Two new Masterpiece announcements from Takara are leaving me perplexed about what I need in my TF collection! First up is what I believe is the line’s first all-new character: Exhaust. Exhaust is both new & old. While the character is a fun new creation, the alt mode is actually older than Wheeljack first appearing as the Marlboro version the Diaclone Lancia Stratos, a repaint of the Alitalia version. It’s very cool – and would look great with the other Diaclone versions of the MPs, but I’m not sure I’m sold. While I love new characters, I’m not sure how many of the Diaclone repaints I want to mix-in with my G1ers. I may cave as this is a great way to display the alt mode while Wheeljack is in his robot form. It does look cool, but I’ll have to wait & see. I’ve got til March to figure it out.
And here’s the other dilemma! This figure looks awesome. And it’s huge. And the price isn’t too bad for the size. There’s just one thing: I don’t know anything about Star Saber. I haven’t even taken the time to read his tfwiki. Maybe I’ll have time to check it out before March??
I look forward to a Slicer repaint of Wheeljack!
I definitely don’t need those! lol
I too would love to see Slicer.
I just get completely caught up in those minor/hard to get characters.
I’m from Australia so Slicer in theory was released here the first time round but I don’t think I have ever seen one in the flesh.
I’d love that Star Saber, but high end TFs are not in my budget right now.
I know a bit about the character, but I also know that I used to know more about him and have forgotten most of it. I’ve been way into Transformers all my life, and when the internet first became a thing (or at least a thing as we now know it) when I was in middle/high school, I used that new found information superhighway to study up on the Japanese side of Transformers. I’d long known there was more to it than we had in America, with rumors floating around about more G1 cartoons (Headmasters, et al), comics (like the genesis of Star Convoy), and even additional Beast Wars (BW2, BW Neo). I devoured all of that in the late nineties, but I’ll be damned if 15 years haven’t dulled most of it to a vague memory.
Still, Star Fire looks to be a pretty cool toy.
Exhaust looks so marvellous. I’m now desperately waiting for a pre-order to show up on HLJ.
He has a TF Wiki page (http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Exhaust) but I could swear he has had more background appearances in the comics.
Maybe there’s more on Wheeljack’s page since Exhaust didn’t really exist til they named this guy?
Replying to myself 🙂
Pre-orders are up on HLJ and I have signed up for both!
Gotta have them both. Too cool and awesome to not have. This is just the type of stuff we have been waiting for from HasTak. If a 3P had done it we’d be asking why HasTak didn’t.
Takara has been fantastic with the MPs, absolutely.
You are absolutely correct! I can’t wait!
Transformers Victory Cybertron Leader. Thats Star Saber.
Both look awesome but I am waiting on Jazz.
I’m excited to see Jazz too!
I really want Jazz, and I have to think he’s not too far away, especially as he’s in the size category that has gotten so much love lately. Having said that, I’d like a couple more Decepticons to even out the sides.
I lived in Asia at the time and watched some of the Japanese Transformers shows, and Transformers Victory was arguably the best of that lot (most of them were pretty terrible, with really bad characterizations). Because of that I’m pretty excited for Star Sabre, even though he might be a bit too high-end for me to own.
Yes about the $$$. Ultimately, I think you have to be a really serious collector or just really love a particularly character. I think that will ultimately keep me away from Star Saber, awesome as he looks.
Really? I personally thought Victory was the worst of the three Takara series. But then I suppose I didn’t watch all of it, but what I saw I didn’t like. I loved the Masterforce series. Headmasters was okay as well. I definitely did like the Design of Star Sabre and Victory Leo. I wonder if Victory Leo will be being made so people can combine them and make Victory Sabre.
Depends on how you look at it. Victory was a decent series, with an actual consistent storyline throughout the show. As a standalone giant robot show, it was pretty good. That said the first third of the series was extremely weak, though; almost all the early episodes followed the same lazy formula – the bumbling Destron Dinoforce shows up to menace something or another, the Cybertrons show up and hand them their asses. Things didn’t really pick up until the latter half of the show.
On the other hand, it was a weird one because Victory was the first show to exclusively showcase Japanese Transformers (i.e. toys not released in North America). If they didn’t tell you it was Transformers, you could be forgiven for thinking it wasn’t even Transformers.
As far as the other shows are concerned, I remembering hating Headmasters for its horrible characterizations and being a hot mess. It turned Cyclonus and Scourge into comic relief. It killed off Galvatron and Ultra Magnus just to show off how cool the new characters were. Even at my age then I just rolled my eyes.
Masterforce — I have to admit I didn’t watch much of it. It just never caught my interest (I think it was on at the same timeslot as another show I was more interested in) XD.
I only saw the early episodes of Victory. Maybe if I had seen some of the later ones I would have enjoyed it more.
In Headmasters I liked what they did with the 87 characters but I agree the US characters like Magnus and Galvatron etc could have been a lot better.
I think what really helped me like Masterforce was the fact that I grew up with several toys of the main featured characters like Ginrai (Powermaster Optimus Prime) and they were also quite prominent in the UK comics. Also for some reason it reminded me of M.A.S.K. 🙂
Exhaust’s head looks like it should be a mech for a Kamen Rider show. Seriously, it looks like one of the Riders’ helmets.
I think head sculpt is partly where it’s a miss for me. I love the car, but I don’t really care about the bot.
The head sculpt does look a like a pretty accurate representation of the Diaclone original. Even though he looks like simple re-deco of Diaclone pre-Wheeljack that part was actually changed for the original.
I know nothing about Star Saber, but he’s everything I love about Japanese robots:
– Small robot pilots jet
– Jet turns into robot, smaller robot fits in the chest
– Jet’s rocket booster pack becomes armor for jet-robot to form huge robot
– Huge robot has a SWORD
Pre-order get.
I kind of want to like Star Saber, but I just can’t seem to muster any enthusiasm. Even after seeing him go psycho in the IDW MTME comics, he’s just not growing on me. Well, if I haven’t changed my opinion in five months or so, that’s $170 I can use elsewhere.
The only Diaclone repaint I would be interested in is the white police version Sunstreaker.
wow, I didn’t even know I needed these, but now I know I do!
This has gotta be to reel in those serious car lovers.
The Lancia Stratos is a big deal in the racing world, and the Marlboro livery on that sexy car will have a lot of fans outside of the Transformers fandom.
IIRC, the guys at Takara said that was a big reason for starting of with the Lamborghini Countach – it already has fans. Not the biggest TF character, but the alt mode is a really big deal.
Same for “Exhaust” here. I have no real interest in the robot, but MAN, that car is sah-weeeet!
Hadn’t thought of that. Probably the same deal with the Datsun MP’s. Love that car…and the Lambo’s.