Dave's RobotMasters Rant

     RM-17: Victory Sabre Set

     Got this online from Image Anime.  This is my first 'true' combination
set of these two...I've got a Star Sabre knockoff, and the PVC chase pieces
to turn SCF Star Sabre into Victory Sabre, plus the Mega-SCF Victory Leo
figure.  Not to mention, I've watched all of Transformers Victory.  So this
duo is familiar to me.  :)

CAPSULE

     RM-17: Star Sabre is a pretty good shrink-down in all modes, although
naturally it lacks the Brainmaster.  The main problem is that the sword hilt
breaks off easily.  Victory Leo is floppy in most modes, although looks
okay.  The combined mode has proportion issues, like the original, and the
backpack doesn't stay on too well.  Worth the $35 plus shipping that I paid?
Eh, marginally.  I think I'd have gotten better value for my money if I just
got Star Sabre.

[Later note: there are apparently non-floppy Victory Leos out there, but mine
was not the only ultra-loose one.  So quality control on the new molds is
apparently at the level of knockoffs, great.]


RANT

     Packaging: This two-pack comes in window box (bubble tray slid inside a
cardstock box with many openings) 11" (29cm) wide, 8.5" (22cm) tall (only
6"/15cm at the thick part) and 2.25" (6cm) thick.  The back has pictures of
both RM-15 (Star Sabre) and RM-16 (Victory Leo) in their various modes, a
coupld of combined pics in both modes, and techspec cards with abbreviated
specs (only 5 stats instead of the usual 8).
     The paperwork inside has the RM-15 and RM-16 instructions (which each
have the RM-17 combination instructions on the back of the sheet), plus a
comic/catalog (volume 2) that shows all the RobotMasters toys through RM-17,
plus shadowy previews of Lioconvoy and one of the Laser Cycles (Road Rocket
mold).  There's a four page comic featuring the reissued G2 Dreadwing duo
getting whomped by Victory Sabre.  Overly busy, somewhat confusing art.
     The plastic tray inside has both characters in robot mode, with most of
their weapons in their own dents.  Victory Leo is holding one of his guns,
though, and it's twist-tied down.  The two guns and one sword are each held
down by one twist-tie each.  Star Sabre is held down by six ties, plus a
plastic shield over his chest to keep the Sabre legs from coming loose.
Victory Leo is also held down with six ties, and there's a shield over his
right wingtip that also keeps his main gun from needing a second tie.  Note
that each has a monochrome gun that is new for RobotMasters, continuing the
line's trend of giving everyone an extra sidearm of some sort.

New Weapons:

     I'll address the extra weapons separately, since they're not
reproductions of what the original toys had.  Each is monochromatic with two
grip pegs of 1/8" diameter (a little under 3mm).  Both remind me of the guns
that come with the CORPS space guy figures (GIJoe molds).  Kinda cheap
looking. 
     Star Sabre's gun is a blue submachinegun sort of thing, 1.75" (4.5cm)
long.  The two pegs are too close together for both to be held at once, and
they're too narrow to fit securely in the holes on Star Sabre's back.
     Victory Leo's extra gun is a yellow rifle 2.25" (6cm) long.  The two
pegs are separated enough that a figure with more arm articulation than
either of these toys could hold it by both.

RM-15: Star Sabre (Starsaver on the instructions)

     Robot Mode: 4.75" (12cm) tall in heroic red white and blue.  The torso
is mostly red, the arms and lower legs mostly white, back and legs blue.
There's some yellow paint on the kneecaps and belt, and gold on the chest.
The hands are a dark metallic blue-gray, and the face is silver.  The
antennae on the helmet and the shoulder spikes are soft dark gray plastic.
There are red squares on his shoulders, with white Autobot symbols
tampographed on them.  Oh, and most of the white on it is pearly.
     The shoulders and hips are ball joints, but are heavily restricted.  The
shoulders are really effectively just swivels with a little wiggle room, and
the legs can really just do the splits, with a little wiggling forward and
back.  The elbows are simple hinges, and the waist swivels.  The knees do
not bend, the neck does not turn, and the wrists are fixed.  Mind you, this
is slightly more poseability than the original Star Sabre toy was capable
of.  
     The sword weapon has a MAJOR flaw to it.  The hilt is softer white
plastic with metallic blue paint on it.  And it will cheerfully bind up in
the fist, breaking before it'll unlock.  I ended up having to use a Dremel to
drill out the broken off stub of the hilt, serious irritation.  This paint
lock also causes some problems with stowing the hilt for attachment to Sabre,
although at least it hasn't broken YET.  The blade is soft plastic 3" (8cm)
long.  It wedges into a slot on Star Sabre's back, rather than going into a
solid sheath as on the original.  This is a scale issue, of course, as a full
sheath with sufficient thickness would be way too bulky at this size.

     Vehicle Mode: Transformation is pretty simple, although I don't remember
the Star Saber helmet sticking out so badly on the larger toy.  A little
under 6" (15cm) long, with a wingspan of 5" (13cm) and a hollow region in the
rear to accomodate the Victory Leo ship block.  If you leave the blade
attached to the nose, the total length is 8.25" (21cm).  The helmet forms a
bulky turret on top of the jet.
     There are red Autobot symbols painted on the winglets that are attached
to what were the robot's boots.  Interestingly, the connector pegs at the
rear of the jet (for attaching Victory Leo's platform shoe mode) are actually
Mini-Con hardpoints.

     Sabre: This is the smaller robot that folds up into the hollow chest of
Star Sabre's robot mode.  On the full-sized toy, an even smaller Brainmaster
sits in the chest of this one, but the RM Sabre is Micromaster size himself,
1.75" (4.5cm) tall in robot mode.  He has a blue torso and helmet, gray arms
and upper legs, and red boots and back.  His face is silver, and a tiny
Autobot symbol is tampographed in red on his chest.  The hilt piece of the
sword has a small side peg that attaches to a hole in Sabre's left arm, so he
can carry it as a shield.
     The transformation to jet mode is pretty simple.  Clip the hilt/shield
onto his head as the nose of the jet, then unfold the wings on his back and
tailfins on his boots.  Fold these all back in to insert into the Star Sabre
jet mode.
     Without Saber attached, by the way, the remainder of the Star Sabre jet
mode is called the V-Star.  There's a couple of pegs for Sabre's thruster
feet to fit onto so he can ride the V-Star.

     Overall: The sword issues are disappointing, but it's otherwise a pretty
good scaling down of the original Star Sabre (my review of the knockoff I own
is at http://www.dvandom.com/reviews/StarSabre but I was inconsistent in the
Sabre/Saber thing then).  Worth getting on its own.


RM-16: Victory Leo

     I despair of reviewing this at all, it's such a huge disappointment,
with floppy bits that fall off or misalign at the lightest touch.  But here
goes.  To avoid repeating myself, just assume that almost everything that can
fall off, go awry or flop over probably does...the pegs holding the two
halves of the torso together are about the only solid ones.

     Robot Mode: 4" (10cm) tall at the head, 5.5" (14cm) high to the tips of
his back-mounted cannons, and a 5.25" (13cm) wingspan.  The body is mostly
yellow and black with white upper arms and upper legs, plus white wings.  He
has red feet and red paint on the wings and cannons.  His back cannons and
rifle are otherwise silver.  His face is silver with blue eyes, and the fangs
on his helmet are white.  The fangs are made of soft plastic so they will be
less likely to snap off.  They do not rotate down as in the full sized toy,
but that would require pretty fine tolerances.
     Shoulders are universal joints, elbows are hinges.  And that's about
it.  The legs can spread, but go too far and the transformation joints start
to come out.  The wings have hinges, but that's not a meaningful joint except
for getting them out of the way.
     The back cannons are on pegs, and can also peg over the shoulders to
point forward, or onto the forearms.  The rifle shoots a missile, and can be
held in either hand or pegged into a hole on the right side of the toy's
waist.  There's also a hole for the rifle on his back, but that's really for
other modes.  
     It LOOKS right, but as soon as you pick it up it feels like it's about
to fall apart entirely (it doesn't quite, but it's not a good feeling).

     Lion Mode: Squat the legs down, fold the lion leg kibble on the sides.
Swap the robot fists for lion forelegs.  Move the rifle to the back.  That's
about it.  It's a lot like Pounce from the Decepticon Clones, only with the
winged backpack and triple guns.  The forelimbs are as poseable as the robot
arms, the rearlimbs just swivel at the hips.  Because the fangs don't rotate
in transformation, the head looks a little weird.
     From snout to tailless square rump it's 3.5" (9cm) long, and it's more
stable than the robot mainly because everything's squished together.  But it
doesn't lock in position.

     Ship Mode: Okay, let's be honest.  They pretended in the cartoon that
this was actually a separate spaceship, but it's just a block with wings
intended to fit into the gap at the back of Star Sabre's jet mode.  From lion
mode, the hardest part is getting the rear legs in position to let everything
slide in between Star Sabre's...um, there's more innuendo than I'd like in
this, so I'll stop.  Anyway, then you just reverse the directions of the
guns.     
     It's 3.5" (9cm) long, pretty much just a flying block.

     Overall: With a bit more attention paid to tolerances, or some extra
pegs and locks, this could have been a pretty good toy, although it's limited
by the fact it was designed to be an add-on armor.  But the loose joints of
all types just tick me off, and I can't in good conscience recommend anyone
get this thing.

RM-17: Victory Sabre (Victory Saber on the instructions, I generally go with
     "Sabre" for these guys and "Saber" for the Mini-Con swords).

     Robot Mode: Just a backpack and platform shoes on Star Sabre, as with
the original toy.  Stands 6" (15cm) tall with a 5.25" (13cm) wingspan, and
has all of the weapons of both toys.  The platform shoes don't even look very
good on the SCF figure, which was built to cartoon proportions.  On the
RobotMasters toy, he just has too-long legs with kibble sticking out the
sides of the feet, and a backpack with arms stuck to it.  Not really all that
impressive.  Poseability identical to Star Sabre.

     Vehicle Mode: A brick with two pairs of wings and a lot of guns.  It's
8.5" (21.5cm) long, and holds together pretty well, although some of the pegs
tend to come undone if you're not careful.  And it has a lion's head sticking
out the back.

     Overall: The combined jet is nice, but the combined robot is a lot like
God Ginrai...makes for a cool cartoon design, but not so nifty as a toy.  I'm
putting Victory Leo back in the package and displaying just Star Sabre.

     Dave Van Domelen, at least got to mess with the combination
transformations, even if they were disappointing.