TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:

Alternate Mode:

Box Art:

Clay's review of: Robotmasters Beast Convoy

Name: Beast Convoy
Allegiance: Cybertron
Function: Cybertron Commander
Sub-Group: NA

To start with, I was a kid of the 80's, so my time with Transformers as a child had long been eclipsed by the time Beast Wars came around. I saw, literally, no more than three episodes of the whole series, so my knowledge of it limited at beast. (Pun #1)

However, after getting the Robot Masters Megatron (based on his Beast Wars counterpart), I decided to give Beast Convoy a shot. It turns out that I'm quite happy with him. He has a lot of the traits that I've apparently come to like (although it does seem strange to admit to myself that I now have criteria for liking or disliking toys). Good articulation, a thoughtful transformation, no loose parts, easily portable, and armed to the teeth: I like it!

Alternate Mode:
There's not terribly much to say about this one... he's a silverback gorilla. He has most of his articulation available in this mode, but his hind legs are short so that limits his posability. But he's so darn cute that it doesn't matter! Aww, wook ad da widdle munkee... aww...

Moving on...

Robot Mode:
After turning the waist around, flipping up the shoulder pads, and pulling down the gorilla head, you have the robot mode. The gorilla face is actually mounted on a geared axle in the head so that it swings around automatically to make the robot chest. Nifty. The articulation is about the same as... no, better than RM Megatron (because Beast Convoy has two arms instead of one).

One thing I've noticed about his robot head is the antannae. They're modeled slightly after antlers, which I think is a nice touch. He also has the open-mouth face plate, which works just fine. I've never had any experience with Beast Convoy/Optimus Primal before, so to me, this is just what he looks like. It's also a good thing because otherwise it would be very easy to confuse him with RM Anime Convoy since, you know, it's very hard to tell a gorilla apart from a truck.

The last thing to really mention about the robot is that he's so heavily armed. (Pun #2) He stores two scimitars in his back for always-ready Kong-Fu fighting action (Pun #3). His attached weapons consist of shoulder- and wrist-mounted blasters that hide away. There are also some small, non-functional jet ports on his lower back revealed by lifting up the gorilla posterior. This is all good evidence of the necessary difference between the gorilla mode and the robot. Gorilla=climbing buildings; robot=blowing up buildings.

He also comes with the same blue missle launcher Megatron packs around. Beast Convoy's (and Anime Convoy's) has a silver highlight on it, whereas Megatron's has a gold highlight.

Transformation: 8 - Simple and well thought out. It works!
Durability: 9 - There's one small piece that can connect the scimitars together: it cannot be stored anyway on the toy itself, so that's made its way into the "Bag of Missles". Otherwise, a solid little guy.
Fun: 10 - More tiny new Robot Master molds for Clay! Seriously, I didn't expect to be this enamoured with the little guy. But it's fun to let him ride Megatron like a pony.
Price: 7 - $20, which isn't terrible for a boxed import. However, I paid the same for a Megatron, and there are some differences I can't figure out. Their robot modes are the same size, but the dinosaur is twice the size of the gorilla! These things are violating the laws of physics somehow...
Summary: 9 - Like Megatron, this is a neat little toy, especially if you don't have the originals. Or, maybe, even if you do have the originals...