Perfect Effect: Leonidas Review

        Hello Transformers fans, today I'm gonna do a review on yet another 3rd party figure - Perfect Effect Leonidas. This is PE's take on Leo Convoy. I'm not very familiar with Leo Convoy, initially I thought he was the continuation of Optimus Primal  ( The gorilla dude ) but it seems that he is an entirely a new character with leadership quality that even Optimus Primal approves. Though I didn't have much knowledge on this guy, but he looks too good to pass on for a TF figure.

Lets begin....... 

Here is a picture of Leo Convoy from the internet.

Next we move onto the packaging. I think it's a much improved design for PE compare to Warden. Love the artistic painting for Leonidas.

At both sides of the box, we can see picture of Leonidas in robot mode.

At the back of the box features him in his robot and alternate mode along with all his weapons.

A little close up

Here's a list of his weapons at the back of the box. Funny, I'm quite sure he comes with 2 guns. 

Here is Leonidas out of the box. His plastic packaging is pretty much similar to PE's Warden, where there are 2 layers of plastic, featuring the robot, stance and his other accessories.

The upper layer includes the robot itself, the visor for his lion mode, the back piece where the tail attaches, his crossbow and 2 laser guns. The bottom layer consists of the stance, his 2 swords and 2 scabbards, and also his whip/tail.

A little close up

When I got this figure his right leg was loose, and seeing it it just a ball joint, I went on pegging it in, but I applied too much force and the whole thing broke off!

My heart literally stopped for a few seconds.

Luckily, the toy shop I bought the figure from was very helpful. They asked to sent some pictures and then helped me sent to PE company for replacement parts. PE sent the replacement part and arrived within 2 weeks. No questions asked.

Kudos to X2otoys and Perfect Effect for their excellent service.

The replacement parts.

So disaster averted.... we move on to the figure itself. Here he is without any add on. I think he looks really awesome. Body to limbs ratio is excellent, love the lion head on his right shoulder and the rest of the mane on his left shoulder. His torso looks very sleek, great abs, well tones waist and chest, much like a swimmer's body. The color is quite similar to prime's color, love the gold they choose for the lion. Paint job is excellent, plastic quality is above average, and he has loads of die-cast. He feels quite heavy and has a good feel in your hand. Overall, good quality figure with a cool design.

Side view look fine, no extra kibble 

View from the other side where the lion head lies. 

Back view looks good as well, you can see the lion's paws on either side of his elbows.

This figure is not short on details. Even the back has lots of awesome details and design.
Loving it!

All his accessories at a glance.

quite a number of them.

My favorite accessory is his katana/sword. The paint job is nice and the whole thing is die-cast! Awesome. Has a good weight in hand.

A little close up on the katana/sword.

The sword/katana's scabbard can also function as a blaster like weapon.

I think the most interesting accessory for Leonidas is his whip.

The whip is made up of 13 parts in total each with a hinge and swivel joint allowing maximum posing and articulation. 

You can band and shape it anyway you like.

Another weapon that I find interesting is his 2 laser guns. The design is very much like MP-10's gun. I think it is a very cool design as Leo Convoy is the leader for the Maximal, like Optimus Prime is to the Autobots.

A little close up.

Here's a little comparison for Leonidas' weapon with MP-10's weapon.

You can flip back Leonidas' gun upwards at the back, then pull down the handle below.

There is also a part to peg onto at the top of his gun, you can peg it in either way you want.

Another interesting part about his gun is that you can pull out the gun's muzzle to make it a longer blaster.

His other weapon is the crossbow, designed in white, with red stripes and a dark grey handle.

At the top part of the crossbow is a greenish-blue kind of scope feature. while the dark grey tips on either side of the crossbow is an alternate place where you attach Leonidas' swords/katanas.

The whip can be attached onto the back piece and this whole assembly is attached to Leonidas buttocks to give him a 'tail'. 

It may look complicated but it is actually quite an easy set up.

This is how it looks from the front.

You can place the swords inside the scabbard.

You can attach his katana, guns and tail to the back piece and later plug the whole thing onto his buttock.

Looks like a totally different vehicle on its own. Kind of a Gundam kind of feel. 

Here we have a look at his 'full burst' view, does not seem to have much different if viewed from the front, but we do see his katana and tail.

The back view will look more complicated than before. The crossbow attaches onto his back, while the Gundam like assemble attaches to his buttocks.

His full armament makes him look very deadly and awesome at the same time.

The details on this figure is just so so awesome!

Personally, this is my favorite mode for Leonidas. Just the add on piece at his buttock, giving him a tail. Looks simple and nice.

Also, I did not include the crossbow on his back. This look gives him a more beast like look for his robot mode, and it does cover his back part pretty well, if not, it will look like something is missing.

How he looks with his katana attached on either side.

Katana, tail and crossbow attached.

With everything again.

Next up we have a closer look at his head and face sculpt design. He has a very Optimus Prime look, the head sculpt looks a bit elongated and the face mask it slightly different. All in all, I think it is a good design for Leonidas' head.

Side view.

Back view.

He can tilt his head upwards to about 30 degrees.

Head tilts downwards about 20 degrees.

His head rotates in about 180 degrees.

This figure also has some articulation rarely found in other figure, where he has genuine side to side head tilting. 

Next we have a look at his chest design. It has the basis of optimus's design namely the 2 truck windshield. Here, Leonidas has blue color chest but almost pentagon in shape. 

Either side of his chest can open up like how G1 Optimus did. It's not on a sinple hinge but rather a ball and hinge joint. 

The inner side of his chest can be lowered down to reveal his Matrix! Damn! A very very cool gimmick. The sad part is that the matrix is static and cannot be removed. The color is also very much similar to PE Warden's jade green spherical abdomen. 

His shoulder has a very interesting design where the inner part is a ball-joint, with a ratchet joint and also a swivel, allowing him with maximus articulation and posability. Very impressive design. 

He can also perform an ab crunch similar to PE Warden.

Very very cool. Also a very rare articulation for a  TF figure.

As if that isn't enough, he can hyperextend his abs!

A little close up.

Another awesome part for Leonidas' articulation is that his upper chest itself has side to side rotation, I'm not really sure to what extend it can rotate, because I don't want to push the figure too much. But I will say its about 40 degrees each side.

He too has a standard hip rotation ( Duh! )

All 360 of it.

But, that's not all, he also comes with side to side motion for his entire spine! :O 

They weren't kidding when they say that this figure has about 60 points of articulation.

To check out his shoulder range or movements, I've rotate the lion head and mane to the back.

A closer look at his joints

And of course he has a full 360 degree rotation over his shoulder. 

While rotating his shoulder, his inner ball-joint at his shoulder can rotate for his shoulder rotation, but up to a certain extend ( Can see the different from the white piece with black dots on his shoulder. )  

, the real full shoulder rotation lies in the swivel joint of his shoulder.

Shoulder abduction is about 85 degrees each side.

You can go up to 110 degrees when you involve the inner ball joint and raise it up.

Some forward shoulder movements.

Backwards shoulder movements.

He comes with a full 360 degrees upper biceps swivel.

Elbow flexion is about 130 degrees.

Front view for his elbow flexion.

He has a wrist swivel, all 360 degrees.

A closer look at his hands. 

The only downside for his articulation is that he does not have individual articulating fingers. his thumb is static and his other 4 finger moves as 1 unit.

The part where he holds the lion's head and mane is also made up of fascinating components, comprising a ball joint - ratchet - ball joint. It does allow the lion head and the other part of the mane to combine and come to the front in alternate mode, but they are unable to switch places, i.e the Lion's head on the left shoulder.

Well, you can say he has a 3rd mode, a werelion mode?

Haha, I like to do this to my figures who turn into animals.

Roar!!!

Next we look at his lower limb's articulation. He has about 85 degrees of hip flexion, but he can go a bit higher, but sill need some manipulation over his hips, slightly outwards.

Hip extension is about 100 degrees.

Can perform an anterior split 

Can't perform a perfect split though. Hip abduction is about 80 degrees each side.

Knee flexion is about 100 degrees.

Not much external hip rotation though. Wish he had one over his upper thigh.

The back part of his feet and the middle part is one unit and is attached on a ball-joint. The front part of his feet is on another ball joint, though I made a mental node that I wont push his front foot joint too far and risking another breakage., so I'm not really sure how far it will go. I just go where I feel comfortable :)

Interesting enough his 3 toes on each foot has individual articulation. His front paws also has the same feature, which makes him very posable in Lion mode.

His foot does rotate a full 360 degrees all around on the middle ball joint.

Feet tilting downwards.

Upward tilting.

Next we move onto his alternate mode, beast mode!

As a whole, his beast mode is not at all organic looking. Look very much like a zoid. PE always produce figures with excellent robot mode, but their weakness seems to be the alternate mode. 

I wont say it is a terrible alternate mode, but with all the hype about his robot mode, I guess people expect his alternate mode to be excellent as well, but well, we can't have the best of both worlds.

Not much transformation is needed to transform him into beast mode, where his beast mode is his robot mode on all fours. The most difficult part is to attach the Lion's head and his mane from either side of the shoulder. Other than that, you just need to push both shoulders upwards and flip his paws out from his elbows.

Articulation is pretty much what his robot has to offer. His Lion's head has some movements thanks to the complexity of the design, but if you move his head too far from his body, it will look very weird from the sides, as he is a lion without a neck lol.

Front view.

From the side, he does look like a lion without a neck. If you flip him over you can see his robot head clearly as it does not flip and hide anywhere. I guess these 2 are the biggest flaws for his beast mode. the weapons attached on his back looks badass though. Love that the tail can swing and pose to your liking. his sword/blaster can tilt backwards or forwards. Both his blasters on his back can tilt upwards or downwards and can even be raised up and his muzzle pulled longer to make it look mode like a battle mode.

Back view for his alternate mode.

I prefer the lion without his visor though. Looks much better this way.

He does have articulation over his mouth,

As far as he can go.

posing time for the kitty cat.

Leonidas with badcube's wardog.

With MP 18 B

With fansprojects's Crox

Side by side with MP 10

The back looks kinda empty without all the weapons., but looks slightly more natural this way don't you think?

Posing time for Leonidas. PE company is always great in the sense that they do provide stance for posing their figure. Kudos to them!

The ironman pose.

The tip of his tail can be detach.

To form 2 blades! Very cool feature!

Pray hard Predacons...... Because I'm coming for you.

Rocky pose.

And now.... light our darkest hour!

Some size comparison. Here he is with MP10. I guess he scales pretty well with MPs

FPJ Crox

With other MP cars

MP 02 towers over him.

So does MP 24

Bad cube Wardog seems ok side by side with him.

PE has another version coming out. Kinda like their version of nemesis Leo Convoy. I think he looks badass. But unfortunately I won't be purchasing him bacause I just don't have the budget lol.

well, here we have a look at some official Leo Convoy. He doesn't look too bad to me.

PROS: Awesome figure as a whole. Will give the robot mode 9/10. Kinda scale with MPs, insane articulations and posability, excellent paint jobs, lots of die-cast, great plastic quality, lots of accessories, die-cast swords!, matric gimmick.

CONS: Disappointing beast mode, No light pipping, no individual articulating fingers, static matrix.


Thank You for reading! Here's a link to x2otoys  :)

http://www.x2otoys.com/