"So I just spent the last hour transforming him into bot mode. Definitely gonna recommend kid gloves on the transformation. There’s a whoooole lot going on with this toy. Good, and bad.
The engineering on him is pretty top notch, and he’s definitely interesting. Lot of twisting and turning. Lot of hinges and cradle-like structures. But with so much intricate engineering, and with such a thoroughly complicated transformation there’s a lot of areas that could end in breakage. Doesn’t help that there’s some parts of the instructions where it’s intensely difficult to tell what’s going on, but I don’t think that’s anything new. This is especially true with the abdominal section. It’s hard to tell how to move the side panels. The video posted below is recommended.
Just about everything on this toy is tight. Everything slides in and out of slots and cavities very smoothly, and everything tucks away neatly. All of which is cool. But there are some clearance issues. Mostly in regards to his lion claws. The slide right into the legs perfectly, but if you don’t have the leg bend, and instead have it straight like I did, when you go to twist the leg, you can easily snap the tips of the claws off. So be super careful. Luckily I only slightly bent mine on one leg, but I’m the only one who is ever going to notice the slightly imperfection,
I’d also be careful when it comes to transforming the legs. You might not think it at first, but there’s a lot of hinges down there, and a lot of twisting requires to transform them. My thigh swivels are insanely tight, so I had to use a bit more force than I was comfortable with, given the complex knee area.
Some of the cooler parts are that Lio Convoy is fully loaded in terms of weapons, and they all fold away and conceal nicely. His ratchets are good and tight, and have an oddly satisfying little click to them. Although the right elbow on mine appears to somewhat stuck. His colors are bold and beautiful. He doesn’t have ankle tilts, but he does have toe tilts.
Oh, and the ab crunch is great, and was unexpected.
Regarding possible breakage:
I can see how too much forcing could potentially result in breakage at the chest plate area, but mine is just fine. The way the chest compresses, and folds away is pretty amazing.
I thought it might be prudent to also provide some images to better clarify the potential problem areas that I encountered.
Part of the final steps calls for you to twist the lion arm on its swivel. This is fine provided that you have the elbow bent, to allow the claws to clear the cavity that they fold into.
However, as you can see, if it is not bent, and is straight, the claws no longer have the clearance necessary for the twist. I had Lio’s right lion arm straight when I got to this step, and had I not been paying such close attention, I would have snapped the tips of the claws off, instead of just slightly bending them.
I also wanted to point out how if you Lio Convoy has insanely tight thigh swivels, as mine does, this complicated area of the leg can seem fragile. There’s a lot of hinges there, so it doesn’t feel particularly robust. Lio actually has two swivels. One at the hip, and one at his lower thigh. The lower thigh is what’s tight on mine,
There is also a twist on the cradle of the lion head that had me sweating bullets, but after watching the video to confirm that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, I got past it. There is clearance for the twist, but not much. If I were to transform this figure multiple times down the road, I’d be pretty concerned about that mushroom peg.
I do just want to reiterate that I experience NO breakage with mine. All you have to do is take it slow, and use caution for some areas. I do realize that that’s not ideal, but Lio Convoy has some crazy cool engineering, and he looks amazing.
All in all, Lio Convoy is a gorgeous looking toy, and he’s very cool. Personally I don’t know that I’ll be transforming him into lion mode again, but that’s okay. He looks amazing in bot mode anyway. "
