Dave's TF Legacy Rant: Leo Prime

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Transformers Legacy Rant: Evolution Voyager Wave 1

Leo Prime (lion)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/VLeoPrime

The wave also includes Tarn. Leo Prime is the U.S. name for Lioconvoy,
but this is the first new mold toy to get the name (the other Leo Primes were
retools of Leobreaker from Cybertron).


CAPSULE

$30 at Target, $35 at Walmart.

Leo Prime: Once you get past the big animal chunks hanging off the
elbows, it's not bad, and at least in terms of proportions an improvement
over the Lioconvoy toy. Recommended.


RANT

Packaging: The Legacy Evolution boxes are similar to the first year
Legacy, but with the QR code moved to the top of the box and a new "catalog
mural" split across Autobot/Maximal and Decepticon/Predacon box sides. There
isn't a left-right faction split, though, with "good guy" types being on both
sides in the foreground while Tarn's face dominates the center (well, maybe a
space fortress molded after his face) and the "bad guy" types coming in from
the center distance. Ground level is dominated by several new Junkions.


MAXIMAL: LEO PRIME
Assortment: F7206
Altmode: Lion
Transformation Difficulty: 35 steps
Previous Name Use: Universe
Previous Mold Use: None
Function: Supreme Commander
Origin Universe: Beast Wars [not Beast Wars II]
Signature Weapon: Target-seeking missiles - Launches a series from cannons
inside his lion mane
Evo-Fusion: Deploys hidden claw blades that can slice through any known
substance.

STR 10 INT 10 SPD 10 FRB 9

Leo Prime comes off as harsh and militaristic, but behind his tough
exterior is a sense of gentleness.

Function, stats, and bio note all based on the BWII toy.

Packaging: Four rattan strings hold the robot into the tray, you have to
fiddle a bit with the lion forelimbs stuck through the tray to get them out.
One tie each lower corner holds a pair of mane missiles.
The instructions got stuck to the tape that was put in to hold down the
twisted ends of the rattan strings. I was able to peel it off without
damage, though.

Robot Mode: They actually got pretty close to the BWII version, not that
this is always a good thing. The lion forelegs are a LOT more chunky on the
elbows than the original has, and the tail is tucked under the left
shoulderpad (cleverly, with a bit of tail tip sticking out the edge to make
it look like it retracted rather than folding under), but there's one thing
they either goofed on or decided couldn't be done without sacrificing lion
mode. To wit, the original Lioconvoy had his lion feet rotated to the back,
with robot toes folding out from under the paws. But the mid-shin swivel is
angled to bend the leg a bit for lion mode, and trying to turn the feet
around leads to a broken-leg look (and nothing in the instructions or on the
box indicates that the feet are supposed to have the "heel spur" in front).
Still, as kibble-covered as this is, the robot proportions are a little
better than the original. The forelegs on the elbows are the only serious
problem, both aesthetically and in terms of range of motion.
A little over 6" (15cm) at the top of the head, but like the original he
has huge shoulderpads for a total height of 6.5" (16.5cm) and a shoulder-span
of 5.25" (13.5cm). Lots of white, since he turns into a white lion, but also
plenty of red, golden yellow, and some gray and dark blue. White plastic on
the various shell pieces, the lion forelegs on the elbows, the torso core,
and most of the legs. Dark red plastic on the torso sides, biceps, forearms,
neck root, and knee double joint. Golden yellow plastic on the lion mane,
the struts holding all the lion kibble on the back, the tail on the
shoulderpad, the mane bits on the forearms, the hip joints, and the various
missile/gun pieces. Medium-dark plastic on the chest front, fists, pelvis,
and heel spurs. The robot head is totally painted, but I think it's white
plastic.
The head is covered in dark blue paint and then silver is painted on the
face, forehead tablet, and antennae. The eyes are painted yellow. There's
also dark blue paint on the "fingerless gloves" of the fists, the right pec,
and the belt buckle sort of thing. Much of the chest is painted red, with
the abs painted silver inside of red outlines. The molded ring on the left
pec is painted white, with a small white Maximal symbol printed in the
center. There's some gold details on the belt as well as gold lion claws,
red kneecaps, and gunmetal gray on the outer faces of the lower legs.
Opening up the chest panel reveals a Matrix-like detail painted silver with
metallic light blue in the center. The inside face of the chest panel isn't
fully painted.
The neck is a limited ball joint (and much better than the original's
neck), the waist is a smooth swivel. The shoulderpad beast kibble pieces are
on struts connected to the back, which lets them get out of the way to a
limited extent. The shoulders are pinned universal joints, there's bicep
swivels and hinge elbows. The foreleg chunks are connected at the back of
the forearms on ball joints, and the mane pieces on the forearms are hinged
at the front as part of the attack gimmicks. While the wrists have
transformation hinges, they're not useful for articulation. Pinned universal
joint hips, lower thigh swivels. The knees are technically double hinges,
but only the lower hinge is used in this mode. There's sideways hinges where
the shins meet the feet, as well as the shin swivels mentioned earlier (but
they don't really work for anything but looking broken). The left chest
panel opens up 180 degrees, leaving enough room for the wider Fire Blasts to
be attached. Panels in the mane can fold out together (single axle),
although this is more for beast mode.
5mm sockets in the fists and on the undersides of the feet. If you fold
out the mane pieces on the arms and the ones on the mane, there's 5mm sockets
on the insides of those. There's the usual 3mm socket in the back of the
pelvis. All four missile/gun weapons end in 3mm studs, and the sorta-Matrix
in the chest also has a 3mm stud. I find that the light blue wide explosion
base piece from the Tricranius big Fire Blast set works well as a Matrix
Glow. http://www.dvandom.com/images/LioMatrix.JPG
There's two types of gun/missile weapon, both made of the same golden
yellow plastic as the mane. Two are basically short pistols based loosely on
the pistol carried by the original Lioconvoy toy, each about an inch (2.5cm)
long with a 5mm peg grip and a 3mm stud at the tip. The other two seem to be
based more on the missiles Lioconvoy would fire, 3cm long with a 3mm stud at
one tip and a 2mm by 5mm short rectangular tab that will kinda hold in a 5mm
socket but is really meant to go into one of the slots on each side of the
mane if you want them to stay in well. The thicker bit behind each 3mm stud
is about 5mm wide, so they can be held as very short escrima sticks or
something? If you put them on the sides of the mane with the 3mm stud tip
pointing backwards, it looks like missile storage or panzerfausts.

Evo-Fusion: So, the techspecs just mention the blades that come out from
the lion forepaws, but it's a bit more than that. The forelegs swing
forwards and X-23-style blades pop out, but then you also put the bigger mane
guns in the hands and the smaller ones on the forearm mane pieces, turning
his arms into bayonetted blasters.

Transformation: So, the biggest problem with this one is that the torso
has a double layer shell thing where the inner part needs to fold down and
rotate so that the head can be hidden. If you don't know how it moves in
advance, it's really hard to pop out of its socket and very hard to get back
in. The lion's front end is challenging in the "everything has to be in the
right place at the same time or it falls apart" sense, it does help if you
fold out the forearm mane bits and then lock them back down once you have the
front hips tabbed in place. The back half is pretty easy once the front is
done, just remember to fold out the tail early in the process, and both the
thigh swivel and shin swivels need to be turned so that the knees are
backwards and can double-hinge down.
The two top missiles in the mane hide away nicely in lion mode, and an
early step in the instructions shows that the side missiles go under the lion
back piece (which is a good place to store them in robot mode, come to think
of it). Once the lion is transformed, though, it's not easy to get the
missiles in or out (you need to pretty much pull up all of the panels on the
upper half of the body), so if you want to do attack mode you need to plan
for it.

Altmode: Not too bad in terms of being an anatomically correct lion,
with minimal robot bits. Mostly the robot shins/kneecaps sticking out the
backs of the hind legs, the inside of the chest (it turns inside out during
transformation) between the forelegs, and the robot pelvis between the hind
legs. The face is a bit long, and several people have noticed the
resemblance to That Chimera from Full Metal Alchemist (including at least one
full custom job done already). The eyes are blank golden yellow plastic, if
you want to add pupils it's worth noting that lions have round pupils rather
than cat's eye slits. One bit of the mane is white plastic painted gold, and
it kinda stands out becaue the paint is metallic and the plastic is not.
7" (18cm) from snout to tail tip, mostly white and gold with some red
bits visible here and there. The tail, the eyes, and most of the mane are
made of golden yellow plastic, the rest of the lion parts are white plastic,
although a few hinges are red plastic. Gold paint is used in the back bit of
the mane and the claws, while the nose is painted black. The white plastic
is textured to evoke short-hair fur.
Useful articulation is minimal. The jaw is hinged to open, the forelegs
have hinge and swivel joints about halfway down. The hindlegs technically
have all the articulation of the robot legs, but they can't move too much
without looking wrong. The tail can wag up and down a bit, and the bottom
"beard" part of the mane is hinged.

Attack Mode: All the missiles fold out of the mane, including the
forearm mane pieces folding out and getting missiles on them. It...does not
look good with the side flaps out. I prefer it with just the top missiles
folded out, and stick the other ones on the sides of the fixed mane part.
Basically, though, it's a lion with missiles around the mane, not much to
write home about compared to the tornado spin gimmick of Lioconvoy's toy.

Overall: Simplified in many ways compared to Lioconvoy, but it looks
better for the most part (especially if you pop off the elbow kibble and set
it aside). Too bad they couldn't spring for a second yellow paint color that
matched the mane better.


Dave Van Domelen, hasn't even opened Tarn yet and already found
Metalhawk and Twincast....