BEAST
WARS: TOY REVIEW
Name: BIG CONVOY
Allegiance: Cybertron
Function: Supreme Commander
Beast Mode: Mammoth
Average Price: 2980 JPY
BEAST MODE
Length: 24 cm
Height: 13 cm
Basically brown in colour with golden tan towards the
lower half. The tusks and toes are painted ivory white and the eyes are
green. The moulding resembles a woolly mammoth... a big. fat, shaggy elephantlike
creature. Shaggy fur details cover the mould and the tusks also have grooves
moulded in to give it a sort of worn look. Overall, it's a rather nice
looking mammoth. Some robot parts are visible from the backside and underbelly,
however the majority over robot parts are well covered. The main drawback
of this mode is the lack of any real articulation. The legs are practically
immobile and the only thing you can do with this toy in this mode is to
use the tusk and trunk gimmicks. A lever on the top of the head makes the
trunk move up (somewhat similar to the way Transmetal 2 Dinobot's tail
moves) and pulling on the ears make the tusks lunge upwards (uuh... yeah...).
TRANSFORMATION TO MAMMOTH TANK MODE
Lift up the rear tail section; Open up the back panels; Lift
up the back section. Unlock the two halves of the face, then raise the
trunk section. Rotate the entire trunk-back section 180 degrees.
Lower trunk section; Pull back tail section, exposing the cannon.
Lower cannon into place. Big Convoy is now a Mammoth
Tank (weee),
MAMMOTH TANK MODE
It's pretty much the same as the beast mode, except with
the trunk is at the rear and there's a cannon sticking out of the forehead.
The cannon has two spring loaded launchers. An additional two launchers
can be accessed by pulling out the side panels. This is a kinda silly looking
mode but hey... who'd wanna tango with a mammoth with a BFG sticking out
of his head? :-)
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Raise rear tail section. Open up back panels. Lift up back
section. Open up the face and raise the trunk section. Unlock the front
legs from the face by holding onto the face and pulling down on the front
legs. Swing open the entire bottom half. Straighten robot legs and position
mammoth hind legs so that the feet are pointing in the opposite direction
of the robot knees. Pull out the leg covers (the mammoth side panels) and
swing them forward to reveal missile launchers (looking similar to those
on the T-Rex Megatron). Swing up the mammoth forelegs behind the robot
lower legs and push them into place (so they form the calf sections). Open
up robot feet. Turn entire top section 180 degrees. Unfold robot arms and
reposition the forearms. Swing down the two halves of the mammoth head
so that the tusks are facing outward and the insides of the halves are
facing forward. Raise arms up to lock shoulders into place and swing arms
down. Push the torso down so it joins the hip section, this reveals robot
head. Reposition the mammoth face halves so that the mammoth eyes are facing
upward. Swing back-trunk section counter-clockwise (so that the trunk is
on Big Convoy's right side). Pull out horns on robot head. The back-trunk
section can be removed to form a hand held BFG.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 18 cm
Points of articulation: 16
This is one really cool robot mode!! The panels used
in beast mode fold back to minimise interference with mechanical features
such as pistons, screws, lights, vents, servos etc etc etc moulded throughout
the toy. The head resembles a traditional Convoy Optimus-esque look...
the head is metallic blue with a silver face and crest and metallised gold
eyes! The horns are grey. The neck is black and the moulding on the neck
is superb! The shoulder joints are metallic beige with more mech-moulding.
The top of the shoulders actually have truck lights!!! Sure, it's
totally illogical, but these lights are obviously there to pay homage to
the original Convoy/Optimus Prime. Bloody awesome!! The right arm (which
has a slight tendency to pop off) is mainly red on the upper half with
white accents, and the forearm is white with red accents. The left arm
is silver with transluscent red accents! Both upper arms feature gold discs
and both hands are black with white fingers. Both elbow gears are metallic
beige.
The upper torso is red with silver accents and there's
a transluscent red chest panel (with an array of circuits moulded inside!!)
with silver and metallic blue accents. In the centre of the chest is the
Cybertron (Maximal) insignia. It is red on a golden disk. The lower torso
is white with some metallic blue and transluscent red details. The Gundam-like
hip is a metallic beige with gold and white accents. The upper legs are
black with silver vents and circuits. The lower legs are white with golden
brown pistons. The feet, which resemble the cross between the feet of a
Gundam (from Mobile Suit Gundam) and a Valkyrie (from Macross) are black
with metallic blue detailing.
This mode is absolutely fantastic! With sixteen points
of articulation, almost all the joints are ball joints (including the neck!).
In this mode, Big Convoy can either hold his BFG or a pair of tonfas which
can be located inside his forearms. There's also a pair of missile launchers
attached to the lower legs. One unusual feature about this toy is that
the robot mode is totally robotic. It practically incorporates none of
its beast mode features into the robot form. All the beast mode features
simply form themselves around the robot form, but are not directly part
of it. Here are some examples of toys which incorporate beast parts into
their robot modes: Convoy/Optimus Primal has gorilla hands, Megatron has
T-Rex head and tail for hands, Lio Convoy has lion feet and many smaller
Beast Wars figures look like animals with robot bits sticking out. But
not so with Big Convoy... this is a robot with beast bits discreetly clinging
on. The most obvious beast parts are the tusks... but it doesn't detract
from the look in anyway (but if you want to make the robot mode even less
organic, turn the mammoth face halves so that the eyes are facing backwards,
and the mechanical parts are facing forward).
THE TOUCH
"We are Primus, We are Prima, We are
Prime Nova, We are Sentinel Prime, We are Optimus Prime, We are..... THE
CREATION MATRIX!"
A real treat for old-school fans has been added to this toy.
Open up the chest panel and voila! Behold, the toy which fans have
been waiting for since 1986..... the Matrix. Also known as the Creation
Matrix or the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Measuring 4 cm in length, the
Matrix is coloured metallised gold with a transluscent red orb inside the
main casing.
So who else can hold this Matrix?
Optimus Prime (1984): Yes! Although it's a loose
fit. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit inside his chest compartment.
Hot Rod: The Matrix handle fits perfectly into
Hot Rod's fists, however, due to its small size the arms must be
turned inwards. Both Big Convoy and Optimus Prime have elbows that can
swivel in. So does Hot Rod, but unfortunately, his chest is too broad and
it stops his hands from turning in far enough... but he can still hold
the Matrix in one hand.
Rodimus Prime: Forget it. Not only are his fist
holes too small, he lacks any form of elbows. Sucker.
Ultra Magnus: According to Yosuke Ishikawa, it fits... but extremely loosely.
Galvatron (1986): Yes! Although loosely like Optimus.
So yeah, he can do the "Unicron! Unicron! See this! I now possess that
which you most fear!" etc etc... you get the idea. ^_^
Thunderwing: No elbows. 'nuff sed.
Starscream (1984): Bah! No
fist holes!!
Transmetal Optimus Primal: Yep. Although a bit loose like Optimus Prime.
OVERALL
"You know, even if [Big Convoy] turned out to be a stupid
toy, it'd still be cool just because it has the Matrix (laughs)"
- Benson Yee.
Fortunately, it also happens to be a magnificent toy!!
BEAST TRIVIA
The mammoth are an extinct genus (Mammothus) of elephant. Fossils
found in Pleistocene deposits around the world (Pleistocene Epoch began
2,500,000 years ago, ended 10,000 years ago). Mammoths have feature significantly
in primitive human art, cave dwellers depicted mammoths in herds. Mammoths
who died by being trapped in ice crevasses are remarkably well-preserved.
There have been some reported cases of sled-dogs feeding on the carcasses
of frozen mammoths which have been thawing out for 30,000 years.
Most mammoths were the same size as the modern elephant and many (but
not all) were covered with long, reddish brown hair and insulated with
eight centimetres of fat beneath the skin. The skull was high and domelike.
The ears were much smaller than modern elephants, an adaptation to the
cold climate (big ears lose lots of heat because they have a high surface
area to volume ratio). A hump on the back served as a storage of fat...
although this evidence is absent in fossils, it is depicted in cave drawings.
The ivory tusks were very long and directed downward. In older males, they
sometimes curved over each other. It is clear that mammoths were hunted
by early humans, particularly by early North American hunters, but it is
doubtful that they were hunted to extinction.
Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Brittanica
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