I am happy to announce that some of my LEGO Transformers designs have become official products under a few 3rd party building block brands...
Friday, November 11, 2022
LEGO Star Saber Part 1 of 2: Saber
Star Saber is the leader of the Autobots in Transformers:Victory Cartoon Series...
In the Victory cartoon, he is a Brainmaster, where a tiny robot* resides in his smaller robot (called Saber), forming his part of his head as well. Saber turns into an futuristic Earth-like fighter jet, and is able to merge with a bigger jet called V-star, to form Star Saber.
*What's mind boggling is.. this tiny robot actually looked very similar to Star Saber himself.
The very first official Star Saber toy from G1 era.
This project was started not long after Hasbro Lab (Haslab) announced their new crowdfunding Victory Saber project (photo below). Knowing I probably might not be able to afford to buy these 2 figures, I guess the next logical step would be building them myself!
Latest photo pinched from HasLab's website as of Sept 2022.
In this part 1 article, I will be focusing on Saber. At the time of writing, The V-Star module has already been completed. But I was not quite satisfied with certain component's color scheme. It will be improved when my new LEGO parts arrived hopefully in a week's time, for it appear in part 2!
DID YOU KNOW...
This is my 3rd attempt in building LEGO Star Saber. To view the history of my previous LEGO Star Saber projects, click here.
BEFORE YOU START....
Please view a youtube video below I specifically made to showcase some noteworthy design challenges I faced in this project, and how I solve them.
The jet mode core shaping was almost completed within a week when this project was started a year back. Back then, I vowed to fill the gap behind the cockpit. I failed to do so!
The flat area at the front of the windshield used to be curvy. However, it caused clearance problem when merging to become Star Saber. I was forced to smoothen it with a black tile instead!
One of the final enhancements to the jet mode was applying landing gears on them.
TRANSFORMATION
The nosecone detaches to become the saber handle for Star Saber. as for the blade... it will be provided by V-star module.
The gun was the last component I made for this project. I spent hours designing this gun, allowing it to be stowed securely under the jet mode!
The stud on the folded wings to help secure them to the body.
ROBOT MODE
The white spurs on his shoulders were designed to follow the original Saber's character and toy aesthetics, and I made them to be able to fold away to allow more clearance when the arms are raised.
Initially I applied a tile part on the back of his head, but its clutch strength was not so good. So I decided to use a jumper tile with one stud instead.
The original Saber toy (and even his Masterpiece version) has a very chunky back kibble , like a shell-former (my pet peeve). I decided to improve on this by folding up the kibble, wings and all, so that he's have a nice silhouette when seen from the front.
I applied the Autobot insignia for the 3rd time on his chest. The first one was prematurely done on a 2 x 2 tile, which I ended up ditching after redesigning the chest. The 2nd attempt was botched due to it being slightly skewed to one side. Duh!
WITH MOUNTED NOSECONE
Trivia: He used to have a c-clip right below his crotch, to allow him to connect to form Star Saber robot mode. However, I finally decided to remove this clip. He'll slide in just fine and snugly for the merge, and it easier to detach when they split up again.
ACTION POSES
WITH GUN
Thanks for viewing this page till the very end., Click here to go to Part 2: Saber Saber!
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