TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:

Alternate Mode:

Box Art:

Brave Maximus' review of:
RM-21 Burning Beast Convoy

Name: Burning Beast Convoy
Allegiance: Cybertron
Alt-Mode: Gorilla
First Cartoon Appearance: Beast Wars the Second: The Movie

The first Burning Convoy appeared as a Japanese exclusive to coincide with the release of the Beast Wars the Second Movie in 1998. In the movie, when Lioconvoy and Convoy joined together, their Matrix powers combined and gave them both a "Powered Up" form. For the Beast Wars Convoy, he was turned bright red and had flames on him. For the Robot Masters line, they "repainted" the RM-11 toy in the Burning Beast Convoy style.

Alt Mode:

Like his original Beast Wars counterpart, Burning Beast Convoy is a gorilla, and, like the original Burning Convoy, he is sculpted entirely out of clear red plastic (though the Original had metallic flake in the plastic). He has fur detail all over his body, but it's rather hard to see against the uniform red colour. The only painted details visible are blue eyes for the gorilla head, a gold flame type pattern on the chest, and painted gold fingers on his hands.

Ah yes, the hands - this is one of the major design changes from the "Ultra" Optimus Primal mould. Instead of being a closed fist, the hands are open, in a slightly cupped form. While this looks a little weird when he's walking on his knuckles, it's not a bad thing. He still retains his 10 toes on his feet and ears on his head, which are nice little details on a figure this small, as they easily could have left them out. The only thing I could see people complaining about is the fact that all the metal pins and screws are visible through the plastic. It doesn't bother me personally - but it is something to point out.

Few quick notes on transformation: While it is almost identical to the original moulds transformation, the beast face now rotates around on it's own, and you lift the monkey's backside and fold it up on it's back.

Robot Mode:

This is where Takara improved on the original Optimus Primal mode immensely. Where to start....the head now rests on a ball joint, they removed the Mutant face that plagued the first run of Beast Wars toys, he has thrusters and can deploy all his weapons and keep both his hands. When Takara went back to this mould, they tried to make it more TV accurate. The head has been redone and is almost dead on to the cartoon version. He has a mouth inset on his faceplate, he has the double blade antenna and like all Cybertrons, has blue eyes. Both arm pieces have been redone as well. The Skull mace has been eliminated in favour of 2 pop up double blasters! Yep, that's right - a panel folds back and the guns come up, not just the splitting of his hand for a weird arm blaster. As I mentioned earlier, his hands are open palmed, which actually works well with his swords. He still has the over the shoulder missile.launchers, though in this version, they don't shoot. Detail wise, he's still mostly clear red, but a lot more gold shows up.

Working from the top down: His face is silver with a silver crest and blue eyes, while the antenna are gold. This is completely different from the original Burning Convoy - whose head was all gold, with red eyes and antennae. Given the choice, I prefer this paint job. The shoulder cannon ends are gold, and the chevrons that were red in the other moulds are gold as well. Gold shows up for the forearm blasters and fingers as well as his knee caps. His "Matrix Chamber" is gold with a painted red\orange centre part. I thought this was kind of weird, actually, as you can't see the blue of the monkey eyes from where they are - but it doesn't look bad. His Swords are also gold and the "muzzle" of his missile launcher is gold. The gold is done sparingly and added as highlights - so it's there, but not enough to get overwhelming - a simple colour scheme, but effective for the powered up version of Optimus Primal.

Speaking of missile launchers: Included with Burning Beast Convoy is a similar launcher to the one included with G1 Convoy, Beast Megatron, Starscream and others. It's done in translucent Red as well. What is weird is that the missile would actually meet US safety standards. This leads me to a faint flicker of hope that we may see the original Robot Masters moulds in North America. Not likely, I know - but there's a chance......

Poseability & Extras:

Burning Beast Convoy has14 points of basic articulation. He's nice and stiff, and can hold some amazing poses. The incentive to buy Burning Beast Convoy as well as Beast Convoy is that he also comes with a DVD. This features a 10 minute computer animated Robot Masters Cartoon showing the Cybertronian leaders kicking the snot out of Starscream and Beast Megatron. Apparently Starscream has a Gerwalk mode now?!? This is the same Cartoon that came with the Galaxy Force Super Secret DVD - so you can find translated versions on the web. It also showcases the upcoming toys Takara is putting out. I'd tell you more, but I cannot speak Japanese, sorry.

Transformation: 7. Not too simple, and not a Rubix cube.
Durability: 9. The missile launchers' handle looks a little flimsy and the swords could get lost - but the core figure is nice and solid.
Fun: 10. Great figure. A nice updated Beast Convoy with a great "special" colour scheme
Price: I paid 6 - $30CDN - So pretty good. A little pricey for your 10 year old - but not too bad considering what the original Burning Beast Convoy goes for
Overall: 8.5. Go out and get him, he's a fun, solid toy. If you back light him he looks AMAZING.