Victory Saber Giftset
Guest Review
by KYQ

Review date: 7/26/2004
Revised by LiK: 8/23/2004

Manufacturer: Takara

Released: 1989

Availability: RARE

Type: Action Figure

Sculpt:
Star Saber himself is comprised of 3 parts, a small robot called a 'Brain Master', a moderate sized body which turns into a small jet, and an outer shell called the 'V Star', which merges with it to form a larger jet and robot. The Brainmaster itself isn't much to look at. It's low on detail and frankly, looks rather silly. However, like the Headmasters, their charm lies in their gimmick, which is something I'll get to later. He also is an essential piece for the moderate sized robot too. The moderate sized robot, normally called 'Saber', looks like a typical 'vintage' Transformer. That means, he has very little articulation (his arms swing up and down, and he can sit). However, this was during a time where articulation was not a key feature in Transformer toys, so such a case is very normal. Despite this, Saber is a decent looking robot. With a rather stern expression and nice details all over him such as the lines, he's not too bad a bot. Combine him with the V Star, and you get Star Saber, and this is the form you see him in most of the time in the show.

Star Saber's sculpt is pretty damn good. He has a very Prime styled face, despite not being Optimus Prime, sharing a similar mouth plate and blue eyes. This gives him a very cool and confident expression which is essential for any cool Autobot leader. He also is adorned with even more details in this mode, with running lines on the sides of his arm and with an awesome gold chromed 'V' symbol on his chest which looks fantastic. He also comes equipped with his signature Saber Blade, which is comprised of the front of his jet mode and a chrome blade, which looks totally awesome. Despite looking a little squat and also lacking articulation, Star Saber still comes off as a very powerful looking 'bot and is more importantly, show accurate. His jet mode is also very awesome looking, despite it not resembling any modern day jet. With the bulk of the V Star, and with the slimness of the smaller jet, the combined jet mode comes off as being sleek yet powerful without being too chunky.

Victory Leo, who comes bundled together with Star Saber in this combo, is no slouch himself either. In robot mode, he too is adorned with plenty of cool details. He has a nice, stern silver face with blue eyes, and also shares the same gold chromed 'V' symbol on his chest. It also helps that his stickers really help to enhance his appearance. Like Star Saber, he also lacks articulation, with arms that move up and down and nothing else. Despite this, he still packs enough weaponry to kick your ass. He comes with a pair of twin cannons which can either be mounted on his arms or his back, and a HUGE gun called the V-lock cannon, which itself is packed with detailing. Victory Leo transforms into a mechanised Lion. For something rather stylised, this mode is pulled off very convincingly and looks extremely cool. Despite most of the body being the robot body with its legs tucked in, there's a lot of detailing on the head that help give him that 'lion look', such as sculpted teeth, claws on his hands, and even a mane! 'Leo can also carry all his guns in this mode and can strike really nice 'stalking' poses. It's hella fun imagining him tearing through Decepticon forces in this mode (which he does!).

Victory Saber, their combined form, is essentially Star Saber using Victory Leo's main body halves (which slides out) as 'shoes', and Victory Leo's wings and arms as a backpack. It's a simple process, but the results are stunning, making him look like Star Saber on steroids. He looks frightening wielding the Saber Blade, V-lock cannon AND the shoulder cannons all at once! That, together with an awesome wing span, give this bad boy a very majestic, 'don't F**K with me!!' look! Simply awesome. The two of them also can merge together to form a really, really, really LOOONG jet. Basically it's Star Saber in his large jet form, with Victory Leo shoved up his rear. It sounds funny, but you won't be laughing with half a dozen guns pointing in your face! The sculptors did a decent job of making it look like one solid jet, despite the simplicity of the transformation. All in all, Star Saber, Victory Leo and Victory Saber have great sculpts, and a lack of articulation is but a minor problem.

Paint:
There isn't much paint on Star Saber per se, as he's mainly made out of different coloured plastic. As mentione earlier, he has a pair of cool blue eyes and a silver mouth plate as well as his uber sharp gold 'V'. The rest of the colour is either the colour of the plastic, or stickers. No real qualms here as despite a little bleeding on his eyes, Star Saber still looks very sharp indeed, being mostly a nice shade of red and lots of white and blue. Some may think that the absense of die cast metal is a bummer, but he was produced during a time when die cast Transformer toys were no longer made. Personally, I think it's no real big deal as plastic doesn't chip paint and rust :). The only real big problem here is that, with so much white, Star Saber is VERY susceptible to yellowing. Indeed, it's quite a chore to find a pure, snow white Star Saber without having to pay an arm and a leg. This is a common problem amongst white plastic toys though. Another problem is naturally, chrome wear. His gold 'V' and Saber Blade can wear off if not taken care of properly, but as long as you don't bake it or soak it, it will be fine.

Victory Leo too is mainly made of different coloured plastic and doesn't have a whole lot of paint. He too has nice blue eyes on both the robot and lion faces, which strangely also have bits of bleeding, and a silver face. Oh and did I mention the gold 'V'? I did? Good. He is mainly yellow, with a bit of silver and black in all the right areas. A nice touch is the split Autobot symbol near his legs, which is done that way due to his transformation sequence into the Victory Saber parts. Victory Leo looks just as great as Star Saber, and complements him very well.

There're no new colours on Victory Saber obviously. Despite this, he still looks great, with the folded up Victory Leo shoes having a nice colour combination to it. The wings, which are white with red sticker detailing, look awesome, but are also very prone to yellowing. Since there're no new colours, Victory Saber succeeds in looking like one, large bot, instead of a bot with pieces of another bot on him.

Gimmicks and Accessories:
Star Saber, as mentioned, is a Brainmaster, which is an interesting take on the Headmasters. Basically, the tiny robot figure hops into Saber's chest, and when it closes, the tiny robot slides open to form Saber's face and 'brain'. I found this very cool back then and it still is very unique today. This also makes up for the relatively useless-ness of the tiny robot, as he is essential to complete Star Saber. When merging with the V Star, you also flip on a 'helmet' which forms Star Saber's face, simulating the moment in his transformation sequence when he yells "BATTLE UP!". This too is a cool gimmick, but be careful as there are some Star Sabers where the face is very loose and doesn't fix on tightly.

Victory Leo's only gimmick of course, is his ability to merge with Star Saber. Basically you slide his torso and legs out from his back and arms, while flipping the head up. Despite this however, Victory Leo still is a very solid toy, unlike many other 'Guy who merges with the leader' bots who normally end up being very hollow as a consequence.