuing two seasons. It is apparent, however, that Schwartz recorded several episodes as Rodimus before being replaced, as some lines spoken by him are still evident in the broadcast version of "Five Faces of Darkness".

Transformers: Headmasters

While Hot Rod never became Rodimus again in the US "Transformers" series, going on instead to become a Targetmaster, he did return to action in the 1987 Japanese-exclusive series, "", which replaced "The Rebirth" in Japanese continuity.

Picking up one year after the return of Optimus Prime, Hot Rod led the operation to recover the Matrix – which had been concealed on Earth to allow it to recharge after the depletion of its energies – in order to use it to stabilize the mega-computer, Vector Sigma. Returning to Cybertron with the Matrix in his grasp, Hot Rod was about to aid Optimus Prime in battle when the ghost of ancient Autobot Alpha Trion merged with the Matrix, recharging it and transforming Hot Rod back into Rodimus Prime. Rodimus joined Optimus in battle side-by-side for the first time, and the two Primes defeated Galvatron before Optimus gave up his life once again to merge with Vector Sigma and bring it back under control.

More secure and confident in the role of leadership than ever before, Rodimus led the Autobots strongly and effectively for a brief period, until a plasma bomb attack by the Decepticons saw Cybertron devastated from within, leaving it an uninhabitable husk. Dismayed, and feeling that the age of older Transformers like him had come to an end, Rodimus chose to voyage into space to search for a new world to colonize alongside Kup and Blurr, leaving the “new” Transformers, the Headmasters, behind to safeguard the peace, with their leader, Fortress, as Autobot Commander.

Rodimus did not appear in the animated series again, but later returned to Earth in the "Headmasters" manga, following the defeat of the Decepticon Headmasters and their successful banishment from Earth (there is some contention, however, whether or not the "Headmasters" manga is in continuity with the animated series). It was never stated if Rodimus had found a suitable world or not, but fans have theorized that he may have found the Planet V "(as seen in 1989’s Transformers: Victory series)". Rodimus's return as Hot Rod, in the form of a Micromaster in 1991's "Battlestars: The Return of Convoy" also suggests they may have settled on the Planet Micro, home of the Micromasters.

The later Superlink series version of Rodimus has returned from a similar journey to the begun in Headmasters, although the timeline and details not fit into the original continuity, but merely pays homage to it.

Marvel Comics

Rodimus Prime played no role in the U.S. "Transformers" series from Marvel Comics, save for the adaptation of the animated series episode, "The Big Broadcast of 2006", and one other brief appearance when readers were offered a glimpse of the alternate future world timeline. In this timeline, Rodimus "lost" the battle inside Unicron, and Cybertron was consumed; Unicron subsequently gave Galvatron the Earth to destroy, and Rodimus Prime was killed in battle defending it, his corpse then strung up between the damaged twin towers of the World Trade Center.

On the other side of the Atlantic, however, it was a different story. The United Kingdom’s official "Transformers" comic began simply by reprinting its U.S. counterpart, but steadily began to produce its own material. With the advent of "The Transformers: The Movie", and its new cast of characters that the U.S. comics were not using, U.K. writer Simon Furman quickly took the opportunity to cannibalize the most popular elements of the movie and introduced them in a series of a U.K.-exclusive stories set in a post-movie future, which often intersected with the present-day stories by means of time travel.

In the original comic future, as in the cartoon/movie continuity, Rodimus Prime triumphed against Galvatron within Unicron, but events diverged when Galvatron transported himself through time back to 1987. Unaware of this, however, Rodimus viewed the mysterious absence of his foe as a cause for concern, and had so many Autobots offworld looking for Galvatron that Shockwave was able to lead the Decepticons in a successful conquest of large areas of Cybertron. Forced to concentrate primarily on Shockwave, he unwisely placed a bounty on the head of Galvatron in the hope this would lead to him being found. However, when he discovered in 2007 that this had led the unhinged freelance peacekeeping agent, Death's Head to pursue Galvatron back in time, he, Kup, Blurr and Wreck-Gar followed him to prevent damage to the past. Rodimus battled Galvatron while Wreck-Gar adjusted the villain’s time-jump activation device, intending to return all time-travelers to the future – but when it was activated, Galvatron remained in the past. This past is a parallel timeline. It was created when Galvatron first timejumped.

In hopes of eliminating Rodimus, the Decepticons hired Death’s Head to kill him, and the cyborg happily accepted the job, luring the Autobot leader into the sewer systems to stalk him. The hunt was interrupted by Scourge and Cyclonus, who sought to regain some of their lost glory by killing Rodimus themselves, allowing Rodimus to deceive Death's Head into following him into the Autobot camp, where he made a bargain with him to target Cyclonus and Scourge instead. The ensuing hunt led him to the planet of Junk, where he and the two Decepticons were captured by the mental powers of Unicron, whose decapitated head still survived on the planet. Discovering this and facing the disaster of a Decepticon all-out assault that Unicron had caused, Rodimus led an attack on the Chaos-Bringer's head and worked with Death’s Head to project his consciousness into Unicron’s mind, in order to combat him there. When Unicron’s head was destroyed with explosives, his mind was sealed within the Matrix.

When the Quintessons targeted Cybertron for colonization in 2008, they matched their attack on the planet with one on Autobot City. When Arcee was injured, an unwitting Rodimus used the Matrix to heal her, exposing it and allow the Quintesson general Ghyrik to steal it. Rodimus, now Hot Rod once again, had to use his own skill and ingenuity to reacquire the talisman and defeat Ghyrik; the larger Quintesson force was taken out after Hot Rod activated Metroplex.

In 2009, instabilities in the fabric of reality caused by unbalanced time travel resulted in a rift appearing in space and time, threatening to consume Earth and Cybertron in both the future and past. Rodimus led a contingent of Autobots to 1989, joining with Autobots from the past and Decepticons from both times to battle an insane Galvatron and a clone of Megatron in the "Time Wars". Optimus Prime had been shunted into limbo by Rodimus's arrival in 1989, but was able to use the Matrix as a stepping stone to return to reality and bested Galvatron in combat. The rift then consumed Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge and was sealed by Shockwave.

Afterwards, Rodimus and the Autobots returned to 2009 - only to find that, as the timestream had reordered itself after the Time Wars, their future no longer existed. The original future having been overwritten by a different universe in which Galvatron had never traveled back in time and Unicron had destroyed Cybertron. This Galvatron is commonally referred to as Galvatron II. In the main universe, 1990, Unicron acquired Galvatron II as his herald by sending agents to bring him back through time. Later in the main universe Galvatron II conquers Cybertron.

Rodimus and the others arrived in 2009 of the main universe, mounted a rebellion, and were soon attacked by Galvatron II, who tried to make Rodimus unleash his rage in hopes of corrupting the Matrix. The plan failed, but it soon became apparent that the Matrix posed a risk when Unicron's consciousness, still contained within it, overtook Rodimus's body, making him attack the other Autobots as they attempted to deliver energy supplies to Earth. Unicron was stopped when Kup ripped the Matrix from Rodimus's body, but this unfortunately also prevented Rodimus from having a chance at driving out Unicron's mind once and for all; in 2010, Rodimus was once again overcome by Unicron and this time constructed a new physical form for the Chaos-Bringer around himself. Rodimus managed to restrain Unicron's will once more, but not before a great amount of damage was done to Cybertron.

Centuries later, in 2356, a weakened Rodimus, his body withered by containing Unicron within it, looked back upon the past, telling a young Autobot student of the nature of evil. The influence of Unicron was able to corrupt the student towards evil before Rodimus could realize what was happening.

3H Enterprises

In the short, unfinished series of comic books released exclusively at the BotCon "Transformers" conventions, Rodimus appeared in a flashback sequence in " - The Wreckers" #1, where he and Springer were looking into getting upgraded into Maximals and consoling Arcee over the death of Daniel Witwicky. He appeared again in a flashback in issue #2 of the comic, where he consulted Quickmix, Skids, Perceptor and Rad on his plans to send out ships to gather information on threats from space after the defeat of Unicron.

Later, in the present era, he became a member of the Wreckers. Although now no longer possessing the Matrix, and hence in the form of Hot Rod, Rodimus has taken the name to signify his age and maturity, and serves as the "Matrix Templar" of the team, second to the commanders, Primal Prime and Apelinq.

Dreamwave Productions

Although Rodimus Prime didn't appear in the Dreamwave comics fiction, he did get a biography page in their "More Than Meets The Eye" series.

Toys

*Generation 1 Rodimus Prime (1986)

*Reissue Rodimus Prime:Initially a Toys R Us exclusive, later sold in discount stores.

*Transformers: Titanium Rodimus Prime (2006):At The San Diego Comicon 2006 a version of 6 inch Titanium line Rodimus Prime was displayed by Hasbro. Although similar to the original Rodimus Prime toy in vehicle mode, the trailer becomes part of the robot in a way similar to the animated version instead of forming a separate battle station.

ee also

* Rodimus

References

External links

* [http://www.tfu.info/1986/Autobot/RodimusPrime/rodimusprime.htm TFU page]