Black Convoy / Optimus Prime (D-Style) by Kotobukiya

Black Convoy / Optimus Prime (D-Style) by Kotobukiya (Available From HobbyLink Japan)

Black Convoy, or Optimus Prime with an evil goatee has joined Kotobukiya’s D-style team. Let’s see how he stacks up to the original kit right now!

Solid cover art with Unicron in the background. Or is it Galactus? Or Gah Lak Tus? Or Josh Trank’s Dr. Doom?

The box is slightly smaller than a regular SD/HG.

The box side shows the price of 3200 JPY in the corner. Don’t forget you can get 20% off at HLJ.com!

The side of the box showing some gimmicks and weapons, including the Dead Matrix, and mini vehicle mode and trailer that won’t look that good right out of the box. The backpack is new for this kit.

When you crack open the box, you’ll see mainly black and silver.

The cover of the manual.

The building process seems no different from the original one, outside of the new backpack.

Back of the manual showing official color guide.

Plates shown in alphabetical order. The H plate is labelled “Jetpack”.

A small set of stickers, showing this Convoy’s alignment.

And now it’s time to go from this…

With only the help of a good pair of plastic nippers…

To this. Here are front, side, and back shots.

The elbows bend 90, and the knees bend slightly less.

The chest can open, and you can see the Dead Matrix inside. I wonder if Dark Ultra Magnus can open it?

They’re the same weapons we’ve seen before, so you can try all the same poses as regular Convoy. Always love those energy weapons that appear out of nowhere!

As for the size, it’s a little taller than the SD Unicorn Gundam.

And his antennae bring him to the same height as non-Master Megatron.

Some final thoughts. Black Convoy is a nice continuation of the Transformers section of D-style. While it’s nearly identical to the original, little bonuses like the red backpack are welcome. And for all three kits so far, the build had been a pleasant experience for me. One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that the kit is not actually black! If you have used a knife on it, you’ll find that it’s actually very very dark green. Mobility is satisfactory, but Kotobukiya could try do better with the legs. With Takara, Hasbro, Bandai, and Kotobokiya never miss out on a repaint possibility, so this kit was inevitable, and the seekers are inevitable we could all guess. But with a good overall look, he definitely deserves to be a part of your shelf as you could imagine from the scene below. Thanks for checking this out!

Chibi battle!