Prima Prime

It's a new year, and that means it's time for a Transformers rebrand! In current year 2025, Generations is now Age of the Primes - the plan is to release toys of the 13 Original Primes for the first time, so logically we begin with the first Prime, Prima. The almighty god Primus bestowed Prima the Matrix of Leadership to be infused on the hilt of the mystical and beyond powerful artifact, the Star Saber sword. His courage and power will never waver, his compassion is what gives him purpose and meaning, the heart and soul of the 13 Primes. That, for the record, is not the actual marketing copy (which just boringly says "The Thirteen Prima Prime is the first Prime and a warrior of great virtue and nobility"): it comes from designer Mark Maher's Instagram, it's just that he provided a better bio for free than Hasbro is willing to pay anybody to do for them. It's not the best writing, but then, it's also not his job: he designs the toys, he's not a copywriter, and until Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks stops pulling copper wire out of the walls to put in his own pockets, we're not going to see any professional-quality work from the company. The concept of The Thirteen, the first Transformers created by Primus, was originally mentioned in 2004's Transformers: The Ultimate Guide. The idea was later adopted by Hasbro's Aaron Archer, who began slowly fleshing things out behind the scenes, and now it's a central part of the mythos. It's even been retconned into G1, with this toy's head being based on a pre-historic Transformer who appeared in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4," as evidenced by the little wing-things on the sides of his head. The G1 comic also showed the first Transformer Primus ever made, but didn't give him a name at the time. Revenge of the Fallen showed the other ancient Primes who turned on their brother, but none of them were identified. The first time we ever saw Prima as Prima was in The Covenant of Primus, a 2013 book detailing the history of the Transformers race. There, he was shown to look rather like a knight in white armor, and that's the design this toy takes its inspiration from. Of course, The Covenant of Primus was part of the "Aligned" continuity, which meant the art looked like it beloned in the TF Prime cartoon; like the various Legacy lines over the last three years, Age of the Primes smooths out strong visual identifiers like that, so while he does still look like a knight, with angles that are almost rounded off, a distinct collar protecting the neck, and large shoulder pauldrons, it's still its own new look. Apparently the AotP Primes are all going to come with powerful "artifacts" they use, and Prima's is the Star Saber. No, it's not the same one from Armada, but since The Thirteen are multiversal singularities, Prima would have been in that continuity at some point, and so his weapon probably influenced that one's name - like how you can have an Excalibur without being the Excalibur. This version is a blend of sources, using the hilt and crossguard as seen in the Transformers Collectors' Club comics, and a blade lightly influenced by the Prime cartoon. The Matrix of Leadership is stored on the sword's hilt, but can be removed and put in his chest if you prefer. To convert Prima, swing open the forearms and tuck the hands up, turn the biceps 180°, hinge his back down, rotate the chest to face the rear, fold out the wheels so you can put the head away, raise the arms so you can close his back, fold the front bumper into place, bring the rear wheels out of the back of his shins, flatten the feet, then bend the knees all the way over to form teh back of the altmode. Pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it! Prima changes into some sort of "Cybertronian lunar vehicle" (per Mark Maher), a blocky thing that's reminiscent of Ratchet and Ironhide's altmode in Siege. The (nearly) all-white robot mode didn't look too great, more like an unpainted prototype than a finished figure, but the vehicle mode is slightly better thanks to the presence of more greys and silvers to accent things, as well as the big translucent blue windows. It can convert into a pretty crummy "hover mode" by moving the wheels so they're horizontal instead of vertical, but that absolutely feels like an afterthought someone came up with after noticing it could be done, not something built in intentionally; all the officially released photos of it are carefuly posed to hide how jank it looks in real life. You can plug the Star Saber into the front bumper for the dumbest "battering ram" ever conceived. Thanks to Punch/Counterpunch, I already had one figure of Prima, but getting a more involved one was appealing. Sadly the story around the character is far more interesting than the toy itself, thanks to the visually dull coloration, the so-so altmode, and the van's "turn it in at 11:59 pm" play features. Getting all 13 of the original Primes sounded like a fun thing to collect, but we are not off to a great start. -- 04/15/25 Are you going to collect all 13 Primes? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.