Lio Convoy

STRENGTH          RANK
10.0              10.0
INTELLIGENCE   COURAGE
10.0              10.0
SPEED        FIREPOWER
10.0               9.0
ENDURANCE        SKILL
10.0              10.0

Lio Convoy
Function: Supreme Commander
Class: Beast Wars II Cybertron/Maximal #C-16
Honest, with a strong sense of right and wrong, though there are times when his seriousness appears humorous. Lio Convoy has a harsh, career-military side to him, but also has a humane gentleness. There are times when he behaves as if he knows something about the secrets of the planet where the battle is taking place.
(thanks to Thaddeus Cultt for the translated Tech Spec)

Color Scheme:

White with a shiny gold mane and tail. Also sports an Optimus Prime style red and blue chest plate in robot mode, which can be seen underneath in beast mode. I've not seen many white and gold lions in the world, but it still looks good.

Beast Mode:

A very well done lion mode with a big, thick mane. My only complaint is that his front legs are a little weak in that they don't stay were you put them all the time. No other real complaints, though. A very nice toy from Takara.

Robot Mode:

I think it looks great, but the first thing you see is the fact that he has a huge lion head on one shoulder, and a lion butt and tail on the other. hehe. Once you get past that, you notice how cool he looks. He's fairly well proportioned, and is very stable and highly articulated. Top notch toy, this one is.

Alternate Mode:

Not an alt mode, really, so much as gimmicky. His mane not only hides missile launchers, but also can spin around his neck like blade. The Alternate Mode pic shows you how these look.

Transformation:

As usual (as far as I know ;-) Takara has come up with an ingenious, complex, but not too difficult transformation. You have to open parts of his mane to take his arms out, then you fold his chest plate down, bring up the lion body and extract the robot head from it's compartment, then rotate the lion body, and shift it down to lock the arms in position. Fiddle with the legs and arms a bit, and it's done.

Gimmicks:

He's got a bunch. First, his mane. There are three triggers that release hidden missile launchers in his mane. With all four launchers exposed, missiles can be loaded and fired. Fold those bits back, and four other parts out, and the red button on top makes the mane spin around like a saw blade. The Alternate Mode pic shows you how these look. In robot mode, his front lion legs are attached to his forearms, and hide long sword-like claws that flip out when released. He can use them as slashing weapons. Last but not least, he has a panel on his chest that opens up to reveal what looks like a Matrix. Although it doesn't come out, it's a nice added feature which can enhance play value.

Pros/Cons:

It's all good. I have no real complaints. :)

Notes:

Japanese toys have some things we've learned to live without here in America. It's really nice to experience these things again: molded plastic packaging to hold the toy (no paper glued to it, or twist-ties to unravel!); complete catalog for the series, with full color pics of each toy in both modes; in depth transformation instructions; individualized character art on the packaging. These are some great things that I think Hasbro/Kenner should go back to in their toy packaging.