Dave's Car Robots Rant: Battle Convoy Thanks much to Iggy Drouge's http://www.canit.se/~optimus/tf.html site, for never cleaning out anything. He still has up a handful of the reviews I did before setting up my own site. CAPSULE: Black Battle Convoy: Laser Optimus Prime was a really good toy, with loads of gimmicks and great poseability. BBC is essentially a pretty good knockoff of the original, but with less paint, less stickers and less gimmicks. It looks good, and the paint scheme may be marginally better, but it's just not quite perfect. Still, recommended. Around $50-65 depending on the dealer. RANT: Before I got into BBC, first we have a blast from the past, my original Laser Optimus Prime review! I'll follow with the differences in BBC and his techspecs (courtesy of Neale Davidson). =========================begin flashback sequence=========================== Dave's Toy Rant: Laser Optimus Prime (aka Optimus Prime Octane) CAPSULE: Found At: Toys R Us A good toy, definitely worth $30 and probably worth the $40 is actually costs. Sturdy, *heavy* and very poseable in robot form. Trailer/battle station has some troubles with transformation and storing parts, but is otherwise pretty cool. Color scheme, while not perfect, is not an abomination either. And the thing shoots a total of 17 projectiles.... Recommended. [Later Note: I have since revised my opinion upwards, I'd give it a Strongly Recommended now.] RANT: Cab/Optimus Prime Himself - Primarily red and black with blue and grey accents. Vehicle form is 8" long and 3" high, a very substantial toy. Wheels are plastic, sadly. Laser Sword fits into tailpipe area like the other Laser Rods had (despite the fact that a longnose cab doesn't have a tailpipe). Quite realistic looking in vehicle form, headlights light up yellow. Unlike the Laser Rods, the button to activate the lights does not stand out like a sore thumb (in fact, it took me a few seconds to find). Transformation is pretty simplistic. Legs and feet transform in a way reminiscent of the original Prime, although they also extend (and have poseability). The one neat aspect is the way his head is hidden in his abdomen and can flip up. Robot mode is 8" tall at the shoulders (which are BIG), a little over 7" tall at the head, and slightly over 5" wide at the shoulders. Primary color in robot mode is grey with black, blue and red accents. Still has his name on his chest. Illustration on the box notwithstanding, his LED is in his right fist. The wires leading to this LED are internal and somewhat hinder poseability of his arms...and the left arm has "dummy" wires to equal out the posing. Abdomen compartment can hold a Matrix if you have one...in fact, it may even hold a Headmaster Nebulan. Gimmicks: Standard 'glowing eyes' thing, light-up headlights, laser sword (which doesn't light up very convincingly, being too large for the LED) and laser cannon (which is strictly speaking part of the trailer, but can be carried separately). Poseability: Very good. His oversized feet allow him to actually stand in a large number of poses, and all of his leg/hip joints ratchet instead of sliding, so he won't sag. In fact, the ratcheting bits enhance his overall look, being sorta Yaniger-ish. [Later note: this is a reference to Derek Yaniger, one of the artists on the G2 comic.] Interesting Bits Discovered While Playing With Him: the smaller missiles from the battle base can fit into the decorative sockets on his shoulders (heck, this may be almost intentional). Stickers: Yes, there's a whole sticker sheet for this guy! However, only six stickers go on the robot itself. The rest are on the battle base. Overall Rating: Very good. Easily worth $20 on his own without all the other stuff. Trailer/Battle Base - A somewhat overwrought oil tanker in vehicle mode. Kinda difficult to get totally into form, a few parts have to be wrestled with. About a foot long and 6" tall in trailer mode. Autotransforms with the push of a switch, after you've pulled off the end cap. And yes, the springs are strong enough to carry this out from a "normal" position...you don't have to upend it. However, if there's any disks in the disk-shooter they'll go flying when you do this...I've taped mine over for transport. However, this is only the first step in transformation. You still have to manually deploy the weapons. The pneum gun will autodeploy if you didn't leave a missile on it (see below). The disk-shooter must be swung into position and the missile rack has to be pulled off one peg and placed on another (the directions incorrectly show it swinging into place). Now, keep in mind, this isn't a wimpy little battle station like the original Prime had. This thing takes up about two square feet of table space when fully deployed. It's roughly 18" long and 20" wide in a sort of cross shape. I had to do some serious redecorating to make room for this monster. There's several places where other Transformers can stand and man the guns. I'm thinking of putting my wimpy little Go-Bot Prime up on the platform with the laser cannon, it's just his size. Gimmicks: Autotransform. Disk-shooter, which holds 5 disks and can shoot them a few feet. Pneumatic missile like those the Combat Heroes have (blue with a yellow tip...it's the University of Michigan Missile! Hey, the CH Prime's missiles are red and white...Ohio State?) with good range. "Ripple-fire" missile launcher, holds five missiles and fires them with springs (more on this below). Laser Cannon which can be mounted two ways, one of which allows it to be stored inside the trailer and the other allows Prime to use it while attached. Note on Ripple-fire Missiles: This thing detaches and can be carried around with you. It looks kinda like a pager (although it won't clip to your pocket). The instructions don't mention it, but there's a peg on it so Prime can carry it as a hand-weapon (very cool). Unfortunately, it doesn't fire as fast as advertised, usually leaving a missile or two in the launcher after the first "ripple," and at least on mine the #3 launcher doesn't like to hold onto its load. Typical range is about six feet. Looks like it can use Dreadwing's missiles as well, but I haven't checked to see if DW can use these slightly shorter missiles. Extra Ammo: Comes with two pneum-missiles and 10 spring missiles, twice as many as can be held by the launchers. Below each launcher's position is storage space for the extras. However, there's a slight problem with this, in that you have to leave the weapons loaded to store everything in the trailer mode. And this isn't a great thing. Springs wear down if you leave the ripple launcher loaded all the time, and the pneum-launcher plus missile is a little too long to fold into storage, requiring the missile be mooshed. Storage for all ammo would be nice, as would a cover for the disk-shooter's ammo box, so that they don't go flying everywhere when you transform it. Other Storage Problems: The hose on the pneum-launcher gets all kinked up when loaded into storage, and the laser cannon can't be stored in the same configuration as Prime uses it in. Stickers: Lots on this part, and none of them are in impossible-to-reach spots. Nice paper stickers instead of the "make a mistake and it's permanent" foil stickers. Overall: Cool battle platform, but it doesn't quite transform as well as I'd like, especially considering the storage problem. Tech Specs - Ah, they finally implemented that neat new plan they mentioned at BotCon last year...the pop-up card stats! Instead of being something on the outside of the box, you get a card with box art on the back, techspecs inside and which can fold into a pop-up display of the box art. The idea is neat, but the execution somewhat lacking. The punch-out lines on the pop-up part are too strong, less likely to rip along the proper lines than right across the body (hadda use a knife to re-cut the outline). Fully assembled, you get Prime standing a few inches in front of the "green tech whirlpool" image they've been using on the packaging this year. They *do* include instructions on transforming the card with the rest of the instructions, thank goodness. The stats used as an example are Electro's, but the art doesn't look like him. Odd. AUTOBOT OPTIMUS PRIME Function: Leader "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings!" Showdown with Megatron in sector 17 of the Mirtonian constellation left Optimus severely damaged. Entire structural integrity and logistical circuitry processors were programmed into a sleeker, stronger, combat-ready configuration! Now this ultimate super hero has an arsenal of weaponry ready to repel an attack and immobilize Megatron once and for all! With Optimus' [sic] giant, laser-targeting rocket launcher, ripple-fire missile blaster and armor-piercing discs, Megatron had better think twice before firing his next shot...or it could be his last! STR 10 INT 10 SPD 9 END 10 RANK 10 COUR 10 FRP 10 SKL 10 Avg 9.875 That'll learn him to go after Tank-mode Megatron while wearing a wimpy little Go-Bot body. }-> And I think they meant "logical circuitry" as opposed to "logisitical" unless he moonlights as the Autobot Quartermaster. Note that they couldn't even fit all his weapons into the techspecs! Wonder if Megatron ATB's techspec will have him get trashed by Laser Prime in a rematch and have to rebuild too. Dave Van Domelen, yeah, he's got high stats...but for $40 ya kinda expect a big guy.... ==========================end flashback sequence=========================== Sigh, Neale's switched to PDFs instead of HTML, so I can't just cut and paste. DESTRONGER: Battle Convoy Function: Destronger Dark Commander Transforms into a tanker truck. His amazing physical resemblance to Fire Convoy is the result of a simultaneous scanning of a tanker truck and Fire Convoy, but besides that, he seems to have a number of secrets yet hidden. His tanker portion can split apart, unfolding to becomea battle base that boasts of enough firepower to equal 12 Combatrons. Battle Convoy specializes in swordsmanship, and is after not only Fire Convoy's head but Gigatron's as well. STR 10 INT 10 SPD 10 END 8 RNK 10 COUR 10 FRP 10 SKL 10 Avg 9.75 The official name seems to be Black Convoy, but that can get confused with the black Convoy special release. Besides, Battle Convoy or Black Battle Convoy sound better. Neale has the SPD listed as 8, but on my techspec card it's clearly the END that's 8, for some reason. Okay, now for a comparison of BBC (Black Battle Convoy) to LOP (Laser Optimus Prime). Instructions: Well, the BBC instructions are a lot clearer than LOP's, but they still miss tricks like having the ripplefire launcher used as a handgun. Cab: While both versions are mainly black, BBC is almost totally black, with some dark metallic teal trim. The horns and lights atop of the roof of the cab are unpainted on BBC. The windows and headlights are a ruby red, and the grille is chrome. The headlights do NOT light up on BBC. The activation button is still there, but the battery cover on the back of the cab has been replaced by a black sticker. Cab to Robot Transformation: Identical. Robot: The robot mode of BBC is better painted than LOP, and the four stickers look better than LOP's six. While all the wires have been yanked from BBC, his joints are still limited to not go more than 180 degrees in order to avoid pulling the wires...that no longer exist. BBC's glowing eyes trick (no LED, just from light behind it) is the same red as his windows, as is the sword. Cab/Robot Overall: Lacks the light gimmick, but has better paintjob in robot mode. I'd call it about equal. Trailer: There's a sticker on back with the "Black Convoy D-012" license plate, and that's pretty much it. The sides are bare chrome, the rest is bare black. Looks REALLY weak next to LOP's trailer, with its paint and its stickers and nifty art. The disc launcher works just as well (the discs are really dark brown), and the discs give a clue as to why they used an upside down G2 Autobot symbol as the alternate Destronger symbol. The G2 symbol is molded into the discs, so they were kinda stuck with it unless they wanted to do a real remold, something they obviously didn't want to do. Given that a sticker covers the battery bay, it's clear they were going for the cheapest possible recolor here...too bad they didn't have a budget to add a lid to the disc magazine. Trailer to Station Transformation: Identical between versions. Battle Station: Basically, the only differences are in color (lack of it, really) and the fact that BBC can't make the handcannon light up. The black missiles with red tips look a lot better than the colorful University of Missilegans, although red ripplefire missiles would have been nicer than dark brown. Trailer/Station Overall: Same functionality, but with the exception of the pneumatic missiles, LOP looks better by a longshot. Toy Overall: A generally lower level of decoration and the lack of the LED gimmick makes Battle Convoy a slightly less desireable toy than Laser Optimus Prime. On the other hand, BBC is actually available online right now, and you'd be lucky to find a sealed-box LOP for less than $100. Dave Van Domelen, finally figured out how to swap collets on his Dremel so he could use a 1/16" drill bit to help assemble a Jovian Chronicles miniature...