Takara released the much anticipated Masterpiece Convoy in December of 2003 as debut figure in their new collector line. Rumored to be three years in the making, Masterpiece Convoy (known in the US as Optimus Prime) stood over 12" tall and boosted hefty amount of die-cast parts along with real rubber tires and a light up feature. While the Binaltech updated the G1 characters with the new realistic modern day cars, the Masterpiece was more of the ultimate version of the old G1 character. The vehicle mode, Convoy was of course a red semi-truck cab with prominent molded-on Cybertron (Autobot) symbol on the left side. The cab while look very good was meant to capture the flavors of the animation version and the G1 toy instead of the realistic modern vehicle as was done for the Binaltech line. There was no realistic interior seating (due mainly in part because of the housing for the "Matrix of Leadership" and its light up feature) or open-able doors. The truck, however, had working suspension and plastic lens covered headlights and tail lamps.