Dave's Galaxy Force Rant: Block Armor Galaxy Convoy (Optimus Prime) Ligerjack (Leobreaker) Nitro Convoy (Override) Flame Convoy (Scourge) Live Convoy (Evac) These are non-blindpacked Kabaya "toys with candy" (well, gum) products, like gashopon, but my understanding is that it's not really gashopon unless it comes in a plastic bubble. :) The materials are gashopon-level for the most part, though. I got the set of five from BBTS.com for $17, suggesting that these are around 200-250 yen each in Japan (HLJ doesn't have 'em in stock, so I don't know the actual price). So, keeping in mind that they're two dollar toys, they're not too bad. In absolute terms, they're a bit disappointing, though. Not gonna do Capsules in this case, except to say that they're probably about worth the $17 I paid, or slightly less. Packaging: This is the sort of toy you're likely to find in grocery stores in Japan, rather than toy stores. A cheap little toy to get your kid while out shopping (or to buy for your growing collection of such toys), with a little bit of candy or gum inside to justify selling it in a food store. It's like Cracker Jack where the toy prize dominates. Normally, these things have a sort of citrus candy that's like a loosely-packed Sweet Tart that dissolves quickly in the mouth with an odd flavor. (Twisted Kaiju Theater has a theory on their origins, you probably don't want to know it.) However, sometimes you get Mystery Gum, and that's what the Block Armor toys have, sigh. They are not blind packed, each box has pictures on front, back and top of the toy inside the box, and a checklist of all five on the right side. The boxes are 12cm tall, 8.5cm wide and 4cm deep. Like many of Kabaya's low-end toys, there is not a separate instruction sheet, instead the instructions are printed on the inside of the box, and you have to unfold it flat to read the instructions. The back has nice pictures of both modes, though, which are generally enough to work from. The lower left corner of the front of the box shows an "exploded view" of the robot mode, which also helps. The back of every box shows the extra pieces included in each set that come together to put on Galaxy Convoy's Super Mode armor, and shows him in both modes. The full instructions for Super Mode are only inside Galaxy Convoy's box, though. The toy is inside a plastic bag that is sealed and then also taped to make it snug. Inside is most of the toy in altmode, plus a secondary baggie with a few loose bits, as well as the Super Mode contributions (Galaxy Convoy comes with the shoulder 'straps', the boot backs and the small rifle; Ligerjack comes with the base of the right-hand big gun; Nitro Convoy comes with the backpack and wings; Flame Convoy has just the head; Live Convoy has just the left side big gun). The mystery gum comes in a foil pack. Inside, it's a white rectangle 4cm by 3cm and 2mm thick. It smells a lot like the gum that came with the Bubble Twist toys (http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/BubbleTwist). It starts out with a sort of craft foam texture, but quickly becomes soft (yes, I'm reviewing the gum). It has a pleasant flavor, but after only about a minute of chewing it has lost almost all of that flavor. It's not suitable for blowing bubbles. Plastic Quality: Two or three types of plastic are used in these toys. Most of the parts are a gummy sort of plastic, only slightly more rigid than a decoy. Some are slightly more rigid plastic, still soft but not gummy. Some of the paints seem to actually be gummy plastic laid down in the mold first, like making multicolored chocolates in a home mold. The joints are almost all pegs, with variable tolerances. They seem to rely on the fact that you can force a too-large peg into a flexible hole, but sometimes you get a too-small peg flopping around in the flexible hole. I will also note here that they minimized the plastic colors in this set, so not every toy is quite colored right, because they didn't want to do a mold color for just one toy. There's bright red, dark blue, white, golden yellow and brown. That's it. So most of Live Convoy's blue parts are white instead, that sort of thing. They're a little more generous with paint masks, though, so my "mold pour" theory on them is probably wrong. On Cheating: Okay, these are two dollar toys made of gummy plastic. There just aren't the resources to make everything fit elegantly. So every one of these toys has at least one or two pieces left over in one of the modes, if not both. Usually robot heads left off in altmodes. Swappability: Most of the pegs are about the same size, give or take a tenth of a millimeter. So there is SOME interchangeability inherent in the set. You can even kinda put Ligerjack on Galaxy Convoy's shoulder, although you need to use rubber bands to attach the claws to the end of it. But not all of the joints attach the same way, so you can't put Live Convoy's legs on Nitro Convoy's hips, but you can put his arms on NC's shoulders. The rest of the review I'm gonna do slightly differently than usual, I'm going to go over all the altmodes, all the transformations, then all the robot modes. ALTMODES Galaxy Convoy: 4" (10cm) long, and like Legends Optimus Prime, it's an overly long tractor. Super Mode is just as long, but has the trailer bits to make the whole thing look more proportional. The colors are pretty accurate, with a lot of silver, white and blue paint in the right places, and black wheels (that don't turn, of course). The non-super mode's rear wheels are unpainted, but the trailer's rear wheels are painted. It holds together okay. There's no place for the head to store, though. In Super Mode, neither head is stored, and the leg-back chunks that form the core of the real toy's trailer are just set aside. The guns (which are white) peg pretty loosely into place, and are supposed to be angled slightly up, but they can also be pegged on straight forward. No poseability to speak of, of course. Ligerjack: About 3.25" (8.5cm) from snout to tail tip. The mane is gold, he has the green forehead tablet and green accents on his hips. There's some white paint on his muzzle, red eyes, and silver on his rear legs. The hip joints are pegs that act as swivels. The rear knee joints are hingelike, as are all the ankle joints. The front knee pegs are vertical, so the lower forelegs only twist. The tail is pegged on and can wag back an forth a bit. The waist is a peg and can swivel. The power claws are pegged onto the lower forelegs, but cannot really be attached in deployed mode while in beast form. The robot head does not store anywhere. Nitro Convoy: 3" (7.5cm) long, with the force chip gimmick guns deployed (no, they can't move, they're just molded as being out). The non-rolling wheels are red, natural plastic color on the front wheels, painted red on the rear ones. The color matching is pretty good, leaving aside the impossibility of clear plastic here. However, it doesn't hold together all that stably. The robot arms are left off in this mode. They can be attached to the rear wheels and stick out in a sort of weird rolling gerwalk, but cannot store inside the car. OTOH, this does let them be a bit longer and better proportioned. Flame Convoy: 5" (13cm) from snout to tail tip, uses just brown and golden yellow plastic, with a paint pallet similar to that of the real toy, but a bit less varied. Easily the most poseable altmode, with hips, rear knees and ankles, and a turning head as meaningful joints. The extra heads (Beavis and Butthead) can be folded back, and blend in with the wings reasonably well. There's a peghole in the middle of the back that seems to serve no purpose in the instructions, although it can kinda hold the spare bit of beast while in robot mode. The robot head has no total hiding place, but can be pegged into the belly fairly discretely. Live Convoy: A little over 4" (10cm) long, with a rotorspan of just over 3" (8cm). The winch can be swiveled on its peg, and the rotors moved on theirs, but they don't stay fixed relative to each other. Very solid in this mode, the best-put-together of the five in that respect. There's metallic light blue paint on the cockpit, but otherwise the light blue bits of the real toy are white here. The robot head has no storage place, and looks goofy pegged into one of the holes on the outside of the helicopter. TRANSFORMATIONS Galaxy Convoy: Pretty close to the regular toy, but with pulling apart and reassembling rather than swinging things on joints. And, of course, you have to add in the head from outside. The way the arms are stored is pretty clever, he has his elbows in his pelvis. :) For Super Mode, replace the head, pull the shoulders off and insert the "strap" pieces, put on the backpack with weapons, and rearrange the feet. The backpack has peg holes it doesn't need, probably so you can hang extra weapons on it. Ligerjack: The torso comes apart and repegs with the lion face as the chest of the robot, the limbs transform in the usual way. The top of the mane pops off and you plug the robot head into the neck, putting the mane top back onto the head like a weird hat. It does not look mulletish, more like the top of a Zingers cake stapled to his head. Nitro Convoy: This one is the hardest to figure out without using the instructions, as pretty much everything unpegs from vehicle mode and repegs in a different configuration. And, as mentioned, bring in the arms from outside. OTOH, the head was part of vehicle mode, the only Block Armor that does that. The shoulders plug together pretty solidly, which is nice. As with the real toy, the gun can be left on the back or held in the hand. Flame Convoy: Remove the tail, repeg the shoulders, remove the neck and dragon head, put the dragon head on the chest, put the robot head in the right place. The legs don't just swing down, they actually repeg a few millimeters up, to represent the shortening of the torso. The dragon neck has nowhere to go officially, but can be pegged onto the back in a manner reminiscent of G1 Galvatron's cartoon model. Live Convoy: Another "take it all apart and reassemble" toy, but a but more obvious in terms of where everything goes than Nitro Convoy. It does tend to fall apart easily while trying to assemble other bits, though. The instructions don't say so, but you can assemble it with tail sections down as well as in the usual "shoulderpads from hell" position. ROBOT MODES Galaxy Convoy: 3" (7.5cm) tall. The neck and shoulders are the only swivel joints, all the other pegs are locked in position. The white rifle can fit in either fist but can be a bit tricky to get out. Super Mode is 3.5" (8.5cm) tall at the head, with a wingspan of 5.5" (13.5cm). The boot guns can swing up, and the big guns can be held in the hands for Massive Damage Mode. The big guns can also plug into the peg holes for their vehicle mode positions, flanking Convoy's head. Ligerjack: A little under 3" (7.5cm) tall. The head turns, the waist turns, the shoulders swing, the "wrists" are hinged, the hips swing, the knees bend, and the toe parts of the feet are on hinges too. The tail weapon can be held on either paw, and the claw weapons can be repegged for use in this mode. Nitro Convoy: 3" (8cm) tall and just as broad-shouldered as the real toy, but the arms are a little longer, which helps. Head turns, hips and shoulders swing. As mentioned above, the gun can either be held (awkwardly) in the hands, or stowed on the back. The face is gold rather than orange, so it definitely doesn't share a paint mask with Scourge (who has orange paint). Flame Convoy: 2.75" (7cm) tall at the main head, 3" (8cm) at the secondary heads or the wingtips. 3.25" (8.5cm) wingspan. Has swinging shoulders and hips, hinged knees and ankles, rotating head. The forearms can be rotated on their long axes, and the secondary heads have their swivel joints. The shoulders are not stiff enough to let him hold up his axe, unless you stick a blob of poster putty in the peghole. Oh, and the axe is 2.75" (7.5cm) long. This is the only one where the robot mode doesn't use all the altmode pieces. Live Convoy: 3" (8cm) tall at the head, 3.5" (9cm) at the top of the guns behind his head. The shoulderspan is 4" (10cm) with the tail sections spread. The shoulders and hips swing, the head turns. The waist is restrained, but could be repegged with a twist of at least 45 degrees to the side. The robot mode is generally well painted. OVERALL Considering what they're meant to sell for, not too bad. Don't pay more than $4 each, though. Dave Van Domelen, also got a Super Galaxy Convoy figure called "Micron Legend" by BBTS, but doesn't feel like reviewing it.