#chōkon power

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #376 - "Human Component: Minerva"

Originally posted on May 4th, 2009

Story, Art - Iván Mas Thanks to - Carlos Oliveros

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: Minerva was one of the most dramatic reinventions of a Hasbro toy for the Japanese market, a complete redeco of Nightbeat into a medic’s car. Ignoring later retcons, she was the first ever toy of a female Transformer. Together with Shūta and Cab, she was one of the three schoolkids given a Master-Brace by the Autobots, which allows her to transform into a Headmaster and combine with a Transtector. Chōkon Power is involved somehow. Given that Minerva is a schoolgirl, perhaps you’re wondering why Mas has drawn her Like That. Great question! Mas’s stated justification (per the machine-translated commentary I’ve included below the break, along with some extra art) is that he found the premise of the young teens driving around saving the world too far-fetched, so he’s aged them up a bit. Sure, I guess. If we’re talking in terms of the plot of Masterforce, this strip appears to be set after the fourth episode, “Birth! Headmaster Jrs”, which has the first altercation between the Autobot and Decepticon Headmaster Juniors—but obviously Mas is adapting the story for a new audience so is at liberty to futz with this kind of thing. To paraphase a comment by Mas on deviantART, he justifies the sheer quantity of text in this strip by reminding readers that he’s writing about a story/characters most readers will have zero familiarity with, because he’s “not interested in explaining Starscream’s treachery towards Megatron, or how nice Hot Rod is”! Based?

The idea is simple, I want to introduce the main characters of Masterfroce, which outside Japan, are more or less unknown in many countries, and the series, in terms of potential, seems to me the most profitable and innovative.

Personally I have always wanted to face Transformers in a more serious and adult way, more in line with these times, I think that the younger audience already has its "Animated" and will always have the classic series.

I also think that it would be relatively easy to make Transformers a good comic of say "superheroes or robots" and I mean a comic that both Transformers and non Transformers fans would like. And I think it would be easy to put it at the level of ... maybe some x-men (?!) ( sacrilegeee!!!! ) ( not in terms of sales volume, that's logical, but in essence ).

Another of the "problems" that I feel transformers comics have in general is that at graphic level the robots are indeed very well, but that’s all.... when it comes to drawing backgrounds or humans ........... let's be frank although it annoys us, in the comic world, nobody takes transformers as something serious, it is considered a sub-product ( never better said "SUB" ) to simply sell dolls, of course, so far they have done well.

In the mosaic, first of all I tried to create the same feeling I had with Masterforce when I saw it,

- really, this is transformers ? no robots ! -

So, in none of these mosaics I'm going to introduce anything related to robots, although of course, they are an important or fundamental part of the theme.

But before we talked about giving an adult touch to the theme, and in this aspect, I am more interested in what the "souls" of the robots may think, which in this case is the function that humans do, in order to be able to understand better the metallic beings.

But in this aspect I always give the same example... in "the walking dead" the main thing should be the zombies, however they end up being something secondary... and nobody will deny that the series is more than good.

However in this Mosaic, those of you who know Masterforce will have noticed.... in the series, Minerva was not so grown up.... well, I have done it for coherence, the eighties were another thing, but today, it would be too far-fetched, even within the far-fetched nature of the story, that a girl of 15 years not only drove a car, without being stopped by the police, but also save lives and worlds, with the maturity that presumably entails.

Masterforce is also not a new twist to the same, which would be easy and what every X time is already done, but a new concept, an evolution of robots and characters, far are the already "incarcerated and typical" Prime and Megatron, beings to which I have great respect and appreciation, but I consider that neither the fans of Transformers or any series can live forever of the same characters, even more when they are so well known, in this case,

Wolverine is a good example, nowadays it is very difficult to create something surprisingly good and new with Wolverine and even more without breaking the different continuities.

Or Batman too... to create something that really catches the attention, they have had to kill Bruce Wayne .....

I know that I run the risk that many because people don’t see robots, they won’t be interested interested in the story, but without wanting to seem offensive, that’s your problem, we have been watching Prime and Megatron for 25 years..... and I'm starting to get a little tired, and besides even at the time Masterforce was better than the original G.1 in almost all concepts, in animation, character design, drawing and scripting.

So, I hope that people can discover and enjoy Masterforce and I hope that those who already know it can "open" their mind a little and they will like it, if not... they will always have Prime and Megatron.

[askvectorprime]

are godmasters more powerful than powermasters in the japanese G1 universe

Dear Partner Powerful,

You must understand that the Powermaster and Godmaster systems of the OG World exist for very different purposes. The Powermaster transtectors as originally constructed in the G Nebula were designed for the adaptation of exotic energy sources for Transformer use. Through an organic middleman, mysterious and dangerous fuels such as Super Energon, Angolmois and Nucleon could be used safely. These transtectors were intended to be piloted by Nebulan warriors as a sign of good relations between the Autobots and the galactic community. A third, three-way combination was prepared whereby a cocktail of experimental fuels would be applied to the residual energy of Convoy from within the Matrix in order to revive him. Though this plan was stopped by Devil Z after he stole the transtectors, Super Convoy would later adopt a version of this body in order to ferry Nucleon back to Cybertron with the help of Hi-Q.

Godmasters, meanwhile, were altered by the occult technologies of Devil Z. This new system takes advantage of the inherent properties of the organic humanoid form to channel the very mystic energy of the universe itself, Chōkon Power. They can mold this power in ways that are nigh-impossible to replicate through conventional science; Sixknight’s Six Clan processor-over-matter training gave him an impressive control over Tenchōkon Power, but even that paled in comparison to the Godmasters’ full mastery over its three main branches.

It is important to note that both variants of the technology’s organic components are irreplaceable. A Powermaster cannot transform without their partner, for one thing. Super Convoy would not adopt this form again, precisely because he felt he could not risk his life in the name of freedom while a sentient being formed part of his body. The living transtectors who joined the Autobot war effort after separating from their original organic selves could no longer fully utilise Chōkon Power. Such mighty power would not be seen among Cybertronians again until the techno-organic reformatting of Cybertron, whereby the Maximals and Predacons would come to unknowingly utilise the true power of the Oracle: Kijūchōkon.

But I digress. Though few Powermasters would actually surface in this world, I believe that a sufficiently trained Godmaster would be able to overcome one, their mystical energies allowing for unconventional attacks on their opponent. That said, such a confrontation would be extremely unlikely, much to the benefit of the universe. Though Ginrai and his friends were heroes all, I admit that I dread to think of the destructive potential of such a being, and cannot help being relieved that these humans' separation from their Transtectors led to the full power of the Godmasters being lost. One only has to look at the godlike power bestowed upon the likes of the misanthropic Buster and Hydra to be reminded of the dangers of easily-attained strength.

[transtech-zine]

Page 04:

CHARACTER BIOS

Cheetor – Supreme Commander

Not that long ago, Cheetor was an impulsive, speed-obsessed punk.  Then he was forced to step up as a squad leader during the Battle of the Sparks.  Now, for what he feels was merely being in the right place at the right time, Cheetor must face his most challenging role yet: leader of Cybertron.  He doesn’t doubt that he’s still the fastest cat on two or four wheels; it’s the responsibility of running a planet that weighs heavy on his shoulders.  After all, why should he and his team lead Cybertron just because they were the ones to liberate it?

Optimus Prime senses great potential in Cheetor, and has taken him on as a mentee – tutelage for which Cheetor is grateful.  While he chafes when Optimus oversteps his bounds and starts giving his team orders, on some level he’d like to be that cocksure rookie again.

Under Optimus, Cheetor has honed his Transcendence ability.  He no longer needs to dream to see a prophetic vision of the future; now his Transcendence allows him a flash of foresight.  Combined with his super speed, this makes Cheetor a dangerous and evasive adversary in any combat situation.

Optimus Prime – Mentor

The legendary leader of the Autobots.  Once, he singlehandedly ended the Great War by trapping himself and Decepticon High Command in the Millennia Dome, ensuring they would be suspended in time for all eternity… barring accidents.  Now, Optimus Prime finds himself on an unfamiliar Cybertron, surrounded by new faces and old enemies.  Allying himself with Cheetor’s squad of former Maximals, Optimus is committed to ensuring that Megatron’s forces do not shatter the peace that he has fought so long to establish.

After initial teething troubles, Optimus Prime has stepped out of the spotlight and into an advisory role, counselling Cheetor and the younger Autobots.  In this capacity, Optimus is a veritable fount of wisdom, with four million years’ worth of battle experience under his belt.  However, his charges sometimes find that his insight is more applicable to times of all-out warfare rather than the relative peace of Cybertropolis.

When called upon to battle, Optimus Prime is a force to be reckoned with.  Upgrades during the Great War have maxed out his abilities, giving him above average strength, speed, and firepower.  His Transcendence allows him to manifest hard light energy weapons, including his signature axe.

Transcendence

The Battle for the Sparks was the Maximals’ darkest hour.  Optimus Primal and his team had managed to seize control of the Grand Mal, the Vehicon Megatron’s stronghold, and with it the lost sparks of every civilian on Cybertron.  But they were outnumbered and outgunned, besieged by the Vehicons from all angles.  Primal retreated to the sparks’ chamber, where the spiritualist beseeched the Oracle – the supercomputer at the heart of Cybertron – to grant him the wisdom and strength needed to defeat Megatron and bring balance to Cybertron.  Speaking as one, the captive sparks granted the Maximals phenomenally boosted power and speed.  For a time, this allowed them to have the upper hand over their Vehicon enemies, but their newfound abilities faded when Megatron cut their connection to the Oracle.

However, part of the Oracle’s power still lingers within Cheetor’s team, beginning to manifest in ways they cannot control.  Optimus Prime recognises the effects; the ancient hero was similarly touched by the Oracle during the final phase of the Autobots’ war with the Decepticons.  Under Optimus Prime’s tutelage, each of the former Maximals can begin to harness that power and channel it into a unique special ability.

I wanted to bring some of Beast Machines’ sense of graphic design to the page layouts in this zine.  The font used for the headers is Neuropolitical, a wide font that screams 90s graphic design.  Rounded rectangles are used in this section, as they are on Beast Machines’s cardbacks.  The dotted and dashed lines in later pages are also from BM toy packages.

We start with a potted history of Cheetor.  Following Beast Machines’ finale, which feels like a definitive ending, the question is, what happens next?  The answer is: Cheetor gets anxiety.  It’s easy to write a story where the hero wins and becomes the king of the land, but to me there’s always the lingering doubt that swashbuckling heroism is transferable experience to governing.  Cheetor’s impostor syndrome is deliberately evocative of the G1 cartoon’s version of Rodimus Prime, including an episode where he gets to be young and reckless again.

There isn’t much of a close-up look at Cheetor’s head in extant Transtech concepts.  Notoriously, pictures of his toy prototype lack his finished robot mode.  As I’d intended to digibash said toy back into existence, I had to pick a pre-existing head to model his appearance on, so I chose his relatively obscure Titanium Series toy.  It’s not made clear in the credits, but I drew all the character profile art.

With Cheetor in the main hero role, Optimus Prime has to become a mentor.  This is patterned after the Robots in Disguise 2015 cartoon, where Optimus returns to life and finds himself at odds with Bumblebee’s leadership.

“Barring accidents” is a Doctor Who quote, for some reason.

At once stage I was committed to referring to the character as “Optimus Prime”, never “Optimus” nor “Prime” alone.  I’m glad I dropped that.

Look at me, retconning both Cheetor’s prophetic dreams and Optimus’ energo-axe into manifestations of the same ability.  It’s like poetry, it rhymes.

When my brother proofread an earlier draft of this zine, he fed back that Transcendence was quickly glossed over in the overview without ever being clearly explained what it was and who could use it.  I added this additional section in here; while not strictly a character bio, it does allow me a consistent three profiles per page.

EDIT: Just over a year later, the fan-run unofficial continuation of Ask Vector Prime here on tumblr would retcon Transcendence as a variant of Masterforce’s Chōkon Power, giving it the name Kijūchōkon, roughly meaning “Machine Beast Super Soul Power”.  Transtech is shonen now

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, how do some beastformers react to "furry" subculture on earth, especially in universes where they are discriminated against? Is it empowering to them to see a completely foreign race value aspects of themselves that their own race often doesn't?

Dear Zoic Zealot,

While I can't speak of the species as a whole, I do remember a group of humans who called themselves "furries" who ended up dealing with the beastformers. The heroic White Leo, Platinum Tiger, and Hedgehog had come to Earth to aid the Monsterbots in their fight against the Predacons. When the beastformers were injured by the Predacons' treachery, three bystanders stepped forward to protect them despite the dangers to themselves. The power of Jinchōkon and Jūchōkon combined, transforming the human's unusual garb into new headmaster suits. Dakota Ball, Flynn Gale, and Daniel Stadt bonded with the Monsterbots, allowing them to drive off the Predacons.

For their fearlessness, the three humans were acclaimed by the beastformers, and in turn they invited the offworlders to their festival. The six were treated as guests of honour, and by all accounts loved the experience, pleased that humans enjoyed the animal life of their own world and others.

[askvectorprime]

What’s the true difference between Nebulon bonding and Masterforce based tech for headmasters?

Dear Master Maestro,

The process that you term “Nebulan bonding” is generally a more invasive physical procedure; the organism in question requires a complex series of surgeries, cybernetic implants, and neural nodes in order to interface with the external Headmaster suit, which will then in turn take the place of a living Cybertronian’s cranial unit.

The Masterforce process is, in general, a more mystical one, involving the application of Chōkon Power; as the process usually unites a living being—organic or mechanical—with a non-sentient Transtector unit, less care needs to be taken in ensuring the mental health and stability of the individual who transforms into the head.

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, if a Saiyan from planet Vegeta (or any other species capable of generating ki) were to become a headmaster, would the robot mode be able to use ki as well?

Dear Saiyan Surmiser,

Yes. All living beings generate ki, even technological ones. The scientists in G Nebula 749, G Nebula 761 and G Nebula 778 discovered that humans and other sufficiently strong ki-generating lifeforms could greatly enhance Cybertronian abilities. You are surely familiar with the Godmasters, who combined three kinds of Chōkon Power to great effect. The Godmaster system was found to be more useful for offensive capabilities than Headmaster, which were more useful for tactical assessments of battle. Life forms that generate enough ki to be useful by Cybertronians are rare across the cosmos, and this fact may account for Earth's importance in our multiverse. At best, Earth is a kindred sentient species; at worst, it is a harvesting ground.

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, has Septimus Prime ever been a member of the 13? Also, is there a member of the 13 that focuses on the Masterforce or Chokon Power?

Dear Primal Programmer,

After the Age of Primes came to an end, Septimus Prime remained on Cybertron to help steward its nascent civilization. Septimus had always found great fulfillment in service to a power greater than oneself, and under his guidance Cybertronians devoted themselves to Primus, Arrius, Xal and many more. In those dark days early in our world's history, where its fragile society threatened to come undone, Septimus would organize festivities, parades and feasting that offered Cybertron small joys—a beacon to carry them through the dark.

As to your second question, my sister Energoa's command of energy extended even to these more spiritual forces. Though she struggled at first to reconcile their existence with her rationalist worldview, by meditating and discussing philosophy with Onyx Prime she was able to gain understanding—and, eventually, mastery—of the mysteries of chōkon power.

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, Do you know of any universe where the humans Shinichi and Mayumi were involved in the conflict between Ginrai's Autobots and Devil Z's Decepticons? And did they indeed jointly control the "Doubleclouder" Transtector?

Dear Divergent Dealer,

Indeed. In an alternative version of the Masterforce War, the experimental Doubletector was lost on Earth alongside the various other Transtectors. Particularly fine-tuned for Chōkon Power manipulation, both sides began a frantic search for it once they realised it was somewhere on the planet. While Turtler's Seacons scoured the globe, the Autobot search was headed by Hawk's human assistant, Shinichi Mishima. Eventually, the Doubletector was found at a military base, where it had taken the form of an experimental missile truck. The Autobots and Decepticons hurried to the base, where by coincidence Mayumi Kasugano was being given a tour. The orphaned heiress of the arms manufacturer who had designed the truck, Mayumi was more than happy to use her dead parents' wealth to fund her devil-may-care lifestyle. During the battle, both came into contact with the Doubletector, and both were bonded to it. Naturally, Shinichi wished to use its power for the Autobots, while Mayumi saw the Decepticons as a new chance at some fun. While bonded with Shinichi, the truck could turn into the robot warrior Doubleclouder, while Mayumi could use it to transform into the mechanical vulture Doubledealer (named in honour of her gambling habit).

Both had their share of troubles during the conflict. For one thing, the Doubletector turned out to be extremely volatile, randomly teleporting to the other's side at various inconvenient moments. However, even in their Master suits they had mighty abilities: control over machinery and hypnosis, respectively. Beyond battle, both also had deep personal issues to grapple with. While Shinichi's analytical mind had served him well as Autobot support staff, as a Godmaster warrior he came off as cold and detached, leading to many a clash with the hot-headed Ginrai. Meanwhile, Mayumi was shocked to find that the Decepticons functioned as something of a family unit, buckling under Giga and Mega's villainous yet caring attempts at parenting.

Ultimately, Shinichi was able to wrest total control over the Doubletector from Mayumi in a burst of emotion, after she dealt a grievous wound to Metalhawk. As a result, Devil Z would construct her a replacement using data taken from her time as Doubledealer: the gold-plated Tripledealer. By this time, Mayumi had become increasingly disillusioned with the Decepticons. As the horrific galactic scale of the war became rapidly apparent, she decided she no longer wanted a part in this, and allowed Doubleclouder to destroy the Tripledealer Transtector.

After Devil Z was defeated and the various Transtectors became true super-robot lifeforms, Shinichi decided to follow the Autobots into space as their tech specialist. He bid an emotional farewell to Ginrai in particular, the two men having proven themselves to each other. Mayumi would use her family's wealth to quit the arms business and become head of a post-war reconstruction NGO, adopting Cancer as her younger brother. Truly, battling alongside Cybertronians imposes a curious transformation on humans.