The Energon Pub

I backed Victory Saber yesterday shortly after the reveal. It pleases me to see that it's already at 4k after only a day. I'm sure it will slow down after the weekend but this much of an initial surge will give people confidence in backing it. And then as it grows close to the goal, the numbers should start to pick up again when people are confident that it's going to happen. Heck I'm strongly considering getting a second one just to resell down the road. I don't expect it to do Unicron resale prices but it's gonna be popular.

Something I noticed in regards to the previous comments on the exposed Sabre bot hands in Victory Sabre mode. I think it isn't fully transformed due to being a prototype and risk of breakage.

Sabre's hands appear to have ball joint wrists that also appear to be able to be tucked away into the forearm for jet mode. So by extension, unless the hollow insides of the forearms are needed for combined Victory Sabre mode, then they should be able to house the hands in that mode too.

It's not Saber's hands exposed in Victory Saber mode, it's Victory Leo's. You can tell by the arm shape. Because of that, I'm not convinced that they can fold away, but could be worse

Good catch, I missed the differences in the arms. In any case, those are some unusual ball joints on Sabre wrists.

I just realized that one possible thing I'd like to see is a base mode for the V-Star. It's not important, but it'd be nice to have that extra option for it when you're just displaying Saber by himself

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Something I noticed in regards to the previous comments on the exposed Sabre bot hands in Victory Sabre mode. I think it isn't fully transformed due to being a prototype and risk of breakage.

Sabre's hands appear to have ball joint wrists that also appear to be able to be tucked away into the forearm for jet mode. So by extension, unless the hollow insides of the forearms are needed for combined Victory Sabre mode, then they should be able to house the hands in that mode too.

They did mention that they were using this figure to start experimenting with new points of articulation/new ways to articulate parts on the figure, and the way that they phrased it made it seem like they were going to add some of these into the normal rotation for what is now included on a figure (like ankle tilt)

Sabrblade wrote:

Emerje wrote:Please do God Ginrai next!

Takara just did God Ginrai. As a Triplemaster, even.

That was a retool of a retool that held together like a house of cards. I really didn't enjoy it (even though it did look great once all put together and you found just the right pose for him not to topple and never touched him again). We'd need a proper God Ginrai, built from the ground up, something solid where one could really enjoy the play pattern.

It's one of the few toys from my collection that I sold, 0 regrets.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

o.supreme wrote:We've had 2 Astrotrains in the last 5 years, and I still see people wanting yet ANOTHER Astrotrain.

That's because the Astrotrains we got grossly missed the mark.

I too feel we still don't have the right astrotrain but to be dead honest I don't think I'll ever get what I am after. Siege was not far at all but what I disliked was the shuttle mode. My ideal astrotrain would basically be Siege but with a shuttle mode that looked like a proper shuttle and not the squarish front half that we have in the G1 toy/cartoon.

Emerje wrote:Anyway, Victory Saber has officially passed the one third funded mark in under 15 hours and it's still climbing steadily. This means good things for both cheaper HasLab crowdfunds and future Japanese characters.

Emerje

I hope it meets all the stretch goals, would be fun. I think the affordability is a big factor here. I did not pick up any Haslab project but I am backing this one.

ZeroWolf wrote: I think it was pretty much a given that he was meant for Earthrise though given how un-cybertonian his train mode was.

It could go either way. A lot of Siege wasn't that cybertronian (like Hound and Sideswipe) and Astrotrain has treads on the top and bottom of his coal car. Doesn't really fit much with Earthrise. At least not moreso than Siege.

o.supreme wrote:You can spin it however you like. I know Black Shadow from Victory. I had to look at TF Wiki to even know he was in IDW. It appears maybe 4 or 5 issues of 400+ comics. I'd say he is obscure either way.

I read the IDW comics and loved them and the only time I remember black shadow is from the Megatron origin story and even then I am told that wasn't black shadow. Couldn't even say when he was in a badass scene as one of Megatron's top guys. So I really don't know him from there then at all. I just picked up the TR toy because it looked great. Still love him.

william-james88 wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote: I think it was pretty much a given that he was meant for Earthrise though given how un-cybertonian his train mode was.

It could go either way. A lot of Siege wasn't that cybertronian (like Hound and Sideswipe) and Astrotrain has treads on the top and bottom of his coal car. Doesn't really fit much with Earthrise. At least not moreso than Siege.

Careful there will, last time I called it a coal car the train enthusiasts came down on me for not calling it a tender.

william-james88 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:You can spin it however you like. I know Black Shadow from Victory. I had to look at TF Wiki to even know he was in IDW. It appears maybe 4 or 5 issues of 400+ comics. I'd say he is obscure either way.

I read the IDW comics and loved them and the only time I remember Stormshadow is from the Megatron origin story and even then I am told that wasn't storm shadow. Couldn't even say when he was in a badass scene as one of Megatron's top guys. So I really don't know him from there then at all. I just picked up the TR toy because it looked great. Still love him.

They're right, that wasn't Storm Shadow, because Storm Shadow is the white ninja dude from GI Joe.




in other news, he's up to 4200 backers, about 300 more than when I looked this morning. I'm liking this pace. Of course, over on facebook, the usual crowd are chiming in. It's a mix of "I don't even know this guy why should I care, why are they doing this?" (which is the entire point) and "Why does the megacorporation have to crowdfund". Did we learn nothing from Unicron? Or the other half dozen Haslab projects that have come in the interim?

You said it.

Facebook.



The place where random noobs and non geeks gather. Especially on individual pages where you have to explain the same things over and over and over...

King Kuuga wrote:in other news, he's up to 4200 backers, about 300 more than when I looked this morning. I'm liking this pace. Of course, over on facebook, the usual crowd are chiming in. It's a mix of "I don't even know this guy why should I care, why are they doing this?" (which is the entire point) and "Why does the megacorporation have to crowdfund". Did we learn nothing from Unicron? Or the other half dozen Haslab projects that have come in the interim?

Mattel recently did a big crowdfund for a giant WWE playset and some people were complaining that Mattel priced it to make a profit.

I really don't see this having trouble hitting that 20,000 mark. What we're seeing right now is US, Canada and UK via Pulse alone. Once Hasbro factors in the orders taken by partner shops in other countries towards the end we're going to see a massive jump in backers just like we did with Unicron. A few days ago it looked like Galactus was going to limp over its 14,000 goal, but now it's exceeded 20,000 and unlocked all of its stretch goals with a day and a half to go at more than double the price of Victory Saber.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Mattel recently did a big crowdfund for a giant WWE playset and some people were complaining that Mattel priced it to make a profit.

Emerje

In what kind of unicorn and fairies fantasy world those people lives in?

I'm a bit late to the party, so forgive me if it's already been discussed in this thread. But how are people outside of the US or UK supposed to get this? Anyone know how previous Haslab items were handled?

xMXUx wrote:I'm a bit late to the party, so forgive me if it's already been discussed in this thread. But how are people outside of the US or UK supposed to get this? Anyone know how previous Haslab items were handled?

Other websites took in preorders like bbts, Robotkingdom etc, fellow Seibertron user Burn has already posted of an Australian retailer doing the same offer as they did with Unicron. Normally we post a round up of all the 3rd party websites who are taking preorders for non-USA/UK customers.

xMXUx wrote:I'm a bit late to the party, so forgive me if it's already been discussed in this thread. But how are people outside of the US or UK supposed to get this? Anyone know how previous Haslab items were handled?

In the announcement video they also said they're working on outlets for fans in territories outside the US, UK, and Canada to order it, so maybe something will come up.

Thanks guys for the info, I'll keep my eyes peeled for options!

-Kanrabat- wrote:I wished for this set so hard in my old The TF you want but you know HasTak will NEVER make thread. It's another wish granted!

This inspired me to look back at my post in that thread where I said I really wanted Minerva but knew she would never happen. No official confirmation yet, but several prominent leakers have said she's coming, so between her, Star Saber, and Blaster, 2022 will be a year of wishes fulfilled for me.


Also, PSA for those on the fence about getting Star Saber: buy him anyway. They're only gonna make a certain amount so this'll be your only chance to get one for a good price. And if you don't like him, you can just unload him on eBay for a considerable profit later on.

Autobot N wrote:Also, PSA for those on the fence about getting Star Saber: buy him anyway. They're only gonna make a certain amount so this'll be your only chance to get one for a good price. And if you don't like him, you can just unload him on eBay for a considerable profit later on.

Usually, I would frown at such a practice. But here, no one would "take away" any figures because Hasbro will make the exact amount of units backed. No more, no less. So no matter what you'll use your Victory Saber set for, back away!

Oh, and about Leo's hands being visible in Victory Saber mode, that's an issue with the design that I'm not sure how they would fix. The hands are on the same pivot as the front lion legs so one or the other will have to be visible there (I'd go with the lion legs myself).



They did say in the video that the design is far from final and they'll be tweaking things as they go much like we saw them do with Unicron (all the way up to release for better or worse).

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Oh, and about Leo's hands being visible in Victory Saber mode, that's an issue with the design that I'm not sure how they would fix. The hands are on the same pivot as the front lion legs so one or the other will have to be visible there (I'd go with the lion legs myself).



They did say in the video that the design is far from final and they'll be tweaking things as they go much like we saw them do with Unicron (all the way up to release for better or worse).

Emerje

The original wasn't that much better, with flaps covering the top of the immobile fists:


Transformers Victory Victory Saber Gallery

I have some thoughts here.

first off, I backed this once the stream was done. I liked it, and that price is pretty good. It was at least $70 better than I thought it might be, so that was a good point.

I like the looks of things so far, and i appreciate that the full Victory Saber package is happening.

That said, there are a few things that don't sit quite right with me.

first off, why didn't we get color pics? To me, that feels ultra odd to not even have color renders. I would have much preferred to see the colored renders with the prototypes.

Second, he seems a little small. I was hoping the package would be maybe 25% bigger? He feels undersized.

And that leads to my last point: this doesn't really feel "Haslab" to me. This doesn't feel like the ultimate collectors item, more just a test to see if a market is there when by now they really should know, since there are a lot of JG1 figures that have already seen release lately. It doesn't feel "special" enough, if that makes sense.

That said, I did back it, and don't regret backing it. I am excited for this thing to happen.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:first off, why didn't we get color pics? To me, that feels ultra odd to not even have color renders. I would have much preferred to see the colored renders with the prototypes.

The color layout may not have been finalised, or even started on, yet. I'm not really talking about paint and such, but more about what parts go to what (color) mold. As stated, the designs aren't finalised, so parts may be added or simplified.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:first off, why didn't we get color pics? To me, that feels ultra odd to not even have color renders. I would have much preferred to see the colored renders with the prototypes.

Honestly this bugged me a bit as well. The promos for every other Haslab project have had a color render AT LEAST, including Unicron, so it's weird that this one doesn't. I get that things may change as development proceeds but a general color sample for people to see "oh that's what he's supposed to look like" would be nice.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:And that leads to my last point: this doesn't really feel "Haslab" to me. This doesn't feel like the ultimate collectors item, more just a test to see if a market is there when by now they really should know, since there are a lot of JG1 figures that have already seen release lately. It doesn't feel "special" enough, if that makes sense.

I think it's important to step out of our bubble here for a minute. They've given us some JG1 stuff before that was relatively safe to bet on. Overlord was a major villain in the IDW comics and before that his toy was a holy grail, infamous among fandom for being the biggest decepticon toy ever made (for a time) and extremely rare. Also they retooled it into Black Shadow to get more mileage out of it. (also a JG1 character but similarly popular for some reason) Star Saber, though, when he was announced as an MP there was confusion. Victory is the furthest removed from classic Transformers of the main JG1 trilogy in terms of being recognizable as Transformers, and a lot of people don't know much or anything about it or the characters within it, even Star Saber. I've seen lots of people on Facebook saying they don't know who he is and aren't invested in the character. He's moving faster than Unicron, a character everyone knows, but Unicron was $600 and this set is only $200. I think they've done the research and determined that he would probably not be feasible as a mass release product with 50,000 units.

Hi, Seibertron.com. I've been observing this site for a while & finally made an account. Hope to have some neat discussions.

As for the topic: Never really thought Star Saber was that interesting of a character, but his design is striking & this toy looks promising, even if some of the design looks imperfect. Victory Leo looks good, too, although their combined (robot) mode looks kinda wonky. Might back it at some point.

william-james88 wrote:I read the IDW comics and loved them and the only time I remember black shadow is from the Megatron origin story and even then I am told that wasn't black shadow. Couldn't even say when he was in a badass scene as one of Megatron's top guys. So I really don't know him from there then at all. I just picked up the TR toy because it looked great. Still love him.

In MTMTE he was a Phase Sixer that beat up Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus at the same time. Killed hundreds of Autobots that day.

sol magnus wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I read the IDW comics and loved them and the only time I remember black shadow is from the Megatron origin story and even then I am told that wasn't black shadow. Couldn't even say when he was in a badass scene as one of Megatron's top guys. So I really don't know him from there then at all. I just picked up the TR toy because it looked great. Still love him.

In MTMTE he was a Phase Sixer that beat up Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus at the same time. Killed hundreds of Autobots that day.

What issue? Optimus Prime is not even in MTMTE since MTMTE happens after "the death of Optimus Prime".
Sounds like Black Shadow was only a mentioned in flashback then, and never part of the main story.

Anyways, Hasbro said there would be more partner sites for Victory Sabre coming out this week. Have any of you seen them? I'd like to write an article linking to all the different campaigns so that anyone in the world can know where to get one, all in one article.

Also, while I do think we'll get that first Tier, that canon is definitely key to the toy. Would be a huge shame for it not to be made. I would have rather it just be included and not have tiers, but I guess tiers are part of the deal with crowd funded things.