Review: #227
Name: Star Saber
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: Masterpiece
Year of Release: 2015
Size Class: Masterpiece (MP-24)
Variations: none as of this date
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:
As per normal, let's cover the packaging first. Star Saber comes in a beautiful black box that reflects the premium product that is the Masterpiece line.
Interestingly, the photo of Star Saber at the back is effectively life size. For those not in the know, in 2013, a fan vote was run to determine the next Masterpiece figure (the options were the various Autobot leaders in Transformers history) and Star Saber won, this is pretty awesome to be honest.
The figure comes with your standard contents such as an instructions booklet (with an awesome piece of artwork), a collector's card and a slip with a code for you to perform the TakaraTomy survey.
The back of the collector's card shows off some stock photos, stats and a short bio.
Finally, Star Saber comes with a myriad of accessories, including: shield, display stand parts, two-handed sword handle, gun, Brain of Courage, sword hilt, and two chromed blades. This is a lot of stuff for a Transformers figure.
BRAIN OF COURAGE:
This is going to be a huge review, with over 100 photos, be prepared. We'll start off first with the Brain of Courage (named simple as "Brain" in the instructions booklet). He is like a miniature Star Saber with a similar color scheme and design elements.
He has a decent amount of paint around him. He also has a hole on his back, this is for a gimmick which we will touch upon later.
You may not have realized by Brain is absolutely tiny. He's standing next to Legion Evac, this kinda puts him into perspective, all those painted details on something this small is impressive.
I tried to get a shot of his head but my camera isn't good enough to focus and make out the details. Basically, it is a shrunken version of Saber's head.
He has limited articulation, with swinging shoulders and hips. To be honest, this is more than what you would expect but it's there due to a gimmick in relation to Saber.
While not the focus of the figure, Brain is a neat little figure. Luckily he is integral to the figure otherwise he would have been very easy to lose.
SABER (JET MODE):
Saber is the smaller robot and he transforms into a predominantly red jet with some white, blue, yellow and black.
For the most part, this is a pretty good jet, however, due to requirements of transformation, the rear is pretty much a blocky square and kind of visually unbalances the plane.
He features flip down landing gear and all three wheels spin.
He's not as big as a Voyager figure but he's bigger than a normal Deluxe though. What's more, he feels heavy, this is due to the rear thrusters being made of die-cast.
There is also a bit of gold chrome at the back of the plane.
The cockpit opens and there is some detailing in the dashboard, painted in silver of course.
Brain is able to sit inside the cockpit to pilot the plane, since Saber itself is not sentient (think of it as a piece of armor).
He has a bit of undercarriage kibble but it sits flush enough against the jet that it doesn't stand out.
A great jet mode that feels hefty and solid in your hands.
TRANSFORMATION (SABER):
The transformation is really simple. You detach the nose, extend the legs and unfold the arms. I find that the arms are the most clever part of Saber himself, since it unfolds similarly to the Combiner Wars Aerialbots figures. However, after you've done that, you realize that he is lacking a face!
The reason for this is that you need to place Brain into the center of the figure, when you close the panel, it pushes Brain against the face and raise it up. This is a really need feature and by integrating the face into the figure itself, you get a normal sized head (or, alternatively, a decently sized Brain figure).
SABER (ROBOT):
Saber as a robot looks fantastic. His aesthetics is a perfect blend of blocky G1 with the smoother curves and proportions of contemporary designs.
He doesn't have too much kibble, mainly the wings on his back and the giant blocks which form his feet.
The head sculpt is decent, it's nothing to write home about. He has a silver painted with a transparent blue visor.
Due to transformation, his forearms are hollow which make them stand out somewhat. They are not too hideous and the designer couldn't really have done anything to cover the gap without changing the transformation although I do wonder whether extending forearms would have been better.
The detached plane nose can now tab onto his left shoulder to form a shield. I think it can also attach to his right shoulder but I haven't actually checked... It just clips on and it clips on very securely.
Once again, he is bigger than a Deluxe toy but smaller than a Voyager.
Saber's poseability is decent, the die-cast thrusters are now on his feet which anchors him very securely.
Unfortunately, his hip articulation is horrid and I think it could have been improved upon. Right now, the spread is not very far, no dynamic poses for Saber, :(.
In terms of weapons, Saber has his trusty sword which is actually two pieces put together (we'll touch upon this a bit later).
The blade is chromed which elevates the sword's status to "awesome".
Perhaps more surprisingly is that Saber has some finger articulation. His fingers are all jointed as one but his hands can open.
Furthermore, Saber can wield the laser gun.
He has some wrist articulation too but the piece that covers his hands obstructs it from rotating a full 360 degrees.
Another surprise is that despite the face gimmick, the designer found a way to still make the head able to turn. This is truly an ingenious feat of engineering!
Finally, Saber can of course hold a weapon in each hand.
Saber alone is a decent Transformer and if he was just sold like this (obviously at a cheaper price point) as a standalone toy, I will have still be satisfied. However, we are just at the tip of the iceberg here!
V-STAR:
Onto the remainder of the toy, which by itself is called the "V-Star". It's basically the hollow shell when Saber isn't in his Star Saber form.
Apart from not having Saber attached, the V-Star does not vary in any other way to the "super" vehicle form.
While we're here, we can go through how nearly all the accessories are stored on V-Star. First off are the two sword blades, which slide into slots on either side of the front of the V-Star.
Saber's sword hilt attaches to the back panel and the panel folds down to hide the hilt out of sight.
It'll be rare for you to display V-Star on its own because it's hard to tell what it is supposed to be without knowing it beforehand. This is really an intermediate mode (or think of it as something that's left over) that's given a name.
STAR SABER (JET MODE):
Onto the big boy and Star Saber's ultimate alternate mode. You fit Saber's jet mode into the gap of the V-Star, Saber slots in very securely and the end result is a massive spaceship.
He's got a gigantic rear complete with multiple thrusters. All the thrusters are made of die-cast, which makes Star Saber very heavy.
The thrusters aren't painted at all either, they're left in their natural metallic coloring which doesn't look bad here.
While it may be toy and show accurate, the fact that the head is so obvious and sticking out like a wart in a Masterpiece toy is annoying. Personally, I would have rather they had hidden the head.
The front can open up to reveal some missile pods. Note that the spikes are also made of die-cast.
Let's finish off the accessory storage features now, shall we? The gun can peg on the back of the jet.
While the shield acts as a display stand.
To actually form the stand, you need to peg the two transparent plastic pieces together, slide out the handle and slide this in. The piece then clips onto the robot groin underneath the jet mode. What this means is that the handle is set aside and must be stored separately.
Another disappointing thing with the figure is that for such a big toy, and for something in the Masterpiece line, the back has a gap where you can clearly see the robot thighs. Sure, this is a fictional vehicle mode but I still would have rather minimal gaps and exposed robot parts.
Star Saber is massive in this mode, easily dwarfing most other Transformers figures (that is a Voyager toy next to him in the photo above).
Don't worry if you don't want to use the stand though because he has flip down landing gear too. All the wheels roll which is sweet.
An impressive vehicle mode mostly from the sheer size of it. There isn't many sculpted features but that is mainly due to the fictional alternate mode.
TRANSFORMATION (STAR SABER):
Transforming the V-Star into the majority of the robot is very easy and simple. It's simplicity is to the point where you feel like that you wished they could have added something more interesting into it. However,this point is that it works. That said, the ways the legs fold out is neat.
So you now get this robot with no torso or head, instead there is a gigantic gap there instead, so what do you do?
You transform Saber, more accurately, you fold him up into a cube-like piece and plug it into the gap. Annoyingly, pegging him in can be difficult.
In cube form, Saber is very compact, being no taller than a Legion figure.
STAR SABER (ROBOT MODE):
Okay, now we go into the meat of the review and the reason you brought this figure for... the robot mode of Star Saber himself.
Boy, he does not disappoint in this mode. He does not have any kibble at all which is fantastic.
In this mode, he can store the gun on his back, it actually plugs into the same spot as vehicle mode.
While the larger sword's hilt pegs on the other side of his back. Unfortunately, there seems to be no place to store the smaller sword's hilt, which is a shame as all that would have been needed for a port somewhere on his back.
The sword blades remain where they were back in vehicle mode but they stick out. I love how the thrusters end up being a backpack, it supports the fact that Star Saber can fly in robot mode.
The head sculpt is just superb. It's heroic and suits an Autobot leader. Star Saber's aesthetic isn't your typical Transformers aesthetic, being more anime and mecha inspired.
Something interesting was that the designer noted that he reduced the number of paint applications as much as possible. Instead, a lot of the color of his toy comes from colored plastics. Personally, I don't mind this as Star Saber still has enough color to look striking, plus, this eliminates any paint wear from handling the toy.
Star Saber has finger articulation, his index is separately jointed while the rest of the fingers move as one.
Star Saber is an monster of a figure. He is simply massive, he towers even over MP Ultra Magnus, who was big himself.
He absolutely dominates over most other Transformers. Star Saber is approximately the same size as MP-01!
Poseability is up to the standard you would expect of a figure this size and for something this expensive.
If you look at his feet, you'll notice that there is a huge chunk of die-cast (it isn't only the thrusters), which lowers his center of gravity, making him much easier to put into dynamic poses.
His waist can rotate a small bit, and can also tilt forward to Star Saber better posture.
Star Saber's iconic sword is formed from the nose of Saber's plane, with the chromed blade attached.
It pegs into Star Saber's hands but it is harder to slot into his hands than previous MP weapons.
There are wrist swivels which allow Star Saber to strike some wicked sword poses. The wrists also have limited forward/backward tilt motion.
However, the way Star Saber holds his sword is that the flat of the blade always faces the front, which is not really how you usually hold a sword. This makes slashing poses a bit harder.
You can attach the second handle to form a two-handed blade.
This allows Star Saber to strike the two-handed pose from the art on the instruction booklet (well, an approximately anyway).
Initially I though Star Saber doesn't actually possess enough range in his articulation to be able to grasp the hand with both hands very easily, however, you can unclip the shoulders to fold it forward which makes two-handed poses much easier. Most of the time, the handle is just loose in his hands.
Next, you have the laser gun (which can also be held by Saber).
This pegs securely into his fists but does look a little bit small to be honest.
The head is actually a helmet that fits over Saber's head, but it has a few joints in it that also allows it to look up and down, which is amazing. The helmet normally attaches via an arm into the body of the V-Star but you can release the clip to free up the range of motion for the head.
Lastly, you have the shield, which looks fantastic.
The shield seems to be the hardest to peg securely into Star Saber's hands. Oftentimes, it would come loose when you're trying to pose him (thanks to all the ratchet joints causing suddenly movements dislodging the shield).
Most of Star Saber's joints are ratchets joints but for whatever reason, his lower elbow's ratchet joint is rather weak and doesn't click much. This means that even his shield is too heavy in some poses, this is not only limited to my figure too. It's not too severe but worth noting.
If you wish, you can also have Star Saber hold Saber's smaller sword but it looks somewhat ridiculous.
His ankles have some sideways tilt and also tilt forwards a significant amount. This helps immensely with dynamic poses.
A fantastic robot mode that's a lot of fun to pose and play around with. His many accessories will keep you busy and fiddling with him non-stop. Plus, he looks great and makes for an amazing display piece.
OVERALL:
Star Saber is an amazing figure. While overall, he is a big simple for something his size, it makes him much more accessible and playable. Star Saber has heaps of play value, from the multiple modes to the many accessories. Not only that, he retains all the classic throwbacks such as a good usage of die-cast metal giving him good heft and a large size. While some may not like the fact that he doesn't pack as much paint as previous MP figures, the way his is constructed using different colored plastic to reproduce his color scheme is nothing short of amazing. Star Saber represents one of the best value in the Masterpiece line and in Transformers overall. Highly recommended, even if you don't know about the character, because this is just a great toy.
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Thank you VERY MUCH for reading this review. I really hope you enjoyed it. If you're interested, please check out this link for more Transformers reviews.
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Heh, thanks for making it to the end of this really long review. Below are some more pictures I took but didn't end up using it in the main body of the review. Hope you enjoy :)
Yes, this is the true end of the post, once again, thanks for looking!