Let's say that Hasbro was looking to go in a new direction with its next series and have the Autobots be led by someone other than Rodimus, Optimus, Ginrai, Victory Leo or Dai Atlas. (I would love to see new versions of Victory Leo and Dai Atlas/King Atlas in the next 'mainstream' line, personally...)

 

But let's say, for the sake of discussion, that Optimus is going to pass the matrix to a leader who may or may not have appeared in Energon so far but can be any classic character upgraded to 'convoy' status.

 

I've got some choices above. I've tried to include most of the obvious choices I could think of that have never been upgraded by the Matrix.

 

Oh... Consider that the upgrade allows for a name change which might allow Habro to bring back and develop characters that it has lost the rights to the name to but that the name WILL have to change to be a 'Prime' and that the character will be assigned a 'convoy' altmode of some kind.

Blurr.

Had to go with Grimlock. :thumb

Had to pick Blaster, I wanted the most unobvious person to become the next prime. Blaster, like Hot rod is a kinda a rebel, and likes to have fun, but can be serious when called for. Plus it would allow the tapes to take on new versions, possibly cars or other modes. Hell this is the perfect set up for Megazord Prime, Blaster and his tapes become Blast Prime, with each tape turning into a robot, vehicle and extremity.

Had to pick Blaster, I wanted the most unobvious person to become the next prime. Blaster, like Hot rod is a kinda a rebel, and likes to have fun, but can be serious when called for. Plus it would allow the tapes to take on new versions, possibly cars or other modes. Hell this is the perfect set up for Megazord Prime, Blaster and his tapes become Blast Prime, with each tape turning into a robot, vehicle and extremity.

Dude, I was gonna say Kup or Jazz, but you sold me. You pinned his personality dead on, I almost liked him better than Jazz. Giving Blaster and his tapes vehicle alt modes would be exactly what Id love to see. (Crap for alt mode is why I never wanted Blaster as a toy) Im thinking a car carrier, much like Magnus, and make all of his tapes into tuner cars and a mini truck with loud speakers, kind of builds on the music theme that was already there. Great idea. You rock, man!

I was gonna vote Jazz, but apparently I clicked on the wrong name because no votes for Jazz have appeared yet, so I have not idea who I actually voted for, but it should have been Jazz. It seemed like he was a pretty important member of Prime's original crew, possibly the second in command of moon base 1 before Unicron ate it, and he survived the battle with Unicron; what does he get: pretty much dropped from the series. I gotta give it to Jazz.

Grimlock, not cartoon but Dreamwave comic version

This isn't even a competition! Grimlock is the obvious choice, but like HGJ said, the comic (original or Marvel or DW) version, not the cartoon version.

Grimmy actually GOT the Matrix in the Marvel run. After getting over his intial teething problems of leadership, he actually proved very competant, and Prime *chose* him to carry it. If Opt says Grimmy deserves it, eh... I'm not gonna argue with him. :nuts

yeah, i picked grim as well. DW grim.