Seen as ole' Sky-Byte's getting alot of love over in the "How good of a character is RiD Skybyte?" thread, I thought we should have a rivalling appreciation thread for Sky-Byte's biggest rival: Scourge! Or as I like to remember him by his original Japanese name: Black Convoy!



The first and only evil black re-paint Prime to be featured as a recurring character in any TFs series, arguably a better opponent for RID Optimus Prime than Megatron was, and way more kick-ass than that silly haiku-spouting shark that he was in competition with, Scourge was THE definitive dark Prime!

So for anyone that liked Scourge in the RID series, say why here! Or even better, agree with me that he's trumps Sky-Byte anyday! C'mon, I can't be the only Scourge/Black Convoy fan around here!



"Vengeance is an excuse for failure. I do not seek vengeance."

Black Convoy-sama forever!

 

Meh, I was never a huge fan outside of Scourge, aside from his incredibly cool look and his totally awesome toy lol.

I've always preferred the funny characters to the "Oh look at me, I'm a bad-ass!" characters haha.

 

Scourge really lacks any real personality to me, though I appreciated him for his relationship with Sky-Byte. You had one guy who basically always screwed and was mostly incompetent versus a guy who was an honest to god second in command. That and Scourge's design are really the things I appreciated the most about him.

 

First off I probably like Gershark better than Black Convoy as a character (can't really comment on Sky-Byte or Scourge in RiD as they are both very hard to understand to me), but I like everyone in Car Robot and Black Convoy is no exception! He is very often funny because he takes his own evil characteristics really seriously when everyone else in Car Robot goes slapstick. Man I love Car Robot.



(Well it's a picture of a Black Convoy toy...but as mentioned already he's such a cool toy  )

 

Scourge is a much better concept and toy than he was a character on RiD. He was basically the straight man. That said, I'd love to see the character of a Optimus clone come back again in TF as it's such an interesting concept that really helps characterize two robots at the same time by presented a skewed reflection of the Autobot leader.

 

Yes, he was the definitive dark Prime, but if you're looking for a serious character in RiD then I think you have your priorities mixed up   Scourge's toy is badass, but there's not much to the way he was portrayed.

 

Oh man, does this ever make me nostalgic.  

I honestly can't comment too much on Black Convoy, having watched Car Robots without subs. But I can say that I loved Scourge if for no other reason than he was voiced by one of the best sounding actors in the biz, in the dearly departed Mr. Barry Stigler. He did the whole backstabbing-and-undermining Megatron thing right. ...and honestly, his toy is simply amazing. I got loads of enjoyment out of Scourge before ultimately he went into storage, though I have long entertained the idea of searching out a genuine Black Convoy.

While he started the evil black and teal Prime trend, those that followed have been pale imitators when considered next to their progenitor.

I love Sky-Byte, but I can't hardly deny Scourge. I mean, dude hijacked Fortress Maximus. That's impressive in of itself. RiD/CR combined lose points for that bullcrap where Megatron wipes the personalities of the Commandos. But as Energon would teach us, taking your best characters and absolutely ruining them seems to be par for the coarse for Japanese TF shows.

 

He was great as Mr. Gone in the Maxx.

Agreed. Most other evil Primes are just all black. With Scourge, most of the black goes into his truck mode, but in robot mode he's got a lot of grey. And his pink color gives him a very unexpected touch when it comes to "being evil." It's all very striking compared to "another black repaint."

And I say, if you can afford it, go for the Black Convoy man. I was in the same shoes as you; owned the Scourge, but always wanted the BC cos I preferred the silver stickers, the pink glass, and the molded G2 symbols. I finally bit the bullet on it a few months ago, and it was in fact worth the wait. I promptly put Scourge into BC's box and stuck it in the closet  

Most of the Japanese TF Fiction I've seen has been laughably bad (or in the case of Kiss Players, just plain bizarre). I still haven't seen Masterforce and Victory, which are supposedly well done, but I gotta say, it's hard to believe with the rest of the evidence on the table.

 

I think this sums up where I stand on Scourge/Black Convoy:



 

 

I have a Black Convoy. ! I feel special now. I wanted Scourge, but picking up a Black Convoy in a slightly tatty box was a cheaper option. I love him. The colourscheme is awesome and suits the mould better than G2 Laser Prime.

As for Scourge as a character. He was too smooth for me. But at least he got some characterisation, unlike the other Decepticons. I liked his interactions with Sky Byte and how he always frustrated the Predacons actions.

 

Yep, I love RID Scourge, He's the 2nd in command ever dictator wants to have. Loyal, polite and bloodthirsty.

Plus i actually own "Black Convoy"...and damn do i love that figure.

 

Best Transformer figure!

 

The most I remember is that Black Convoy's toy is cool...That's about it  

 

Cool toy/Design but he lacks.

 

The first and only? I guess somebody never watched Beast Wars the 2nd (Black Lio Convoy, my friend).

And while he wasn't much of a character, Scourge returned in Armada. Funny thing, in Micron Legend he's named Scourge, in Armada he's called Nemesis Prime. Also the Micron Legend figure had the same exact color scheme as RID Scourge, while Hasbro changed the colors considerably when they imported him. Between the name and the different paint deco, it's like the Japanese wanted to channel the spirit of the English dub RID character, but Hasbro was trying to play it down. I don't get it.

RID Scourge was the best, though. I'd love for them to bring him back in a regular storyline with his own unique mold based on his RiD appearance.

 

wasn't Black Lioconvoy only in one episode? He said "first and only RECURRING evil Prime."

 

I could've sworn he was around for awhile.

But I don't know for sure, and I'm too lazy to check.

 

Love Scourge. Such an awesome character.

 

I don't know why, but I prefer the name Black Convoy over Scourge. Maybe because it was his original name. Maybe because it wasn't borrowed from an already existing character. I don't know.

Where BC is concerned though, I always thought he should have been the final threat of the show, not Gigatron. Gigatron was the standard obstacle with no personality. Aside from being the bad guy, he didn't really bring anything to the table. Black Convoy, on the other hand, wasn't just a bad guy. He was an Autobot that had been reprogrammed to be evil, and the fact that he resembled Fire Convoy only drove home that point.

Fire Convoy spends a lot of time trying to rescue or save Black Convoy. He tries to get BC to see the virtues of the Autobot way. He doesn't want to believe that this former Autobot is irredeemable.

Then God Magnus enters the scene. Here's an Autobot that, while not resembling Fire Convoy, is his brother. But he's quickly veering away from the Autobot code. He attacks both friend and enemy alike. He employs deception and tries to usurp leadership from Fire Convoy. He's so aggressive and thoughtless as to the harm his actions are causing, that the 'Cons want him on their team!

To me, Black Convoy represents what God Magnus is quickly on his way to becoming; a nemesis to his brother and counterpart. Black Convoy therefore is a more real threat to the Autobots and Fire Convoy especially. He represents something. Gigatron could be a wall for all he mattered to the show.

But even then, Black Convoy triumphing over Gigatron would've been ironically poignant. If I were writing the show, BC would've succeeded in crushing Gigatron under the heel of Brave Maximus, and taken his rightful place as commander of the Preds and Decepticons.

The final battle of the show should have been Fire Convoy and God Magnus uniting as brother and fellow Autobots against Black Convoy, not Gigatron. Their unity would be in contrast to his solidarity. It would've been awesome.

And while I love Gelshark, even I admit that he wasn't the true, credible threat of the show. The interplay between he and BC was great and pretty much made the show as far as I'm concerned. I would've loved to have seen a real, all-out fight between the two, most likely after Gigatron had been crushed into oblivion by Maximus. A stunned Gelshark quickly gathers his bearings and launches into a furious rage at BC. Yep. That's how I'd do it.

 

Though Scourge and Sky-Byte were rivals for Megatron's favour throughout the series, I do think they share one thing in common: they both deserved better than to be servants to Megatron. Poor Sky-Byte's loyalty to Megatron was never rewarded and acknowledged enough, and Scourge had so much potential and ambition that could never flourish under Megatron.

RID Megatron was a rather useless leader. Scourge was totally the brains of his forces. He was the one doing most of the thinking and formulating of battle plans whilst Megatron sat doing nothing on his throne, content to let his minions do all the hard fieldwork. If only Scourge had remained in command of the 'Cons and Preds after Megs' apparent demise (before he came back as Galvatron). That would have made for a much more interesting battle between the Autobots and the 'Cons/Preds later.

Maybe that's what made Black Convoy stand out as one of the only REAL threats to the Cybertrons/Autobots in the series. Whilst Gelshark and his Pred trio were simply making idiots and failures of themselves and being concerned simply with the shallow aim of gaining Gigatron's favour, Black Convoy was actually planning something sinister and dangerous.

In Car Robots, you had the cool and the laughable characters. Gelshark was the laughable one in comparison to Black Convoy's coolness. Ah yes, it was a strange competition between competence and incompetence with them. And somehow, we all enjoyed it.

I thought they were building Scourge's character into something quite interesting when he began pursuing his own agenda with the search for Fortress Maximus. The hints of his former Autobot identity from his resurfacing memories would have been great to explore a little more. But unfortunately, his potential was wasted at the end of the series when his gamble with Fort Max against Galvatron failed.

Please, don't remind me...I try not to think about what became of Black Convoy in the end...It still disappoints me greatly. *Sigh* So much wasted potential...

About the voices, after been used to the cool, dark and menacing original Japanese voice of Black Convoy, the scratchier voice of RID Scourge took some getting used to for me. It made Scourge seem more prone to losing his temper than Black Convoy was imo. But I did find myself appreciating Barry's voicework on its own merits. He did do a superb job of creating a dark, villainous voice with a Starscream-ish edge to it.

I have all those figures too!

Loyal...until he had his own ideas.

And yes, the Black Convoy toy is a beautiful thing. I admired him for so very long during the run of Car Robots in Japan back in 2000.

Am I sounding obssessed?

I'm aware of Black Lio Convoy and Armada Nemesis Prime. But they both only appeared in one episode.

I too would love to see another Black Convoy/Scourge-type character in a new storyline, but the challenge would be in making him a unique character in himself and not just simply an evil Prime clone.

Thank you, sir. Plus, you mean 'she said'.