Galaxy Convoy
Guest Review
by KYQ

Review date: 1/6/2005

Manufacturer: Takara

Released: 2005

Availability: NORMAL

Type: Action Figure

Sculpt:
Regardless of the packaging, it's the TOY we're after right(Go away you MISBers)? Thankfully, Galaxy Convoy delivers in spades. In vehicle mode, he's a futuristic fire truck of sorts. Here he has a chock full of nice sculpted details like the mechanical grooves on his guns, along the sides of his trailer, and the front of his cab. It looks fairly sturdy and powerful, though it IS a tad bit odd looking, with a small gap between the cab and trailer.

Transform him, and we get Galaxy Convoy in his normal robot mode, with his trailer becoming a turret of sorts. Galaxy Convoy himself looks pretty darn beefy in this mode. For one, he's extremely bulky and muscular looking, with his large fists that look like they can crack mountains like walnuts, and his immensely broad shoulders. What's most surprising about him however, is that his normally traditional face plate is split in the middle, showing a mouth. This takes some getting used to, and some may not like it. But worry not, you don't have to get used to it (even though I think it looks alright)! Why do I say that?

Yep, it's because he has a Super mode. The tradition for many Primes, split the trailer into pieces, hook em on his legs and back, and we get Galaxy Convoy's sexiest mode! Here, he looks simply awesome, gaining an impressive height boost, a cool wing span ala Gaogaigar and plus he's packing heat!! He gains two large ass guns which he can either let hang on his back, or can be flipped down to his hips like Gundam Seed's Freedom Gundam. He also has a pair of thigh guns, giving this Prime a bad ass total of 4 very large guns! What's best is that, spread open his head attenae, flip a switch on the back of his head, and his traditional face plate appears again! Woohoo!

Paint:
Galaxy Convoy expectedly, has many traditional 'Prime' colours. He's predominately red, with blue, silver and bits of yellow to boot. All colours are placed in a way that resembles the original Optimus Prime greatly, with his clear blue windows adding a very nice touch. My only qualm is that in early, prototype pictures, Galaxy Convoy's thighs, guns, crotch plate and Matrix (more on that later), were silver in colour. For the final toy though, they were unfortunately changed to a flat grey-ish colour. A little disappointing as silver coloured plastic would've looked awesome, but other than that, and some teensy smudging and bleeding here and there, there isn't a lot against him here at all.

Gimmicks:
Aside from transforming (duh) and having his super mode, this year's new gimmick is the 'Force Chip'. Similar to the Armada/Micron Legend's line of Minicons, this time round it's a clear plastic chip that can be inserted into spots of the toy to activate gimmicks.

Galaxy Convoy's force chip, which resembles his Matrix, can be inserted into either one of his large guns. In his right gun, it makes two extra missile loaded launchers spring out, whee. On his left gun, it makes it open up with a 'VOoooooop!' sound, after which pressing the button changes its firing sound from a fast, high pitch zap to a slower, louder boom. Pretty standard stuff and the gun sounds will certaintly annoy your parents/siblings (especially since holding the button produces ANOTHER loud, charging up sound), but it does keep kids big and small occupied.

His other gimmick as mentioned earlier, is his Matrix of leadership. This thingo, which is a symbol of his leadership, is stored inside his chest. While the chamber is rather nicely done, even having a protective flap to cover the Matrix, it's the Matrix itself that's disappointing. It's just a flat grey thing with a shoddly painted orange ball in the center. It's not terrible per se as it has some nice details and can be removed, but it is very anti-climatic, since the Matrix as always been pictured as an item of dazzling brilliance. Can't have em all I guess..