Original Form First Appearance: Beast Wars Part 1 Beast Mode: Gorilla Weapons: Shoulder Canons (2), Double-barreled wrist blaster (2), Swords (2) When Megatron stole the Golden Disk, one of Cybertron's most prized objects, Optimus Primal and his crew were the closest ship to the group of criminal Predacons. Optimus Primal chased them all their time-warp signature back to pre-historic Earth, where both ships were shot down. Because of the energon deposits located around the planet, Optimus and his crew were forced to take beast forms in order to shield themselves from the deadly crystals. Optimus chose the form of a powerful gorilla. He led his crew on numerous dangerous missions to try to defeat Megatron and his army. Although he often gained the upper hand, his missions often ended up accomplishing some goals, but not the main one. After the plan of the mysterious aliens named the Vok was unveiled (ignite the energon deposits and therefore destroy the planet), Optimus took on an extremely dangerous mission to try and save both the Maximals and Predacons. He was going to ride a stasis pod up to the Planet Buster and cause a transwarp explosion. As he was ready to eject from the pod, he found that he couldn't escape from the pod. Megatron had sealed it, forcing him to be destroyed as well as the Planet Buster.

Transmetal Form First Appearance: Coming of the Fuzors Part 2 Beast Mode: Gorilla Vehicle Mode: Hover Board Weapons: Hand Held Blaster, Hand Held Clubs (2), Double Barreled Back Mounted Canon After Optimus Primal had been "destroyed" in the transwarp explosion caused by the Planet Buster, the Maximals were without a commander. Once Rhinox and Rattrap found a stasis pod with a protoform who was without a spark, Rhinox went off-line and searched the Matrix for the spark off his former leader. While in the heat of battle, Optimus' spark was found. After Rhinox was forced back into reality, the spark off Optimus Primal returned to Earth and merged with the blank protoform that had been found earlier. After all had seemed lost for the Maximals, the new Transmetal Optimus Primal emerged and turned the tide of the battle. Using his new found Transmetal technology, Optimus had superior weaponry, a new hoverboard mode, and was not effected by energon. For a long duration of time, Optimus and his crew of Maximals battled Megatron for the most part pretty evenly, both factions occasionally gaining the upper hand. However, when Megatron showed his true intentions, Optimus Primal was forced to do drastic measures which forever changed him.

Optimal Form First Appearance: Optimal Situation Beast Mode: Gorilla Vehicle Modes: Hypersonic Attack Jet, Armored Ground Assault Vehicle Weapons: Double Missile Launchers, Hand Held Shield (2) Realizing just a little too late that Megatron had entered the Ark and was attempting to destroy the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, Transmetal Optimus Primal attempted to hold two sparks in his one body - his own and the spark (and Matrix) of Optimus Prime. This caused his body to take a drastic change and thus the huge and extremely powerful Optimal Optimus was born. Although he returned the spark to it's rightful owner, Optimus Primal maintained his optimal form. While the Maximal leader was inhabiting this form, he was very dedicated to protecting the Ark against any more assaults by Megatron. In doing this, he saw the loss of his own ship, the Axalon. In this form, he also saw many of his comrades deaths including Tigerhawk and Depth Charge. These losses occurred due to Megatron's resurfacing of the original Decepticon warship, Nemesis. Still trying to protect the Ark, Optimus and his crew faced Megatron's newest plan head on. After travelling into Nemesis, Optimus managed to some what persuade Transmetal 2 Dinobot to turn against Megatron and distract Megatron long enough for Rhinox to crash into the ship with a newly found Autobot shuttle and nearly destroy Nemesis, which went sailing off into the horizon. However, Dinobot was killed. With G1 Megatron's spark returned and a shuttle to leave Earth by, Optimus and his Maximals travelled back to their home of Cybertron, with a screaming Megatron on the roof.