Leo Prime (Beast Wars)

Leo Prime is a fictional character in the various Transformers universes. He is often referred to by his Japanese name Lio Convoy because his English name Leo Prime wasn't coined by Hasbro until 2006.

Animated Series

Leo Prime is a Maximal commander, who leads The Pack.

Beast Wars II

Originally a brave and noble Maximal commander, after his ship was attacked by a group of renegade Predacons led by Galvatron, Leo Prime was dispatched to pursue the Predacons and bring them to justice. Chasing them to the planet Gaia (in reality a future Earth), Leo Prime was injured by the fields of Angolmois energy (similar to the energon fields in Beast Wars). He was then rescued by a white lion, whose form he scanned to give him a beast mode for protection. However, believing him to be dying the Matrix had copied itself into another Maximal: Lio Junior, who came to think of himself as Leo Prime's son.

After many adventures to prevent Galvatron from gaining the Angolmois energy, Leo Prime would meet his foe one last time on the Nemesis, a planet-sized warship Galvatron intended to use to suck the energy out of planets. As his team sabotaged the Nemesis from within Leo Prime and Galvatron clashed for the last time. Unable to defeat his Angolmois charged enemy, the two Matrixes combined their powers to merge Leo Prime and Lio Junior, allowing them to defeat the insane Galvatron. Enraged by this defeat Galvatron set his own Matrix to self-destruct the Nemesis. Although the Maximals survived the explosion, they became trapped inside a wormhole.

Beast Wars II Movie

Beast Wars II also produced a feature film entitled "Lio Convoy is in Imminent Danger!" In this film, the Predacons of the series discover a mysterious transwarp device that allows them to summon the monstrous Majin Zarak from Cybertron's past to aid them. The Maximals then summon Optimus Primal (referred to as "Convoy" in Japan, but not to be confused with the original Autobot leader Optimus Prime) from prehistoric Earth prior to his becoming Transmetal. Optimus Primal then aided Leo Prime in battling the demonic Transformer by combining the power of their Matrixes, transforming them into "Flash Lio Convoy" and "Burning Convoy". They destroyed Majin Zarak with a technique called Matrix Buster and returned Optimus Primal to prehistoric Earth.

Manga

In "The Maximal Brainwashing Project", Starscream and BB were able to capture Diver and Tasmanian Kid, brainwashing them into serving the Predacons. Meanwhile Leo Prime, Apache and Scuba were able to capture Dirge and Thrust. They were damaged in the capture, which had the side effect of making the Predacons think they were Maximals. Diver and Kid were able to ambush the Maximals, allowing Galvatron to gain the upper hand on Leo Prime, but the Maximals were aided by Dirge and Thrust. Furious that Leo had seemingly stolen his brainwashing idea, Starscream had BB attacked the Maximals. Megastorm found the whole turn of events amusing and planned to use his main cannon to destroy all the Maximals and Predacons in the conflict, becoming the leader of the Predacons. His attack took so long to charge, Scuba was able to ruin it with a water geyser. The explosion was enough to shock the brainwashed Maximals back to their senses. Galvatron and the Predacons retreated with Dirge and Thrust in tow.

Beast Wars Neo

Many years later, after further battles for the Angolmois energy between Big Convoy and Magmatron revealed its' true origin - the lifeforce of Unicron - the Chaos-Bringer was resurrected, and caused Big Convoy's Maximals to fall inside the same wormhole as Leo Prime. There, Leo Prime explained the nature of the threat and used what little was left of his power to help them escape.

Lio Convoy appears in episode #35, called "Graduation!!" Luring Unicron into battle, the Maximals, are aided, 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.

Robot Masters

At an unspecified time after his acquiring a Beast Mode, Leo Prime arrives on Earth in the first Robot Masters short episode after the first battle between Megatron, Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal, but keeps his presence secret. In the second short episode, Leo Prime assists Optimus Prime by firing upon Megatron, but still kept his identity a secret. He finally reveals himself by assisting Optimus Prime once again by attacking Megatron who is riding upon Gigant Sniper and knocking him off. Soon after, it is revealed that Reverse Convoy is in fact the original Megatron in a new form more akin to his Generation 2 appearance, who then attempts to fire upon a downed Optimus Prime. Leo steps in again and trows the original Megatron aside saving Optimus Prime. The two Megatrons then perform an attack similar to the one used by the two Optimuses in the previous episode. The two Optimuses retaliate with their own attack and are seemingly overpowered until Leo Prime bolsters their technique with his own move, thus defeating the two Decepticon commanders.

IDW Publishing

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Leo Prime in the The Gathering

His first actual appearance in an American series was during 2006 in the first issue of IDW Publishing's Beast Wars: The Gathering, sending Razorbeast on a mission as a double-agent infiltrating Magmatron's Predacons. However, he was not named; his first American toy was not yet released at the time. He had a Cybertronian redesign as in the storyline, Leo Prime had yet to travel to Earth to become a lion. However, this Cybertronian form (except for his head) bore absolutely no resemblance to his Cybertronian form in the first two episodes of the Japanese animated series.

In the second Beast Wars mini-series produced by IDW, The Ascending, he appears under the name Japanese of "Lio Convoy", now transforming into his familiar white lion form. Receiving Razorbeast's signal from Earth (aided by a disembodied Magmatron), Leo took the Pack, an elite Maximal unit, to Earth to assist. They arrived in time to turn the tide of the Predacon assault, but was surprised when their commander, Ravage, brokered a truce between the two factions. He was, however, too late to stop Razorbeast being infected by Angolmois energy.

Simon Furman, the co-author of the series, explained that he, editor Chris Ryall and Ben Yee decided to use all names as they originally appeared "for better or worse" regardless of any changes made over the years.

Fun Publications

Based on the Transformers Classics toy line, the Timelines 2007 story is set fifteen years after the end of the Marvel Comics story (ignoring all events of the Marvel U.K. and Generation 2 comics).

Although Leo Prime has yet to be depicted in the comics, he did have a toy made for the line, which was the basis for his form when he appeared in the Classicverse Lithograph sold of BotCon 2007.

Video games

Lio Convoy appears in the 1999 Gameboy Color video game Ketō Transformers Beast Wars: Beast Senshi Saikyō Ketteisen.

Toys

• Beast Wars Second Lio Convoy (1998)

First released in 1998, this was the first Prime/Convoy toy to feature a variant of the Matrix of Leadership. According to the Beast Wars Second show bible, Lio Convoy stands three meters tall and can run at 200 km/h in beast mode. With a toy standing twenty centimeters tall, the Lio Convoy toy is 1/15 scale. His toy was sold at retail in Asia and over the internet in North America. This toy was designed by Takara's Hisashi Yuki and was released in several different deco schemes.

• Robot Masters Lio Convoy (2005)

A deluxe sized version of Lio Convoy. Lio Convoy appeared in this Japanese exclusive series with a new deluxe sized toy closely based on his original form. There was later a Dengeki Hobby Exclusive black recolor of the toy in Decepticon packaging based upon the black recolor of the original toy. Lio Convoy also appeared in the Robot Masters comic that was only available in Japan.

• Beast Tech Robot Fighters Lio Convoy

A Chinese made knockoff based on the original Lio Convoy toy was sold in discount stores. This toy is gold and grey colors, is slightly oversized and simplified.

• Classic Legends Leo Prime (2006)

Leo Prime appeared as an official Hasbro toy as a repaint of the Legends of Cybertron Leobreaker. He has 10 points in all of his stats. Besides the Classic Mini-Cons, Leo Prime is the only Classic line figure not to bear the name or be a homage to a character from the original Generation 1 toy line. This toy was later redecoed into Universe Legends Razorclaw.

• Universe Beast Wars Series Voyager Leo Prime (2009)

A redeco of Cybertron Leobreaker with a new head mold and removed electronics. While brandishing the Autobot logo on the toy, this figure's box claims Leo Prime is a Maximal. This figure bears the classic Optimus Prime color scheme. The figure is capable of being combined with Cybertron Optimus Prime and comes with a blue Jungle Planet Cyber Key.

• Universe Beast Wars Series Voyager Leo Prime redeco (2009)

A Target store exclusive, redecoed to match the colors of the Legends figure.