Blue Big Convoy comic

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Publisher	TakaraTomy Mall
First published	September 26, 2018
Art by	Shin Sasaki
Colors by	Kazumasa Yasukuni
Continuity	Precursor World

In the days of the Primus Vanguard, the group is attacked by mysterious enemies.

Synopsis

Faced with semi-corporeal enemies that are unaffected by his attacks, Straxus, chief engineer of the Primus Vanguard, concludes that only the power of a Matrix can defeat them. This is proven true when his leader arrives and effortlessly slashes through the beings with his Matrix Sword, joking that Straxus's usual pompous attitude is nowhere to be found before, to Straxus's shock, lending him the sword. Revealing that his entire body is infused with Matrix energy thanks to the α Matrix in his chest, the leader battles the enemies with a variety of other weapons while declaring that himself to be "Blue", the Matrix-chosen great commander—the Big Convoy—of the Primus Vanguard. The entities fade away when struck by the Convoy's Blue Pèlerinage, a powerful Matrix-powered blast from his cannon, but not without delivering cryptic whispers stating that they are retreating in the face of the "blue apostle" and that they will return "when the seven are divided".

In the aftermath, Straxus realizes the attackers must have been the Specters mentioned by the Vanguard's previous leader, Brightes. Combining the α Matrix and Matrix Sword into a beacon that summons their comrades, Blue Big Convoy simply responds that their identity is of no concern: no matter the enemy, the duty of the Primus Vanguard is to defend spacetime.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

• This untitled story was written to tie into the Legends release of Blue Big Convoy, though unlike previous chapters of the e-HOBBY Primus Vanguard storyline, it was published by TakaraTomy directly.
• Following the release of this story, TakaraTomy and Hasbro unified the Transformers brand, likely due to flagging Transformers sales in Japan, leaving the future of the e-HOBBY Primus Vanguard project uncertain—until TakaraTomy began directly publishing online manga stories for the occasional Generations Selects line. Starting with the second online tie-in comic for Generations Selects Super Megatron, these began including appearances of the Vanguard earlier in their history.

Continuity notes

• This comic is evidently set before Straxus's betrayal of the Primus Vanguard, which was detailed in the previous chapters of this storyline. Straxus is colored based on his TakaraTomy United toy, marking this as the "scientist" version of the character who would later be reduced to a disembodied head, as opposed to the more brutish Generations-colored Straxus he would go on to work with, and who would die in "Cybertron Magna Convoy".
• The Specters mention a future grouping of seven special individuals. In "Cybertron Magna Convoy", multiversal observer Bludgeon identified seven Transformers as having inherited seven "lights" of The One.
• The blue Primus Vanguard ship seen in previous chapters appears among the ships arriving in the last panel.
• Several years later, the finale of the Generations Selects Special Comic would portray the events of this story from the rest of the Vanguard's perspective.

Transformers references

• The Specters are based on Thunderwing, Heatwave, and Reverse Convoy. Whether this has any meaning is not yet clear.
  • The Generations Selects finale revealed that the Specters take the form of deceased Vanguard leaders, with Reverse Convoy being Brightes himself, while Heatwave and Thunderwing represent unnamed Red and White Order leaders respectively.

Trivia

• Straxus refers to other Vanguard members known as the "Three Musketeers" (三銃士 Sanjūshi) and "Master Black Lion" (マスター黒獅子 Masutā Kurojishi).
• "Pèlerinage" is French for "pilgrimage".
• "Brightes" (ブライテス Buraitesu) may be a shortening of "Brightest", but the intention behind the name is unclear in the comic.

References

• Blue Big Convoy comic at TakaraTomy Mall
• Blue Big Convoy comic translation by Mohair Translations
• Lettered version of the translation by Fanofcoolstuff27