The Energon Pub

[The Chaos Bringer]

http://cgi.ebay.com/G1-Transformers-Victory-Star-Saber-Remake-Diaclone-NY_W0QQitemZ130153479826QQihZ003QQcategoryZ4696QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

What exactly is being auctioned here? I mean, I can tell what it is, but I have never heard of such a thing before. Does anyone know if it is transformable? And does anyone know if the plastic quality is good? Is there a website that has any information about this item?

[Tigertrack]

I konw a lot of people who try to buy the original Kabaya sets for their collections.

I have personally had no experience with them, or their knock off versions.

Try posting this in the KO Thread. Lots of experience there.

http://www.seibertron.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=57&sid=

[waaaaghlord]

It's a Kabaya knock off. Kabaya are a Japanese candy company that produce small toys, in the case of the 80s licensed TF toys model kits but others as well, to sell with their sweets. There are two types of Chinese produced KO doing the rounds, versions of the smaller kits cast in a shiny plastic which tend to suffer from excessive mould lines and some moulding flaws, and versions of the larger kits which typically come on three frames in different colours and are of a lot better quality.

This one looks to be the Star Sabre kit (might be Victory Sabre in different colours to mine, it's a bit hard to tell only getting a clear look at one sprue). If it is the Star Sabre one then once assembled it will transform between robot and space fighter modes, but does not have the combination feature with the Kabaya Victory Leo. There is a seperate Victory Sabre vit that transforms between combined robot mode and combined jet mode and which you can get a passable smaller version of Star Sabre out of, but the Victory Leo parts on that one will not form the seperate robot or beast modes. The Victory Leo kit does a straight robot to beast with no combination feature.

I get my Kabaya KOs from this seller:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/id=266500&ssPa ... MEFS:MESST

Just remember that if it's on 3 frames in different colours it will go together easily but if it's on a single frame all cast in the same colour there are likely to be areas that need cutting/filing/gluing/drilling to get a good result from the kit.

[Tigertrack]

It's a Kabaya knock off. Kabaya are a Japanese candy company that produce small toys, in the case of the 80s licensed TF toys model kits but others as well, to sell with their sweets. There are two types of Chinese produced KO doing the rounds, versions of the smaller kits cast in a shiny plastic which tend to suffer from excessive mould lines and some moulding flaws, and versions of the larger kits which typically come on three frames in different colours and are of a lot better quality.

This one looks to be the Star Sabre kit (might be Victory Sabre in different colours to mine, it's a bit hard to tell only getting a clear look at one sprue). If it is the Star Sabre one then once assembled it will transform between robot and space fighter modes, but does not have the combination feature with the Kabaya Victory Leo. There is a seperate Victory Sabre vit that transforms between combined robot mode and combined jet mode and which you can get a passable smaller version of Star Sabre out of, but the Victory Leo parts on that one will not form the seperate robot or beast modes. The Victory Leo kit does a straight robot to beast with no combination feature.

I get my Kabaya KOs from this seller:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/id=266500&ssPa ... MEFS:MESST

Just remember that if it's on 3 frames in different colours it will go together easily but if it's on a single frame all cast in the same colour there are likely to be areas that need cutting/filing/gluing/drilling to get a good result from the kit.

That was quite educational, thanks!

[The Chaos Bringer]

Thanks for the information. All things considered, should I go for it? Obviously it's affordable but do you think it would be worth the hassle of putting it together and perhaps some cutting excess plastic off?

[Tigertrack]

Thanks for the information. All things considered, should I go for it? Obviously it's affordable but do you think it would be worth the hassle of putting it together and perhaps some cutting excess plastic off?

Not for me, I cannot put models together for crap. I have no patience for them.

[waaaaghlord]

Thanks for the information. All things considered, should I go for it? Obviously it's affordable but do you think it would be worth the hassle of putting it together and perhaps some cutting excess plastic off?

Completely up to you. What's the shipping work out to where you are? It's coming up as $35 to the UK, which is more than excesive for a small model kit.

As far as hassle goes, a kit this size should take about an hour and a half to two hours to put together, less if you're pretty experienced. They come with illustrated assembly instructions and all of the parts are numbered on the sprues so it's a good idea to only take them off as you need them rather than just removing everything before you begin and having a huge pile of random parts in front of you.

Tools wise I'd recomend having a small set of clippers handy for removing the parts from the frames, although you can get away with using a knife for this. Just remember not to cut down onto any of your surfaces without some thick card or a cutting mat in place to protect them. An exacto knife is then pretty much essential for removing any residual sprue, the odd bit of mould flash (shouldn't be much with the three frame kits) and scraping down the mould lines if you want a more professional finish. I've included this in the rough build time above, so it's really not too much work overall. I'm taking some of mine apart again to paint them as well and if you were wanting to do that it would obviously add quite considerably to the overall time needed to get the piece finished.

If you want it then go for it, if you're not that fussed then don't. Be warned though, once you get a taste for this particular flavour of plastic crack it is highly addictive