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Description
The G1 cartoon episode "War Dawn" told the story of Optimus Prime before he became Optimus Prime. The design for his previous form, Orion Pax (note the initials), was originally conceived by Floro Dery as a design for Ultra Magnus for The Transformers: the Movie, before being appropriated for the second-season episode instead.

Color key artist Phyllis Craig deliberately chose colors for Orion Pax that strongly evoked Optimus Prime. Orion Pax never transformed into vehicle mode in the cartoon, and his vehicle design only surfaced fairly recently. I took a guess as to what colors he probably would have been in vehicle mode, based on which robot parts seem to turn into which vehicle parts. The Floro Dery design influence is strong here; to me, his trailer reminds me a lot of Rodimus Prime.

Description
The G1 cartoon episode "War Dawn" told the story of Optimus Prime before he became Optimus Prime. The design for his previous form, Orion Pax (note the initials), was originally conceived by Floro Dery as a design for Ultra Magnus for The Transformers: the Movie, before being appropriated for the second-season episode instead.

Color key artist Phyllis Craig deliberately chose colors for Orion Pax that strongly evoked Optimus Prime. Orion Pax never transformed into vehicle mode in the cartoon, and his vehicle design only surfaced fairly recently. I took a guess as to what colors he probably would have been in vehicle mode, based on which robot parts seem to turn into which vehicle parts. The Floro Dery design influence is strong here; to me, his trailer reminds me a lot of Rodimus Prime.