MP38 Supreme Commander Convoy (Optimus Primal).

[drifand]

Without knowing a thing about bw, this piece looks better for me but I am not collecting bw.

[Sinnertwin]

What a beautiful figure! And those accessories! Delicious!

The reason it gets its own number is because it's a different character.

If numbers were determined by character, then all of the new Seekers would have their own, along with the likes of Loud Pedal. Even the little red corvette Road Rage gets her own number. Poor Loud Pedal on the other hand just gets an L.
Seems to me that they're just numbering on the fly.

[Borgeman]

If numbers were determined by character, then all of the new Seekers would have their own, along with the likes of Loud Pedal. Even the little red corvette Road Rage gets her own number. Poor Loud Pedal on the other hand just gets an L.
Seems to me that they're just numbering on the fly.

I think the best theory is mass release toys get their own number, limited releases or exclusives like Loud Pedal do not.

Having a quick look at the list, it seems to fit well with the numbering history

[Verno]

So did you pull the trigger and get one Verno?

I willingly admit that I'm tempted to. For me, Beast Wars has always been about the relation to character. For the longest time, I only ever collected the characters that appeared in the show. Only when the IDW BW comics came out in 2006 did I expand my collecting scope to all western Beast Wars figures.

Ultimately, I think I'll pass on this one, for now. It'll be interesting to watch if future BW MPs get a similar toy-accurate treatment. It would certainly fix the problem that figures like Rattrap and Rhinox would have of having no obvious redeco/retool.

You use that word a lot. And I always read it in Jonathan Pryce's voice. Every time.

And I haven't watched Tomorrow Never Dies in many, many years.

I had to quickly google it, but it fits! :P

Without knowing a thing about bw, this piece looks better for me but I am not collecting bw.

Go on. Give in to the darkside!

If numbers were determined by character, then all of the new Seekers would have their own, along with the likes of Loud Pedal. Even the little red corvette Road Rage gets her own number. Poor Loud Pedal on the other hand just gets an L.
Seems to me that they're just numbering on the fly.

I think the best theory is mass release toys get their own number, limited releases or exclusives like Loud Pedal do not.

Having a quick look at the list, it seems to fit well with the numbering history

I can only make sense of the BW characters. It's a smaller sample size. The argument could be made that all BW MPs will have an even number. Or that BW Predacons will have an odd number and Maximals even. Time will tell. I'm sure something will throw a spanner in the works somewhere along the way.

[GoktimusPrime]

Called it.

perhaps it will have a more toy-accurate colour scheme (e.g. black fur instead of grey, flat navy blue helmet instead of metallic royal blue etc.).

The reason it gets its own number is because it's a different character.

The original C-1 Convoy's tech specs and all supporting material (e.g. trading cards etc.) establish the toy as the same character as Convoy from Beast Wars (why would they do otherwise?). Contrast this with Convobat's tech specs which establishes him as a different character from Optimus Primal (i.e. Optimus Prime).

Also, Convoy from the BWII movie is the same character as Convoy from the BW series. The BWII movie was intended to be a crossover between BW and BWII, and BWII and BW Neo were meant to be "Expanded Universes" for Beast Wars. They were always meant to be in the same continuity, I've never read or heard anything from any official Takara canonical source which establishes them as separate continuities.

At most you could say that there are two universes: one where the events in the Canadian series exists but the events in the Japanese series don't, and one where the events in all series occurred. Similar to how there are two main universes in the G1 comics; Earth-91274 where only the events of the US comics occur, and Earth-120185, where the events of the US and UK comics occur. But Optimus Prime of Earth-91274 is the same character as Optimus Prime of Earth-120185, it's just that certain events like the Time Wars never happened for Optimus Prime of Earth-91274 (although things got a bit mucky when Simon Furman took over writing for the Marvel US comics and started tying in continuity with the UK comics; e.g. Matrix Quest ). So similarly the Japanese Beast Wars continuity is not meant to be an entirely separate one; not where BW Convoy ≠ Optimus Primal.

The Japanese BW continuity is much closer to the Canadian BW continuity than Japanese G1 anime continuity is to the US G1 cartoon continuity. As we all know, Japanese G1 divorced itself from US G1 after Season 3 (TF2010), taking a completely different direction and concept beginning with The☆Headmasters. Japanese BW never derailed Canadian continuity, it merely expanded on it. To say that Convoy in the BWII movie is a separate character from Optimus Primal is like saying that Anakin Skywalker in the Clone Wars series is not the same person as Anakin Skywalker in the movies. Okay, if you want to ignore the 'expanded universe' stuff, fine... but that's not to say that the expansion material is necessarily entirely separate from the prime continuity.

If you're saying that BW Convoy is a separate character (beyond being an alternate continuity's version of the same character), then I'd like to see some canonical evidence.

The deco is primarily based on the BWII movie deco (which overlaps with the toy)

I agree. While there are a few things which are drawn from the toy (i.e. Mutant head, flail weapon), the toy's deco appears to be mostly inspired by the cel animation model for Optimus Primal, as evidenced by things like:
* White eyes with black pupils; the original toy has entirely blue eyes
* Flat matte black fur; no attempt at emulating fur grain as on the original MP Beast Convoy toy. Granted they wouldn't ever be able to accurately emulate it with a tampograph as the original Optimus Primal toy has the fur beautifully sculpted onto the plastic.
* The chambray blue colour on the lips (the original obviously has no mouth)

I willingly admit that I'm tempted to. For me, Beast Wars has always been about the relation to character. For the longest time, I only ever collected the characters that appeared in the show.

The show isn't entirely essential for knowing the characters (that's what tech specs bios are for ), or for collecting some really great toys. Just out of curiosity, how did you decide which BW toys to collect before the show came out?

P.S.: Sorry if anything in this post sounds snarkier than intended - I'm typing in a rush as I'm about to head out. Peace!

[DaptoDog]

I willingly admit that I'm tempted to. For me, Beast Wars has always been about the relation to character. For the longest time, I only ever collected the characters that appeared in the show. Only when the IDW BW comics came out in 2006 did I expand my collecting scope to all western Beast Wars figures.

Ultimately, I think I'll pass on this one, for now. It'll be interesting to watch if future BW MPs get a similar toy-accurate treatment. It would certainly fix the problem that figures like Rattrap and Rhinox would have of having no obvious redeco/retool.

Well if an avid BW fan like yourself is on the fence about picking this up I'll be interested to see how it sells. I guess given it is Convoy it may do well. But I can't imagine repaints of lessor BW characters selling well with a mass retail release.

It really is odd that this and others like Delta Magnus got a mass release while the seekers (ex Starscream) who are major/2nd tier G1 characters were exclusives.

[llamatron]

Welcome to Masterpiece, where the numbers are made up and the designations don't matter!

Gotta admit this release looks siiiick, but I'm not going to double dip, and wish TT would sometimes be more upfront about such similar repaint variants coming out... But thems the breaks!

[Verno]

Convoy from the BWII movie is the same character as Convoy from the BW series. The BWII movie was intended to be a crossover between BW and BWII, and BWII and BW Neo were meant to be "Expanded Universes" for Beast Wars. They were always meant to be in the same continuity, I've never read or heard anything from any official Takara canonical source which establishes them as separate continuities.

Optimus Primal, the legendary general commander, that appears in BWII isn't Optimus Primal from the Mainframe TV show. They are in different universes. They share a name, but are not the same character. Thus, they warrant different numbers.

What was meant and intended by the BWII episode in 1998 was clearly proven to be impossible by subsequent fiction.

Two characters. Two universes. Same name. It's pretty straight forward really.

The show isn't entirely essential for knowing the characters (that's what tech specs bios are for ), or for collecting some really great toys. Just out of curiosity, how did you decide which BW toys to collect before the show came out?

My first introduction to Beast Wars was the show. Not all of us were on the alt. toy forums throwing around the trukk not munky bollocks in 1996.

Well if an avid BW fan like yourself is on the fence about picking this up I'll be interested to see how it sells. I guess given it is Convoy it may do well. But I can't imagine repaints of lessor BW characters selling well with a mass retail release.

I think it's aimed at the Japanese market, where it should do well. I think we'll see a Burning version of it at some point down the track too.

[DELTAprime]

Well my current thoughts are I don't like it, but knowing how I can change my mind on things I've placed an order at HLJ which if I don't come around to liking it I will cancel.

[MEEEGGGAAATTTRRROOONNN!!!]

TTMall's listing plus extra big pics by Amazon Japan: