Mega SCF Victory Saber

Star Saber & Victory Leo

Series: MegaSCF
Year: 2002
Allegiance: Cybertron 

Prelude: Long before Yolopark, FlameToys, and ThreeZero, we already had non-transforming Transformers figures. No, I’m not talking about the Action Masters. I’m talking about the Mega Super Collection Figures, MegaSCF for sort, a short-lived line from Takara with the probably unintentionally hilarious tagline “The Truth Who the Eyes Met Before!” And you know a collectors’ line-up from Takara will include Japan’s favorite home-grown Transformers character, the mighty Star Saber. Together with his buddy Victory Leo, they form the all-powerful Victory Saber. So let’s say go!

Robot Modes: The MegaSCF line featured figures roughly the size of a Legends-Class figure (or a small Deluxe by today’s standards) that were pretty well articulated for the time (2002 through 2003) and had no alternate modes. Starting with Star Saber, the figure strongly resembles the animation character (more so than the original toy) and comes with his classic Saber Blade for a weapon, too. Star Saber can bend his knees and elbows, twist in the hip, and somewhat move his legs at the hip, too, but not much. He comes with a number of interchangeable hands. Apart from the hand that’s permanently attached to the Saber Blade, he has two open hands and two fists.

Star Saber also features a nice gimmick in that you can replace his standard head with the head of his smaller robot mode (which isn’t included here, naturally), as Star Saber sometimes took off his helmet in super mode in the cartoon series. There is even an empty helmet for attaching to Star Saber’s back. Simple, but a nice attention to detail. Star Saber’s MegaSCF figure works pretty well in my opinion and, at least in terms of looks, was probably the best version of Star Saber available at the time (the Robot Masters version only came out two years later).

The second figure in this review is Victory Leo (formerly known as God Ginrai). He, too, is a non-transforming action figure, of course, and also adheres very closely to the character’s animated look. He has pretty much the same range of articulation as Star Saber and comes with no less than three guns. Two white cannons he can affix to his forearms and a big grey rifle, too. He doesn’t have quite as many hands as Star Saber, just two fists and a separate right fist that’s permanently affixed to the grip of his rifle, but that’s probably because he comes with several extra parts for the combined mode (see below). So bottom line for Victory Leo: not quite as fancy as Star Saber, but also quite a nice little action figure.

Combined Mode: While the MegaSCF figures could not transform, at least these two here could combine. Victory Leo does the lion’s share (ha!) of the work here, as he falls apart into several pieces for Star Saber to wear. The largest part of his body (legs and torso) became a pair of platform shoes for Star Saber. Star Saber has to take off his toes and clip on those black extra parts, but that’s the extent of what he has to do.

Victory Leo’s arms, head, and wings became a rucksack for Star Saber with Victory Leo’s white guns now becoming shoulder cannons. Two extra pieces extend Leo’s wings and you’re done. Here is Victory Saber, aka Star Saber with wings and platform shoes. Victory Saber can still use Star Saber’s sword, of course. Sadly there is no place to affix Leo’s big rifle here. You can plug in the hand holding it into Star Saber’s wrist, too, but as both that hand and the one holding the sword are right hands, it looks weird when he tries to use both weapons at the same time.

So bottom line for the combined mode: it’s a nice extra included with these figures. Not a revolutionary concept, but the closest the MegaSCF line came to giving us an actually transforming robot figure.

Remarks: Takara’s MegaSCF line featured classic G1 characters, as well as those from the then-current Armada / Micron Legend line. Star Saber and Victory Leo are the sole representatives of the Takara G1 cartoons in the series (which encompassed just 15 figures, a full third of them being Convoys of some sort) and the only ones who could combine, too. The story of how these two guys came into my collection is mostly a misunderstanding. Back in 2006, when I was still rather new to the whole Transformers collecting thing, I was at the Auto Assembly convention in Britain and spotted them at a dealer table. Not being very knowledgeable about the Japanese side of Transformers yet, I mistook them for the Robot Masters version of the characters, who were able to transform (and would have been an absolute steal at the price). I only realized that they were non-transformable figures back in my hotel room, but by then it was too late, of course.

That said, even though it took me a very long time to get around to a review, I like these two guys. I’m not normally a fan of non-transforming Transformers, but I am a big fan of Star Saber and while I still hope to find the Robot Masters version of these guys for an affordable price one day, I am happy to have them as part of my collection. So if you don’t mind non-transforming Transformers and/or are a big fan of Star Saber, these guys might be worth a look.

Rating: C+

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