I don't know much about Masterpiece figures but why is Prime always called Convoy? Also the same goes for the TFC Hercules which I call Masterpiece Devastator. Why is he called Hercules  

 

For the first part of your query, Convoy is essentially Prime in Japan. So you've got Fire Convoy, Grand Convoy, Galaxy Convoy, Rodimus Convoy, Lio Convoy and so on. See the pattern?

For the second part, I can't tell if you're serious or not.

 

The Convoy designation is only used in Japanese MP releases. US MP releases always use Prime. And as the post above states, TFC obviously can't use Devastator because they made the toy with no permission or license from Hasbro.

 

And other Japanese TF toys, and Japanese TF comics, and Japanese TF Cartoons.

I'm pretty sure the first time they didn't use "Convoy" was for the first Bay movie.

 

and Animated, b/c in Japan it was a prequel to the movies.

 

In Japan, "Prime" is "Convoy". And since MP figures are always released there first, they're therefore called convoy. American releases of the "Prime" figures are actually called "Prime".

Devastator is called Hercules because he's made by a third party company, not Hasbro. If they called him Devastator, or Masterpiece, or anythign associated with a Hasbro character, then they could be sued.
Technically, the figure in and of itself is a theft of Hasbro's IP(intellectual property), so they could be sued anyway.
Clear things up?

 

Yeah, that's why I said "first" in the Bay movies. Ever since the Bay movies began, Japan has started using the "Optimus Prime" name for a number of things. Animated, TFP, etc.

 

Wow. You guys are making it sound like "Convoy" is some kind of translation of Prime in Japanese.

It isn't.

Optimus Prime's name in Japan is Convoy. Based on the original Diaclone name for the toy, Battle Convoy. Convoy is just his name, not some kind of translation.

Of course, after that "Convoy" came to become the designation of any Autobot Leader for the series. Kind of like Gundam in a way. In Mobile Suit Gundam, the RX-78-2 was simply referred to as Gundam, and still is. But any Gundam following is ___ Gundam; Wing Gundam, God Gundam, Unicorn Gundam, etc.

 

I can see how you might have read some people's posts that way, and I guess a couple people could have worded their post more carefully, but I don't think anyone was actually ignorant of the fact "Convoy" is an English word and not a translation of anything.

Post #2. Seems pretty clear.

I took this post to mean he was telling us they use the word Convoy in place of the word Prime, which they do. I didn't take it to mean he thought the word was a translation.