Dave's Car Robots Rant:

     Super Fire Convoy - C-001a
     God Magnus - C-023
     God Fire Convoy

     Finally decided to splurge and got both Super Fire Convoy (SFC
hereafter) and God Magnus (GM) from wizzywig.com, since they were charging
just $65 each and I got next-day shipping for $7.  On the other hand, now
that I live in Michigan, I also got to pay sales tax, d'oh.  (And yes, I know
we're all supposed to pay sales tax on our state income tax forms for online
and mail order purchases, but still.)

CAPSULES

     Super Fire Convoy: A good solid toy, nicely poseable and with some
versatility built in.  (See a page full of funky component swaps at
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Yoyo/9038/textcombo.html)  Transformation
to vehicle mode is a bit too "assemble the puzzle" for my tastes, though.
Recommended.
     God Magnus: Weirdly proportioned, hollow in many places and a bunch of
origami in others.  The sound gimmick is well done, but this is a pretty weak
toy for the price overall.  God Fire Convoy is neat, but God Magnus on his
own is rather lacking.  Mildly recommended, and only if you already have or
plan to get Super Fire Convoy.


RANTS

     To accompany the release of God Magnus, Takara issued a 15th Anniversary
edition of Super Fire Convoy.  While SFC was originally packaged compactly in
vehicle mode, the 15th Anniversary version is in a large windowless box with
a flimsy plastic tray holding the robot Fire Convoy and the armor pieces for
Super Fire Convoy.  A piece of corrugated cardboard in a plastic bag forms
the lid of the tray, rather than a molded lid.  Cheap production values for
the packaging in general.  God Magnus is in the same sort of packaging, but
with his legs separated and his backpack flipped up to fit in the box.

     Techspecs courtesy of www.protoformproject.com.


CYBERTRON: Super Fire Convoy
Function: Autobot Fire Commander

The commander of the Cybertron Dimensional Patrol, loves all living things
and desires peace.  To date, he has battled the Destrons on many, many worlds
and saved countless lives.  Through the way of his actions, he has become
known as "Enjin", the Fire God.  He even uses "Fire!" as a catchphrase.

STR 10  INT 10  SPD 10  END 10  RNK 10  COUR 10  FRP 10  SKL 10  Avg 10

     Note: there's no techspec for just Fire Convoy.  I'd drop his STR and
END to 8 each when in Fire Convoy mode.  Also drop his FRP to 8 if he's
totally separated from his additional components.

     Fire Convoy: Fire Convoy stands 8" (20cm) tall, and is the core robot
for Super Fire Convoy and God Fire Convoy.  Mostly red with white forearms
and thighs, blue head and accents, and a chromed chestplate, plus gold chrome
eyes.  His white parts are kinda blobby and rounded, and the blue paint on
his wrists looks like it was applied haphazardly with a paint marker.  It may
be that the 15th Anniversary version is just generally of lower production
quality than the first batch.  However, the plastic itself is good quality.
     FC is fully poseable, including limited ability to bend at the waist
(bend him too much and his head vanishes, though).  Most of the joints are
ratcheting and VERY tight.  The ankles are very tight ball joints, tighter
than even the ratchet joints.  The wrists are limited ball joints, although
the big shields over the fists initially conceal this fact.
     FC's main gimmick is a sound and light backpack which hangs down over
his hips and gets in the way a bit if you want to turn him at the waist.
Pressing the button gets one of four random sounds: "FIRE! <sound effect of
firing", something in Japanese which more or less comes out as "Giant
Combination Super Fire Convoy", "Cybertron warriors, TRANSFORM!" and a
disturbingly realistic siren.  The siren either blares once or three times.
Additionally, red LED's light up to accompany the sounds.
     FC has a pistol topped with a wheel, which he can either hold or stow on
his backpack.  It fits under the front of the fire engine or sits on SFC's
shoulder.

     Firebase: All the other SFC pieces can combine to form a firebase for
Fire Convoy.  The fire ladder opens up to form a radio/radar tower topped by
cannons, and the rest of the pieces form a sort of base piece with weapons
(including SFC's cannonfinger hands) atop it.  It's not really set up to fire
the missiles concealed in the ladder, though.  (Official name is
"Transrebayer," but I think "Firebase" is a better pun.)

     Missile Fire Convoy: The instructions list one simple alternate mode, a
sort of missile-firing Fire Convoy.  The SFC feet have missile racks molded
into them, and they can become huge shoulderpads for FC.  In fact, while the
rest o fthe SFC kibble is packaged more or less in SFC mode, the feet are in
shoulderpad configuration.  (Official name is Powered Up Fire Convoy with
Transmines and Fire Knuckles.)

     Transformation of Vehicle Mode: FC folds up to form the front part of
the fire engine, then the rest of the pieces snap together to make the rear
part.  FC does not make a vehicle on his own.  It takes a few tries to get
the knack of forming the vehicle, as you have to put certain parts on in the
right order.

     Vehicle Mode (Fire Enjin): 11" (28cm) long, 3" (8cm) wide and high
ignoring the ladder.  The ladder is 21.5" (55cm) long fully extended, almost
enough to climb to the top of Brave Maximus.  All the tires are rubberized
plastic and roll very nicely.  Unfortunately, the rear half of the vehicle is
pretty gappy, with lots of robot kibble visible.  No panels fold over the
holes, and while it looks fine from the side, it's not so good from above.
     The ladder contains a missile launcher gimmick.  Four launchers are on
springs, latching down so that they point towards the base of the ladder.
When a button at the base of the ladder is pushed, the four launchers flip
forward and strike their triggers on the ladder itself, launching their
missiles.  The missiles don't really fire in the normal way, they do an end
over end tumble, like tossed juggling pins.  Kinda silly, really.  Range is
about a meter.  The launchers are staggered like footsteps on the ladder, so
that their missiles don't get in each others' way.  When putting the
launchers back in ready position, start with the one closest to the base and
work upwards.  Any other order will cause ones you loaded to pop out.
     Additionally, at the end of the ladder is a hose unit with spring-loaded
nozzles that pop out at the press of a button.

     Transformation to Super Fire Convoy: Once you know where everything
goes, it takes maybe thirty seconds to turn Fire Convoy into Super Fire
Convoy.  Hold on, I'll time myself.  Okay, a minute and thirty seconds, I
have short fingernails and had trouble getting some panels open.  Anyway,
it's pretty straightforward, just clip on the armor pieces.  

     Super Fire Convoy: With less blue and a splash of orange, the whole feel
of Fire Convoy's color scheme is changed.  And where FC's feet were kinda
puny compared to his shins, SFC has big ol' stompers.  The ladder hanging off
his back also acts as a third leg for extra stability (when not deployed as a
weapon).  SFC is 10" (25cm) tall at the head, 11.5" (29cm) to the ladder
hanging off his back.
     SFC is loaded with weapons.  In addition to his ladder-mounted weapons
and the pistol on his shoulddr, he also has wrist cannons that swivel, his
fingertips are blasters, he has quad-mount fire retardand sprayers on his
helmet, and some sort of Matrix Cannon in his chest.  Flipping up the "matrix
chamber" lid on his chest reveals something that looks more like a gunport,
and the inside of the hatch has a targeting screen on it.  The outside of the
lid has a chrome G1 Autobot symbol.  
     Some other nifty little touches: deckplates on either side of his head,
microscale figures or miniatures can stand next to his head.  A chair on his
ladder rig that will hold a War Planets figure or similarly-sized figure that
can bend at the hips.  (Very stiff) thumb joints on the hands.  Head on a
ball joint rather than a swivel.  There's also some grey bars on his
shoulderpads that seemed notched to take a tab slotted in, but I haven't
figured out what they're for.

     Overall: While I was initially put off by the "marshmallow legs" on Fire
Convoy, I rather like the final result.  And with the presence of a
re-release pushing prices down through some dealers, it's worth picking this
guy up.  


CYBERTRON: God Magnus
Function: Task Force Captain

God Magnus transforms into a car carrier and can convey Cybertron warriors
for long-distance, high-speed transport.  A combat professional, he wields a
multipurpose weapon called the Blue Bolt.  Since the Blue Bolt is
power-linked directly to God Magnus, its power is affected depending on his
condition.  Magnus possesses flight capability thanks to high-output jet
engines.  He also combines with Fire Convoy and powers up into God Fire
Convoy.

STR 10  INT 10  SPD 10  END 9  RNK 9  COUR 10  FRP 10  SKL 10  Avg 9.75

     God Magnus Mode: It's packaged almost in this mode, so I'll start with
it.  Once you plug all the bits together, he stands 10.5" (27cm) tall at the
head, and a full 12" (31cm) at the tops of his wings.  But he's wearing
stilts.  His shins account for six inches (15cm) of that height, when he'd
actually be proportional with shins half that size.  Some quick fiddling
reveals that you can't just make decent-looking half-size shins by using the
God Fire Convoy transformation tricks on the legs.  God Magnus is also kinda
wobbly on his pins, since his top half is very massive and his legs are
practically skeletal frames.  Most of the upper body weight comes from his
backpack, which contains his sound and light gimmick as well.  His arms have
huger boxy forearms and relatively puny upper arms, and his torso is hollow.
Basically, it's pretty clear this guy was built to be "Godbomber" armor first
and an independent robot second or third.
     Tip to help with transformation later: There's a blue panel down by his
toes that's hinged to either face forwards or back, with the truck side
panels locking over it.  This panel is supposed to be forward in robot mode
and backwards in vehicle and God Fire Convoy modes.  It looks stupid forward
in robot mode, and you'll be better off just always leaving it backwards.
     The Blue Bolt is a pretty hefty piece of hardware.  It consists of two
non-firing rifle weapons and a double missile launcher all hooked by swivel
joints to a central bar.  It can be configured with one or the other rifle
forward as a one-handed weapon, or as a two-handed weapon with everything
firing.  When in use, the stock plugs into one of two places on his
shoulders, and the peg shapes are coded so that when using only one of the
rifles, you have to plug it into a particular shoulder.  This is because
there's buttons under the stocks that get pushed and override the sound
gimmick.  The missile launcher has a fold-up sights screen, but it's too high
for God Magnus to actually look through it.  Pegs on the gun lock it onto his
forearms for extra stability.
     GM's jetpack contains his sound chip (both it and FC's take 2 AAA
batteries, BTW).  With no buttons depressed, he says "God Magnus, Transform!"
With the right button pushed, he makes a cannonfire sound.  With the left
shoudl button pushed, he makes a machinegun/gatlinggun sound.  With both
shoulder buttons pushed, he shouts "God Burst!" and fires both weapons.  And
finally, there's some buttons inside his torso which get pushed in when in
God Fire Convoy mode, and he talks about forming mega-robot God Fire Convoy.
("Ultra-giant Combination - God Fire Convoy!")
     God Magnus is mainly white, blue, light blue and grey, with some red
(parts which need to match up with Fire Convoy) and dark grey.  He also has
chrome gold eyes.

     Transformation to Vehicle Mode: Remove the legs.  Transform the body
into the front of the vehicle, transform the legs into the back, then peg the
halves together.  If you don't have those lower leg panels in the right
direction, you'll never get the halves to merge.

     Vehicle Mode: A 13" (33cm) long car carrier, with optional missile rack
for those tough car sales markets.  While the jetpack takes up some of the
internal space (and is located so you really can't push the button for
sounds), there's enough room to hold all three Car Brothers in car modes.
And with a little squeezing, you can also get all four Build Team members in
or on the carrier.  It's worth noting that the car carrier is a different
scale from Fire Convoy's fire engine mode, as the driver's compartment is a
lot smaller on GM.  While the God Fire Convoy head takes up most of the
driver's compartment, there are two seats molded into the remaining space,
where 25mm scale figures can sit with the aid of putty to hold them in place.
Oh, and the car carrier is decorated with a logo that looks kinda like the
Mercedes "circle-Y" at first glance, but it's not.  The Mercedes logo lines
come to points, these are straight.

     Overall: Nice gimmicks and a good vehicle mode, but the really weak
robot mode is major points off for this toy.  Don't bother getting just God
Magnus, it wasn't really intended to be owned alone.  Its purpose in life is
to form armor for Fire Convoy.


CYBERTRON: God Fire Convoy
Function: Cybertron Ultimate Commander

The ultimate robot, born of a combination of Fire Convoy and God Magnus, God
Fire Convoy's abilities are an unknown quantity, surrounded in many
mysteries.  His maximum power output is said to rival even that of Brave
Maximus.  In many ways, he is the mightiest of Cybertron warriors, and is
respected as their supreme commander.  His sole weakness is that his "human
virtue" has become very well known in the universe.

STR 10+  INT 10+  SPD 10+  END 10+  RNK 10  COUR 10+  FRP 10+  SKL 10+
     Avg: 10+

     (Actually, the 10+ stats are listed as unknown, but Neale interpreted
that as 10+.)

     Formation: Take Fire Convoy alone to start with.  There's been some
fan-made Super God Fire Convoys that use all the parts from both, but God
Fire Convoy as described in the instructions uses just Fire Convoy and God
Magnus.  GM's legs fold up origami-like into boots, and his forearms invert
to become gloves.  There's pegs on the God Magnus thumbs that plug into Fire
Convoy's fists to give the result more stability.  Transforming the rest is a
bit tricky, and the tiny pictures in the instructions aren't always helpful.
I still don't quite know for sure if I did the right thing with the light
blue upper arms of God Magnus, I ended up just shoving them out of the way
along the sides of the backpack (although you can leave them sticking
straight out and pretend the four peg holes in each are attitude adjustment
nozzles for zero gee operations).  However, once you figure it out once, it's
not too hard to get it transformed after that.

     God Fire Convoy: Standing an impressive 11" (28cm) tall at the head, add
an inch if you mount the Blue Bolt cannons on his shoulders.  He's red, white
and blue with grey and silver plus a little gold, including a gold chrome
Autobot symbol on his chest (God Magnus's vehicle mode grille).  The plugs
for Blue Bolt stick up behind his head, making it easy now to just push down
the correct buttons if you want the sound effect.  The weapon effects
override the God Fire Convoy declaration, by the way.  When any sound effect
is triggered, an LED under GFC's head lights up, making the eyes (and to an
extent the entire head) glow.
     GFC is pretty poseable, but limited by his own weight and some of his
own decorations.  The new shoulderpads GFC has keep his shoulders from moving
much, and the big chest plate gets in the way of his arms.  He can still turn
some at the waist, although his waist looks kinda puny from the side.  His
feet are jointed with hinges so that he can stand with his legs apart yet
keep his feet flat on the table (although if you're not careful, his weight
will overcome the ratchet joints and make him do the splits).  Unlike SFC's
hands, which have thumbs but no other joints, GFC's hands also bend
mitten-like at the fingers, letting him hold things loosely.  His fingers are
also intended to be cannons or other weapons.  Pegholes on his forearms can
hold Fire Convoy's pistol nicely.  They also seemed to be shooting for a
standardized peg size with God Magnus and SFC, so I suspect there's a lot of
connection combinations an enterprising fan can figure out.

     Overall: Is God Fire Convoy $130 worth of neat?  Probably not for the
average consumer.  For a hardcore fan, though, it's worth the price,
especially if you have other Car Robots toys to interface with. 

     Dave Van Domelen, notes that if you removed the wings, Beast Machines
Megatron could walk between God Fire Convoy's legs.