MP-48 Transformers Masterpiece Lio Convoy – Review/Showcase

Hello all!

As promised, here is the showcase/ kind of review for MP 48 Lio Convoy!

So first, let’s take a look at the Maximal leaders Beast Mode!

Beast Mode

We’ll start off with a comparison against the original Flash Lio Convoy from Beast Wars II, which uses the same mold as the original Lio Convoy figure.

Now let’s see what he can do!

First, we have this assault mode, which is called Lio Beam & Lio Missile.

Next, we have the Lion Claw mode.

Articulation wise, the lion mode is pretty good.

I really do love the anime-accurate lion face.

Time to maximize and go from beast to bot!

Robot Mode

And for comparison here, we have MP Lio Convoy next to original Flash Lio Convoy.

So let’s see what this figure has to offer.

Accessories

Starting off, let’s take a look at the accessories.

The first significant accessories are the Lio Missile and the Lio Beam. The Lio Missile has two ways of plugging into Lio Convoy.

The first option for the missiles is in the pop-out arm cannons.

The second option is with the lion mane itself, where the Lio Missiles become a shoulder-mounted cannon.

Likewise, you can swap out the missiles with the Lio Beam parts and have a beam mounted shoulder weapon.

With all these missiles, I bet you’re wondering, where do you put them when you’re not using them? Takara gave us a Holder Parts that stores the spare missiles and beam parts.

However, I can’t help but wonder one thing…

What to do with these extra missiles?

The last accessory Lio Convoy comes with is the Cybertron Buster, which is a weapon that, to my knowledge, did not come with the original figure, or at least not with my Flash Lio Convoy figure.

I really do like this weapon, it is such a unique thing with three barrels.

It is just so cool!

Gimmicks

Next, we have the gimmicks.

We already covered the Lio Missiles that pop out of the arms, but that is not all that his arms do. We also have the Lion Claw that comes out of the lion kibble on the back of his arms.

Then we have his other signature attack, the Lion Typhoon, which is done by unfolding the lion mane and rotating it around.

Note: I do not recommend rotating it all the way around, in fear of it snapping. None of the promotional pictures show it spun more than at an angle.

The other shoulder has its own weapon, the Lio Viewt, which is extending the tail all the way out.

Then down in the legs, we have the Leg Nozzle, where a little Gundam like thruster pops out of the side of the calf.

And last but not least, we have the Energon Matrix, which is behind a little door on his chest.

Oh, and there is a Gundam-looking camera on the back of the head.

With that, I have a few things I’d like to point out about this figure.

Nitpicks

First of all, when transforming from Beast to Robot mode, the hardest part with it was the lion head, and just a heads up, you’re going to have to apply a bit of pressure pushing down on anime head to make sure it locks in correctly.

Next – and I’ve heard this is a common issue with some Takara Masterpiece figures – Lio Convoy sadly has some paint chipping. There is no helping it.

But nothing really bad or crazy and the bulk of it is actually covered up.

One last bit of nitpicking would be the lion arm kibble on the back of the arms. They don’t actually go flush against the back of the arms as the old figure did, and the way that the instructions say to have them out is odd, so I personally folded them up as so to make them closer to the original figure.

Now let’s dive into articulation a slide show of poses.

Before we do tho, we have two slots for stands, in the robot mode, (also one on the belly in beast mode).

Sadly I do not have the Takara stand that they recommend using, so I’ll be using this Tamashii Act IV stand. It doesn’t really do a good job of holding up the figure, but its better than nothing.

Showcase

And as a personal test, I did my best to put him in the pose at the end of the Beast Wars II ending credits.

In the end, I really do love this figure. Lio Convoy is one of my favorite Transformers of all time, and seeing him with a Masterpiece is just amazing! I’m thrilled they did it, comparing it to the original, it is a far improvement. They did this figure such justice and made it extremely show accurate. Both stable and yet articulated. If you are a fan of the MP line or even the Beast Wars, I highly recommend this figure!

– Zeroconvoy

Get yours here:
– MP-48 Transformers Masterpiece Leo Prime (Lio Convoy) (Beast Wars)