JetFire and Optimus Prime getting ready for combination.

One of the main reason getting both Leader Class Optimus Prime and Leader Class JetFire is both Leader class toy can combine to form Powered-Up Prime. Contrary to the combinati0n, in the Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) movie Powered-Up Prime is form after JetFire sacrifice himself to allow its body to beef up Optimus Prime weaponary and giving flight capability to Optimus Prime in the ROTF movie climax.

Regardless of TakaraTomy or Hasbro version of the toy, both is able to be combined without issues.

For the combination, start of with transforming both Optimus Prime and JetFire in their robot mode.

Step 1 - Attach Gatling Gun and transformed blaster to Optimus Prime.

Step 2 - Divide body of JetFire into 2 half horizontally, hook the silver piece of JetFire at the back of Optimus Prime.

Step 3 - Snap 2 peg of Optimus Prime feet to JetFire feet.

Step 4 - Fasten the seat belt and ready for flight.

In the nut shell, in the transformation or combination Jet Fire is more like a jet pack complete with buckle, attachment on to the feet and hook to the back.

Original leg configuration, the dual toes is tuck to the back.

JetFire the Jet Pack.

Unfortunately, the original configuration of the legs looks plain. From the Transformers forum source of alternate powered-up prime leg configuration gives a better configuration.

Alternate leg configuration for Powered-Up Prime.

Front view of the alternate leg configuration of Powered-Up Prime.

Other than the feet and back pack, from the frontal view after the combination, the head and the torso is still clearly is Optimus Prime.

JetFire robot part is still visible.

With alternate feet configuration, it looks more closer to the original Powered-Up Prime concept art.

When the combination is completed, Powered-Up Prime is lacking of articulation at its lower part of the body. Hand are less articulated at the shoulder due to new shoulder pads. However the energon sword is still extensible on the part of arm without the big blaster.

With jet pack buckle at its abdoment.

The mech-alive feature of Optimus Prime is removed. However, it can be triggered by pushing Optimus Prime backwards. In Powered-Up mode, there is a sound effect. Which is located at the lower back of JetFire.

Button to trigger weapons activation.

By moving Optimus Prime head to the back, the chest and eyes will light up simulating effect of mech alive.

There is a few configuration available for the shoulder pad. One involving folding up the 2 half of the cockpit/fuselage back into the position of JetFire robot arm. The only downside is it exposes JetFire claw but it does not matter for JetFire head can be seen in any configuration.

Alternate configuration makes the legs and feet stubby from the back.

JetFire trying to play peek-ka-boo at the back.

Alternate configuration of the shoulder pads and feet.

Another view at all the glory of Power-Up Prime.

As summary, Powered-Up Prime is a great display piece meant to be displayed face to face to would be on lookers. In term of articulation, it is severely lacking.

Not meant for those that is fear of grotesque appearance of having your ally’s carcass mount on your back with his dead head dangling at the back of your head.

Thanks for reading. Until the next post.

Notice JetFire head is sticking up like a sore thumb behind Optimus Prime head.

DIA Commander robot mode posing.

DIA Commander or Powered Commander is a 3rd party add on to make Henkei Convoy or Classics Prime to be more beefy and intimidating. It is created by FansProject not related with Takara nor Hasbro. Just from Fans to Fans kinda operations.

Not to forget, Henkei Convoy or Classics Optimus Prime sold seperately. You need to have either Henkei Convoy, Classics Optimus Prime or Classics Ultra Magnus to complete DIA Commander.

I got mine after deciding to make my Henkei Convoy more intimidating. Powered Commander is inspired from the City Commander, and add on to Classics Ultra Magnus to reflect its G1 roots. Other than that I do not recall any canon story line of any Transformers that include Powered Commander.

DIA Commander Package front view.

The packaging of the DIA Commander is simple, not illustration or elaborated box art. It reminds me of those CD Crystal Box of indie bands or indie singers.

DIA Command Package back view.

Seriously, there is nothing special about the DIA Commander box at the back there is some quotes and paragraph. If the package has an outline of the DIA commander that would be cool. I guess having elaborate outline will add on more cost to this add on.

DIA Commander package opened.

DIA Commander package contents.

Upon opening the package, there is a comic, stickers set and of course the DIA Commander in its alternate mode, a truck trailer. Aand there is an additional DIA Commander Illustration.

DIA Commander Inner Box Art.

Wait, where is the instruction set ?

DIA Commander Comic cum instructions 1.

DIA Commander Comic cum instructions 2.

DIA Commander Comic cum instructions 3.

FansProject has made the comic as part of the instructions on snapping on the armor part to make Convoy powered up into the DIA Commander. The comic has a story which luckily there is no dialogues. So it is locality and regional neutral. Let the pictures do the talking

DIA Commander out of the box.

2 soft symetrical plastic shell which is snap on to encompass DIA Commander trailer.

DIA Commander ready for play.

DIA Commander trailer back view.

DIA Commander trailer front view.

Some part of the DIA Commander is painted with chrome paints. In which it is originally made to have chrome paints to complement Henkei Convoy. The construction of the DIA COmmander toy is strudy but light. It can be attached to Henkei Convoy in truck mode and act as its trailer, it has a female peg that fits into Henkei Convoy.

DIA Commander trailer connecting mechanism.

The connection between DIA Commander trailer and Henkei Convoy is fixed, it does not offer articulation to simulate natural join between a conventional truck with its container.

DIA Commander trailer with trailer back view.

DIA Commander trailer with trailer front view.

During the transformation process. Henkei Convoy needs to be transformed into robot mode first. The DIA Commander Trailer then needs to be disassemble into 2 major part before it can be converted to respective parts which is add on onto Henkei Convoy to for DIA Commander. First the trailer is seperate into the upper parts and lower parts.

Upper parts forms the shoulder, chest, head and arms. The lower part turns into the legs, crotch and the Big Fucking Freaking Gun (BFG).

DIA Commander trailer seperated into 2 main parts.

At the time of the picture taken, the missle pack (which is still wrapped in plastic) for the shoulders is part of the lower part of the trailer.

Transfoming the lower part into its legs, BFG and crotch piece is fairly simple.

DIA Commander lower part transformation 1.

DIA Commander lower part transformation 2.

DIA Commander lower part transformation completed.

Transformation of the upper part of the trailer into the shoulders, hands and torso is as simple as the previous transformation. The problem of DIA commander, you will need to remember proper how to disassemble in order to reassemble the parts back into the trailer mode.

DIA Commander upper trailer transformation 1.

DIA Commander upper trailer transformation 2.

DIA Commander upper trailer transformation 3.

Once all the part is transformed into the DIA Commander armor and part, it is time to beef up Henkei Convoy to DIA Commander.

DIA Commander ready to transform.

First recommended step is attaching the parts is just snapping in the DIA legs onto Convoy, which is similar like a person wearing a boot. The plastic should be flexible enough to have Convoy legs snapped in. Do not apply too much force.

DIA Commander mid transformation 1.

DIA Commander mid transformation 2.

DIA Commander mid transformation 3.

To snap in the torso and head, Henkei Convoy head needs to be place into his body. Beware that the torso/head part of the DIA Commander is the weakest compared to other parts. Do not apply excessive force.

DIA Commander mid transformation complete.

In the nutshell, the DIA Commander/Powered Commander transformation is like having Convoy to wear elaborated armor. Similar to guys wearing tuxedo

Not forgetting you can attach the Big Fucking Freaking Gun (BFG) only to its right hand.

DIA Commander BFG at ease.

Unfortunately, the weight of the BFG is too heavy for the joints of Covoy to support.

DIA Command BFG raised view 1.

DIA Command BFG raised view 2.

DIA Command BFG raised view 3.

There is significant reduction of Convoy´s articulation after Convoy is beef up into DIA Commander. It is a good as a display piece.

DIA Commander front view.

DIA Commander back view.

As a summary DIA Commander or Powered Commander from FansProject is meant for DIEHARD fans only. A thing that I have left out is the weapons of Henkei Convoy are able to fit into the hands of DIA Commander.

Please be reminded that DIA Commander is created by an indie group called FansProject. Hence do not ecpect precision engineering like the major and mainstream toy makers. The only problem that I find in my DIA Commander is the hole to place the secondary Convoy blaster is too lose and unable to hold the secondary blaster as illustrated.

Lastly, thanks to FansProject for creating this project.

Stay tuned for the next post

DIA Commander need to rest.

The very old posts are :
1. Dancouga

2. Small but highly detailed Convoy a.k.a. Optimus Prime

3. Various chogokin comparison featuring comparison of Dancouga, Voltes V and GunBuster.

4. Love it and hate it Alpha figher toynami master piece ; MasterPiece Collection : VFA-6Z .

5. Review of THS-01 Galaxy Convoy :
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

6. Review of THS-02 G1 Convoy :
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Will work on newer updates in the future. Just realize this is the 2nd no pictures post in RobotHentai.com

Transformation from robot mode to truck mode is perfect but the proportion of the truck is not good. On top of that it has a lot of  ugly gaps. The ugly truck mode will encourage THS02 owners to refrain from transforming into the truck mode.

The only fun factor for truck mode, is the trailer can be attached to convoy.

The trailer itself can be transformed into cargo box, command center/support weapon platform and maintainance bay for  Convoy.

See the gaps ? 

Very bad proportioned 

  Trailer transformed into the command center or support heavy weapon

Convoy cooling off at repair bay

Summary :

Packs of tonnes of accessories and gimmick. Small and compact but highly pose able. Greatdetails at robot mode. Sadly poorly executed truck mode. On top of that not recommended for toddlers & big hands. Great for collectors which wants to expand Convoy collections. 

Though Convoy is represented as a less than 15 cm midget, it does not lack of details & articulation. Convoy has 14 points of articulation which make it capable of multiple posing. In term of material used, Convoy contains some diecast in its chest & legs.

Freeze!!

Watch my 6

With Jet-pack attached

Energon Axe attached… activated

Not forgetting, this mini Convoy has the mini Matrix. The matrix is small but it can be used to pose Convoy releasing the Matrix energy.

The item included with this toy package is manual, collector's card, 3 pair of extra hand, an energon axe, a blaster, trailer, custom base, mini roller, jet pack & convoy.

The contents

Although, the manual is written in japanese, transfroming convoy will not be a problem for the instruction manual is clearly illustrated.

Front cover of instruction manual and collector's card.

Convoy, the first Cybertrons commander introduced in Transformers. A symbol of all good & virtue. Perhaps one of the ageless icon in the transformers series. Now it is again immortalized in the TakaraTomy toyline THS.

Box art at the front

Yet again, the Japanese toys makers had made Convoy, ultra-small and surprisingly alot of details. This toy comes with alot of accessories & gimmicks. A vast improvement compared to the T.H.S.-01.

A look into the contents.

Like most premium toy package, this toy has a viewable windows to show the contents. A first looks the contents looks stunning.