Dave's Japanese Beast Wars Rant:

     Clear Convoy
     Lioconvoy

     Thanks to Kazunori Asada, who was willing to trade these to me (and put
up with the delay of surface mail).

CAPSULES

     Clear Convoy (Kurikonboy): Has all the functional gimmicks of the
original Ultra Optimus Primal, but is made mostly from clear plastic, so you
can see through to the mechanisms.  Very high cool factor.  Recommended.
You'll have to decide for yourself if the enhanced appearance is worth the
extra expense wherever you find it available.
     Lioconvoy: Loads and loads and loads of gimmicks, many of which don't
work quite as well as they could.  Pretty good transformation, reasonably
stable modes, plastic is a little on the low quality end, but not yet into
knockoff territory.  Recommended.  Same caveat about price, I'd say it'd be
worth $20 if it were produced for the U.S. market.


RANTS

     No techspecs, for the obvious reason that I can't read Japanese.  Clear
Convoy has all 10's, Lioconvoy has all 10's except for a Firepower of 9.

CYBERTRON: Clear Convoy

     Refer to my review of the original Ultra Op Primal on the BW Classic
subpage or http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~dvandom/BW/BeastUltra directly
for comments on the physical construction.
     The one physical point worth mentioning here is the usual "new plastic"
problem that happens when a recolor is done in a different type of plastic
from the original.  A few joints (most notably the neck) are a little looser,
a few are a little tighter.  So far I haven't noticed any serious problems,
though, partly because clear plastic is usually more rigid than opaque.
     Note that this toy isn't 100% clear plastic, however.  After all, that
wouldn't be much fun, would it?  The surface is painted silver and black in a
few places, and some parts are done in opaque black plastic, especially the
gearing mechanism for the arms.  So you can look through the clear plastic to
see the gearbox and drive shafts, which is pretty cool.  And of course, hold
him up to the light and the whole toy glows...I can't wait to check this baby
out under direct sunlight (mail was sorted after the clouds rolled in this
evening).  Mind you, it's not all perfection...you can also see the screws
holding the toy together, which looks kinda bad.  Especially in his head.
But that's a minor nitpick.  And hey, the lever is easier to work when you
can see into the gears and figure out how it's supposed to go.

CYBERTRON: Lioconvoy

     Here it is, one of the only two completely original molds in BWII
(there's several which have never been seen before, having been developed for
toy lines that were scrapped, like the other two Autorollers and some
Micronaut bases recycled as Niagara Base and the Takotank...I'm not counting
the toys-with-candy level stuff, mind you).

     Beast Mode: A magnificent white lion with red accents and a golden
(literally) mane and tail.  4.5" (12cm) high at the shoulder and 10.5" (27cm)
from snout to tail tip.  Minimal underbody gunk, mainly the robot mode's
chest.  The forelegs move only at one ball joint, but the rear legs have hip,
"knee" and ankle joints...the ankles even swivel in addition to bending.  The
tail also swings up and down.  Oops, just found another swivel joint at mid
hip on the rear legs.
     Stability is iffy.  It holds together well, but the ball joints on the
forelegs are a little weak, so it tends to slide into a crouching pose.
     Several of the gimmicks can be accessed in beast mode.  The forelegs
house long claws which snap out once pushed a little.  No button, just ease
them past the holding tabs and they spring out the rest of the way on their
own.  A button on the top of the lion's head causes the jaws to open...not
just the lower jaw, but also the upper jaw, for a more realistic mouth
effect.  There's even a separate tongue piece inside the mouth!  You can
spring out two of the four missile launchers, but they're really short (the
launchers are a choking hazard but the missiles aren't).  The missiles launch
if you look at them funny, so it's not a good idea to store them loaded.
Finally, you can activate the spinning mane feature in beast mode.  It works
a lot like Inferno's propellerized butt, but is a little more finicky
(possibly due to softer plastic involved).

     Transformation: Pretty involved, but I didn't have to look at the
instructions for the beast-to-robot transformation.  There's a lot of parts
flying around the upper body, which can confuse matters, but they all pretty
much fall into place.  The lower body is a very simple transform, but does
involve a few rotations more than in Ultra Primal or Cheetor, who have
similar "stand up and transform" styles.  The transformation is actually very
little like Bantor's, for all the immediate similarities that can be drawn.
     Transformation Tip: you have to really jam down the shoulder harness or
the robot will be unstable.

     Robot Mode: 8" (20cm) tall at the head, add another inch for the right
shoulder mechanism.  Fully poseable, including waist, previously mentioned
megaposeable legs, full articulation on the arms (even a little wrist motion,
but not much) and head can be turned.  The hips are ratcheted in all
directions, which makes them a lot stiffer and more stable, but also limits
posing a little bit.
     Unfortunately, the big lion head on his shoulder gets in the way of a
lot of poses, and it can't simply be removed.  The mane pieces are a little
too long, and get in Lioconvoy's face in resting position.  On the other
hand, this can hide the fact that he's got a weird neck happening, with his
head on a column sticking up out of a hollow chest.
     All the gimmicks usable in beast mode are also usable in robot mode,
including the moving lion jaws.  He actually attacks with them in robot mode
in the Comics Bon-Bon manga story.  The foreleg claws can be deployed, but
look a little goofy.  Additionally, he has a few more gimmicks for just the
robot mode.  Mane pieces on his arms can flip out when you press a lever, and
conceal another pair of stubby missile launchers.  These launchers are not
removable like the other pair (which can be removed and placed in Lioconvoy's
hands as pistols), but share the same touchy triggers.  Unfortunately, when
they spring out it reveals a somewhat ugly gap in the forearm.  The other
major gimmick in this mode is more of a nostalgia feature...Lioconvoy has a
Matrix.  Not THE Matrix, just A Matrix (as explained in the Bon-Bon manga
part 3, summarized on my BW Japan page).  The casing is gunmetal and the
Matrix inside a metallic blue.  I might repaint the casing gold.  On the
inside of the panel which normally covers the Matrix is Lioconvoy's rubsign.
On the outside of that panel is a chrome Maximal symbol, so the rubsign
becomes somewhat redundant.  }->
     For what it's worth, the missiles only fire about a foot or so
(30-40cm).  The springs in the launchers seem weaker than the ones that pop
the launchers out.

     Overall: As many have pointed out, this toy is the Gimmick King.  Beyond
the gimmicks, it has a pretty good transformation and reasonable stability,
but it could be better (I suspect the plastic is a little cheaper, especially
the white plastic).  Pretty good in general, but could have been better.

     Dave Van Domelen, hopes his Galvatron arrives soon, but doesn't know
where he's going to put all these big toys....