From package tech spec
BOTCON 1996 EXCLUSIVE
FIRST APPEARANCE: ? (various pseudo-appearances in future Botcon media, usually as a Maximal!?)
FUNCTION: PREDACON ASSASSIN
"...and I will strike down with great vengance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers, and you will know my name is Onyx when I lay my vengeance upon thee." Profile: Onyx Primal was sent by the Tripredacus Council to spy on the rogue Megatron and assassinate the Maximal Optimus Primal, who had followed him to Earth. The Council felt that it was the ideal timing to rid themselves of a likely future Maximal leader. On Earth, Onyx Primal assumed the same alternate mode as Optimus Primal, yet in his preferred color of black. He became embittered with the Tripredacus Council and refused his orders. When he returned to Cybertron, he challenged the Council and was immediately placed in the stockade. He escaped confinement and defected to the Maximals. He considers himself a pilgrim in an unholy land. Before being rehabilitated as a Maximal, he was an up-and-coming agent in the Tripredacus Council's assassination corps. He keeps these details of his Predacon history well hidden from his present Maximal compatriots, while maintaining an air of superiority that has won him few friends among their ranks. Stubborn, quick to claim credit and slow to take blame, Onyx Primal is a less than ideal Maximal soldier. Unfortunately, he feels his clandestine past has left him with few other options for survival. As distasteful as he finds his current Maximal existence, Onyx Primal realizes that it may be his only hope to escape termination at the hands of his former employers.

Abilities: Onyx Primal's training as a covert agent has made him an unerringly effective spy. He is capable of near soundless movement; that is, whenever he isn't loudly complaining about his Maximal companions! In robot mode, he wields two electron-scimitars that are capable of slicing through reinforced steel like a hot knife through butter. In bat mode, he assumes a "stealth cloak" capable of shielding him from a variety of Cybertronian scanning technologies.

Weaknesses: Onyx Primal's greatest weakness is his inability to function cohesively within the Maximal chain of command. His fugitive status with the Tripredacus Council causes him to suffer frequent bouts of paranoia, limiting his overall effectiveness.

- character text found on Wikipedia, written by Matrix Prime.