Dave's Beast Wars Neo Rant: Magmatron Big Convoy At last, the big ones, the end of the batch I got from Macky. Because these are a big deal, I've taken more time to play with them and gather information before writing this review...hopefully that'll make a difference. CAPSULES Magmatron: Very good beast modes, complex yet intuitive transformation, stable robot mode, good gimmicks. The Fused mode is a bit of a joke, but it's an extra. Strongly recommended. Big Convoy: Beast mode looks good and has some play value. Even more complicated transformation, especially from robot mode back to beast mode. Another laughable third mode. Tends to get in its own way, but pretty nifty otherwise. Strongly recommended. AVAILABILITY I'd better note this here to cut down the number of people who email me to ask. I don't know of any regular, reliable source for these toys, my own source is only small-volume personal trades. Nor do I want to be a clearinghouse for dealers, so please don't ask me where to get these. RANTS DESTRON: Magmatron STR 10 INT 10 SPD 10 END 10 RNK 10 COUR 10 FRP 9 SKL 10 Avg 9.875 Magmatron, the New Emperor of Destruction, is a sort of combiner. Three beasts merge to form his robot mode, but do not have robot modes of their own. They also merge to form a sort of Fuzasaur of dubious merit. The three beasts are Landsaurus, Seasaurus and Skysaurus. Landsaurus: This mostly blue dino is a Giganotosaurus, a very recently discovered relative of T.rex with a larger body, better claws, but a smaller head and jaw. It's distinguished from the T.rex by its three-fingered claws, and from the Allosaur by its big thighs and feet. The traveling museum display of the Giganotosaur is currently in Japan, which would explain why both Takara and Bandai have come out with toys capitalizing on the new species (Giganodragon of DinoZone is based on it in name only, however). From snout to tail, Landsaurus measures 8.5" (21cm), and he's assumed to be in the old-fashioned T.rex stance, with tail as a third leg. In fact, he can only barely be put into the proper torso-horizontal position at all, because his chest kibble gets in the way of his massive thighs. Not to mention his tail isn't enough counterbalance, although it's hollow and you could fill it with buckshot. Of the three beasts, Landsaurus suffers the most from robot parts hanging off him. His chest has design elements from both Seasaurus and Skysaurus so that they all unify on the robot's chest, and Magmatron's "skates" line the back of Landsaurus's legs. His body's a forest of pegs, tabs, holes and slots, used in the two combined modes. His gimmick is a missile launcher in his throat, which can be fired by opening his mouth. There's two missiles which will hide completely in his throat and allow the mouth to shut (these store inside Seasaurus). Magmatron's sword, which hides in his tail, can also be launched, but it's hard to get it into the launcher. Finally, Skysaurus has two wing missiles which can also be fired from Landsaurus's mouth...but when one of them is loaded, it looks like Landsaurus is about to lick his own eyebrows. Long red tongue, man. Simmonssaurus. Landsaurus forms the legs, most of the torso and one shoulderpad of Magmatron. Spark insignia is inside the gullet, on the launcher unit. Seasaurus: This light blue-green Elasmosaur (a very long-necked Plesiosaur) is 15" (38cm) long, 10" (25cm) of that is head and neck. There are nine neck segments on ball joints like elongated versions of Quickstrike's tail pieces, plus the head with opening jaw. The neck tends to droop under its own weight, though, and you have to be careful positioning it to avoid popping a joint. In addition to the neck fun, Seasaurus has a swimming motion gimmick. If you push the two hind flippers together, the front pair moves forward in a pretty convincing swimming motion. Seasaurus forms the arms, back, striking weapon and shield of Magmatron. Spark insignia is on the left arm of Magmatron, hidden inside the body in beast mode. Skysaurus: This one's a little harder to figure. The official literature calls it a Queztalcoatlus, the largest of the flying pterries. But Queztalcoatlus has a semicircular crest between its eyes which this lacks, and is generally shown with the teeth not very visible...Skysaurus has very visible chompers. In fact, just looking at the body plan, Skysaurus most resembles the tiny Pterodactylus. Mind you, if this were to scale with Landsaurus, it'd be three times larger than even Quetzalcoatlus, so it's not a real species anyway. }-> [Correction: my initial source had a units error...the Quetz's wingspan is 12 meters, not 12 feet, so Skysaurus is the proper size for that species. Just not the proper look.] Fully extended, the wingspan is 11" (28cm), and the snout to tail length is 5" (12cm). The neck has three hinge joints and an opening jaw. Each leg has a ball joint hip and hinges for "elbow" and foot. There's a little peg and hole-age, but not enough to be a problem. The real fun, though, is in the wings. When you pull back on the tail, the wings extend. But they do this by having the arms straighten and push the wings out, in a rather elegant mechanism. The wings don't just flap, they move in an anatomically correct way, which is really neat. Skysaurus forms the head and central torso of Magmatron. The spark insignia is on the left wing. Fuzasaur: Pretty simple, really. Open up Seasaurus and pull out the arms, then snap the body shut around Landsaurus's tail. Open up Skysaurus and snap onto Seasaurus's back. You get a really long dino with four main legs, two more forelegs and a long tail with a head at the end, plus wings. It's a prehistoric Chimaera. Moderately amusing, but that's about it. The most fun I had with it was when I discovered you could position all three heads to look at the same thing...which should tell you about how much fun it is overall. Transformation: I'm not going to walk through this step by step...if you need that, you've got instructions to look at. }-> But, while this is a very involved transformation, almost everything is obvious from looking at the final picture and the positions of various tabs and slots. The hardest part is getting all the bits in the torso to snap together at once, since one out of place can mess up the entire process. When transforming Skysaurus, be sure to pull the chest open until it snaps into place. Not only will this make assembling the torso easier, it'll also give you your only chance to turn Magmatron's head. It's locked down by Skysaurus's legs once you assemble the robot mode. Why they even gave it a neck and then locked it down, I dunno. Anyway, just to reiterate, the torso assembly can be a royal pain, especially fitting the tab on Skysaurus's belly into the slot inside Seasaurus. Even on my fifth time putting the robot together, this gave me trouble. Robot Mode: 7.5" (19cm) tall at the head, add another inch for the winged helmet. Magmatron is a very stable robot once you get all the pegs and tabs and stuff in place, although some of the joints are so stiff that moving them can pop parts out of place. His hands have opposable thumbs, but like Heinrad his weapon relies on a peg in the palm rather than on the thumb to hold it. Unfortunately, regardless of whether you use the sword handle or the fold-out gun handle on the launcher, it's almost impossible to get it to stay in place, because the thumb gets in the way of pressing it into the peg-hole very well. Sword mode is more stable than gun mode, though. And because of how his arm and wrist are jointed, he can't really point the gun well anyway. Another poseability problem is due to the Landsaurus head acting as his right shoulderpad, as it keeps him from raising his right arm too high. The lower part of Seasaurus becomes a shield which tends to get fouled in Magmatron's head wings, but does have a nifty scissors weapon gimmick to it. The head of Seasaurus normally pegs down onto Magmatron's left shoulder, but it can be pulled out as an attack mode. Magmatron stands pretty well even without using his tail as a third leg, thanks to the heel extensions built into his feet. He also has wheels on his feet that he can scoot along with...I suppose to help give him something of a mechanical appearance. The launcher can use all three types of missile: sword, wing missile and blaster missile. Range varies by projectile, but is fairly short, less than a meter. The wing missiles look best when the launcher is held as a sword, becoming beam sabre blades. The mouth missiles work best in gun mode. Overall: A great puzzle, cool beast modes, and a pretty good robot mode. If I had to pick between the two, I'd say Magmatron is better than Big Convoy. CYBERTRON: Big Convoy STR 10 INT 10 SPD 9 END 10 RNK 10 COUR 10 FRP 10 SKL 10 Avg 9.875 Beast Mode: This mammoth is 9" (23cm) long from the tip of its trunk to its hinder, with about a third of that being the trunk. 5" (13cm) tall at the shoulder and 3" (8cm) wide, it's a very blocky critter, as mammoths tend to be. The legs are not poseable at all, being locked into position. Oddly, the rear feet are attached with normally-movable joints, but then kept in position by being set flush to the leg. The tail is hinged but looks kinda silly in any but the default position. By pulling back on a lever built into Big's skull, you can make the trunk rear back as if trumpeting or lifting something. The mechanism is similar to the one in Dinobot II, with a strap running down one side in a channel so that when it's shortened, it pulls back the tip of the trunk. Additionally, by pulling back an ear, you can make the tusk on that side rise up. The intent is to move both at once, but this is difficult unless you have rather large hands or have worked the mechanism until it gets a LOT less stiff. From below there's lots of robot stuff visible, but it's pretty well hidden from other angles, thanks to the many overlapping plates of fur. When returning the toy to beast mode, it's a bear and a half trying to get these plates all lined up again (here's one hint: bend the robot legs only at the upper joint when transforming back). Attack Mode: Basically, you pull out the spine-mounted gun and flip it around, then pull out the flank panels that conceal anchor missiles like those found on the hips of the first Ultra BW Megatron. Not much to look at. Transformation: Much easier from beast to robot than vice versa, you really only have to be careful to snap down some panels and other parts when going to robot mode. There's enough plates and stuff, though, that it's hard to finish transforming the toy without popping something off. Not as bad as Cybershark II or Guiledart, but still pretty bad. While it's theoretically possible to transform this with the gun still attached to Big's back, leaving it on makes the task quite a bit harder and results in more popped panels. Robot Mode: "Only" 7" (18cm) tall at the head, but pretty well- proportioned in body. Of course, thanks to his head splitting into shoulderpads, he's 10" (25cm) WIDE at the shoulder. And his missile launcher is 9" (22cm) long, thanks to it carrying the trunk. Personally, I think it would have worked better if the trunk part separated into a hand weapon, since it makes holding the gun rather difficult. With the fur panels mostly out of the way, Big Convoy is mainly red, white and blue, as befits a Convoy. He has gold vac-metalled eyes and his spark insignia is reversed, showing the gold face out. For odd design reasons, his left arm is made from dark red translucent plastic with silver paint, while his left arm is opaque red and white plastics. His elbows are double joints, a hinge at one end and a ball at the other. His wrists are hinged to move up and down, which is a nice touch. His head turns and can rock or elevate slightly, plus the horns on his helmet can be folded away (and have to be for transformation). His waist turns, but it's incredibly stiff. He has double knees and a thigh swivel, plus ratcheting hips. His feet are interesting, because while they consist of two highly mobile parts, those parts only do some of the work of supporting him. Much of the stability comes from the mammoth feet locked into position as his heels. His missile launcher has two missiles loaded at the same time, and uses an odd trigger. Rather than pushing a button, you rotate a disc that fires the missiles one after the other. If you remember to twist it the right direction. And if you get a good enough grip. All in all, it's a bit of a loser idea. The gun can be held in either hand or attached to his back. His other missiles come from shin-mounted panels and fire a little too easily, since the triggers pop out of the sides of the panels when the missiles are loaded. The range of the anchor missiles is a few feet, while the main missiles are pretty anemic, firing only a few inches. His last weapons are a pair of tonfa that fold out of his forearms and peg into his fists. Unfortunatley, they hold to his fists a LOT better than they do to their own hinges, so they pop away from the forearm housing pretty often. Okay, I've kept you in suspense long enough. On to the Matrix. With the proliferation of Convoys in the Japanese mythos has come the idea that each Convoy has a Matrix. It's not THE Matrix, but it's still pretty nifty. Lioconvoy's was a mere bas-relief on his chest, but this time they go all the way. Big Convoy's chest panel is made from translucent red plastic (with blue and silver details painted on it) and can fold down. If you look at the back of this panel, you'll see that he does indeed have a normal spark crystal, it's just put in backwards. Inside the chest cavity is a gold chromed plastic Matrix housing with clear red plastic gem inside. The handles don't loop all the way around as with the Matrix of Leadership, but this is so that Big Convoy can actually hold his Matrix. He holds it better if the tonfas are not deployed. Overall: He's got serious kibble issues in robot mode and his gun really gets in the way no matter what you do with it, but his beast mode is convincing, he has a good transformation, and the Matrix adds a lot. On the balance, he's definitely worth seeking out. Dave Van Domelen, hoping Big Convoy doesn't fall off the cabinet the first time he opens a drawer....