Lio Convoy


 * Lio Convoy is a Maximal in the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family. He is also known as Leo Prime.



A high-ranking member of the Maximals, Lio Convoy is honest to his core and possesses the strong sense of right and wrong that one expects from a robot with "Convoy" in his name. In part he's a tough, hard, career-military robot, but he doesn't let that side of his nature totally dominate who he is. There is a very humane, even gentle side to him as well, and there are times when one can't help but suspect his seriousness has a hidden smile behind it. Though Lio Convoy dislikes fighting for its own sake, for a just cause he is more than willing to throw himself into the frey. He believes that through combat one can gain insight and understanding of an opponents true character and thought processes.

Beast Wars II
Voice actor: Hozumi Gōda (Japan)

A Supreme Commander with his own Energon Matrix. He led a troop of Maximal soldiers to planet Gaea to stop Galvatron and his Predacons.

After being attacked by a ship of rogue Predacons, lead by Galvatron, Lio Convoy and his army of Maximals gave chase to their enemies. Lio Convoy and his crew of Maximals chased Galvatron to the distant planet Gaea where Lio Convoy was separated from the rest of his troops while protecting Apache from a Predacon attack. The over-abundance of Angolmois energy proved harmful to Transformers, forcing all the Maximals to scan local wildlife for necessary beast modes. Injured, Lio Convoy was rescued by a white lion and scanned its form while recuperating. He then rescued his troops from another Predacon attack. Next, they set-up base on Gaea, now aware that Galvatron was after the powerful Angolmois energy.

Lio Convoy is later reunited with his "son", Lio Junior. While Lio Convoy was first recovering from Predacon attack, the Spirit of Gaea copied his Leadership Matrix and infused it within Lio Junior, resulting in Lio Junior's belief that he is Lio Convoy's offspring. Lio Convoy wasn't very eager to be weighed down by a son, and Lio Junior spent the bulk of the series trying desperately to earn his acceptance.



At one point, an alien machine that could warp time and space crashed onto Gaea. The Predacons used it to summon the unstoppable mobile fortress, Majin Zarak, and quickly trashed most of the Maximals. Magnaboss (the combined form of Lio Junior, Santon and Skywarp) managed to summon Optimus Primal to their aid with the machine.

Primal and Lio Convoy teamed-up to battle Majin Zarak, who turned out to be a sentient robot and not just a battle station. Together, they combined the power of the Leadership Matrices to upgrade themselves into Burning Convoy and Flash Lio Convoy.



With Primal's enhanced strength and Lio Convoy's super speed, they weakened Majin Zarak. They then unleashed the power within their Matrices into a "Double Matrix Blast" which finished-off the monster.

Lio Convoy had many more wacky adventures on Gaea, including but not limited to: Evil Clones, Space Pirates and Fiesty Mexican Robot Insects. Eventually, Galvatron summoned the Nemesis, a giant spacecraft, to suck all the Angolmois energy out of Gaea. The Maximals followed the Predacons to the Nemesis and Lio Convoy managed to infiltrate the ship with the help of Scuba and the Tako Tank. Inside, Lio Convoy faced Galvatron but could not defeat the Predacon Emperor of Destruction, who was now over-powered by Angolmois energy. Lio Junior soon arrived to rescue his daddy and the pair, with the help of "good" Angolmois energy, merged into the Great Green Warrior. They did battle with Galvatron and eventually defeated him, sealing the Angolmois energy into capsules and firing them off into space. Galvatron then revealed his big surprise and used his Galva-Matrix to cause the Nemesis to explode. Lio Convoy and the rest of the Maximals then fall into a wormhole.

Beast Wars Neo
After having their Angolmois capsules stolen by the Blendtrons, Big Convoy and his Maximal new recruits are sucked into a wormhole while chasing their enemies. They came across Lio Convoy (whom they all had presumed dead) who explained to them that the Angolmois energy is really the lifeforce of Unicron. Lio Convoy used all his power to free the Maximals from the wormhole, though he remained trapped inside.

Lio Convoy eventually escaped from the wormhole and aided Big Convoy, the Maximals and Magmatron in the final battle against Unicron. After Big Convoy blew Unicron away with his Matrix Buster, the Maximals and Predacons formed an alliance of true unity and worked together to restore Cybertron. All of Lio Convoy's Maximal troops who were trapped inside the wormhole with him were eventually released and joined in the restoration of their homeworld.

OVA
Voice actor: Masayuki Katō (Japan)

IDW Beast Wars comics continuity


Prior to the end of the Great War and the signing of the Pax Cybertronia, Lio Convoy commanded a crew of Maximals who traveled to the planet Gaea and battled Galvatron and his forces.

Years later, during peace-time, the ever-vigilant Lio Convoy sat on the Bi-Partate Committee for State Affairs, but was also a member of a secret black-ops intelligence unit known as the Pack. During a conversation with Razorbeast that was officially off-the-record, he reminded his fellow Maximal that their unit didn't exist and that the Maximal Imperium didn't sanction their operations. He warned Razorbeast that if he was caught while undercover in Magmatron's command, he would be disavowed.

Unfortunately, Lio Convoy believed that Magmatron was the true enemy, while Megatron was just a loose cannon. (Real good job of threat assessment there...) After Razorbeast's transwarp booster-sent distress message was strengthened by Magmatron, it reached Lio Convoy, who, despite his earlier warning, mobilized the Pack at once to race to Razorbeast's rescue.

While Razorbeast's Maximals were fighting the Predacons to a standstill (in no small part thanks to the powerhouses Torca and Grimlock), the Pack arrived and looked to turn the tide of battle quickly in the favor of all that is clean and fresh. Lio Convoy himself transformed and confronted Drill Bit and some other Pred thugs, who were unimpressed by his unnervingly LARGE beast mode. Lio Convoy accepted this and whipped out his cannons. THEN they were impressed. When Ravage revealed himself to the Maximals, Lio Convoy and Razorbeast were quick to turn their guns on him...right up until Rartorata showed his ugly mug. The Blendtron injected Razorbeast with a load of Angolmois, turning the Maximal into a raging berserker locked in beast mode.

Reminding the Pack that they take care of their own and clean up their own messes, Lio Convoy engaged the enemy. Once they had subdued Razorbeast's mutated form with crude vines and stakes, Convoy discovered that his comrade was still within the monstrous beast and fighting a losing battle against the Angolmois that was corrupting his mind. Ravage informed the Maximal commander of the urgency of what Magmatron had showed him, and the Maximals prepared to board Lio Convoy's transwarp cruiser. The cruiser's takeoff was then threatened by the arrival of the other two Blendtrons. Razorbeast broke from his restraints and charged into battle against the servants of Unicron, telling Convoy to escape while he held the line. Setting the transwarp coordinates to the time and place Ravage had received from Magmatron, the cruiser emerged in the midst of Big Convoy's battle with Shokaract. However it was shot down upon the arrival of Antagony and Shokaract's heralds.

Beast Wars II

 * Lio Convoy (Ultra, 1998)
 * Japanese ID number: C-16




 * Lio Convoy transforms into a organic white lion articulated at the legs and head. In this mode, one can activate flip-out blades and missile launchers in his mane and forelegs. The head/mane can also spin around as part of a spinning attack gimmick... thing.




 * In robot mode, Lio Convoy's chest design and colours closely resemble Generation 1 Optimus Prime, even sporting a non-removable Energon Matrix sculpted into his chest, underneath his left chest panel (which also has a heat-sensitive Maximal rubsign). As expected of Beast Wars-era toys, Lio Convoy features an excellent range of articulation owing to the extensive use of ball joints. All of his flip out beast mode weapons can be used in robot mode, and his missile launchers can be removed and held in either of his hands.


 * Hasbro offered Lio Convoy as an exclusive on its now-defunct Hasbro Collectors website in 2000.


 * Flash Lio Convoy (Ultra, 1998)


 * The first redeco of Lio Convoy in his 'Flash' colour scheme of which replaces most of his secondary colours with gold and silver.


 * Black Lio Convoy (Ultra, 1998)


 * Redecoed again, Lio Convoy sports the now-familiar black, silver and teal colour scheme which was later used for Beast Wars Neo Black Big Convoy, Robots in Disguise Scourge, Armada Nemesis Prime and many, many other 'evil' Optimus Prime repaints.


 * Black Lio Convoy was a Toys R Us-exclusive.

Robot Masters

 * Lio Convoy (Deluxe, 2005)
 * Japanese ID number: RM-22




 * Robot Masters Lio Convoy is a scaled-down, simplified all-new sculpt Deluxe sized Lio Convoy. Though he retains most of Lio Convoy's articulation, he lacks the spring-loaded gimmicks such as his spinning mane and missile launchers, and is of lower sculpted detail.


 * Lio Convoy (DVD version) (Deluxe, 2005)
 * Japanese ID number: RM-23




 * This redeco of Lio Convoy features a metallic paint deco for his red parts, and comes with a DVD with another part of the short Robot Masters animated storyline.


 * Black Lio Convoy (Deluxe, 2005)




 * A Dengeki Hobby mail-in exclusive, Lio Convoy was once again redecoed, this time as yet another black repaint, replacing much of his colours with (you guessed it), black, silver, grey and teal. He was packed in special black and white windowless bubble emblazoned with a giant Decepticon sigil. A Decepticon logo can also be found under one of his mane flaps though he still has the Maximal symbol on his chest plate.

Classics

 * Leo Prime (Legends, 2007)




 * Leo Prime is a redeco of Legends of Cybertron Leobreaker from the Cybertron toyline. Incidentally, 'Leo Prime' is the second official Hasbro name for this character.

Trivia

 * In The Ascending, Lio Convoy's beast mode, like Grimlock's, is huge compared to the real thing.