Quote Originally Posted by Verno View Post
Oh, and here's a little something from the Beast Wars Sourcebook in regards to Optimus Primal:

- page 3, BW Sourcebook 3.

So there you have it: In the CGI show, Primal was just an exploration ship Captain and NOT the Matrix-wielding, Convoy Council sitting, Cybertronian hero that the Japanese movie portrayed him to be. Whoever the Optimus Primal was in the Japanese movie, he is a different Optimus Primal from a separate continuity. The Japanese creators may have set out to try and link it to the CGi show, but they didn't, they created their own continuity.
1. Note that nothing in that Sourcebook quote explicitly states that Optimus Primal does not possess a Matrix.

2. The BW Sourcebook contains a variety of continuity discrepancies that conflict with other BW canonical sources; thus probably isn't the best source of BW canonical reference material outside of the IDWverse BW continuity (reference)

3. Lio Convoy and Big Convoy never sat on the Convoy Council, yet they both possessed Matrices anyway.

At best you'd be looking at arguably separate continuity streams (as I mentioned before).