Information AboutNucleon (power Source) |
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ORIGINAL CONCEPT Bob Budiansky , the original author of Marvel Comics ' '' Transformers '' series, conceived the original plot for Nucleon, originally titled ''Transformers: New Generation''. The basics of the concept were related on the toy packaging in considerably truncated form. With Energon steadily becoming scarcer and scarcer on Cybertron , the events that originally brought the Transformers to Earth are mirrored as Optimus Prime leads a group of Autobot s in source of new supplies of energy, eventually coming across Nucleon - a form of energy that has been altered by its passage through a Black Hole , and compact into chunks of solid matter. So great is its power that a fragment of it the size of a grain of sand can power a Transformer for a year. On the brink of deactivation themselves, Prime and the Autobots have no option but to ingest some of the Nucleon on the spot, and although the power surge is instant, so is its unforeseen side-effect - within the Transformers' bodies, their delicate reconfiguration circuitry is overloaded, fusing together, robbing them of their ability to transform. The fused circuits instead serve as batteries, storing the power of the Nucleon. Unwilling to accept the sudden loss of a function that has been such a vital weapon in their arsenal, Optimus Prime arranges for the construction of "partners" for the affected Autobots - droids and vehicles, some piloted, some autonomous, but all with the ability to transform. The Decepticon s are easily bested in combat by this new breed of Autobots, and Megatron strikes back by orchestrating a raid on the Autobots' Nucleon storage facility, repeating the effects on himself and his troops, and constructing new vehicles and partners for them. MARVEL COMICS Current Marvel Comics author, Simon Furman , would go on to take Nucleon in a radically different direction. Following the assault by the Underbase -powered Starscream a vast number of Autobot troops were left deactivated, stored in The Ark 's stasis pods until Grimlock , dissatisfied with Optimus Prime's leadership after the Matrix Quest , went on an unauthorised quest of his own to revive his fallen Dinobot comrades. Having already heard of the fabled fuel, Nucleon, Grimlock headed to the planet Hydrus 4 , a rough, hostile robotic Jungle planet, where he encountered strange Zombie -like robotic lifeforms, only capable of feeling instant rage and hatred towards anyone who comes to seek the power source for themselves. The zombie robots attacked Grimlock on sight, shouting ''"None must feed! Defend the well!"'', but Grimlock was easily able to fend them off. One small robot remained, but rather than attack Grimlock, he warned him - the robots he had fought were not seeking to keep Nucleon to themselves, they were attempting to prevent anyone else from risking exposure to it. Nucleon, the robot warned, affects no two kinds of lifeform the same, and sometimes, the results are horrific. Grimlock, unwilling to expose his Dinobots to any risk he would not take himself, exposed himself to the Nucleon, and immediately felt its restorative effects. Undaunted, he soon had the Dinobots re-energised with the miracle fuel, and pumped it into the Ark's stasis pods, reviving all the deactivated Autobots. Over the next brief period, Grimlock began to fear that he had been too hasty when his joints periodically began to lock up, rendering him immobile. Immediately following the epic conflict with Unicron , Grimlock and the Dinobots were attacked by subterranean Cybertron ian lifeforms, and during the battle, the entirety of Grimlock's body locked up, completely paralysing him. Only Hi-Q, the Powermaster partner of Optimus Prime, could see the true meaning of the process - Grimlock was not simply immobilised, he had entered a Chrysalis stage, a portent of an incredible transformation. Tapping into the process and accelerating it with his Powermaster abilities, Hi-Q set Grimlock free - truly transformed, Grimlock burst free of his old body in a new, more powerful one, and was able to save his comrades. But the price he had paid was immediately clear - he could no longer transform. No further Transformers were shown to transform into Action Masters in the comic's pages, but several characters such as Krok and Rollout , who ''only'' existed in the Action Masters toyline, did put in appearances. In issue #80, the final issue, Optimus Prime returned in a body based on his Action Master toy (though writer Simon Furman attests that had the series not been cancelled, Prime would not have actually ''been'' an Action Master in execution). Later, a text-only story included in the final UK ''Transformers'' annual told of a near future in which all exposed to Nucleon had surrendered to that fate, only for a means to reverse the process to be created. Unrealised ideas Simon Furman has spoken of the direction in which he wished to take the Nucleon idea, had the comic carried on any further. Of the Dinobots, only Snarl would have actually become a non-transforming Action Master, as he was the only other Dinobot released in the toyline. Working out of the concept that Nucleon did not affect all mechanoids the same way, Furman had assorted undivulged fates planned for various other Transformers, including something particularly gruesome for Slag . ACTION MASTERS ELITE Although the Action Masters released in 1990 proved to be the final year's worth of toys in the US , several more figures were released exclusively in Europe in 1991. Six more figures with transforming partners were released, and four more with vehicles, but most notable were the four 'Action Master Elites', Doublepunch, Omega Spreeem, Turbo Master and Windmill (apparently based on Black Zarak , Omega Supreme and Bruticus , going by their sculpts, but each with highly inaccurate paint jobs, and with Windmill based on no particular character). Flying in the face of the Action Master concept, these figures were actually able to transform, (into a scorpion, a tank and two helicopters respectively), with button-activated motion features. |
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