Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 19, 2008 21:59:26 GMT
Our tour of BW leaders brings us to Lio Convoy
Lio Convoy www.tfu.info/1998/Cybertron/LioConvoy/lioconvoy.htm
Lio Convoy is the Cybertron (Maximal) leader in Beast Wars II. He was released in 1998 as C-16 or as VS-16 with BWII Galvatron and as such he's one of the first Japanese exclusives to be easily available in the west by means of the Internet. He was a few years later sold through the Hasbro US website, and I believe there is a Korean version of him too. He should be easy to track down at a reasonable price - I found one on eBay for less than £30 including delivery this morning.
Lio Convoy is a Lion. His main colour is white with a gold mane & tail , some robot red and grey visible through the beast. His front legs are solid units from the shoulder down. The back legs are formed from the robot legs and bend at the ankle, swivel round just above it, bend twice at the knee and swivel just above that with ball jointed hips. The tail bends up and down where it meets the body.
He has several action features in this mode. If you push down on the gold mane in the middle then 2 missile launchers spring forward. Opening the opposing panel under the lion gives you access for deploying 2 more launchers lower down. These can be stored with their missiles loaded, but the missiles will be visible in beast mode. If you fold the missile panels back into the locked position then the other 4 panels that make up the main can be folded out at top, sides and underneath. These form a cross shape round the mane which can be spun round by pressing the red trigger that pokes through the middle top mane piece. There's a button on the front of the mane that when pressed opens the lion's mouth. And finally 2 longer claws are hidden at the back of the front beast legs and can spring out if you touch them. Lots to do here.
TF: Straighten the rear legs out and spin each leg round 180 degrees at the joint above the knee so the larger red side of the knee faces down and the grey robotic panel is on the outside of the lower leg. Turn the ankle round so the beast foot is facing down and fold the heel spur out. Flip out the top missile launchers and open the side panels. Pop the robot hands off the pegs they are mounted on, pull the robot shoulders away from the sides of the beast and let the entire robot chest and arms drop away under the beast. Straighten the struts connecting the centre of the robot chest to the arms along the back of the chest, fold the struts connected to the robot shoulders back 90 degrees and straighten the robot arms. Fold down the lower mane panel, and fold the entire head section - bringing with it the back of the body and the tail - forward so the head is where the robot chest would be. Turn the entire upper body (from above where the robot chest is folded forward) 90 degrees to your left. Pull the back of the beast up and to your right and then fold the end of this back down. Inside the back of the beast there's an exposed flap which is pulled to your right. From here fold the robot head up and close the flap. Fold the robot chest back bringing the struts connected to the robot's shoulders in line with the slots on the machinery behind the beast head and in the beast's back. Lock the head/back/tail section in place over these struts.
The resulting robot is more Optimus Prime than previous American Beast Wars commanders - in addition to the blue Prime head he's got a red robot chest and arms and mostly blue fists. The lower half of the chest has some highlights in silver which could be highlighting the muscles in his abdomen or could be trying to look like Optimus' truck front grill. The legs are mainly beast white with some grey and red robot parts visible. He bends and rotates at the ankle, bends twice at the knee and just above it, has ball jointed hips, a turning waist & neck, ball jointed shoulders, a ball joint in the upper arm connected to a bending elbow and bending wrists. The launchers from the top of the main can be removed and used as hand held weapons, whereas the lower launchers are embedded in the arms and can be deployed by pulling the trigger under and on the inside of the arms. The beast legs are stored under the arms and can be extended forward for the claws to be deployed. If the arm on your left is pulled in far enough then the spinning mane action feature can be used. The panel on your right side of his chest opens - on the inside of the panel is his Cybertron (Maximal) rubsign. The panel covers up a molded in Matrix of Leadership buried in his chest.
Overall: I always feel sorry for Lio Convoy. Somehow not as great as Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal) or Big Convoy the Cybertron/Maximal leaders either side of him, he also pales when compare to his counterpart BW II Galvatron.. The robot mode is a little lop sided with the lion head on one shoulder, the Prime head is a bit square & flat and it's tricky to pin his arms in place properly. The hand held weapons are poor - though thankfully his standard pegged hands can hold any of the Armada/Energon weapons that followed. He's a decent enough toy, he just doesn't set my world on fire like the other 3 I've mentioned.
Flash Lio Convoy www.tfu.info/1998/Cybertron/FlashLioConvoy/flashlioconvoy.htm
A colour swap this - most of the red becomes a silver grey except the top half of the chest which turns gold as does the blue on the head. The white becomes a more pearl white, and the gold acquires a semi translucent edge and some metallic flake. As repaints go it's a bit different and represents his power up in the BW/BWII team up movie.
Black Lio Convoy www.tfu.info/1998/Cybertron/BlackLioConvoy/blacklioconvoy.htm
Mainly black, with the gold going grey this is a fairly typical evil Prime repaint.
Lio Convoy www.tfu.info/1998/Cybertron/LioConvoy/lioconvoy.htm
Lio Convoy is the Cybertron (Maximal) leader in Beast Wars II. He was released in 1998 as C-16 or as VS-16 with BWII Galvatron and as such he's one of the first Japanese exclusives to be easily available in the west by means of the Internet. He was a few years later sold through the Hasbro US website, and I believe there is a Korean version of him too. He should be easy to track down at a reasonable price - I found one on eBay for less than £30 including delivery this morning.
Lio Convoy is a Lion. His main colour is white with a gold mane & tail , some robot red and grey visible through the beast. His front legs are solid units from the shoulder down. The back legs are formed from the robot legs and bend at the ankle, swivel round just above it, bend twice at the knee and swivel just above that with ball jointed hips. The tail bends up and down where it meets the body.
He has several action features in this mode. If you push down on the gold mane in the middle then 2 missile launchers spring forward. Opening the opposing panel under the lion gives you access for deploying 2 more launchers lower down. These can be stored with their missiles loaded, but the missiles will be visible in beast mode. If you fold the missile panels back into the locked position then the other 4 panels that make up the main can be folded out at top, sides and underneath. These form a cross shape round the mane which can be spun round by pressing the red trigger that pokes through the middle top mane piece. There's a button on the front of the mane that when pressed opens the lion's mouth. And finally 2 longer claws are hidden at the back of the front beast legs and can spring out if you touch them. Lots to do here.
TF: Straighten the rear legs out and spin each leg round 180 degrees at the joint above the knee so the larger red side of the knee faces down and the grey robotic panel is on the outside of the lower leg. Turn the ankle round so the beast foot is facing down and fold the heel spur out. Flip out the top missile launchers and open the side panels. Pop the robot hands off the pegs they are mounted on, pull the robot shoulders away from the sides of the beast and let the entire robot chest and arms drop away under the beast. Straighten the struts connecting the centre of the robot chest to the arms along the back of the chest, fold the struts connected to the robot shoulders back 90 degrees and straighten the robot arms. Fold down the lower mane panel, and fold the entire head section - bringing with it the back of the body and the tail - forward so the head is where the robot chest would be. Turn the entire upper body (from above where the robot chest is folded forward) 90 degrees to your left. Pull the back of the beast up and to your right and then fold the end of this back down. Inside the back of the beast there's an exposed flap which is pulled to your right. From here fold the robot head up and close the flap. Fold the robot chest back bringing the struts connected to the robot's shoulders in line with the slots on the machinery behind the beast head and in the beast's back. Lock the head/back/tail section in place over these struts.
The resulting robot is more Optimus Prime than previous American Beast Wars commanders - in addition to the blue Prime head he's got a red robot chest and arms and mostly blue fists. The lower half of the chest has some highlights in silver which could be highlighting the muscles in his abdomen or could be trying to look like Optimus' truck front grill. The legs are mainly beast white with some grey and red robot parts visible. He bends and rotates at the ankle, bends twice at the knee and just above it, has ball jointed hips, a turning waist & neck, ball jointed shoulders, a ball joint in the upper arm connected to a bending elbow and bending wrists. The launchers from the top of the main can be removed and used as hand held weapons, whereas the lower launchers are embedded in the arms and can be deployed by pulling the trigger under and on the inside of the arms. The beast legs are stored under the arms and can be extended forward for the claws to be deployed. If the arm on your left is pulled in far enough then the spinning mane action feature can be used. The panel on your right side of his chest opens - on the inside of the panel is his Cybertron (Maximal) rubsign. The panel covers up a molded in Matrix of Leadership buried in his chest.
Overall: I always feel sorry for Lio Convoy. Somehow not as great as Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal) or Big Convoy the Cybertron/Maximal leaders either side of him, he also pales when compare to his counterpart BW II Galvatron.. The robot mode is a little lop sided with the lion head on one shoulder, the Prime head is a bit square & flat and it's tricky to pin his arms in place properly. The hand held weapons are poor - though thankfully his standard pegged hands can hold any of the Armada/Energon weapons that followed. He's a decent enough toy, he just doesn't set my world on fire like the other 3 I've mentioned.
Flash Lio Convoy www.tfu.info/1998/Cybertron/FlashLioConvoy/flashlioconvoy.htm
A colour swap this - most of the red becomes a silver grey except the top half of the chest which turns gold as does the blue on the head. The white becomes a more pearl white, and the gold acquires a semi translucent edge and some metallic flake. As repaints go it's a bit different and represents his power up in the BW/BWII team up movie.
Black Lio Convoy www.tfu.info/1998/Cybertron/BlackLioConvoy/blacklioconvoy.htm
Mainly black, with the gold going grey this is a fairly typical evil Prime repaint.
