Death's Head
18-08-11, 08:26 AM
With the Classics line and a continual series of potted reissues from the Transformers 1980s hey day, its easy to forget that there wasn’t always thought to be much mileage in ‘Classic’ characters. Sure, there was a yearning for them, as the secondary market will attest, but to get brand-spanking new releases of toys that were long forgotten?
Testing the waters in late 2001, after a limited release for the likes of Convoy, Meister and Streak the year before, Takara gave a wider release to the one Transformers figure that is a tried and true sales success, no matter how many versions of him are churned out: Convoy. Or Optimus Prime, as he is known to us Westerners.
This New Year version featured a number of slight differences and modifications than the original Convoy toy and their own reissue of a year previous. Packaged in an homage to his original figure, the toy also came with the Action Master version of Optimus Prime – the first time any Action Master figure had been made widely available in Japan – this time given a new lease of life by featuring a much better paint job than his 1990 predecessor. Like all Action Masters, the massive head rather spoils what is a quite cute and nicely articulated little figure. The box also contained a number of other goodies: A Mousemat (an odd thing to include at a time ball-less mice and wireless technology was becoming commonplace) and a die cast Matrix Of Leadership, which can be attached to a (very long) chain and worn around your neck to show off your geek credentials. As well as the usual label sheets and instructions, New Year Convoy also came with a collector card show casing the box art and breaking down the tech specs on the reverse. These cards had been a feature of the original Japanese Transformers and are a nice addition to the package, allowing you to build up a neat Trading Card collection alongside your army of mechanoids.
The main event is Convoy himself. It’s difficult to capture how much impact the toy makes out of the box, but he is a superb piece of work. Like a lot of the Diaclone toys cribbed to form the backbone of the early Transformers line, these toys are best appreciated in mint condition. You just can’t beat the impact a well looked after or box fresh version of these toys makes. Convoy is a slightly lighter shade of red, matching his cartoon animation model, the painted cab itself looking a little more orangey red than seen on other versions. The windows are also cast in translucent blue, rather than smoky grey plastics. The chrome parts add a final bit of zing to the vehicle mode. The trailer looks as great as ever, with the metallic silver broken up by that nice swoosh of the blue and white livery. The little buggy, Roller, can of course be launched from the rear of the trailer – but be warned- this version (maybe in common with other Japanese releases) has a much more powerful spring loaded mechanism, which doesn’t so much as launch Roller as fling him a considerable distance across the other side of the room where he will undoubtedly land upside down.
There isn’t much to Transforming Convoy. He’s one of the most simplistic Transformers ever devised, but this isn’t a bad thing. It’s nicely executed and gives you a well proportioned robot at the end of it. Only the lack of a proper back harms the robot mode, leaving Convoy look like he’s had a grievous injury inflicted upon him. Articulation is pretty decent for a toy of this age – He can move his arms at the shoulders and elbows and can be posed in a ‘walking’ position, by virtue of the joints required to revert him to vehicle mode. With a bit of thought, he could have been engineered to move his head, but we’d have to wait for 2007s Device Label iPod Speaker stand version of Convoy for that (which also came with a slightly odd looking new head sculpt).
Looking at the robot mode, it’s clear that another obvious change has been made. In a sign of things to come, Convoy’s eyes have been coloured blue to match his animation mode. I don’t know why, but I actually don’t like this on the toy. It just doesn’t look quite right, but perhaps that is just familiarity with the original toy and its yellow eyes. It does seem to rob the toy of some of its own individuality, but maybe I wouldn’t feel this way if the toy had come with blue eyes back in the day. I’m sure some mad ‘Geewun’ fan will appreciate it, but it’s a bit lost on me, unfortunately. On the plus side, some retooled fists mean he is better able to hold that stupid gun that came with the western release. I have to say, I do much prefer the big, chunky version that came with the Japanese version – both of which are included, which is nice as you can give one to Convoy and one to Roller.
The trailer still feels like a bit of a side show to Convoy. Perhaps when released as part of the Diaclone line, and the tractor cab simply made up part of a set controlled by small pilots, it felt different and more included, but as it is this still feels like something you put to one side whilst you set Convoy onto Megatron, even Bob Budiansky’s efforts to portray all three components as part of a larger whole in the Marvel Comics profile, you still end up sticking the trailer in the corner. For what it is though, it’s still a pretty neat little thing. Opening up to reveal (normally – although I’ve not applied the decals) a bank of computer equipment, repair bays and a drone, as well as housing for Roller, it’s a nice set up, The claw arm on the drone has a good range of movement and the antenna being able to move is also a nice touch. The canopy has, like the windows on the tractor cab, been cast in blue which really works for the drone and, this being a Japanese release, features surprisingly powerful missile launchers (as one of my cats now knows). The whole thing can be upended to serve as a sort of Cyrogenic Repair bay. Or shower.
For a short period, this New Year set was a nice collector bauble to own. The packaging is beautiful, and the Japanese character art is probablyarguably better than that which graced the western version with its weird, malformed left hand (seriously, what is going on with that?), and looks good sat on a shelf. It did have its thunder stolen by the Transformers Collection Series release a year or so later but as a forerunner for the kind of tweaks made for the Encore releases, this version does strike a good balance between maintaining the strengths of the original toy and adding in a few nods for the fans. Owning this version of Optimus also stirred a few memories for me, including, I remember giving perhaps not the anticipated reaction my parents were looking for when they managed to get me an Optimus Prime toy for my birthday in 1987 – “He’s dead now”. Yeah, well done, you ungrateful little swine. Sigh. Still, my sister broke his gun in half only a few hours later which serves me right.
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Testing the waters in late 2001, after a limited release for the likes of Convoy, Meister and Streak the year before, Takara gave a wider release to the one Transformers figure that is a tried and true sales success, no matter how many versions of him are churned out: Convoy. Or Optimus Prime, as he is known to us Westerners.
This New Year version featured a number of slight differences and modifications than the original Convoy toy and their own reissue of a year previous. Packaged in an homage to his original figure, the toy also came with the Action Master version of Optimus Prime – the first time any Action Master figure had been made widely available in Japan – this time given a new lease of life by featuring a much better paint job than his 1990 predecessor. Like all Action Masters, the massive head rather spoils what is a quite cute and nicely articulated little figure. The box also contained a number of other goodies: A Mousemat (an odd thing to include at a time ball-less mice and wireless technology was becoming commonplace) and a die cast Matrix Of Leadership, which can be attached to a (very long) chain and worn around your neck to show off your geek credentials. As well as the usual label sheets and instructions, New Year Convoy also came with a collector card show casing the box art and breaking down the tech specs on the reverse. These cards had been a feature of the original Japanese Transformers and are a nice addition to the package, allowing you to build up a neat Trading Card collection alongside your army of mechanoids.
The main event is Convoy himself. It’s difficult to capture how much impact the toy makes out of the box, but he is a superb piece of work. Like a lot of the Diaclone toys cribbed to form the backbone of the early Transformers line, these toys are best appreciated in mint condition. You just can’t beat the impact a well looked after or box fresh version of these toys makes. Convoy is a slightly lighter shade of red, matching his cartoon animation model, the painted cab itself looking a little more orangey red than seen on other versions. The windows are also cast in translucent blue, rather than smoky grey plastics. The chrome parts add a final bit of zing to the vehicle mode. The trailer looks as great as ever, with the metallic silver broken up by that nice swoosh of the blue and white livery. The little buggy, Roller, can of course be launched from the rear of the trailer – but be warned- this version (maybe in common with other Japanese releases) has a much more powerful spring loaded mechanism, which doesn’t so much as launch Roller as fling him a considerable distance across the other side of the room where he will undoubtedly land upside down.
There isn’t much to Transforming Convoy. He’s one of the most simplistic Transformers ever devised, but this isn’t a bad thing. It’s nicely executed and gives you a well proportioned robot at the end of it. Only the lack of a proper back harms the robot mode, leaving Convoy look like he’s had a grievous injury inflicted upon him. Articulation is pretty decent for a toy of this age – He can move his arms at the shoulders and elbows and can be posed in a ‘walking’ position, by virtue of the joints required to revert him to vehicle mode. With a bit of thought, he could have been engineered to move his head, but we’d have to wait for 2007s Device Label iPod Speaker stand version of Convoy for that (which also came with a slightly odd looking new head sculpt).
Looking at the robot mode, it’s clear that another obvious change has been made. In a sign of things to come, Convoy’s eyes have been coloured blue to match his animation mode. I don’t know why, but I actually don’t like this on the toy. It just doesn’t look quite right, but perhaps that is just familiarity with the original toy and its yellow eyes. It does seem to rob the toy of some of its own individuality, but maybe I wouldn’t feel this way if the toy had come with blue eyes back in the day. I’m sure some mad ‘Geewun’ fan will appreciate it, but it’s a bit lost on me, unfortunately. On the plus side, some retooled fists mean he is better able to hold that stupid gun that came with the western release. I have to say, I do much prefer the big, chunky version that came with the Japanese version – both of which are included, which is nice as you can give one to Convoy and one to Roller.
The trailer still feels like a bit of a side show to Convoy. Perhaps when released as part of the Diaclone line, and the tractor cab simply made up part of a set controlled by small pilots, it felt different and more included, but as it is this still feels like something you put to one side whilst you set Convoy onto Megatron, even Bob Budiansky’s efforts to portray all three components as part of a larger whole in the Marvel Comics profile, you still end up sticking the trailer in the corner. For what it is though, it’s still a pretty neat little thing. Opening up to reveal (normally – although I’ve not applied the decals) a bank of computer equipment, repair bays and a drone, as well as housing for Roller, it’s a nice set up, The claw arm on the drone has a good range of movement and the antenna being able to move is also a nice touch. The canopy has, like the windows on the tractor cab, been cast in blue which really works for the drone and, this being a Japanese release, features surprisingly powerful missile launchers (as one of my cats now knows). The whole thing can be upended to serve as a sort of Cyrogenic Repair bay. Or shower.
For a short period, this New Year set was a nice collector bauble to own. The packaging is beautiful, and the Japanese character art is probablyarguably better than that which graced the western version with its weird, malformed left hand (seriously, what is going on with that?), and looks good sat on a shelf. It did have its thunder stolen by the Transformers Collection Series release a year or so later but as a forerunner for the kind of tweaks made for the Encore releases, this version does strike a good balance between maintaining the strengths of the original toy and adding in a few nods for the fans. Owning this version of Optimus also stirred a few memories for me, including, I remember giving perhaps not the anticipated reaction my parents were looking for when they managed to get me an Optimus Prime toy for my birthday in 1987 – “He’s dead now”. Yeah, well done, you ungrateful little swine. Sigh. Still, my sister broke his gun in half only a few hours later which serves me right.
239240241242243