Big Convoy (BW)
- Big Convoy is a Maximal leader from the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Big Convoy is a high-ranking yet severely asocial general in the Maximal army. He is often called by his nickname, "the One-Man Army", due to his isolationist behavior and immense skill in battle. He can transform into a woolly mammoth, and his weapon of choice is the descriptively named Big Cannon. At one point, he was a freelancer, working with Rockbuster, until he joined the Maximal army officially. He has a heated but respectful rivalry with the Predacon Emperor of Destruction, Magmatron. The Convoy Council recognize Big Convoy's skill and dedication, yet do not approve of his introverted attitude. He carries an Energon Matrix connected to the Vector Sigma supercomputer.
Fiction
Beast Wars Neo cartoon
- Voice actor: Junichi Inoue (Japanese)
Hoping to curb Big Convoy's psychotically antisocial behavior, the Convoy Council ordered him to train a crew of unruly new recruits. Big Convoy loathed the assignment at first, but being a loyal soldier, accepted the task. His first mission was to explore Gaea and investigate the disappearance of Lio Convoy. Little did he know, Magmatron and his Predacons were following close behind him. After finding a black box message from Lio Convoy, Big Convoy learned of the Angolmois capsules ejected after the destruction of Nemesis. Big Convoy then headed off with his group of trainees to collect the capsules, battling Magmatron every step of the way.
Big Convoy is not one for compassion or sentimental gobbledygook. Because of this bitter attitude, Vector Sigma took it upon itself to dispense words of wisdom and encouragement to the recruits directly through Big Convoy, via his Energon Matrix. Big Convoy hated it at first, but over the course of the adventure, the sense of compassion began to rub off on him, and he started giving words of advice all on his own.
Eventually, after the Maximals and Predacons collected all the capsules, they were attacked by the Blendtrons, a fearsome trio of nearly invincible Transformers. The Blendtrons beat the mortal hell out of him, the Maximals and the Predacons, and took the Angolmois capsules. As it turned out, the Angolmois energy was really the essence of Unicron, and the Blendtrons were his creations.
The Blendtrons released the Angolomois energy into the corpse of Galvatron, resurrecting Unicron. Big Convoy and the Maximals raced him back to Cybertron but were sidetracked by being sucked into a wormhole. It turned out to be the same wormhole that had sucked in Lio Convoy and his crew after their battle against Nemesis. Lio Convoy told Big Convoy the history of Unicron and helped him escape the wormhole.
The Maximals arrived too late; Unicron had already destroyed the Maximal armada (and Great Convoy with it) and possessed Vector Sigma, turning Cybertron into his new body. Big Convoy, the Maximal recruits and Magmatron stood side-by-side to fight the menace. Unicron briefly exited Vector Sigma to swat his opponents. Using their newfound teamwork, the Maximals managed to hold off Unicron while Big Convoy powered up his trademarked Big Cannon with his own Energon Matrix. This upgraded his Big Cannon into the Matrix Buster. Big Convoy unleashed a blast from his Matrix Buster directly into Unicron, seemingly destroying him.
With Unicron evicted from Vector Sigma, Big Convoy and Magmatron chose to put aside their differences. Together, all missing Maximals and Predacons set adrift (especially those from Lio Convoy's time) returned to Cybertron to help rebuild the planet. In the end, Big Convoy, Magmatron and Lio Convoy were seen standing side-by-side beneath Vector Sigma.
Beast Wars Neo comic
Before Lio Convoy and Galvatron's conflict took place, Big Convoy was originally a mammoth named Big on a primitive world. He and Magmatron's minions were evolved by the power of Angolmois energy from an Angolmois capsule that fell on his home planet. His friends were all killed by Magmatron's gang. Lio Convoy met Big after arriving on the planet accidentally. After having a conversation, Big took Lio Convoy to the place where the capsule had fallen, but they were attacked by Magmatron's troops. Eventually, Big pushed Magmatron's thugs into a gorge along with the capsule. The capsule exploded on impact, but Magmatron and his gang were all evolved into Transformers by the Angolmois energy. Lio Convoy transformed into humanoid mode to fight and defeat most of them, except for Magmatron. Magmatron defeated Lio Convoy with ease. Big used his body as a shield to protect Lio Convoy and was heavily injured. Some time later, Lio Convoy came to and found the dying mammoth lying beside him. Lio Convoy then used his Energon Matrix to cure Big. The power of Energon Matrix not only healed the mammoth, but it also turned him into a Transformer named "Big Convoy". However, Big Convoy lost all of his memory before awakening in a snowstorm. Beast Wars Neo: Prologue
Big Convoy later became a famous (or notorious) one-man army. During an event on the battlefield, he disregarded Crow Convoy's orders, rushing into a Predacon space fortress and blowing it up. The shock wave of the blast caused damage to the Maximal armada. For disregarding orders, Big Convoy was demoted and sent by the Convoy Council to the planet Gaea as an instructor. The Five Rookies
After retrieving the mysterious Black Ball in a Predacon base on the planet Gaea, the warp engine was activated by the object. During the warp, the Black Ball told the story of Lio Convoy and Galvatron to the crew. Big Convoy felt the name "Lio Convoy" sound familiar, but he couldn't remember when he ever knew the name. After arriving the planet Sandron, the Gung Ho was attacked by the Predacon ship Dinosaur. Big's ship crash land on an asteroid before the rookie managed to enter the atmosphere of the Sandron. When fixing the ship, Big ask NAVI for the information of Lio Convoy, only to learn Lio Convoy was a rookie and they never met each other according to the official record. There Are Seven Capsules
He confronted Magmatron in a battle, but had no memory of his old rival. Big Convoy defeated Magmatron by blasting him several times with the Big Cannon, the only thing he trusted. Fight to the Death! Twenty Thousand Meters in the Sky
In order to save Break from being sucked out into outer space, he lost the Big Cannon in a battle with the Predacons on the planet Jörmungandr. A Battle Fought Alone
It was revealed that both he and Magmatron were the last Angolmois energy capsule, and thus Unicron wanted to eat them in order to absorb the energy. When Unicron spoke with him, Big Convoy regained all his lost memories.
He teamed up with Magmatron and rode on him, fighting against Unicron and the Blendtrons, but to no avail. Big Convoy was saved by Heinrad, the agent of the Ruler of Time and Space, while Magmatron was chewed by Unicron. A dying Magmatron, now reduced to only a head, left his Magma Blade to Big Convoy as a "parting gift" and repented of his wrongdoings. He then asked Big Convoy to give him an honorable "warrior's death" with his own sword. Big Convoy obligingly killed him with the Magma Blade. Double Cross
Now with the Magma Blade in his possession, Big Convoy returned to the planet Cybertron with his crew to battle Unicron, who had latched onto the planet like a parasite and turned it into his new body. Big Convoy successfully destroyed Unicron's physical form, but Unicron's tarry essence emerged from the remains and plastered itself on Big Convoy's body, trying to possess him. Big Convoy took the Matrix out from his chest and unleashed its power, sacrificing himself and successfully destroying Unicron once and for all. In his last moments before dying, Big Convoy saw Lio Convoy come to take him to a place where his soul could rest in peace.
Big Convoy's soul was later recycled by Heinrad's crew, and he was ultimately resurrected as a normal mammoth on a snowy planet similar to his birthplace, with no memory of his time as a Transformer. He had returned to how he was before being affected by the Angolmois energy. Return to Zero
Dreamwave Armada comics
At one point, Blurr, Side Swipe, and Jetfire discovered a node with several space bridges displaying images from several other Transformer universes. One of those showed Big Convoy, who seemed to be looking right back at Jetfire. Jetfire, thinking he'd seen the Optimus Prime he knew, tried to say so, but only stuttered, possibly in shock. Worlds Collide, Part 4 of 4
IDW Beast Wars comics
Before the Pax Cybertronia, Big Convoy battled Magmatron and trained young Maximals aboard the Gung Ho. Beast Wars Sourcebook 1
Big Convoy was part of Cybertron's Bi-Partate Committee for State Affairs alongside Heinrad and Magmatron. The Gathering #1 Because of his distinguished service, he was a high-ranking member of the joint committee. Beast Wars Sourcebook 1
On Cybertron, Big Convoy, along with Tasmania Kid, had been investigating recent disturbances and riots occurring with increasing frequency. He found that the riots had been set off by the use of Angolmois delivery capsules—something which he thought he had seen the last of. Though the Maximal Imperium sent their aide, Ikard, to bring Big Convoy to them, he refused to come, citing the importance of getting some control in the field. The Ascending #2
Following the trail of the Angolmois incidents, he and his unit were able to locate a monolithic structure jutting from the Cybertronian skyline. Cohrada speculated that the new building was in fact quite ancient, a part of an older era of Cybertron that was thrust up through the substructure. Shokaract emerged from the structure, eager to demonstrate his newfound power. Big Convoy retaliated, transforming into a heavily-armed spider-tank alt mode. Magmatron witnessed that unless the timestream was altered, the Maximal leader would also be killed by Shokaract. Thus, the chronally displaced Predacon chose that moment in time for the transwarp coordinates to give to Ravage. Therefore, the battle was interrupted by the appearance of Lio Convoy's transwarp cruiser, sparing Big Convoy. However, this hope was in vain, as it was soon shot down by Shokaract. The Ascending #3
Big Convoy later met Bump, a "specialist" sent by Lio Convoy. Soon afterwards, Big Convoy and his soldiers encountered the Pack, along with immigrants from Earth, including Ravage. He participated in the plan and battled with Shokaract's forces. After their enemies were defeated, Lio Convoy and Big Convoy hoped that no threat came up while they were focused on rebuilding Cybertron, which had fallen into a sorry state after Shokaract's distribution of Angolmois. Unfortunately, Megatron popped up just in time to dash that hope. The Ascending #4
Toys
Beast Wars Neo
- Big Convoy (Ultra, 1999)
- Japanese ID number: C-35
- Acessories: Big Cannon, Mammoth Haken *2, Energon Matrix
- Big Convoy transforms into a mammoth and is somewhat infamous for being an extremely difficult-to-transform shellformer, as practically all of his beast mode components are shells that fit around the compressed robot to form this mode. As such, he has no leg articulation in this mode, though he has a rubber trunk which can be controlled by pushing a lever on the top of his head. In addition, the movement of his tusks can be controlled by pulling either of his ears. Big Convoy technically has a beast "attack mode", in which his Big Cannon is folded out.
- In robot mode, Big Convoy stands slightly shorter than the original Beast Wars Ultra class Optimus Primal and Lio Convoy toys, but makes up for it by being absolutely chock-full of weapons and gimmicks. First and foremost, the spring-loaded Big Cannon, formed out the beast head, can fire two missiles from two barrels in succession with a rotating dial. It is held in his hands and can be stored on his back, though doing this may cause some stability problems owing to its weight. Secondly, he has flip-out tonfa melee weapons in his forearms. Thirdly, the two beast panels on the sides of his legs feature two spring-loaded missile launchers that fire anchor-shaped projectiles (similar to the original Beast Wars Ultra class Megatron toy). Last, but certainly not least, his chest panel flips down, revealing the first-ever removable Matrix toy accessory, vacuum-metalized gold with a transparent red center. This accessory can be held by any figure with standard 5mm fist holes.
- This mold was also used to make Black Big Convoy and Universe Nemesis Prime.
- Duel of the Universe: Big Convoy VS Magmatron (Vs pack, 1999)
- Japanese ID number: VS-35
- As with most Japanese Transformers of the time, Big Convoy was also available in a Versus pack with his chief adversary, Magmatron. Both toys were unchanged from the regular releases.
Notes
- Big Convoy's toy is a shellformer to such a significant degree that the shell parts can be detached from the main figure to form the majority of his beast mode on its own.
- Takara's 2007 Japanese Generation 1 cartoon timeline says that Beast Wars Neo took place thousands of years after Beast Wars. In IDW's continuity, events similar to Beast Wars Neo happened in the past, and Big Convoy is still alive at the same time as Optimus Primal.
- According to a conversation between Big Convoy and NAVI in the "There Are Seven Capsules", Big Convoy is actually older than Lio Convoy due to Lio Convoy's time travelling to the past in the Beast Wars II and Neo comic continuity. Big Convoy refers Lio Convoy as "a rookie Convoy" after reading his profile, but without any belittling.
