Overlord (Transformers)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Transformers character | |
 |
|
| Overlord | |
|---|---|
| Allegiance | Decepticon (Destron) |
| Sub-Group | Godmasters (Powermasters) |
| Partners | Giga and Mega |
| Function | Ambassador of Destruction |
| Motto | "I stand my ground, I accept any challenge, I am hungry for conflict." |
| Alternate modes | Tank / SR-71 Blackbird / Defense Base |
| Fiction Appearances | Transformers: Masterforce / Transformers: Zone |
Overlord is a fictional character from the animated series Transformers: Super-God Masterforce and its accompanying toyline, initially exclusive to Japan.
[edit] Animated series
The story of Overlord begins with the mysterious alien energy-being, Devil Z, who sought to create the ultimate super-robot lifeform. Stealing a selection of Transformer Transtectors – lifeless robot bodies designed to merge with smaller robots – from a sector of space known as the G Nebula, he scattered them across the Earth, intending for them to absorb the planet’s energies, known as “Chichokon,” in addition to the heavenly “Tenchokon” energy they had acquired from the G Nebula. Alongside the largest of the eight Transtectors brought to the planet, Devil Z slumbered deep within an ocean trench, awaiting the day that his plan could come to fruition, and human souls would bond with the Transtectors, endowing them with “Jinchokon,” the power of man, and giving the resultant lifeforms, the Godmasters, the power over the three primal energies of life.
That day came when two human beings, a husband and wife named Giga and Mega, came into Devil Z’s service and were both bonded with the largest Transtector (the animated series offers no explanation for how this occurred, but the accompanying manga strongly implies that the couple died at sea and had their bodies recovered and resurrected by Devil Z). The duo now controlled the dual aspects of the Transtector – Giga piloted the “Gigatank,” while Mega controlled the “Megajet,” which could combine together to form either a defense base or the giant robot known as Overlord.
With Devil Z already having brainwashed BlackZarak, the commander of the evil Decepticons – currently engaged in battling the heroic Autobots in the depths of space – Overlord was branded as a Decepticon, the “Amabassador of Destruction” with Devil Z as the emperor. While Devil Z’s other agents, the Decepticon Pretenders and Headmaster Juniors, kept the small Autobot force remaining on Earth occupied, the so-dubbed “Lord Giga” and “Lady Mega” set about locating other Godmasters on Earth, finding the German brothers Buster and Hydra and recruiting them to the Decepticon side. After the two groups of Decepticons were then gathered together under Giga and Mega’s command, a race ensued between the Autobots and Decepticons to locate the remaining Godmasters, only for the Autobots to acquire three.
Incensed by this failure, Giga and Mega took matters into their own hands, taking their Transtectors into battle for the first time. Luring the Autobot command Ginrai into the desert, Giga and Mega confronted him as Overlord and immediately proved their physical superiority by thrashing him so badly that he was near death. Overlord subsequently departed into space, taking control of a weather-monitoring base on the moon in order to rendezvous with the approaching BlackZarak there. Pursued by Ginrai, now merged with the drone Godbomber as the powered-up God Ginrai, Overlord and BlackZarak battled him and the Autobot battleship Grand Maximus; refusing to follow Overlord’s instruction to return to Earth, BlackZarak ultimately met defeat and fled back into space.
When BlackZarak returned, Devil Z’s plans escalated to the destruction of all human life on Earth, shocking Giga and Mega; where Devil Z had come to fear the power of Jinchokon that dwelled within all human beings, the couple celebrated their humanity. Dissention grew as Devil Z fused with BlackZarak and abandoned the Headmaster Juniors in the ruins of the destroyed Decepticon base, and Buster and Hydra, believing that their inability to defeat Ginrai was the result of human limitations, were transformed into fully robotic beings through Devil Z’s power. Confronting God Ginrai for one final time, Overlord vowed to fight him without weapons, battling him only through the use of his physical strength, through the power of his human flesh. When Devil Z turned on Buster and Hydra for their own failures, however, Overlord attempted to stop him, only to be on the receiving end of the emperor’s wrath. Rescued by God Ginrai, Giga and Mega finally turned against Devil Z, but when they aided God Ginrai in combating their former master, they were struck down and forcibly separated from their Transtector, which was brought to life through Devil Z’s power. As their Masterbraces vanished from their wrists, Giga and Mega died, regretting that they could not settle their rivalry with Ginrai honourably.
With the subsequent destruction of Devil Z at God Ginrai’s hands, the now-living Overlord Transtector fled into space with the other Decepticons, and joined with the main Decepticon force in space. After a series of short, silent cameos in the next series, Transformers: Victory, as a continued opponent for God Ginrai, Overlord returned in 1990 as one of the nine great Decepticon generals under the command of the mysterious insectoid being, Violenjiger.
[edit] European release
Not available outside of Japan in its original release year of 1988, Overlord was later sold in Europe in 1991. His function reclassified as “Self-Contained Nomadic Assault,” Giga and Mega became nameless “Energon mini-figures” and Overlord’s new biography depicted him as a legend among Decepticons by virtue of his very existence. Capable of handling any location or terrain, and apparently capable even of dimensional travel, Overlord keeps the Autobots perpetually uneasy – his body even contains an entire arms manufacturing plant capable of producing a vast array of weaponry, and his base mode serves to pave the way for the arrival of the Decepticon battle fleet. Overlord is, without a doubt, a robot ready for all-out war.
[edit] “Gigatron”
A model of Overlord was amongst the figures released in the fifth wave of the Japanese “Super Collection Figure” series of PVC figurines. Later exported to America as part of the “Heroes of Cybertron” line, the figure was renamed “Gigatron,” designated as a Powermaster (the English version of Godmasters) and given a bio derived from Overlord’s European release, along with the same motto, while retaining his original Japanese function as “Ambassador of Destruction.”
Later, during Dreamwave Productions’ 21st Century re-imagining of the Transformers universe, “Gigatron” was said to be an ancient robot credited with the creation of Powermaster technology.
