Optimus Prime (KOU)

Optimus Prime is a rocker from the Knights of Unicron continuity family.

His album covers may look metal, but wait til you hear the songs...

A true metalhead, Optimus Prime is the lead vocalist for the Knights of Unicron. Though he was once but a lowly record store clerk, he rose to fame and fortune after replacing Knights of Unicron founding member Bumblebee as the band's frontman. Truly the stuff of legend, when Optimus isn't performing face-melting musical hits, touring the cosmos and revolutionizing the music industry, he is often involved in petty in-fighting with his (former or current) band members. Optimus is in a relationship with Arcee.

Fiction

Behind the Music

In 1979, the bot who would one day take the stage name "Optimus Prime" was an unassuming record store clerk. Upon hearing of Bumblebee's dropping out of the band "Bumblebee and the Hive" and the ensuing search for a replacement talent, the store clerk submitted a demo tape to the band. Wildly impressed by the tape, the band hired him as their new lead singer. Optimus Prime rechristened the band the "Knights of Unicron" and led them back up to the top of the charts within the year.

In 1982, Optimus brought on his girlfriend, Arcee as the band's unofficial fifth member. Tension rose between Optimus and the rest of the band as he allowed Arcee to influence his decisions more and more as time passed. Following the bombing of the band's "Purple Energon" album in 1983, Optimus and Arcee organized a benefit concert to restore Iacon's Energon pools without the help of the rest of the band. Responding to Megatron's questioning him on how dedicated to the band he is, Optimus made a one-line press release: "Music is the right of all sentient beings." By the year's end Optimus found success in pursuing a solo album, "Ride the Energon."

Optimus nonetheless rejoined his band members in 1984 for their most ambitious tour, "Cybertronian Democracy." Though highly successful, the tour was also a financial drain on the band. Optimus was involved in a backstage brawl with as the rest of his band as the tour neared its end. The fight lead to the band's second dissolution. By 1990, Optimus opened "The Matrix of Music," a concert network dedicated to give emerging bands a home and bring music to the masses. In the years that ensued, Optimus decided to make all of his music available for free uplink on the Cybertronian Mainframe. This led to serious lawsuits.

By 2014, Optimus was still rocking the music scene, now the lead of a new band... until the call came to reunite with the other Knights. The reunion tour was sure to be like nothing ever seen before. Behind the Music

Games

Transformers Legends

After years of performing, The Knights of Unicron found themselves in need of new talent, especially since that spotlight-stealing hack Megatron often clashed with Optimus over creative differences. After a series of grueling auditions, Optimus and the rest of the band welcomed Smooth Jazz into their ranks. Years of glorious thrashing followed, cut short by infighting between Optimus and Megatron. The band split once more, going their separate ways for the time being. Knights of Unicron

Toys

Knights of Unicron

Alolan Optimus Prime.

• Knights of Unicron Reunion Tour Set (San Diego Comic-Con 2014 exclusive, 2014)
  • Accessories: "Ion blaster" rifle, microphone, big hair, scarf, belt, arm-fringe x2

Knights of Unicron Optimus Prime is a redeco of the Generations Deluxe Class Fall of Cybertron Optimus Prime, transforming into a Cybertronian truck cab. His ion cannon and microphone can mount via 5 mm posts onto ports on his hands, forearms, back, and shoulder smokestacks, though the microphone pegs in very shallowly and looks kinda ridiculous anywhere but his hands... yes, even for this toy.

Optimus's glam-rock looks are augmented with a variety of soft-goods add-ons, including a wig of huge white hair, two sets of arm-fringe, a blue scarf, and an inexplicable black belt, most of them secured by elastic fabric straps. Pretty much all of these need to be removed for conversion into vehicle mode, as the various parts need to come together very tightly, leaving no room for the soft goods (especially the hair).

He was only available in the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con "Knights of Unicron Reunion Tour Set", which also included hair-metal versions of Megatron, Smooth Jazz, Soundwave, and instrument-bots Laserbeak and Ratbat.

This mold was retooled into Fall of Cybertron Ultra Magnus.