Is Convoy/Optimus Prime a Super Robot?

I've been giving this some thought lately. In truth, it was the Revoltech figure that really got me thinking...

Would Convoy fall under the heading of Super Robot?

He is the same and yet very different from all other Transformers. He is always there in some way, shape, or form.

He has all these super attacks and power up grades.

If you count masterForce's Ginrai as a Convoy (and I certainly do), then he was even once piloted by a human being.


I think he is and I think he is just as important and as some of the icons like Mazinger and co.

What do you all think?

-Ray


GREAT BIG SOFUBI LOVE!

Depends if he's written by westerners or asians.

Nah. The sentient alien argument notwithstanding, super robots roll alone...or in very small teams. Prime's just one of a whole damn race. If Prime's a super robot, then what about Omega Supreme, or one of the city-formers, or...?

--
Sanjeev

'Us Massholes straight up just don't give a fuck. I still pronounce "Mazinger" as "Tranzor Z".'
-Nekrodave

Sanjeev Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nah. The sentient alien argument notwithstanding,
> super robots roll alone...or in very small teams.
> Prime's just one of a whole damn race. If Prime's
> a super robot, then what about Omega Supreme, or
> one of the city-formers, or...?
>
> --
> Sanjeev
>
> Stab, stab, stab...with my chogo-stabbin' knife!


Very good points. But, in naming the original series Super Robot Life Form Transformers, weren't the Japanese implying that ALL Transformers are super robots?

-Ray

But the Transformers aren't labelled "Supaa Robotto Seimeitai" like Super Robot Taisen or Super Robots View Broadly or anything - they're "Cho Robotto Seimeitai". Cho can be translated as 'super', or 'extraordinary' or 'surpassing', but I don't think cho robotto is used interchangeably with the English phrase "super robot".

-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH

This is anal and geeky as hell: but the whole Super Robot Lifeform thing != super robot. Mazinger and company are not sentient, there's a human inside piloting them, et cetera. However, they are just like the robot lifeforms in Machine Robo and that kind of show.

Masterforce is the exception where Transformers are concerned, and not the rule. MF does have Godmasters and Headmaster Juniors and such that are basically super robots, but they are still hanging out with regular Transformers as well. It's kind of a tokusatsu pastiche. There's even a seen right after Ginrai gets the bracelets that allow him to transform into his armored suit and then connect with the robot, and he crosses his wrists and yells, "Henshin!" just like Kamen Rider, but he panicks when nothing happens and angry Destrons are trying to kill him. Oh, turns out you have to yell, "Masterforce!" instead. Hahaha.

-Ginrai
Golden Gate Riot on dead trees at: [www.destroyallcomics.com]

Ginrai Wrote:
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> and he crosses his
> wrists and yells, "Henshin!" just like Kamen
> Rider, but he panicks when nothing happens and
> angry Destrons are trying to kill him. Oh, turns
> out you have to yell, "Masterforce!" instead.
> Hahaha.
>
> -Ginrai


That is the single funniest moment in Masterforce. You can tell that Ginrai learned everything he knew about super heroes from watching TV. :)

But, I'm a little confused. Are you saying you think Transformers are or are not Super Robots?

-Ray

I am saying in general Transformers are not super robots, but the Godmasters and Headmaster Juniors that are controlled by humans are the exception.

-Ginrai
Golden Gate Riot on dead trees at: [www.destroyallcomics.com]