Transformers: Age of the Primes toyline discussion || update: 2026 Computer Listings - Big Convoy, Quickstrike, Armada Sideways, and more.

[LordGigaIce]

Wow, not Big Prime or something, straight up Big Convoy.

Not sure I'd bank on that just yet. Legacy RiD Scourge was listed as "Black Convoy" right up until release.

Is this the first character released in the US actually named Convoy?

That being said, if they do commit to Big Convoy, I think that's down to him having no obvious English name. "Lio Convoy" to "Leo Prime" is fairly straight forward and intuitive. I'm not sure an obvious choice exists for "Big Convoy." "Bigimus Prime"?

 

[Sabrblade]

"Bigot Prime"!












Wait

 

[Sabrblade]

All kidding aside...

Is this the first character released in the US actually named Convoy?

Not unless you count the Lio Convoy and Galva Convoy toys that Fun Pub released back in 2015. Those were US-released and Hasbro-approved.

That being said, if they do commit to Big Convoy, I think that's down to him having no obvious English name. "Lio Convoy" to "Leo Prime" is fairly straight forward and intuitive. I'm not sure an obvious choice exists for "Big Convoy."

Yeah, and if we're being honest, the whole concept of all those Japanese BW Convoys running around as contemporary Supreme Commanders to each other and each carrying their own divine Matrix inside their chests really doesn't fit with the particular world that Bob, Larry, Other Bob, Marty, and Marv all created for Beast Wars and Beast Machines.

They deliberately left out such things as the Prime title and the Matrix of Leadership, denoting instead that the Maximals on Cybertron were led not by a single individual chosen by Primus but instead by a seemingly democratic High Council of Maximal Elders, with the main Optimus of both shows being only the leader of a ragtag crew of misfit space explorers turned soldiers due to extremely specific circumstances.

Optimus Primal is not a Prime or any kind of high-ranking authority figure, and only resembles the original Optimus Prime in name and head design because the original Optimus was a figure of inspiration for Primal (in other words, Primal was merely named after Prime for whatever reason). Having several other guys running who also all have Optimus Prime-looking head designs and who may even be named "Optimus" or "Prime" in some way feels really at odds with there being no Primes in charge of the Maximals on Cybertron.

In fact, Larry was even consistently operating under the belief that Optimus Prime was still alive during Beast Wars and out there in the universe somewhere (though, he might have also just said this over and over to appease the Geewunners who wouldn't stop asking about Optimus Prime, where he is, and why he doesn't appear in Beast Wars, but if he did really mean it, then the continued existence of Optimus Prime during the age of the Maximals and Predacons would negate the need for any other Primes to coexist on Cybertron during that time).

 

[LordGigaIce]

All kidding aside...


Not unless you count the Lio Convoy and Galva Convoy toys that Fun Pub released back in 2015. Those were US-released and Hasbro-approved.


Yeah, and if we're being honest, the whole concept of all those Japanese BW Convoys running around as contemporary Supreme Commanders to each other and each carrying their own divine Matrix inside their chests really doesn't fit with the particular world that Bob, Larry, Other Bob, Marty, and Marv all created for Beast Wars and Beast Machines.

They deliberately left out such things as the Prime title and the Matrix of Leadership, denoting instead that the Maximals on Cybertron were led not by a single individual chosen by Primus but instead by a seemingly democratic High Council of Maximal Elders, with the main Optimus of both shows being only the leader of a ragtag crew of misfit space explorers turned soldiers due to extremely specific circumstances.

Optimus Primal is not a Prime or any kind of high-ranking authority figure, and only resembles the original Optimus Prime in name and head design because the original Optimus was a figure of inspiration for Primal (in other words, Primal was merely named after Prime for whatever reason). Having several other guys running who also all have Optimus Prime-looking head designs and who may even be named "Optimus" or "Prime" in some way feels really at odds with there being no Primes in charge of the Maximals on Cybertron.

In fact, Larry was even consistently operating under the belief that Optimus Prime was still alive during Beast Wars and out there in the universe somewhere (though, he might have also just said this over and over to appease the Geewunners who wouldn't stop asking about Optimus Prime, where he is, and why he doesn't appear in Beast Wars, but if he did really mean it, then the continued existence of Optimus Prime during the age of the Maximals and Predacons would negate the need for any other Primes to coexist on Cybertron during that time).

Didn't the Japanese dub of Beast Wars change it so that Optimus Primal was a Supreme Commander sort of character?

 

[Dekafox]

I want a big Convoy but will be forever bummed by Lio Convoy’s derpiness when he stands next to him and Primal.

Could always replace it with the 40th anniversary one coming later this year that fixes the derpiness.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

Lio Convoy and Big Convoy weren't surpreme commanders, I don't think. They were just in charge of small teams.

Hell, Big Convoy was basically a loner one-man army that the Maximals essentially reassigned to train a team of cadets.

I always took "Convoy" to be more like "Captain" or whatever, a title made in honor of the original Convoy.

 

[Sabrblade]

Didn't the Japanese dub of Beast Wars change it so that Optimus Primal was a Supreme Commander sort of character?

Yes, but I was saying how the Japanese treatment of these characters didn't fit into the world of the English version.

And they only did that because they initially thought BW Convoy was the same person as G1 Convoy. Once it became clear during Metals that they were separate individuals distanced by ancestry, Japan stopped doing that but still regarded BW Convoy as a Supreme Commander (but see below for more on that title).

Lio Convoy and Big Convoy weren't surpreme commanders, I don't think.

They were, yes.

They were just in charge of small teams.

Hell, Big Convoy was basically a loner one-man army that the Maximals essentially reassigned to train a team of cadets.

This is also true. By the time of Beast Wars Neo, the Supreme Commander rank had become diluted to the point that there were multiple Matrix-bearing Supreme Commanders all with some variation of the name "Convoy" running around captaining small crews on modestly-sized starships. Only the Great Convoys (of which there were also multiple) were major military authority figures.

I always took "Convoy" to be more like "Captain" or whatever, a title made in honor of the original Convoy.

It actually goes a little deeper than that.

The first explanation for all the different Convoys of JBW came in a chapter of the BWII manga, in which it was revealed that those who were deemed meritorious enough to receive an Energon Matrix were given the name "Convoy" (with a prefix to be added to their names later on as a distinction for each one) in a ceremony held by the other Convoys. We see in a flashback to when Lio Convoy first received his Matrix that, before he was "Lio Convoy", he was simply "Convoy" (which was also true in the BWII anime before he acquired his lion mode; this manga chapter with the flashback was early enough in the manga's run before it became clear that both the manga and the anime couldn't be the same continuity, so the shared DNA of the two was still present at that point).

Later, in the episode of BWII that introduced Lio Junior, a brief segment of the episode had Artemis and Moon explain the concept of the Energon Matrix to the viewing audience watching the episode, in which they revealed that those who receive these Matrices are a kind of Transformer called the "Shireikan Class" (meaning "Commander Class" in English). Two year later, a clip show episode of Car Robots would reiterate this notion, but with the class name changed to "Convoy Class", which is a more sensible name considering all these Matrix-bearing dudes named "Convoy" and having Convoy/Optimus-looking head designs.

Fast forward then to 2019 in which the pack-in comic included with the Legends Blue Big Convoy toy finally created an in-universe reason for both the name and look of these "Convoy-type Transformers": They were created to honor the memory of not G1 Convoy but rather BW Convoy, after he sacrificed his life at the end of Beast Machines to save every spark on Cybertron (since, by the time of this mini-comic's release, BWII and Neo had long been distanced from BW and BM due to the discrepancies created between the American and Japanese BW cartoons that made the original intent of the two Japanese ones taking place in the same future era of the American ones an impossibility).

 

[unluckiness]

Yeah but he doesn’t fit aesthetically. It’s an anime lion standing next to a mostly realistic gorilla and presumably realistic mammoth.

Could always replace it with the 40th anniversary one coming later this year that fixes the derpiness.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

At this point, I’m pretty sure “Big Convoy” is just a placeholder. Hasbro’s done it before, it remains to be seen if it will make it to production. Tasmania Kid ended up being used on a retail product, for example.
If Hasbro wanted a more “American friendly” name, some I thought up:
Mammothimus Primal (no less “on the nose” than most Beast Transformer names)
Maximus Primal
Mastimus Primal (again, no less inaccurate as other Beast names!)
Primal Maximus

Not sure why the Japanese naming convention of Convoy is being brought up though. I thought Animated provided a nice westernization of the concept in the idea of “Prime” being a high rank.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

That being said, if they do commit to Big Convoy, I think that's down to him having no obvious English name. "Lio Convoy" to "Leo Prime" is fairly straight forward and intuitive. I'm not sure an obvious choice exists for "Big Convoy." "Bigimus Prime"?

I once proposed "Mammoth Prime" before, since "mammoth" both means "big" (keeping true to his original name in Japan) and the type of animal he turns into (aligning it with Lio Prime's naming scheme).

 

[Exatron]

I once proposed "Mammoth Prime" before, since "mammoth" both means "big" (keeping true to his original name in Japan) and the type of animal he turns into (aligning it with Lio Prime's naming scheme).

This has been my thinking on it as well going back as far as I can remember. Actually, I would prefer Mammoth Primal, but then I would have also gone with Leo Primal. It's never felt right making Lio and Big into Primes while Primal isn't. And it's always bugged me how Hasbro would pretty freely toss the Prime title out to characters who weren't really Primes while also refusing for a long time to name Rodimus as a Prime on virtually anything due to wanting to keep the Prime title special.

Seriously, Animated Rodimus Hugging MINOR!?

Anyway, glad to see Big Convoy finally coming. I'm expecting he'll be basically the same height as Primal and Leo Prime, just with a lot more bulk. And hopefully his giant cannon.

I wonder if this means that Hasbro scrapped the MTO concept, or if that might still be happening, just with Big now moved into normal retail.

 

[unluckiness]

Does Big Prime sound more like a Soundcloud rapper with 40 followers or a Twitch streamer who sucks at their game of choice?

 

[Blot]

Hasbro pushed Slammoth as a name twice in fan polls, you know they're just chomping at the bit to use it.

 

[Tuxedo Prime]

Does Big Prime sound more like a Soundcloud rapper with 40 followers or a Twitch streamer who sucks at their game of choice?

The former, I think. Though that could be because I'm more used to using Soundcloud.

Ironmouse, after all, is a Twitch celebrity who has started to appear in other media....

 

[Sabrblade]

Ironmouse

Not knowing anything about this person, I'm going to guess that that name is derived from "Sailor Iron Mouse" from Sailor Moon.

 

[LordGigaIce]

It's never felt right making Lio and Big into Primes while Primal isn't.

If I had to hazard a guess...
Optimus Primal very much isn't a Prime and that's made clear in BW. He's very obviously some middle management schmuck who's just named like Optimus Prime because he's his descendent. Rattrap doesn't even respect him. Rattrap.

But in the JBW shows Lio Convoy and Big Convoy are both 1) named Supreme Commanders and 2) both have Matrixes (Matrixi?).
Now as @Sabrblade pointed out by this point in the JG1/JBW continuity you had multiple Matrixes at once and the title "Supreme Commander" had become rather diluted but... strictly speaking... if you were just doing a surface level passover of the JBW shows... there is enough going to suggest Lio and Big were bigger deals and more "Prime"y then Optimus Primal ever was in the original English version of BW.

And it's always bugged me how Hasbro would pretty freely toss the Prime title out to characters who weren't really Primes while also refusing for a long time to name Rodimus as a Prime on virtually anything due to wanting to keep the Prime title special.

Seriously, Animated Rodimus Hugging MINOR!?

On the other hand... the original pitch for Animated had Rodimus Prime as Optimus Prime's jerkish Elite Guard rival. Hasbro objected because they didn't want to depict Rodimus Prime so negatively. So Rodimus Prime got swapped for Sentinel Prime, the only other "Prime" who had anything to his name at that point.
Sentinel Prime had just enough name recognition as a known thing but so little actual characterization by that point that Hasbro was like "sure, ok."
Funnily that ended up pre-dating DotM, and the double punch of Animated and DotM really solidified Sentinel as a bad guy.

Still, we were really close to things being very different. A cut scene from Transformers 2007 had Sam experience a vision of Sentinel Prime from robo-heaven explaining Optimus and Megatron's history and the start of the war. Had that made it into the final movie then the whole plan of Sentinel for DotM probably doesn't happen. Couple that with Hasbro ok'ing the original plans for Animated and who knows?

Maybe today Sentinel is still a fairly benign figure with Rodimus becoming a capital J Jerk?

Would that be something Rodimus Prime fans like? I donno. Genuinely curious. Rodimus was a very dry and sarcastic dude in S3 so it wouldn't be so out of place. Dude basically told Sandstorm to get over it five seconds after his planet blew up.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Still, we were really close to things being very different. A cut scene from Transformers 2007 had Sam experience a vision of Sentinel Prime from robo-heaven explaining Optimus and Megatron's history and the start of the war. Had that made it into the final movie then the whole plan of Sentinel for DotM probably doesn't happen.

Probably would've just swapped the name. Maybe Nova Prime? IDW had already made him a bad guy by then.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Probably would've just swapped the name. Maybe Nova Prime? IDW had already made him a bad guy by then.

That makes the most sense, yeah.

 

[Sabrblade]

Would that be something Rodimus Prime fans like?

Doubtful. Making Rodimus the "bad guy Prime" feels like something a longtime Rodimus hater would have done, feeding more into that resentment for the character people had for his replacing Optimus back in TFTM.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Doubtful. Making Rodimus the "bad guy Prime" feels like something a longtime Rodimus hater would have done...

unrelated picture of Brandon M. Easton