Big Convoy

Big Convoy is a fictional character in the Transformers series. He is a heroic commander of the Maximal team in the Beast Wars Neo series, and turns from robot to a woolly mammoth.

Beast Wars Neo

Big Convoy
Affiliation	Maximal
Alternate modes	Woolly Mammoth, Walking gun emplacement
Function	Maximal Supreme Commander
Motto	"I am a one-man army!"

Big Convoy is a Maximal commander who turns into a woolly mammoth and has an additional attack mode. He prefers to fight alone instead having troops under his command. He is old friends with the Maximal Rockbuster and at one time in the past his second in command was the Maximal Survive.

Big Convoy can fly at mach 7 in robot mode. His weapons include his Big Cannon, Mammoth Tonfa and a Mammoth Dynamite attack.

Animated series

In the Japanese television series Beast Wars Neo, Big Convoy (also known as the "One Man's Army") is the leader of a squad of Maximals. Big Convoy was selected by the Convoy Council to become the new leader of a group of rookie Maximals. Originally he resented the idea of being a leader because of his reputation of being a loner; however, Vector Sigma gave him the order and he could not refuse. He then began training the rookies.

While Big Convoy was a great warrior, as a leader he did not have the compassion and wisdom of his predecessors, such as Optimus Prime, Optimus Primal and Lio Convoy. Over the course of the series Big Convoy becomes more leader-like due to the influence of the Matrix, and begins quoting wise proverbs and giving uncharacteristic advice to his teammates at the end of battles.

Originally dispatched to discover the fate of Lio Convoy (stranded in a wormhole at the end of Beast Wars 2), Convoy was followed by Magmatron, a Predacon general with whom Convoy had a rivalry; however, the two also had a warrior's respect for each other. When Convoy learned of the existence of the Angolmois energy the two forces battled frequently to obtain the precious capsules.

Events took a turn for the worse after the two sides obtained all the energy capsules. They were subsequently attacked by the Blendtrons, an immensely powerful trio of Transformers. Even a temporary alliance of the Maximals and Predacons was not enough to stop them and the three stole all the capsules. It was at this point the true nature of Angolmois energy was revealed - it was the lifeforce of Unicron himself, released after his defeat in The Transformers: The Movie. Using the corpse of Magmatron's predecessor Galvatron as a vessel, the Chaos-Bringer was resurrected, and began to journey towards Cybertron. Racing to stop him, the Maximals were trapped when Unicron marooned them inside a wormhole - where they met Convoy's predecessor Lio Convoy. Convoy explained Unicron's nature and helped them escape. By the time they reached Cybertron Unicron had already demolished the planet's defenses and taken over Vector Sigma, intending to make Cybertron his new body.

Big Convoy appears in episode #35, called "Graduation!!" Luring Unicron into battle, the Maximals, are aided, surprisingly, by the escaped Lio Convoy, Magmatron and his Predacons. They manage to delay Unicron long enough for Convoy to use the power of the Matrix to charge his weapon into the Matrix Buster. The cannon blasts Unicron, seemingly destroying him for good. Big Convoy's Maximals fight the three Blendtrons. Heinlad stops time just as the three are about to fire on the Maximals, moves them, and then restarts time so they shoot each others. The Blendtrons then retreat. With the threat of Unicron eliminated Big Convoy is joined with Magmatron to usher in a new era of peace of Cybertron.

Comics

Dreamwave Productions

Big Convoy would make an unusual appearance in Dreamwave's Transformers: Armada series. With Optimus Prime having disappeared to an alternate dimension devastated by Unicron, the Autobots attempted to find their leader. As Jetfire attempted to locate him through Spacebridge links to other dimensions, one of these clearly shows Big Convoy.

IDW Publishing

File:Dawnofthepredacus-primalcouncil.jpg

The Autobot Primal Council in Transformers: Dawn of the Predacus

Big Convoy appeared the IDW Publishing BotCon 2016 story Transformers: Dawn of the Predacus. In this story Big Convoy served as a member of the Primal Council after the death of Optimus Prime. Big Convoy noted in a meeting they were short Springer and Perceptor. Big Convoy was then sent to the Rust Sea Peninsula.

Big Convoy also made an appearance in IDW Publishing's Beast Wars: The Gathering miniseries in flashback, shown to sit on the Bi-Partate Committee for State Affairs alongside Magmatron. He seemed to have a Cybertronian alternate mode, not an organic one (something confirmed in The Ascending, when it was shown to be a cannon platform).

In the follow-up series The Ascending he made his first full comics appearance investigating the effects of Angolmois energy upon Maximal and Predacon alike. His investigations lead him to discovering the evil Shokaract's plans to use the energy to become a god and reshape Cybertron in his image. He was killed by Shokaract in one version of the timeline, but was saved in the "new" version when Lio Convoy, Ravage and their troops returned from Earth. Together, they were able to stop Shokaract.

Big Convoy had a biography printed in the Beast Wars Sourcebook by IDW Publishing.

Fun Publications

Big Convoy was also featured in a voice actor play associated with the Dawn of the Predacus storyline, in which he and the other members of the Primal Council determined that Megatron was the same being who had previously attacked an energy facility near the end of the Great War. In the play his lines were performed by Gregg Berger, the original voice of Grimlock.

Manga

In the Beast Wars Neo manga Big Convoy was evolved into a Maximal by Lio Convoy by using his Matrix on an actual woolly mammoth.

Toys

• Beast Wars Neo Big Convoy

The toy of Big Convoy is 18 centimeter tall in robot mode. The show notes state he stands 3.2 meters tall, so the toy is about 1:18 scale. The toy came with a Matrix in his chest which can be removed. This toy was designed by Takara's Hisashi Yuki.

The toy of Big Convoy was redecoed several times, including light blue and gold Lucky Draw figures and a black and gold version. The first American release of the mold was when it was recolored into the Decepticon Nemesis Prime in the Transformers: Universe line as a Target store exclusive. The design was also used for the Transformers: Animated incarnation of Megadeath in Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II, and later into Ultra Mammoth for the Transformers Figure Subscription Service.