The Energon Pub

bigds9fan wrote:As for this set, I honestly cannot say if it is overpriced or not but QC issues on a set like this? Unacceptable. This is Unicron (with the mismatched lower jaw and blue maw all over again.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:So has anyone else noticed Deathy's big head in the background of the large cardboard insert artwork? I thought that was a realy cool touch to the packaging especially since Deathy would not have been backed or possibly even announced at the time the packaging would have been made.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Gotta say, as much as I like the set, Victory Leo was the bit I was most looking forward to, and he outshines Star Saber to me. I love him so much. I am very glad to have him.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:
HASLAB VICTORY SABER IS FINALLY HERE!

It came in a tight brown shipping box and within that box is the standard Hasbro brown shipping box.



Within that inner shipping box is the real box, but it was wrapped in thin paper for further protection.



The box have beautiful color pictures in shiny metallic colors all over.



The box is even reversible, with the other cover that hommage the original G1 gift set box. But I'm not risking tearing things up in reversing that cover.



In the open box is covered by a very nice cardboard poster.



The first tray got many accessories and the instructions manual.




That instruction manual suck harder than a black hole. The pictures are tiny and not that clear despite being in full colors. But the most insulting is that once again, instead of a nice booklet, the instructions are once again on a single giant sheet.



You also get that usual warning/copyrights sheet and a sheet that have two stickers.



Removing the top tray, we see Leo and Saber and all the rest of their accessories.



Once everything are unboxed, this is what you get:



Why those stickers? Those goes on Leo's wings. But why? There's paint all over everything so why? Maybe it was a last minute design oopsie that was fixed by including stickers?



There's just two and are easy enough to apply. Still an odd design decision though.



For some reasons, there's two micromasters included. Eh, why not? Those two are pretty similar to what we already got in Siege/Earthrise, but I'll take those free bonusses. Those bots have a surprisingly great amount of paint aps.





On to Star Saber himself. He looks absolutely stunning! Great amount of details, lots of paint, and he feels nice in hand.









Strangely enough, his poseability is limited. He can barely move like an old Cybertron or Universe toy. His calves panels for transformation are loosely tabbed and come undone easily. That transformation joint do help posing though.



Compared to the G1 original, the new HASLAB one is dwarfed.





Up next is Victory Leo. he's beautiful but they could have filled in the gaps under those canons. Unless I missed it, they didn't mentioned how to attach the giant railgun at his hips. There's clear notches for the black handle to clip on.









Comparison with the original G1. Once again, the G1 is a giant.



Unfortunately for Leo, he pose even less than Star Saber.



Leo and Saber:





Star Saber is a real matryoshka doll. There's Saber inside, who is roughly a small deluxe.



He loos fantastic and his poseability is not too bad.







The size difference with the G1 original is even more absurd.





And to Inception deeper, Saber is controlled by a Brainmaster, a micro mini Saber.



The Haslab one may be the tiniest Transforming transformers ever.







Half the size of a damn Titan Return Titan Master!



Saber can turn into a jet and the micro Brain can pilot it:



The jet mode is pretty much perfect despite having an obvious robot chest underneath.











Comparison with the big G1.



The big ship Star Saber is absolutely superb. The bonus shield and flames effects complete the package nicely.



Bizarrely enough, no landing gears at all.









With the G1. Too bad the G1 do not have a shield.



On to Victory Leo's lion form. He's beautiful, but his poseability is not really better than the original G1.











With the G1.





I didn't thought Leo could have an individual ship mode. It's a cube with wings but eh, why not? Dare I say, why not?









I didn't knew the G1 original could do it as well:



Once combined, the Victory Saber ship is enormous as expected.





I just find odd that we cannot center the giant railgun on the ship.



Still no landing gears, but that's where the stand comes into play:









For some reason, I forgot to take a picture comparing both giant ships...

Anyway, here's the final stretch, the complete robot of Victory Saber!





Obviously, it can barely pose, but making the combined mode was easy and it's pretty solid and stable.







Final G1 comparison:





The stand can be used for the bot mode and this allow us to be a bit mode crazy:







So in the end, was it worth the money?

HELL YEAH, EVERY SINGLE CENTS!

HASLAB Victory Saber is very deserving of the title "mini masterpiece". Compared to the original he may be small, but he may be in scale with generations toys. With how "complex"
this toy is and how many parts are compressed in this, HASLAB Victory Saber justify the Titan price.

You may be aware that many have been produced with factory defects, but it may be just a a few dozens out of 25K+ units. Mine is perfect with no misassembly, no missing parts, nor tolerance issues.



If you're a backer and you've yet to try your own HASLAB Victory saber, you have a nice preview here. If you're not and you're stuck in buying the set on eBay, good luck! Hope this review will help you swallow that huge pill!

Thank you for reading.

Sabrblade wrote:@Kanra: There is too landing gear. The yellow knees fold out to help the jet stand up straight.

Also, Smallest Transformers Ravage has the little Brainmaster beat in being the tiniest Transformer ever.


Smallest Transformers Ravage (Jaguar) Gallery

ScottyP wrote:This set's pretty underwhelming, but a lot of that feeling for me likely stems from getting hit with a copy that has very bad chrome. In general though it feels like a big pile of cut corners, which would be fine if this were a retail Commander toy + Leader toy, but isn't really ok for a Haslab. By cut corners I mean the materials it's made out of. There's a great deal here that's what we'd call the bad plastic that will be yellow or green in 18-24 months, you know what I mean - that soft crud that's been in use since Siege that looks like polished down 3D printer output. Why was I putting a sticker right next to a similar paint app? Why is this sticker over a complex/curved surface? Why is the combined jet mode riddled with uncovered screw holes? The answer (probably) is, despite this being a crowdfund where this can be accounted for in advance, straight-up maximization of profits on a product fully paid for before the first one rolls off the line.

Stand looks cool at least.

I hope Deathsaurus is better. And please, someone, don't let this team near chrome again.

joevill wrote:great photos!

SpikeyTigertron wrote:
While I can agree that significant paint issues can certainly tarnish a release... although the project was crowd funded I think we need to keep in mind that, like Unicron, these are ulimately still CHUG/Universe/Retail toys. They're designed by the same times, made in the same factories, likely using the same materials.

ScottyP wrote:

SpikeyTigertron wrote:
While I can agree that significant paint issues can certainly tarnish a release... although the project was crowd funded I think we need to keep in mind that, like Unicron, these are ulimately still CHUG/Universe/Retail toys. They're designed by the same times, made in the same factories, likely using the same materials.

I would agree, but look up how they packaged Haslab Galactus and compare to the tie-downs directly over the chrome with no protection on Victory Saber. That takes the excuse away, at least for me.