Haslab: DEATHSAURUS

    I don't post often, which is historically true, but even more true recently as I have worked on an advanced degree. Thankfully, that chapter is coming to a close right as the final marketing push for Haslab Deathsaurus unfolds, with the hand-painted prototype photoshoot being published just last night at the time of writing.

    I did write a post for Victory Saber last year - who hopefully will be shipping my way in mere days - and when his packaging was revealed late this summer, the ominous visage of Deathsaurus, along with some rumors of a Legacy leader or commander release persisted over the year, people began to expect to see some kind of better update for the character compared to the 2016 Combiner Wars/Platinum release - a slight remold of CW voyager Sky Lynx, resembling G1 Deathsaurus slightly in beast mode only. 

    Hasbro's livestream on 10/27/22 revealed the new Haslab campaign, along with grey renders and photos of the block model, giving us an idea of how large Deathsaurus would be, equaling the combined Victory Saber in height, but also including some massive accessories (especially if funded to the 3rd tier). 

    Things stayed mostly quiet until the colored renders were released on 11/18/22. Though the images were fewer in number, they helped drive excitement, with the minimum 11,000 backers necessary for production reached on 11/28/22. Finally, a second livestream on 11/29/22 (and is accompanying photoshoot, released the next day) revealed the painted prototype in all its shiny glory, indicating that some parts that simply look like grey plastic on the colored render received beautiful silver paint, which hopefully remains true through production. 

    A few things still remain in play - both the 2nd and 3rd tiers, a weapons pack and display pack, respectively, have not reached the requisite 14,000 and 17,000 backers, and unless an extension is granted, funding ends on 12/12/22, just over two weeks away. I myself was interested in backing from day one, but did not fully decide to do so until about a week before the deadline (yes, this line has been edited in a few days after I began writing).

    Enough preamble - let's look at some images! This will somewhat mirror my Victory Saber post, with each set of images focusing on particular modes or components of the set, but I'm also going to include grey renders and colored renders in addition to the painted prototype images. 

    First, let's look at the included "chestmaster" partners - "Eaglechest" and "Tigerchest." These words are in quotations because, of course, they had to be altered from the original names due to potential problems. Which is fine, but they do seem a bit weird in their new format, probably just to novelty alone. 

Eaglechest:

    Of the two chestmasters, Eaglechest has a format that evokes Soundwave's cassetticons and I think was even referred to as a cassette in the initial livestream. Similarly to the true cassetticons, he can be stored in Deathsaurus's chest, pushing in the normal chestplate and visually replacing it. This gives less of an "armored" appearance compared to when Tigerchest is used, but that's fine. Clearly, the "cassette" mode is a bit boring, but the eagle mode more than makes up for it, looking terrific for a bird formed from a rectangle. He also has a targetmaster/weapon mode - a gun with two blaster barrels - but it doesn't look amazing, more like a box with teeth. It's also the only actual gun included with the base version of Deathsaurus, making it pretty important that the weapon pack tier is reached by 14,000 backers. I'll put a picture of the gun mode later further down in the post, since it is only over shown being wielded by Deathsaurus. 

Tigerchest:

     Tigerchest is the flashier of the two chestmasters. His weak point, opposite of Eaglechest, is the beast mode, which doesn't look much like a tiger aside from the orange. He shines - literally - in the armor and bow modes, thanks to the vac metal gold on the wings/horns. Prior to the campaign announcement, I was unaware of the bow targetmaster mode, and its inclusion, along with an arrow to complete the look, is a really neat aspect of the toy and makes up a bit for the lackluster gun mode of Eaglechest, even though it's really not much different from the armor mode. Thankfully, Deathsaurus has sufficient clearance and articulation to allow for some good archery poses. 

Ok, on to Deathsaurus himself - sans chestmasters:

    This is about as stripped down as Deathsaurus gets; the "Deathtailer" shield is also the dragon tail, so it's not an accessory in the true sense of the word, but more of a vital component. Other than the sheer size and presence that this figure has, what I am most impressed with at this stage is the aforementioned silver paint. Hasbro NEEDS to ensure that this remains part of the final deco and isn't replaced with plain silver plastic; this simply looks too good. I also appreciate how, without either chestmaster applied as armor, the design manages to strike a good balance of looking incomplete, but not in a bad way. The silver unarmored chest has some great detailing, and again, that paint really sells the premium feel (as it does with the shield, which looked a bit unappealing in the renders). Speaking of renders, I'll note that Hasbro didn't release any colored renders of the unarmored Deathsaurus. 

    Ok, now it's time for armed and armored Deathsaurus. These images only include items from the base/1st tier of production:  

This first shot is one of my favorite images from the campaign. I know it's just the grey render, but the lighting from below, the sunset (stormy?) photoshoppery, it all works to sell the scale of this guy as a truly giant robot monstrosity, which is appropriate with the kaiju/dragon altmode and the actually large size of the toy. 

This shot is one of the few showing Eaglechest's gun mode. It's pretty much what I described earlier. 

Eaglechest gun mode for the painted prototype.

Here's Deathsaurus as an archer. I really like how they attempted to replicate the grey render poses during the photoshoot.

A rare shot of Deathsaurus wearing only Eaglechest as armor. Clearly a screenshot from the recent livestream, as far as I know there are no actual promo shots showing this configuration. 

    

    And here's the Deathsaurus that comes to mind for most - armored, with those impressive golden blades protruding from the chestplate; Tigerchest really helps seal Deathsaurus's signature look.

    

    I'll also offer my first critique here - the lack of a standard sidearm/rifle. There was much consternation when the Victory Saber campaign began regarding the lack of the V-lock cannon in the base offering. This turned out to be a non-issue, as all of the tiers were funded, but it was already somewhat mitigated by Saber/Star Saber already including his more typically-sized firearm (along with the V-lock rifles of Victory Leo). Deathsaurus doesn't really have an equivalent of this - his only weapons in the base tier are the (titanic) sword, the weapon modes for the chestmasters, and maybe the Deathtailer shield. A more standard sidearm is notably absent, made weirder by the fact that the original Deathsaurus toy included such a weapon (which is actually the basis for the 2nd tier flail weapon, but more on that later). I would prefer if Deathsaurus included a more typical gun to wield - and that would still be true even if the Living-Metal Destroying Cannon (lol) gets funded.  

    But what about the beast mode? One of my favorite things about Deathsaurus is that, much as how Victory Saber is like Optimus Prime, but in space, Deathsaurus is the evil, more monstrous (and yet somehow more elegant) take on Grimlock, with a transformation scheme and beast mode that highly resemble those of the Dinobot leader. Obligatory chicken reference? Nah. As with the previous set of images, these also only show items from the base offering.

This mode really sells a sense of weight to the design - he looks heavy, especially bottom-heavy with the leg and tail region looking massive compared to the upper body. The wings look great here too. 

I like how much more colorful he looks here compared to the colored render. More realistic color saturation, I guess.

I really like this shot with the mouth open. He actually looks pretty threatening, and I love the 5mm port in the mouth that we'll be able to attach blast effects to. One other cool touch for this mode is the toe articulation - they can splay out for beast mode, something I am not sure I have ever seen with other similar beast modes before (dragons/dinosaurs, etc.). The arms are laughably tiny, however. I would also be interested in seeing this mode without Tigerchest on the back. It wouldn't change the profile much, but still, you'd think that he'd be deployed more so in this mode than when Deathsaurus is in humanoid form. 

    Ok, finally time to look at the tier unlock items. While maybe not as vital as the V-lock cannon was to Victory Saber/Victory Leo, I have to say that it will be pretty lame if either tier 2 or 3 aren't unlocked. I do appreciated each being pitched as fulfilling a specific function; tier 2 is (thankfully) the weapons pack, including the ridiculous Living-Metal Destroying Cannon and flail, both weapons from the show itself rather than the toy (sort of, as the flail was based on the original toy's gun with its molded flail "bayonet"). A pair of Siege Jetfire-style blast effects sets (so, a total of six pieces) are included as well, for the first time cast in a great-looking translucent purple.

    Tier 3 is the display pack, including a base two which two items can be connected: a display arm (with vertical and horizontal orientations for robot and beast modes, respectively) and the throne. The base is quite different from that of Victory Saber's, which is transparent blue with bright red and yellow paint; this new base is silver with technological detailing, meant to invoke the interior deck of Deathsaurus's ship. The display arm and throne both are a dark, blood red (same as the LMD Cannon). The arm isn't anything impressive on its own, but does its job to allow for some fantastic posing. The throne is something to behold, being almost ludicrously large (it will dwarf the throne of Coronation Starscream) to accommodate the voluminous Emperor of Destruction and kind of creepy in appearance. The blood red color has caused some to describe it as sort of gory or fleshy in appearance; I think this is a result of the throne having a sort of stony design, but between the molding and color the stone protrusion look like lumps of organic material (to put it lightly). Either way, it doesn't bother me. The throne is topped by a vividly purple Decepticon sigil, which itself can be topped by Eaglechest in a perching feature - which really looks great. 

    All I can say is that tier 2 absolutely needs to happen (and likely will; the current back count is over 13,000 at time of writing with over a week to go until the deadline) and it will be a shame if tier 3 doesn't happen. I have already bemoaned the lack of Deathsaurus's smaller sidearm, so the LMD Cannon is a must-have (along with the flail, and the blast effects are nice), and the throne really sells this set as a collector's display piece. Being such a large item, it really adds value to the set as well. 

    As you can see, it's a pretty nice set of items. As shown below, the LMD Cannon is truly enormous, one of the bigger transformer weapon accessories ever made. Its unique design adds to the desirability, and the blood red color along with the creepy claws make it feel like something out of DOOM or some other horror-oriented first-person shooter. In the show, the cannon has to be wired directly into Deathsaurus to use full power, which adds to the weirdness; it's too bad this couldn't be achieved for the toy. I also like the folded mode, but I don't really know that it can be wielded that way. 

    The flail looks really good. The livestream this week showed that they reduced the length of the chain, which I'm honestly thankful for. A dynamic chain means static posing, unfortunately, so cutting the length means that you won't having the morning star portion hanging too far down when Deathsaurus has the handle or chain in hand. 

    Up next are some shots of Deathsaurus wielding these items:

Much like the earlier sunset shot of the robot mode, I love this image. Since the alt mode is often simply described as a generic "kaiju," the attempt to make it appear huge in a landscape really works. 

This shot is both amazing and funny. It's really cool that the beast mode can wield the cannon, but the tiny arms operating it are just too much. 

This may actually be the only colored render of the robot mode sans throne. 

You can see how much the flail chain was shortened between these two shots. I don't mind. 

Finally, here are some miscellaneous shots, including a mix of the base tier's items and the items from tiers 2 and or 3:

This shot is a lot of fun. Being able to display the beast mode in flight is a terrific touch, though it makes me wish the display stand arm was transparent like that of the Victory Saber set. I'm also a little surprised that this is the only image they released of the beast mode using the effects parts (if I'd had my druthers, he would also include the new flame piece from Legacy Transmetal II Megatron). 

I think this is the single coolest pose they developed for the released images. It's terrifically recreated with the painted prototype below. It's going to be incredible seeing these kinds of dynamic "flying" poses in person with this toy being as big as it is.

The visual composition of this shot is very satisfying, with Deathsaurus framed by his own wings and the Decepticon sigil framed by the stone of the throne and then topped by Eaglechest. 

This is the only render shot comparing Deathsaurus and Victory Saber. Though it seems like Victory Saber is a bit taller at the head, Deathsaurus overall looks larger and more menacing due to the wings and chest blades. It doesn't hurt that his sword is titanic, either. 

Again, wonderful pose, this time with the painted prototype.

I have to admit that the throne looks a little odd on its own, though not due to the color or detail molding, but instead because of the recess needed to accommodate Deathsaurus's back kibble. Other than that, it's terrific.

Deathsaurus on the throne is a sight to behold. This is going to be much bigger than I think it is!

First look at Transformers: Generation Legacy!

 Wow, for once I am going to be posting something in a timely fashion. I'm on my lunch break, excited for PulseCon on Friday/Saturday, and much like last fall, Hasbro has, via IGN, unveiled just a snippet of their new mainline. According to the press release, the line is called "Transformers: Generation Legacy." The rumor mill (and retail listings) have indicated that "Legacy" would be the title of the new trilogy and that the nascent subline would be called "Evolution," but we don't see that word being used here - maybe that will come during Friday's Transformers panel. 

Anyway, we have deluxe class Skids and voyager class Bulkhead for our (pre)viewing pleasure!

Skids:

Starting with the clean render of Skids's vehicle mode, he looks perfect. Obviously, we have the anomalous energon weapon on the roof, but Bulkhead also has an energon weapon, so we can surmise that these weapons are part of this trilogy's or subline's gimmick. As a big Unicron Trilogy (including Energon) fan, I appreciate that we are getting these types of accessories back. What especially nice is that, so far, these energon weapons do not seem to be included at the expense of the characters' traditional weapons! Skids has great-looking weapons based on the original toy. 

Here is his compact car mode sans weaponry. Again, it looks just as it should. I have always enjoyed Skids' unique car mode (compared to so many "deluxe" Autobots being sports cars or offroad vehicles), so it's great to see him with a faithful update. 

Here is the car with the roof-mounted energon axe/gun and the smaller single-barrel gun mounted on the left side.

And here is the right side, showing the twin-barreled weapon (rockets?). Clearly, Skids's otherwise unassuming little car mode can be equipped for some destruction.

He is the clean render for robot mode, again showing all the accessories, this time with the energon weapon stowed on the back (car roof). Terrific render!

Here we see Skids's two normal weapons combined together for a triple-barreled mode. Again, the energon weapon can be used as a gun. Amusingly, I was just looking over some of my Commemorative Series reissue boxes (still in my parents' basement) about a week ago, and while I opened Commemorative Skids many years in the past, a few of his weapons/missles are still tucked away in the original packaging. 

Finally, all three weapons can be combined! I do wish an image showing the energon weapon being used as an axe had been included, but that's alright.

Edit: it occurs to me that this will be my first Skids since the Alternators version (which I love; it's such a fun mold and car design). The reason for this is that I skipped out on Thrilling 30 Skids, which was released in 2014. This was a few years into the More Than Meets the Eye series from IDW, and I loved the idea of getting as many toys accurate to the comic as possible. Skids was selected, and hadn't received a normal scale neo-G1 figure yet, so I was pretty excited. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out looking too hot. This new Legacy release will resolve this gap in my collection.

Bulkhead:

This is the clean render for Bulkhead's truck mode. This looks really great! It looks realistic, and it leans toward the version of Bulkhead from Animated more than Prime, as in the latter he was an offroad SUV. I appreciate the fabric-like appearance of the truck bed covering. Interesting is the presence of extra wheels behind the cab.

Edit: not sure why I didn't think of this before, but clearly this truck mode draws on movie Hound as well, who for all intents and purposes is movie Bulkhead. Of course, this goes back full circle to the fact that, upon seeing the first images of the Animated core cast (sans names) in 2007, most of us assumed that Animated Bulkhead was the new version of Hound for that show.

Now we can see the truck with Bulkhead's enegon minigun attached. I'll admit this weapon looks a little dinky compared to its wielder, but that probably has to do with so much of the toy's mass going to the covering shield accessory. Not a tremendous problem. 

In this render, we have Bulkhead wielding his signature hand mace! It looks great, including multiple ports so that some blast effects can be attached (or maybe this can be attached to other weapons). The shield is still shown here with the fabric side showing, and the energon minigun looks pretty good in a shoulder-mounted position (I'm sure Kingdom Mirage is jealous 😉). What really grabs my attention here is how much this looks like what I envisioned a G1 Bulkhead to be! While the head is still very similar to the design from Prime, otherwise this body design is completely new and definitely fits in with the older Diaclone-based characters from seasons 1 and 2 of the original television show. When it was first leaked that "Prime" Bulkhead would be an upcoming toy, I expected a retread of the design we see in the Prime television show (which had already gotten two fairly different interpretations as voyager class toys back in 2012), so I'm quite pleasantly surprised to see something more up my alley here. Not that I dislike the SUV-based design from Prime, but that I was weary of already having it twice over and seeing a new interpretation of the character (that also homages the original Animated design) is really what I needed to see from this kind of release!

Now we can see that the shield has a more "typical" armored underside that can allow it to be more convincing as a shield. Again, notice the extra wheels behind the head, plus what is definitely intended to be a spare tire on the shield itself. I am a bit afraid that the shoulder wheels (which look great) will not end up being the actual cab wheels in vehicle mode, but we will see.

Lastly, we have the shield as backpack armor, which is nice in case you want one of the arms uncluttered; plus we see the minigun being hand-wielded. One other thing I should mention is that the rumors around Bulkhead included him sharing a base mold with an upcoming Prime-based Optimus toy. Now that we know that this Bulkhead is a truck rather than SUV, this makes much more sense; one can easily envision this toy being made into a new Optimus with even just a new head mold. If it is to become a new Prime Optimus, we will see much more remolding than that (hopefully not including faux windows for the chest), but already I can visualize how this will work. 

Ok, that is all for now! I did not include all of the images, but you can see them at: https://www.ign.com/articles/new-transformers-generations-legacy-figure-line-announced-by-hasbro or at other Transformers news sites (I grabbed these images from TFW2005). 

Haslab Victory Saber

I originally meant to publish a post on Haslab Victory Saber about a month ago, but...you know. Busyness, time slipping away, etc. 

     Honestly, at the time I wasn't too seriously considering backing the project, as the initial grey renders did not wow me (though the actual photos of physical prototypes started to get my attention). Me being the mark that I am, the first serious temptation was a couple of weeks ago when Tier 3 was unveiled, which included a wonderful photo gallery of the fully painted sample, including finally showing the blast effects to be a clear green - honestly, those blast effects are what did me in!

     Anyhow, if you've been paying attention, you know that the backing window for Victory Saber closed on the night of Sunday, 10/10/21. The initial unveiling and Tier 1 (V-Lock Cannon & blast effects) were both shown back in August, with Tier 2 (flight stand) shown in mid-September and Tier 3 (shield and micromasters Fire & Holi) shown on 10/1/21 (with that awesome gallery). The set reached its funding goal of 11,000 backers on my birthday (9/29!), with Tiers 1, 2 and 3 unlocking on 10/6, 10/8 and 10/10 respectively. I have just read that more of the international orders have finally been added, with the current number of backer reading 27,372!

     I managed to figure out funding last week and finally backed last Friday, 10/8/21, the same day I picked up the new Metroid: Dread game that I'd been looking forward to, so it was a fun day.

Now for the set itself:

Here's the Brain of Courage; that is to say, Saber in his Brainmaster form. He is tinier than even the Titanmasters/Primemasters of the Prime Wars Trilogy, which I think makes him the smallest functional -master type toy yet! The face flips up from the back when inserting him into the larger Saber body, and he sports shoulder and hip articulation so that he can be seated in Saber's alt mode. Visually, he resembles a tiny version of unhelmeted Star Saber.

Here's Saber's jet mode, which has a bit of a resemblance to a Gundam core fighter. Again, the Brain of Courage can pilot the jet (you can see this in the image).

This is Saber in his robot mode - the brainmaster is installed while still allowing for neck rotation. The nosecone is an unfortunate kibble "shield," but whatever. Overall I like the chunky look. He reminds me quite a bit of the Titans Return Jumpstarters.

Saber's "trailer" is the V-Star, an aerospace weapons platform that Saber can dock with in jet mode. As such, this can also be considered to be Star Saber's altmode. I have always loved how this looks, and they have certainly done a good job with this Haslab version. Mine will probably be in this mode quite a bit!

I love this image even more; the flight stand looks terrific and I've already expressed what a sucker I am for these green blast effects. This is one of the images that honestly helped sell me on the set!

Behold: Star Saber. This is Saber transformed into the torso unit (again; core fighter) of the V-Star; this is akin to Powermaster Optimus Prime. This design has always resonated with me because I have wanted a true jet mode Optimus that had a super mode as well; I think Star Saber is the closest we will get to this, especially due to his very Optimus-looking helmet and faceplate. 

Star Saber wields the Tier 3 shield in this image. The shield was an invention of the Victory television show and only appeared once (to my knowledge). It was included with the masterpiece Star Saber toy, but also had to double as the base of that toy's flight stand; thankfully the Haslab mold has a dedicated stand. 

I actually really like this base mode; I attribute this fondness to the base mode of Powermaster Optimus Prime (easily the biggest transformer I had as a child). This base mode isn't too different from PMOP's; however the shield really helps sell it as a defensive emplacement. I didn't include the shieldless base mode image as it is kind of pointless now that the shield has been unlocked. I do really like the articulated shoulder guns; apparently that is a feature that the original toy lacked. Saber looks great operating the base mode!

Victory Leo! His lion mode is interesting with its ridiculous armament and wings; he definitely looks like he means business, even down to the fantastical tusks. This mode is fun and has strong Voltron vibes.

This is Victory Leo's nominal attack configuration; I like hip-mounted cannons (see Armada Megatron or the smart rifles from Aliens), so I'm quite glad the V-Lock Cannon was unlocked in Tier 1. The cannon plus the arm-mounted rifles looks awesome. I have recently learned about Leo's characterization in the more recent IDW continuity, and I think it fits the design.

Leo's "3rd mode," which is really just an independent version of how he combines with the V-Star. Still, it's fun in a dumb way. I would love a bonus item to be thrown in - an add-on cockpit/nosecone as it was depicted in the Victory Show. If Star Saber can get his anime-exclusive shield (twice!), then surely Leo can get a somewhat more believable altmode, right? 

Again, the blast effects and flight stand are employed to make Leo's flight mode look pretty awesome!

As you can see, Saber is quite a bit smaller than Leo. Saber is about the size of a deluxe, while Leo is close to a modern Leader class transformer. I like this image, especially with how it contrasts with the next one: 

Woah! Saber's a big boy now! As you can see, Star Saber is quite a bit taller than Leo, being closer in size to older Leader class toys, such as from the Prime Wars Trilogy (I hesitate to say that he is as tall as something like Cybertron Galvatron, who for some reason still serves as a Leader class benchmark for me). Awesome shot.

The V-Star, as noted, combines with Leo's flight mode to gain a booster, more wings, and much heavier armament. The aircraft/physics enthusiast in me is a bit bothered by the huge V-Lock Cannon being off-center, but at least Saber's gun on the opposite kind of balances it out. Kind of.

While the flight stand and blast effects are back, you can also see that the shield can be incorporated into the combined vehicle mode, which I think looks great. it greatly improves the visual continuity of this giant vehicle. 

VICTORY SABER! Yep, Leo becomes a backpack and platform shoes. Not the most dignified combination, but i actually like it. The boots hit a good balance between big but not too big, and the wings and rifles from the backpack sell a war machine look. Also, one of the few things I dislike about the Star Saber mode is the lack of back-mounted wings, which this combination resolves. The V-Lock Cannon looks great once again. 

Victory Saber is posed with the shield swapped for the sword. I hope the shield and sword both can be attached somehow in this mode, but it's not a huge loss if it's not possible. 

This is another image that helped sell me on this set. It really is beautiful. 

Here are Fire and Holi. These two are too similar to their pre-existing Siege releases for me to be very interested, but at least we get one more (not great) weapon mode from them, though it's not shown in the gallery. 

Fire and Holi in alt mode. Again they are part of Tier 3 with the shield.

Finally, the base mode with Fire and Holi. This is fun and probably the best reason for their inclusion.

There has been some discussion about whether or not the Victory Saber set is worth the asking price of $180+tax. It's a totally fair question, and people who don't think the set is worth the cost don't bother me as I can understand some of the arguments used to support that stance. However, one word stands out to me that describes this set: uncompromised. When was the last time you saw a retro set this big that included all of its legacy features and components? I bought Titans Return Fortress Maximus for half price at Ross and was still disappointed due to his lack of a normal weapon and inaccurate base mode. Even Earthrise Scorponok, who is much better than his counterpart, is lacking a primary weapon and has non-elevating turret guns. Some other releases, like Combiner Wars Liokaiser and Titans Return Overlord, also come to mind specifically as JG1 designs hampered by being forced into the existing play pattern of the toylines they were released through (mind, I actually like CW Liokaiser quite a bit, but a proper update is always on peoples' minds. Overlord I find more boring and almost wish the original had been reissued instead).  What, exactly, is Victory Saber missing? Nothing that I can think of, at least as it compares to the original toy and the Masterpiece (which neglected Victory Leo, leaving an opening for an illegal "third party" version). If anything, I was a bit disappointed that Haslab didn't go whole hog and produce Deathsaurus, but at the same time that is a relief, as the price would have been somewhere around $250 minimum (the rumor mill suggests a Deathsaurus at retail in 2023 pending the success of Victory Saber; I think it's been a success, so hopefully they are right). Additionally, this thing is priced way more competitively than any large Masterpiece or third party release and still manages to scale with normal Generations releases. 

On top of the uncompromised aspect of the toy, while I have no real attachment to the character (I've never watched Victory and I don't care too much for the IDW version of Star Saber), I've always loved his look and the playability/functionality of the design. It really is "Optimus, but in space" in a way that Star Convoy isn't (or really any other futuristic type Optimus toy). It's nice to see that design get the appreciation it deserves outside of the Masterpiece realm.

One final point about the price: collectors having been paying very high prices for less for a while now. I've always been more of a Hasbro guy rather than Takara, willing to suffer deficits in accuracy, paint coverage, etc., in order to not pay an arm and a leg to acquire mainline toys (for the most part). However, once Pulse started offering Takara products in an easily accessible fashion with free shipping, I started to get tempted by such remolds as Star Convoy, Super Megatron and the Seacons. All of these have cost near double the price of their original molds, and not one of them is a new mold! The older FunPub releases similarly fall under this umbrella. Even the Crossovers Jurassic Park set - which includes one leader class retool and a new mold deluxe* is very high priced at $104. To be fair, I have seen a decent number of complaints about that price. And of course, I haven't even mentioned the illegal "third party" figures, most of which cost incredible sums for the amount of product you receive. Finally, I was priced out of the Masterpiece market years ago; those figures also have a tremendous price for their size. 

I think the issue here is that Haslab Victory Saber doesn't really fit into any of these other categories - he's not MP, not 3P, not a Takara import, not a licensed Crossovers release, etc. This set is definitely meant to fit in with the War for Cybertron line and upcoming Legacy line, both of which are retail lines . They are collector-oriented, but still ostensibly mainlines, of which our previously most expensive figures (aside from Unicron, of whom few question the value) have been the Titan class releases. And until the new Legacy line, all other Titans have been cheaper than Victory Saber. 

Oh well. I'm committed now, anyway, and the people who don't see the value will either be just fine without a Victory Saber or they will wish they didn't have to pay aftermarket prices come next winter.

*JP-93 - the Ford Explorer new mold from the Jurassic Park set - seems like a deluxe, though a larger one. He could have enough mass/engineering to be a voyager, maybe. Alternatively, it's been suggested that JP-93 is not the new mold as we've been led to believe, but rather a pretool for an up coming Legacy release. Not sure if I buy this, but it might be true.