Written Review and Tips for Handling Transformers MP 48 Lio Convoy
Wednesday, March 4th, 2020 11:24PM CST
Categories: Toy News, ReviewsPosted by: william-james88 Views: 32,151
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"So I just spent the last hour transforming him into bot mode. Definitely gonna recommend kid gloves on the transformation. There’s a whoooole lot going on with this toy. Good, and bad.
The engineering on him is pretty top notch, and he’s definitely interesting. Lot of twisting and turning. Lot of hinges and cradle-like structures. But with so much intricate engineering, and with such a thoroughly complicated transformation there’s a lot of areas that could end in breakage. Doesn’t help that there’s some parts of the instructions where it’s intensely difficult to tell what’s going on, but I don’t think that’s anything new. This is especially true with the abdominal section. It’s hard to tell how to move the side panels. The video posted below is recommended.
Just about everything on this toy is tight. Everything slides in and out of slots and cavities very smoothly, and everything tucks away neatly. All of which is cool. But there are some clearance issues. Mostly in regards to his lion claws. The slide right into the legs perfectly, but if you don’t have the leg bend, and instead have it straight like I did, when you go to twist the leg, you can easily snap the tips of the claws off. So be super careful. Luckily I only slightly bent mine on one leg, but I’m the only one who is ever going to notice the slightly imperfection,
I’d also be careful when it comes to transforming the legs. You might not think it at first, but there’s a lot of hinges down there, and a lot of twisting requires to transform them. My thigh swivels are insanely tight, so I had to use a bit more force than I was comfortable with, given the complex knee area.
Some of the cooler parts are that Lio Convoy is fully loaded in terms of weapons, and they all fold away and conceal nicely. His ratchets are good and tight, and have an oddly satisfying little click to them. Although the right elbow on mine appears to somewhat stuck. His colors are bold and beautiful. He doesn’t have ankle tilts, but he does have toe tilts.
Oh, and the ab crunch is great, and was unexpected.
Regarding possible breakage:
I can see how too much forcing could potentially result in breakage at the chest plate area, but mine is just fine. The way the chest compresses, and folds away is pretty amazing.
I thought it might be prudent to also provide some images to better clarify the potential problem areas that I encountered.
Part of the final steps calls for you to twist the lion arm on its swivel. This is fine provided that you have the elbow bent, to allow the claws to clear the cavity that they fold into.
However, as you can see, if it is not bent, and is straight, the claws no longer have the clearance necessary for the twist. I had Lio’s right lion arm straight when I got to this step, and had I not been paying such close attention, I would have snapped the tips of the claws off, instead of just slightly bending them.
I also wanted to point out how if you Lio Convoy has insanely tight thigh swivels, as mine does, this complicated area of the leg can seem fragile. There’s a lot of hinges there, so it doesn’t feel particularly robust. Lio actually has two swivels. One at the hip, and one at his lower thigh. The lower thigh is what’s tight on mine,
There is also a twist on the cradle of the lion head that had me sweating bullets, but after watching the video to confirm that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, I got past it. There is clearance for the twist, but not much. If I were to transform this figure multiple times down the road, I’d be pretty concerned about that mushroom peg.
I do just want to reiterate that I experience NO breakage with mine. All you have to do is take it slow, and use caution for some areas. I do realize that that’s not ideal, but Lio Convoy has some crazy cool engineering, and he looks amazing.
All in all, Lio Convoy is a gorgeous looking toy, and he’s very cool. Personally I don’t know that I’ll be transforming him into lion mode again, but that’s okay. He looks amazing in bot mode anyway. "
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Posted by Rodimus Knight on March 5th, 2020 @ 9:32am CST
Posted by TheForgottenTaxi on March 5th, 2020 @ 10:11am CST
Is this true, or just Stockholm syndrome? It took me a while to get on board with the MP reboot post-MP-10, but I don't remember hearing a lot about breakages for him, or for the likes of Sideswipe, Prowl, Wheeljack, original MP Bee, Iron Hide, Grapple, Hot Rod 2.0, Shockwave, Soundwave... you know, I've got a whole shelf full of MPs I have never felt like I'm gonna break!
Seems to me it's only in these past few years, with their converging trends of more fiddly transformations and cheaper materials, that reports of breakages have become routine.
Posted by Bucky on March 5th, 2020 @ 11:16am CST
Posted by ScottyP on March 5th, 2020 @ 11:25am CST
For the MP-10 through ~23 era, these were still designed like toys, just nice ones. Now they're designed more like "collector" action figures that have a transformation feature. This means more parts and dramatically more paint, and since probably around MP-36 a shift in how these should be handled has been required.TheForgottenTaxi wrote:It took me a while to get on board with the MP reboot post-MP-10, but I don't remember hearing a lot about breakages for him, or for the likes of Sideswipe, Prowl, Wheeljack, original MP Bee, Iron Hide, Grapple, Hot Rod 2.0, Shockwave, Soundwave... you know, I've got a whole shelf full of MPs I have never felt like I'm gonna break!
Seems to me it's only in these past few years, with their converging trends of more fiddly transformations and cheaper materials, that reports of breakages have become routine.
As for QC things noted near release, only some of which are true widespread issues but social media freaked out about most anyway:
- MP-28 Hot Rod had some actual chrome problems in at least its first run, top coat on mine has held up nicely over time at least
- MP-30 paint chipping
- Some folks couldn't handle MP-34 Cheetor's small joints
- MP-35 paint chipping took awhile to manifest but is a real thing. Guess that's not an example of early feedback, but it is an actual issue with it.
- MP-36 paint chipping from rubbing parts too much + joints getting broken
- MP-39 window clips
- MP-41 had folks breaking shoulders
- MP-43 Beast Megatron broken crotches, though the reports slowed down pretty quickly. This was a fair example though and not necessarily collectors being dumb.
- MP-44 had folks breaking the knees because they didn't transform it properly, also had some paint chipping because basically everything is painted on it and still we haven't figured out how to be more careful
- MP-45 Bumble has easily broken tabs and Takara put out images of dire warnings about it but no one cares because the figure stinks and it doesn't impact it much. Most of these are avoidable with plenty of care.
- MP-47 Hound has some areas that are probably too thin and one screw almost definitely needs a bit of loosening up, so this is another case where there are some fair, actual issues but it's likely there were plenty of alarm bells from folks that still can't handle these responsibly as well.
And btw, MP Buzzsaw and Laserbeak can apparently crumble to pieces these days
I accepted that MP stuff is just not made to be something played with to a high degree. Some of them can hold up over time with repeated handling, but many can't and I'm not sure they're truly designed to.
Posted by TheForgottenTaxi on March 5th, 2020 @ 11:28pm CST
ScottyP wrote:I accepted that MP stuff is just not made to be something played with to a high degree. Some of them can hold up over time with repeated handling, but many can't and I'm not sure they're truly designed to.
Yeah, it's just responsible for my dwindling enthusiasm about the line. To bring it back to Lio Convoy, this is a character I have no attachment to, but dang if the toy didn't look pretty cool. But after reading this (very helpful!) post, my interest has evaporated. I just don't have an interest in it if it's not gonna be fun to handle.
Actually, let's not bury that in a parenthetical: This was a great, super helpful post! Thanks Bucky!
Posted by ZeldaTheSwordsman on March 5th, 2020 @ 11:52pm CST
I look forward to them doing Unicron Trilogy MPs. There's going to be a lot less shenanigans with those, excepting Armada Optimus Prime if they articulate his super mode legs.
Posted by Bucky on March 6th, 2020 @ 12:43pm CST
TheForgottenTaxi wrote:ScottyP wrote:I accepted that MP stuff is just not made to be something played with to a high degree. Some of them can hold up over time with repeated handling, but many can't and I'm not sure they're truly designed to.
Yeah, it's just responsible for my dwindling enthusiasm about the line. To bring it back to Lio Convoy, this is a character I have no attachment to, but dang if the toy didn't look pretty cool. But after reading this (very helpful!) post, my interest has evaporated. I just don't have an interest in it if it's not gonna be fun to handle.
Actually, let's not bury that in a parenthetical: This was a great, super helpful post! Thanks Bucky!
Well I hadn’t intended to sway anyone’s opinion in one direction or the other, but I’m glad I was of some help! I mostly just wanted to caution other forum members about certain areas. But honestly if your interest in Lio Convoy was dwindling, and you don’t have any attachment or affection towards the character, I don’t see a reason to pick him up. Unless you see him for a real steal! Because he does look fantastic, and the engineering, although not without it’s potential hazards, is very inventive. I am personally pleased with him.
Posted by ZeldaTheSwordsman on March 10th, 2020 @ 11:18pm CDT
And I discovered that the gallery is still screwy. Multiple thumbnails link to the large version of the previous image, rather than the one actually in the thumbnail.
Posted by Dorkimus on March 13th, 2020 @ 2:06pm CDT
Perhaps there has always been some issues, since these are mass produced items, but it feels like things have really gone south lately with these Takara releases. Hound is really something different indeed...and not in the good way. Like Hound, this doesn't look bad as such, but I really wouldn't want to worry about the transformation every time I would like to transform it. That most likely wouldn't happen very often, but if the very first transformation attempt can break it, then not good.
Does this feel as flimsy as Hound, because I'm pretty sure that Hound wasn't even made from the same plastic than the others before? It feels so different.