Ask Vector Prime

I will.

Ask Vector Primeis a recurring feature wherehumanscould submit questions aboutTransformers.Based on unknown criteria,Vector Primeselected certain questions and answers them to the best of his ability. Vector Prime will sometimes 'misunderstand' a question he'd rather not answer.

Vector Prime is aware ofTransformersas fiction and as a toy line (similar to how theMarvel UK letters pageswere answered by Transformers who were even shown working in Marvel UK's office). Vector Prime explains this as being aware of which universes were manifested as fiction in theQuadwal Cluster.

The column has occasionally provided important information not found anywhere else and, in the fan-run revivals, has clarified (and created) lots of obscure trivia.

Hasbro website

Ask Vector Prime started as a feature onHasbro's official Transformers website, back duringTransformers: Cybertron.The questions answered by Vector Prime varied widely in nature, but most concerned theuniversewhere thesearch for the Cyber Planet Keystook place, thetoylineandcartoonin Hasbro's own universe which parallel said search, or Vector Prime himself. Unfortunately, updates were rare, and ceased entirely after Vector Prime became one with time itself. Which is fair enough.

Through the site, Vector Prime had revealed the existence of two Transformers who have not been seen in any other form: a femaleAlternator,apparently from his home universe, anda Mini-Con with a disco ball alternate mode.He has also mentioned that he has met bothAlpha TrionandAlpha Q,that, "yes,sheis a girl, "that he considersSafeguardhis best friend, and that he is aware of (and impressed by) the story ofBeast Machines.Additionally, it was here that he stated that "I am not here to blend." However, when asked about his weight, he simply said it depended on what planet he was on, and made no further comment on the subject.

It was this column that confirmed the Cybertron cartoon took place ten years after the end ofEnergon,and confirmed thatCybertronSidewayswas the same character asArmadaSideways.

The AllSpark Almanac

Ask Vector Prime made a comeback inThe AllSpark Almanac IIin the form ofeaster eggsscattered throughout the book written inCybertronixlettering. While questions were solicited onJim Sorenson'sbloga few months before the book came out, the few responses to that request seem to indicate that most of the questions were written by the Almanac II's authors.

Later, more questions and answers appeared inThe Complete AllSpark Almanac.

Facebook

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Now you too can pester the omniscient guardian of space-time with questions about nameless background characters!
Ask Vector Prime
First published	May 13,2015– February 15,2016
Writer	Jim Sorenson,Hirofumi Ichikawa,Chris McFeely,et al.

FromMay 13toSeptember 30,2015,Ask Vector Prime made yet another comeback in the form of aFacebook pagecreated by theTransformers Collectors' Clubas part of the Club's prelude material that led up to theBotCon 2015comic story "Cybertron's Most Wanted".Similar to the original version from Hasbro's website, this new installment enabled fans to once again post actual questions for Vector Prime to answer on his Facebook.

Vector's answers continued to include a mix of jokes, evasions, and intentional misunderstandings. Many answers focused on Vector Prime's own history. Alotofuniversal streamdesignations were identified or introduced this time around, and many previously unnamed or partially-named individuals and teams wouldreceiveofficialnames.A new type of answer, elaborate stories set in the distant futures or pasts of obscure universes, became a regular part of the feature.

On 5 June, he ended up in a crossover with sister Facebook pageRook - Axiom Nexus News: Investigative Journalistwhen Rook interrogated Vector Prime as to why he soundedlike Rhinox.Prime trolled him for a while until Rook accused him of being a guardian of time and spacepretendingto be an old duffer, at which point Vector Prime complained to the journalist'seditor.

Guest columnists

One of the hallmarks of the Facebook edition of Ask Vector Prime was the frequent inclusion of guest columnists. This started when the column took a hiatus betweenJune 27,2015 andJuly 8,2015 before coming back, to facilitate...

Ask Sideways

He has many insightful comments about your mother.

On June 27, 2015,Axiom Nexus NewsjournalistAndromedareported that Vector Prime had been kidnapped bySideways.Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News ReporterShortly following this announcement, the Ask Vector Prime Facebook and Twitter feeds were taken over by Sideways. His tone was decidedly unhelpful, and he promised to "lie like a girder", as he gleefully made his way through Vector Prime's outstanding questions and answered questions directed at him. A lot of questions about obscureTransformerstrivia got the answer of "sure, why not?", and invariably answers about who did any kind of atrocity were some variation of "me!"

After a few days, Sideways started to employ heavy sexual innuendo, which was initially well-regarded by the fan community.^[1]Unfortunately, it led to an answer aboutAirazorthat, although unintentional in wording and overtones, the creators agreed was badly phrased, and thankfully edited out within an hour, immediately followed by an apology from the creators.^[2]Further questions that would have had such elements were toned down or cut out completely. (But the wiki remembers, Sideways).

When people replied to his answers, they could sometimes end up in a comment discussion with Sideways.^[3]

On July 8, Ask Sideways ended with the conceit that theTransTechhad found him by tracking our questions to him, as detailed onRook's Facebook page.A question fromone such audience memberblew his head up! (But Sideways Headmaster-linked withRookand escaped Nexus 208.0 Epsilon.)

Grim Grams

On September 30, Vector Prime secretly departed Axiom Nexus on the behest of his brotherNexus Prime,much to the chagrin of the overworked Rook. After putting out a request onCragun's List,Grimlockeagerly took the job, and celebrated by renaming the columnGrim Grams.The Dinobot... did his best to work through the backlog of questions intended for Vector Prime while answering new questions about himself and his adventures. Ratings swiftly plummeted, prompting Rook—who was more concerned with the potential destruction of themultiverse—to fire the Dinobot and replace him with "someone clever"...

Swindle's Spiel

On October 3,Swindle- to be more precise, one of the three Swindles runningSwindle, Swindle and Swindle- took the job, renaming the column "Swindle's Spiel". Although decidedly more coherent than his immediate predecessor, Swindle tended to turn potential answers into platforms to shill his various products. Swindle was fired on October 6 for subverting the terms of his contract. At the behest of his editor, Rook put out a call for someone "straightforward" and "earnest", which couldn't possibly bite him in the afterburner, could it?

Sentinel Shouting

NO! NO! WE ARE NOT DOING THE BLOODYGOOD LIFE!I BLOODY HATETHE GOOD LIFE!BLOODY, BLOODY,BLOODY!

On October 7,Sentinel Minortook over the column, this time renaming it "Sentinel Shouting". Unsurprisingly, Sentinel was rather confrontational and aggressive with his readers.

(Rook is a pretty bad judge of character.)

During his brief tenure, Sentinel talked about how he would handle things if he ever became Magnus: heavy 'law and order' policies, cutting all money from civil society and moving it all to warships, and squeezing the Decepticon lemon until the pips squeaked.

By October 9, Sentinel realized that he was corresponding with a bunch of organics. He didn't take the news well and abdicated the position. After Sentinel left, the editor tasked Andromeda with finding yet another replacement, as he had sent Rook to thePrimax 1015.06 Kappadiscovery party to help ease him of his stress. Due to Sentinel's abrasiveness turning away younger viewers, the editor pushed her to find someonepopular with the younger crowd,to which Andromeda immediately knew of a bot for the job...

Bee's Backtalk

Kid-appeal is good for attracting viewers.

Later on October 9,Bumblebeebecame the fourth successor to Vector Prime for the column, renaming the column to "Bee's Backtalk". As expected, Bumblebee answered questions with audio clips put together, given his inability to speak.

On October 13, as Bumblebee was about to answer why things in theTyran Clusterare prone to exploding, he suddenly found himself in the middle of a battleground as everything around him exploded, the Axiom Nexus News team losing contact with him (disappointing the editor, who was pleased that Bumblebee was able to stabilize ratings). As Andromeda was the one who found Bumblebee, she was tasked with finding his replacement, someone who, in contrast to Bumblebee's cryptic radio answers, could speak their mind in a straightforward manner.

Renegade Rhetoric

This modified screencap fromChallenge of the Go-Botslasted as long as it took for someone to realize Time Warner still held the rights. It was subsequentlyreplaced.

And she thought it'd be a good idea to hireCy-Kill.Okay, Beavis.

Cy-Kill hoped to use the page to convince us of the rightness of theRenegadecause and how cool they were. Thanks to leading questions from fans, the wiki got a whole lot ofGoBotspages while it was running! Attempts at getting universe nameswent less well.Renegade Rhetoric also got to lampoon parts ofTransformers,with Cy-Kill taking a dim view of certain tropes ( "it's not as if I call my faction" Untrustworthy-cons "or some such rubbish" ).

He used the column to recruit agents and casually admit he had just bombed a government building ( "a gentlemen never bombs and tells" ). Eventually,Cheetorcracked down on his operation. With the help of his new combinerMonsterous,however, Cy-Kill and his new Renegade team evaded capture and chrono-jumped back to theGargent Cluster.Of course, Cy-Kill had gotratingsduring his tenure, so ANN decided they wanted another charismatic baddie.

Shark Sonnets

No 5-7-7 violations here!

Soon,Sky-Byteanswered
All the questions put to him.
And the fans rejoiced.

Confidence was low
Answers took form of haiku
To calm his waffle

Told he was boring
So he took a better job
Left with one last bow.

Spacewarp's Log

Being female probably isn't the most "different" thing about her...

With Sky-Byte's departure for a more fulfilling job atThe Blue Deployer,Andromeda was once again tasked with finding a new host; this time, someone charismatic, who tells stories (but not a terrorist), withsomething differentabout them.

Her selection:Spacewarp,taking on the job until she could "punch, gamble, sneak, research, or flirt [her] way off-world".

AfterHigh Chancellor Optimus Primestarted increasing the number of off-planet visas following Axiom Nexus losing contact with the rest of the multiverse, Spacewarp took the chance, quickly obtaining one (through legal means even!), setting off for more adventures.

The return

It's the end... but the moment has been prepared for.

Vector Prime returned from his adventures on November 1, Quadwal time. Afterthe reorganization of the multiverse,this new Vector Prime was but a splinter of his former self; this particular iteration of Vector Prime had always existed as a more or less normal Cybertronian within Nexus 208.0 Epsilon, although he was vaguely aware that he had once been a part of something greater.

With the TransTechs' multiversal reach lost, Vector Prime was assigned to travel to the planetNebulos,where the dimensional walls were thin and he could covertly "listen in" on foundational universal streamPrimax 984.0 Gamma,with a Nebulan covert agent codenamedSafeguard...and a bodyguard namedScorpia.Vector Prime decided that the time had come to close his column, although he decided to tie up any loose ends before he left. Notably, this Vector Prime was substantially less interested in his reader's questions about who came from what specific reality, and at least once openly wondered about theirdesire to categorize unimportant trivia.

"Before I go, I just want to tell you: you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And you know what? So was I!"

He later promoted Axiom Nexus's new column,Spacewarp's Log,and was hacked byCy-Killto promote his pirate column,Renegade Rhetoric.

After several waystops, and after growing increasingly close to Scorpia and finally becomingConjunx Endurae,he finally made it to Nebulos onFebruary 15,2016.The column ended and he thanked us for all our help, and promised that one day he shall come back. Yes, one day he shall come back. Until then, go forward for all your answers and prove he was not mistaken in his.

(OnNovember 22of that year, he did indeed come back and alerted us about the upcoming new GoBots story for the Collectors Club, hopingwe at homecould help out "my brethren". I think you expect too much, Vector.)

Mentioned characters

Main article:Ask Vector Prime/Mentioned characters

Contributors

The Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime was written byJim Sorensonand edited byJesse Wittenrich.Copy editing was performed byLouis Sun.Perhaps unsurprisingly for a column that ran for over nine months, there were many additional contributors.^[4]They included:

Writers

Artists

Actors

Notes

• At its peak, Ask Vector Prime had over ten thousand "engaged users", with a thousand subscribers and page views numbering about 400,000.
• Collected in a Microsoft Word document, it is over 500 pages long.
• Notably, Ask Vector Prime:
  • Featured the return ofRichard Newmanas Vector Prime andPeter SpellosasSky-Byteand debutedJon Bailey,the Epic Voice ofHonest TrailersasHigh Chancellor Optimus Prime.
  • Introduced the idea thatMaccadammight be secretlyAlchemist Prime,which would go on to become a key plot point in theTransformers: Cyberverseanimated series.
  • Provided English translations for the names of the entire cast ofTransformers Online,two ofwhichwould go on to appear inIDW Publishing's comics under those names.
  • Invented names for pretty much every friggingMini-Conteam in existence.
  • Established some versions of the Thirteen as having visited Earth during the time of ancientGreeceand inspiring/co-opting the legends of theTwelve Olympians,along with providingholomatteravatars for each of them.
  • Established the first femaleOptimus Prime,as well as declared alargenumberofgender-undefinedcharactersasfemale.
  • PublishedG.I. Joe-style biocards for every toy-originalDark of the Moonhuman fromHuman Alliance.
  • Revealed the universe of origin of every character known to have participated in theUniverse War.
  • Tied up several loose ends fromStory of Binaltech,including resolving theProwl II/Prowl 2enigma and telling the origin story ofthe Protector.
  • Name-dropped every significant character and toy fromGoBotsand expanded on theChallenge of the Gobotscartoon considerably.
  • Completed the roster ofthe Convoy.
  • Fixed every animation error EVER with the introduction of "self-correcting" time and space anomalies.
  • Elaborated on the concept of transgender Cybertronians over a year before IDW's comics wouldexplicitlytackle the idea.
• In August 2020, a fan continuation of Ask Vector Prime was started as aTumblrblog written by members of this very wiki, including some past contributors to the Facebook page, and received a shoutout on the Ask Vector Prime Facebook page. Like before, it accepts user submitted questions and offers possible backgrounds and continuations for every character and story under the sun.However, as this blog is not produced under license from Hasbro, the answers provided are notcanonfor the purposes of the wiki and should not be referenced in articles.^[5]

See also

• Ask Vector Prime archive
• Ask Vector Prime Facebook archive
• Ask Sideways Facebook archive
• Guest column Facebook archive
• Chronological Axiom Nexus News archive

References

External links

• Ask Vector Prime on Hasbro.com(archived)
• Ask Vector Prime on Facebook