#19 Powermaster Optimus Prime with Apex Armor or how I learned to stop worrying and love the (God)bomber.“Prime…when someone asks you if you’re a God you say YES! (because, someone is probably going to build a replacement body for you, minus your actual soul and a random truck driver will find that body, drive it around, and eventually through some kind of Japanese wizardry will come around to looking exactly like you, acting like you, and then just flat out becoming you. Later, we’re going to rebuild you into a remorseless, killing flying-lion thing after you die…er again. We’re…clear on this?)
Oh God Ginrai, if only I could claim to be making all of that up.
Powermaster Optimus Prime or God Ginrai as he’s known both in the Land of the Rising Sun and at your local Anime gatherings is, in one form or another, the replacement for the original G1 Optimus Prime.
Various stories in the comics and cartoons explain the appearance of this version of Prime in different ways. Real Talk here? None of those ways are any good. What is good is this classic G1 toy in all of his incarnations. Much like Street Fighter 2, Powermaster Prime has had several revisions and due to this, I will only discuss the full and final version of the toy (Powermaster Optimus Prime with Apex Armor).
Before that, we have to understand a few things about the toy. Originally released in the US as Powermaster Optimus Prime; Optimus Prime was reimagined as a larger, more powerful Ultra Magnus style transformer. Take a look at the size comparisons to the original toy:
That tricked out grill on the front of Prime’s cab there is his Powermaster component Hi-Q/Ginrai:
Transforming Hi-Q/Ginrai into the engine for Prime allowed him to fully transform.
As a child, in my childish ways, I thought this was very stupid. As an adult, I still find it to be very stupid. You see, I was being quite literal when I said that Hi-Q/Ginrai allowed Prime to transform. He was actually locked in cab mode without Hi-Q/Ginrai (though, clever children could push the tab themselves, but that negates my point and ignores the fact that Prime is supposed to be dependent on this process. I rationalized it that Prime was still tired from being dead and needed a kick-start. Now I think he was just being lazy.
So, with all that, your Optimus Prime was freed and you were ready to get him into something more comfortable, like…his trailer. You know, getting Prime unfolded, including the midget, and going back to the trailer sounds like a really, really bad idea for a date…I digress.
This is where it gets fun, because once you’ve folded Prime up and crammed him into his trailer, the result looks something like this:
Welcome to the gun show. Powermaster Prime was armed and sized to match up with Galvatron. No longer did you have to have second rate Ultra Magnus play the big guy to tango with your Emperor of Destruction. No, Prime was ready for all out war with guns, shoulder guns, and a chest full of bling (you should probably note that the original toy from the 80’s had significantly less bling, but hey…we were on our way to a recession and Prime was wise to keep the spending in check).
These pictures show a bit of the difference between the original and the reissue. The reissue being superior to the original release in most every way.
Now, our Japanese friends got a special figure available to them for many years before it was available over here. His name, was Godbomber. When he eventually made it into the US reissue figure, he was dubbed 'Roller'.
He turned into this…battle wagon thing. :/
Who cares right? Well, if you’re a new guy and you think that Revenge of the Fallen was the first time Prime disassembles one of his friends and wears their body parts as a meat (metal?) shield, you have another thing coming. That other thing…is God Ginrai (or Powermaster Optimus Prime with Apex Armor):
Beastly right? In Japan, Godbomber was initially avialable seperately, and later packaged with Super Ginrai. Westerners would have their first shot at him with the TRU Commemerative Reissue figures when he was packaged along with Powermaster Optimus Prime. When all put together, the toy is well sculpted, loaded with fun weaponry, and interesting features. But I know some of you out there are going to cry, “Brick! No articulation. Oldtoyssuck blah, blah.” Well my friends, feast your eyes on this:
Six massive points of articulation! Two of them are even real points of articulation and not just partially transformed pieces of his body.
What else can this toy do? I’ll let the pictures do the work.
No matter what you call him, which version you got, or when you got him, Powermaster Optimus Prime is one of those toys that really shows off the best features of G1. What it might have lacked in articulation, it more than made up for in imagination and playability. The toy gave kids a whole lot to do, it was complex but accessible, and it was fun.
This toy is one of the best 25 Transformers ever. It stands both literally and figuratively above the competition and it set a standard for Prime and combining Primes that is still followed today.
*Post-production notes: I interchange Powermaster Prime, Super Ginrai, God Ginrai, Godbomber, Roller, Hi-Q, Ginrai etc with a fair amount of liberty. The US releases include Powermaster Optimus Prime with Hi-Q and a much later Powermaster Optimus Prime w/Apex armor and Hi-Q (Godbomber is called Roller for obvious reasons). The Japanese had Super Ginrai, Godbomber, and the full God Ginrai set which included Super Ginrai and Godbomber. Any other mistakes I might have made are being purposely glossed over because this is just a bit of fun reading and this figure's history and story are too damn complex to care about in the face of the simple and cool toy we have.
-cp
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"Decepticons, transform and rise up!"
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