Big Convoy, Move Out
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| "Big Convoy, Move Out" (Big Convoy Shutsugeki Seyo) | ||||||
| Production code | BWN-01 | |||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS, Ashi Production | |||||
| Airdate | 3 February 1999 | |||||
| Writer | Junki Takegami | |||||
| Director | Tomio Yamauchi | |||||
| Animation studio | Ashi Production | |||||
| Continuity | Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity | |||||
Big Convoy and the new Maximal recruits investigate the disappearance of Lio Convoy as well as the powerful new Angolmois capsules, scattered across the galaxy!
Synopsis
On a distant planet, a team of Predacons wage war against a seemingly unstoppable Maximal warrior. The warrior breaks into the Predacon stronghold and faces off against the Predacon commander, Magmatron. The warrior turns out to be Big Convoy, also known as the "One Man Army". The two rivals go at it and Big Convoy walks away the victor after using his ultimate attack, the Big Cannon.
Returning from battle, Big Convoy is called back to camp by orders of Vector Sigma. Once he arrives he is greeted by the Convoy Council who inform him that he is to be the instructor of a team of new recruits. Being a loner, Big Convoy immediately rejects the idea but is then informed he has no choice, as it is the direct order of Vector Sigma. Bitter, Big Convoy reluctantly accepts.
On the Maximal spaceship, the Gung Ho, the new recruits introduce themselves: Break, the hot-headed penguin; Stampy, the cowardly bunny rabbit; Cohrada, the foul-mouthed and violent cobra; Longrack, the mature-beyond-his-years giraffe; and Heinrad, the easy-going tanuki (racoon dog). After introducing themselves, Break devises a plan to test their new commander’s skill in combat. Break suggests that they all hide and spring a surprise attack on Big Convoy once he enters, much to Longrack’s disapproval. The plan does not go well, as Big Convoy effortlessly defeats each of them, except Stampy, who gives up immediately.
Big Convoy then informs them that their first training mission will be to investigate the disappearance of Lio Convoy and his troops on planet Gaea a few years ago, and the massive explosion reported at the same time. NAVI, the on-board computer, warps the Gung Ho to their destination. They arrive in a field of asteroids, bewildered at the amount of destruction inflicted upon the planet. Big Convoy wastes no time in appointing Longrack as sub-commander of the team and sends them to investigate Gaea’s surface.
Upon touchdown they are greeted by Magmatron and his troops: Guiledart, the second in command who transforms into a Triceratops; Saberback, the mystic who transforms into a Stegosaurus; Sling, the idiotic Dimetrodon; and Dead End, the quiet and psychotic ammonite. Stampy wastes no time in getting taken hostage while the rest get pummeled. Big Convoy shows up just in the nick of time to prevent the recruits from retreating by...shooting at them and corralling them back toward the enemy (holy crap!). Using his secret attack, the Time Freeze, Heinrad manages to rescue Stampy (though the attack only lasts 30 seconds and drains all of his energy). Big Convoy sends Magmatron packing with his Big Cannon and the rest of the Predacon warriors follow suit by teleporting back to their ship, the Dinosaur. Using the Matrix to speak through Big Convoy, Vector Sigma informs the recruits never to give up hope and "All for one and one for all".
Inspecting the ruins of the old Maximal ship, they happen upon the black box. Taking it onboard with them, they play the message. Lio Convoy recounts the last events of his war. He and his Maximals battled Galvatron and the Predacons who had used the artificial planet Nemesis to drain Gaea of its Angolmois energy—the most powerful energy in the universe. As a last ditch effort, Lio Convoy caused Nemesis to self destruct, resulting in the Angolmois Energy being sealed in capsules and scattered all across the galaxy. The message ends and their mission is clear, Big Convoy commands NAVI to enter warp-speed so they can go hunt down the capsules of Angolmois. Back on the Dinosaur, DNAVI (the Predacon onboard computer) berates the warriors over their failure in battle. Magmatron commands the ship to follow the Maximals, as they too are after the Angolmois capsules.
Capsule score
- Maximals: 0
- Predacons: 0
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Notes
Continuity errors
- Oddly, the Maximals do not encounter, attempt to track down or even make mention of the various other Maximals and Predacons left behind on Gaea after the destruction of Nemesis. The stragglers consist of the Insectrons, the Jointrons, the Autorollers, the Seacons and Moon and Artemis (granted, they were left stranded on the Moon, not Gaea). The fate of these characters won't be touched upon until the last episode, "Graduation Ceremony!!", where they are all seen back on Cybertron with no explanation as to how they got there.
- If Triceratops and Stegosaurus are both plant-eating dinosaurs, why are they Guiledart and Saberback's alternate modes (Both Guiledart and Saberback are Predacons)?
Transformers references
- The mega-computer Vector Sigma originally appeared in the The Transformers cartoon and was last seen in the Headmasters cartoon. It's had something of a makeover since then.
- The disappearance of Lio Convoy and the attack of Galvatron's Nemesis upon Gaea occurred, of course, at the conclusion of the Beast Wars II cartoon.
Home video releases
- VHS
1999 — Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Neo — ACT. 1 (Pioneer LDC)
