One of the last few Diaclone toys to be released in the Transformers toyline, Magnus was recolored from the original toy's dark blue, red and black color scheme into a more patriotic red, white and blue, though his chestplate, which was rendered white in his package art followed a more the blue color scheme of his shoulders. This gimmick was shown to be an effort to simulate a gorilla beating its chest while Optimus was in beast mode, but could also be used in robot mode, making him swing his weapons wildly before himself.

A similar air-launching system with identical missiles was used by the simultaneously-released Hero Megatron, and by Laser Optimus Prime the following year (see below). Available only at KB Toys, Machine Wars Optimus Prime is a redeco and slight retool of the European Generation 1 exclusive Turbomaster leader Thunder Clash. Prime's teammate in the Battlestars, Grandus, can link up to the rear of Star Convoy's vehicle mode and be pulled along behind him; Sky Garry can then land atop Grandus, forming a giant vehicle. This figure was re-released in 2016, with the packaging now advertising the "Long Life Design" award which the Masterpiece line won that same year. it comes with all its customary accessories, including the Perfect Edition trailer, redecoed where appropriate: the trailer itself has become translucent, its energon-axe is now transparent grey, and Megatron, in another movie homage, is rendered in translucent purple, evoking the scene depicting his transformation into Galvatron.The figure is essentially identical to the original Japanese MP-1 release, aside from a slightly brighter red, and the addition of the words "LAST SHOT" in Transformers typeface molded into the small of Convoy's back, hidden beneath its headlight-flaps in robot mode. The package art for this toy is a retouched version of the art for Generation 2 Laser Optimus Prime (see above), but now positioned so one robot arm is always "off the edge" of the box and unseen - conveniently hiding the sword this toy has never had, yet leaving the Laser Prime faceplate intact. and yes, he's labeled "Optimus Prime" in Japanese as well, making this the first instance of the character not being named "Convoy" in Japan.

For the sake of a nice clean split, we have opted to move all of Optimus Prime's Generations toys into a separate article which can be found here. Also in the first wave of Robotmasters, this special edition release of G1 Convoy is decked out in metallic paint and a tint of yellow for his eyes, with an extra Autobot insignia tampographed onto his right shoulder, and a black Convoy Gun. This version of the mold was used to create the e-HOBBY exclusive Laser Ultra Magnus, and somewhat more perplexingly, was briefly repurposed by the second Beast Wars Reborn text story as a temporary body for Optimus Primal!of the original G1 toy, with "BAPE's famous camouflage pattern" and an ape head print on the shoulder replacing the usual faction symbol. The Japanese release of Powermaster Optimus Prime actually represented a new character named Ginrai, and featured several retools: the cab featured die-cast metal, shortened smokestacks, vacuum-metalized plastic and clear blue windows, while the trailer was given retractable super robot fists. General Optimus Prime would have transformed into a dump truck, and would've had an autotransformation gimmick. All of the toys from the first wave that had transparent plastics were released in this wave with opaques instead; Blowout and Firecracker became new versions of Megatron and Optimus Prime respectively, while Gearhead and Motormouth stayed themselves. A compartment on his right forearm opened to reveal a skull-shaped "mace whip" he could hold in his fist.