Leader-1
Encyclopedia
Leader-1 is the name of several fictional characters from the Go-Bots, Robo Machines
and Transformers toy lines in 1983. The original Leader-1 was voiced by Lou Richards in the animated Challenge of the Gobots series. Since then Hasbro acquired legal rights to the name and has used it for a Mini-Con
.
, Leader-1 is the leader of the Guardians. He is a brave leader who cares deeply about his people. He believes not one person should be in charge. He supports the democratic system of the Guardians. This led his former friend, Cy-Kill
, to break away from the Guardians. He took command of the evil Renegades and became Leader-1's worst enemy.
Leader-1 can fly, project energy blasts, and project a force field (which rapidly drains his power reserves). He has been known to use Guardian power suits that increases his speed and strength.
.
Cy-Kill
, Cop-Tur
, Crasher
and Snoop attacked Leader-1, Turbo
, Scooter
and Small Foot. Crasher wounded Small Foot. After attaining recordings of the Guardians the Renegades retreated. Using the recordings Cy-Kill had Herr Fiend
program robot duplicates of the Guardians. When demonstrating Space Bender weapon to Unicom Leader-1 learned that the Renegades were attacking Washington. The Renegades ambushed Leader-1 and replaced him with his duplicate. Leading the Command Center back to Gobotron and getting rid of Scooter and Small Foot the Renegades then released duplicates of Path Finder, Rest-Q, Van Guard and Turbo. Small Foot and Scooter were able to capture the Turbo duplicate and learn where their friends were being held. Cy-Kill then replaced Good Night. Using the duplicate Turbo the Guardians infiltrated the Renegade base, freed the captured Guardians and escape from Spoons and Fitor
. Although blocked by the Renegades, Scooter used a hologram of Zod
to make the Renegades flee. Making it back to Gobotron the Guardians were attacked by the Guardian duplicates. The real Guardians were able to defeat their duplicates with the aid of the real Zeemon, Hans-Cuff and Rest-Q. Cy-Kill then arrived in Thrustor with more duplicates, but Small Foot was able to stop with robots using the Space Bender, which would fuse their robot brains.
Leader-1 appears in "Auto Madic" episode #28, where he dons a Power Suit and helped form the Power Warrior Courageous, which defeats Puzzler.
Leader-1 appeared in "Return of Gobotron" episode #45. He was given one of the Power Suits by the Last Engineer, which featured enhanced speed and strength. He combined with the other suits and the Last Engineer's ship to form the Power Warrior Courageous and defeat a fleet of Renegade Thrustors.
Scooter and Small Foot joined Nick and A.J. to watch a car stunt show which was attacked by Crasher
, Buggyman and Fly Trap. Small Foot fought Buggyman and defeated him, but the Renegades regained the upper hand until the Guardians were rescued by Leader-1 and Turbo
who arrived in Power Suits. Cy-Kill vowed to gain Power Suits for the Renegades. Scooter decided he needed more firepower, so he had Baron Von Joy remove his damaged holo projector in favor of a blaster unit. Screw Head, Bad Boy and Cop-Tur
were sent to attack Unicom bases and distract the Guardians while Cy-Kill, Crasher and Scorp attempted to take the suits from the Guardian Command Center. Small Foot and Scooter were able to delay the Renegades until Leader-1 and Turbo returned to chase away the Renegades. Realizing he was a better Guardian with his holo projector, Scooter had it reinstalled.
Leader-1 lead the Guardian Gobot forces who aided the Rock Lord Boulder on the planet Cordax.
story Withered Hope.
animated sketch "Transformers Go Hollywood". In the sketch, Optimus Prime
and Megatron talk about their live-action film's success at a cafe when they are met by Leader-1, who works as a waiter in the cafe. Leader-1 is heavily ridiculed by Prime and Megatron as he attempts to give them the script to his proposed film project. He rushes to the restroom and talks to Johnny 5
before locking himself in a toilet stall to cry over his insults.
Leader-1 has appeared in the animated comedy series Robot Chicken
.
was named Leader-1 (Barrel in Japan). This character has no connection to the GoBot Leader-1. Leader-1 was later recolored into Clench (Spark Barrel) as a partner to Armada Galvatron
, then into Caliburn as a partner to Megazarak.
Leader-1 has two different official mottos. The first comes from his biography page in Dreamwave comics, and the second from his biography page in the Transformers: Armada Official Guidebook.
Bio: [From the Troop Assessment Files of Megatron, Decepticon Leader] It's quite laughable, really. In the very core of his spark, Leader-1 truly believes that-somehow, some way-he'll eventually become a leader in fact and not just name. At first, he tried to ingratiate himself with me, doing everything from suggesting battle tactics on the field to helping keep the other Mini-Cons in line in order to win my favor. When it became clear that this behavior wouldn't convince me to let him assume a station of command, he resorted to open acts of treachery against me...I still haven't forgotten his homicidal insubordination on the Moon. Yet, his tenacity and ingenuity occasionally impress me; in these respects, he is far superior to the average Mini-Con. But that changes nothing. I will never allow a lowly Mini-Con to exert any control over my operations or me; they are tools to be manipulated, nothing more. For Leader-1 to believe he can be something more than that, to think for one astrosecond that he could ever stand with me as an equal, is ridiculous and insulting beyond words. I will dash his dreams at every turn until he understands his place...if he doesn't, then he will be discarded and replaced.
Weapons and Abilities: Although I'll never tell the little scraplet this, his abilities have proven valuable to me. Leader-1 is a surprisingly intelligent and tactically inclined Mini-Con; had he the fortune to be created a Decepticon instead of a Mini-Con, he would've made an excellent warrior. In addition to his mobile cannon mode, he can also transform into a powerful handgun for my use.
Weaknesses: Leader-1 gives himself more credit than he deserves. Although he's clever, his plans are too grandiose to be achieved by just him. After all, he's only a Mini-Con.
Leader-1 appeared among the Mini-Cons in issue #18 of the Transformers: Armada comic book who aided Over-Run using the Mini-Con Matrix in the defeat of Unicron.
Robo Machines
Robo Machines was a short-lived European transforming robot toyline released by Bandai from late 1992 to 1993. It was meant as an attempt to revive the European Robo Machine toyline that ran from 1982 to approximately 1988...
and Transformers toy lines in 1983. The original Leader-1 was voiced by Lou Richards in the animated Challenge of the Gobots series. Since then Hasbro acquired legal rights to the name and has used it for a Mini-Con
Mini-Con
Mini-Cons are a human-sized race and faction of power-enhancing transforming robots in the Transformers: Armada universe and its sequels, one of the assorted universes in Transformers fiction...
.
Gobots
In the animated series Challenge of the GoBotsChallenge of the GoBots
Challenge of the GoBots is an American animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera, based on the Gobots toy-line released from Tonka. Most of the toys were imported from the Japanese Machine Robo toy line. The show originally debuted in animated form as a five-part miniseries, which aired in...
, Leader-1 is the leader of the Guardians. He is a brave leader who cares deeply about his people. He believes not one person should be in charge. He supports the democratic system of the Guardians. This led his former friend, Cy-Kill
Cy-Kill
Cy-Kill is the name of several fictional characters from the Gobots, Robo Machines and Transformers toy line and fiction. Introduced as a toy in 1983, he is leader of the Renegade Gobot faction and the main antagonist of the animated series, where he was voiced by Bernard Erhard...
, to break away from the Guardians. He took command of the evil Renegades and became Leader-1's worst enemy.
Leader-1 can fly, project energy blasts, and project a force field (which rapidly drains his power reserves). He has been known to use Guardian power suits that increases his speed and strength.
Animated series
Leader-1 dons a Power Suit and helps form the Power Warrior Courageous, which defeats Ultra ZodZod (Gobots)
Zod is a fictional character in the Gobots and Machine Robo story and toy line.-Gobots:Zod is a giant, even among his fellow Gobots. Savage and beastial, he is one of Cy-Kill's most powerful weapons. Zod is considered the "Godzilla" of the Gobots....
.
Cy-Kill
Cy-Kill
Cy-Kill is the name of several fictional characters from the Gobots, Robo Machines and Transformers toy line and fiction. Introduced as a toy in 1983, he is leader of the Renegade Gobot faction and the main antagonist of the animated series, where he was voiced by Bernard Erhard...
, Cop-Tur
Cop-Tur
Cop-Tur is the name of several fictional characters in the Gobots, Robo Machines and Transformers toy lines, and the subsequent fiction. They transform into futuristic helicopters. They are all based on adaptations of the character Gyro Robo from the Machine Robo toy line...
, Crasher
Crasher
Crasher is the name of several fictional characters in the Gobots toyline, and the subsequent Challenge of the GoBots cartoon and Transformers series...
and Snoop attacked Leader-1, Turbo
Turbo (Gobots)
Turbo is a fictional character in the Gobots toyline, and the subsequent Challenge of the Gobots cartoon. The character transformed into a concept car. Turbo was among the main trio of heroes of the cartoon series, and appeared in every episode along side Leader-1 and Scooter...
, Scooter
Scooter (Gobots)
Scooter is a fictional character in the Gobots toyline, and the subsequent Challenge of the GoBots cartoon where he was voiced by Frank Welker. The character transformed into a motor scooter.-Gobots:...
and Small Foot. Crasher wounded Small Foot. After attaining recordings of the Guardians the Renegades retreated. Using the recordings Cy-Kill had Herr Fiend
Herr Fiend
Herr Fiend is the name of a fictional character from the various Gobots series. He is an evil Renegade scientist, and is also known as Doctor Go. -Gobots:...
program robot duplicates of the Guardians. When demonstrating Space Bender weapon to Unicom Leader-1 learned that the Renegades were attacking Washington. The Renegades ambushed Leader-1 and replaced him with his duplicate. Leading the Command Center back to Gobotron and getting rid of Scooter and Small Foot the Renegades then released duplicates of Path Finder, Rest-Q, Van Guard and Turbo. Small Foot and Scooter were able to capture the Turbo duplicate and learn where their friends were being held. Cy-Kill then replaced Good Night. Using the duplicate Turbo the Guardians infiltrated the Renegade base, freed the captured Guardians and escape from Spoons and Fitor
Fitor
Fitor is the name of several fictional character in the Gobots, Robo Machines and Transformers series. He was a major character in the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon. The character transforms into a futuristic jet fighter...
. Although blocked by the Renegades, Scooter used a hologram of Zod
Zod (Gobots)
Zod is a fictional character in the Gobots and Machine Robo story and toy line.-Gobots:Zod is a giant, even among his fellow Gobots. Savage and beastial, he is one of Cy-Kill's most powerful weapons. Zod is considered the "Godzilla" of the Gobots....
to make the Renegades flee. Making it back to Gobotron the Guardians were attacked by the Guardian duplicates. The real Guardians were able to defeat their duplicates with the aid of the real Zeemon, Hans-Cuff and Rest-Q. Cy-Kill then arrived in Thrustor with more duplicates, but Small Foot was able to stop with robots using the Space Bender, which would fuse their robot brains.
Leader-1 appears in "Auto Madic" episode #28, where he dons a Power Suit and helped form the Power Warrior Courageous, which defeats Puzzler.
Leader-1 appeared in "Return of Gobotron" episode #45. He was given one of the Power Suits by the Last Engineer, which featured enhanced speed and strength. He combined with the other suits and the Last Engineer's ship to form the Power Warrior Courageous and defeat a fleet of Renegade Thrustors.
Scooter and Small Foot joined Nick and A.J. to watch a car stunt show which was attacked by Crasher
Crasher
Crasher is the name of several fictional characters in the Gobots toyline, and the subsequent Challenge of the GoBots cartoon and Transformers series...
, Buggyman and Fly Trap. Small Foot fought Buggyman and defeated him, but the Renegades regained the upper hand until the Guardians were rescued by Leader-1 and Turbo
Turbo (Gobots)
Turbo is a fictional character in the Gobots toyline, and the subsequent Challenge of the Gobots cartoon. The character transformed into a concept car. Turbo was among the main trio of heroes of the cartoon series, and appeared in every episode along side Leader-1 and Scooter...
who arrived in Power Suits. Cy-Kill vowed to gain Power Suits for the Renegades. Scooter decided he needed more firepower, so he had Baron Von Joy remove his damaged holo projector in favor of a blaster unit. Screw Head, Bad Boy and Cop-Tur
Cop-Tur
Cop-Tur is the name of several fictional characters in the Gobots, Robo Machines and Transformers toy lines, and the subsequent fiction. They transform into futuristic helicopters. They are all based on adaptations of the character Gyro Robo from the Machine Robo toy line...
were sent to attack Unicom bases and distract the Guardians while Cy-Kill, Crasher and Scorp attempted to take the suits from the Guardian Command Center. Small Foot and Scooter were able to delay the Renegades until Leader-1 and Turbo returned to chase away the Renegades. Realizing he was a better Guardian with his holo projector, Scooter had it reinstalled.
Leader-1 lead the Guardian Gobot forces who aided the Rock Lord Boulder on the planet Cordax.
Fun Publications
Leader-1 appears among the group investigating the cataclysm destroying their universe in Fun PublicationsFun Publications
Fun Publications is a publishing company that runs the Transformers Collectors Club and G.I. Joe Collectors Club under licensefrom Hasbro. Besides releasing comics, Fun Publications releases exclusive toys and runs conventions for their clubs....
story Withered Hope.
Games
Leader-1 was the playable character and clones of were among the cast in the video game Challenge of the Gobots for the Sinclair, Amstrad and Commodore 64.Eagle Comics
Leader-1 appeared in the Eagle Comics story The Robo Machines. He is a member of the Security Force Robo Machines.Other appearances
Leader-1 was parodied in the CollegeHumorCollegeHumor
CollegeHumor is a comedy website owned by InterActiveCorp and based in New York City. The site features daily original comedy videos and articles created by its in-house writing and production team, in addition to user-submitted videos, pictures, articles and links. In early 2009, CollegeHumor's...
animated sketch "Transformers Go Hollywood". In the sketch, Optimus Prime
Optimus Prime
Optimus Prime is a fictional character from the Transformers franchise. Prime is the leader of the autobots, a faction of transforming robots from the planet Cybertron. The autobots are constantly waging war against a rival faction of transforming robots called Decepticons...
and Megatron talk about their live-action film's success at a cafe when they are met by Leader-1, who works as a waiter in the cafe. Leader-1 is heavily ridiculed by Prime and Megatron as he attempts to give them the script to his proposed film project. He rushes to the restroom and talks to Johnny 5
Short Circuit
Short Circuit is a 1986 comedy science fiction film starring Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenberg and directed by John Badham. Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton, and G. W...
before locking himself in a toilet stall to cry over his insults.
Leader-1 has appeared in the animated comedy series Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Green provides many voices for the show...
.
Toys
- Gobots Leader-1 (1983)
- The toy of Leader-1 was originally BandaiBandaiis a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...
's Eagle Robo from their Machine RoboMachine Robois a Japanese transforming robot toyline first released in 1982 by Popy, a division of Bandai, then later by Bandai proper. The franchise was marketed as Robo Machine in Europe, and Machine Men in Australia...
toyline. The gray Leader-1 was also sold as part of a limited edition gobots 3-pack with the other 2 Guardians being Flip-Top and Turbo. - This toy was sold both by itself in a gift pack with Turbo and Flip Top.
- Gobots Super Leader-1 (1984)
- A larger "Super GoBot" Leader-1 was later released.
- Gobots Leader-1 redeco (1985)
- The Tonka version was originally released in gray like Bandai's, but later versions were changed to a blue and white color scheme. The animated version, however, had already been drawn in the original colors and so he stayed that way on TV.
- Gobots Model Leader-1
- Monogram ModelsMonogram modelsMonogram has been a premier maker of scale models of aircraft, spacecraft, ships, cars, and military vehicles since the early 1950s. The company was formed by two former employees of Comet Kits, Jack Besser and Bob Reder...
released Gobots model kits which actually converted, and contained a Leader-1 model among 7 others. This toy was a redeco of a Legioss jet from the Genesis Climber MOSPEADAGenesis Climber Mospeadais an anime science fiction series created by Shinji Aramaki and Hideki Kakinuma. The 25-episode television series ran from late 1983 to early 1984 in Japan...
anime.
Transformers: Armada
When Hasbro bought out Tonka, they assumed ownership of the GoBots character names. Megatron's Mini-Con in Transformers: ArmadaTransformers: Armada
Transformers: Armada, known in Japan as , is a Transformers animated series, comic series and toy line which ran from 2002–2003. It was originally scheduled for 2001, however was delayed until early-2002...
was named Leader-1 (Barrel in Japan). This character has no connection to the GoBot Leader-1. Leader-1 was later recolored into Clench (Spark Barrel) as a partner to Armada Galvatron
Galvatron
Galvatron is the name of several fictional Transformers, most often the recreated version of Megatron, the Decepticon leader. He was voiced by Leonard Nimoy in the 1986 Transformers movie, and then by Frank Welker in season 3 and 4 of the animated television series. Since then, other Transformers...
, then into Caliburn as a partner to Megazarak.
Leader-1 has two different official mottos. The first comes from his biography page in Dreamwave comics, and the second from his biography page in the Transformers: Armada Official Guidebook.
Bio: [From the Troop Assessment Files of Megatron, Decepticon Leader] It's quite laughable, really. In the very core of his spark, Leader-1 truly believes that-somehow, some way-he'll eventually become a leader in fact and not just name. At first, he tried to ingratiate himself with me, doing everything from suggesting battle tactics on the field to helping keep the other Mini-Cons in line in order to win my favor. When it became clear that this behavior wouldn't convince me to let him assume a station of command, he resorted to open acts of treachery against me...I still haven't forgotten his homicidal insubordination on the Moon. Yet, his tenacity and ingenuity occasionally impress me; in these respects, he is far superior to the average Mini-Con. But that changes nothing. I will never allow a lowly Mini-Con to exert any control over my operations or me; they are tools to be manipulated, nothing more. For Leader-1 to believe he can be something more than that, to think for one astrosecond that he could ever stand with me as an equal, is ridiculous and insulting beyond words. I will dash his dreams at every turn until he understands his place...if he doesn't, then he will be discarded and replaced.
Weapons and Abilities: Although I'll never tell the little scraplet this, his abilities have proven valuable to me. Leader-1 is a surprisingly intelligent and tactically inclined Mini-Con; had he the fortune to be created a Decepticon instead of a Mini-Con, he would've made an excellent warrior. In addition to his mobile cannon mode, he can also transform into a powerful handgun for my use.
Weaknesses: Leader-1 gives himself more credit than he deserves. Although he's clever, his plans are too grandiose to be achieved by just him. After all, he's only a Mini-Con.
Fun Publications
In "Balancing Act" Leader-1 appeared among the rebel Mini-Con forces who sided with Megatron and attempted to sabotage the Mini-Con evacuation from one of Cybertron's moons.Dreamwave Productions
Toys
- Armada Megatron with Leader-1
- This toy was redecoed into Galvatron with Clench and later as Megazarak with his Caliburn.