As a child, I was actually more vested on Transformers: Victory Series more than the first G1 Transformers that started it all...
.. maybe its because I was too young to understand the first G1 series except that some of the characters were cool , and triple changers rocked!!
*English is my second language so I might not understand the dialogs in American cartoons fully back then as a child.
PROLOGUE
Transformers: Victory series was aired in my country , Malaysia when I was 13 or 14 years old. I remembered not paying attention in the science lab and doodled a few robots from this series on papers.
I think I memorized my very first Japanese song (the show's intro song) , too!
ABOUT VICTORY SABER
Star Saber and Victory Leo were the main characters I was obsessed with from the show above. I even drew a comic strip of him in my art class and got myself a respectable grade for my effort!
Between the duo.. I preferred Victory Leo more. I think it's because he was reformatted from dying God Ginrai in Masterforce series.. Japanese version of Powermaster Optimus Prime I loved so much, due to his ability to turn into a base mode I guess.
A line art of Victory Leo drawn (by heart, I think) when I was a teen.
Once at a stall in a local market , I saw a candy box with Victory Saber art on it (below) . I bought it just to keep the box. What's (expected) inside were only some chocolates with cheap plastic toys not related to Transformers at all!
LEGO VICTORY LEO VERSION 1
I started building my first LEGO Victory Leo not long after watching the show. I was slowly weaning off LEGO in favor of new hobbies* in my new school then . So by the time I was around 14 or 15, I stopped building LEGO altogether .
*Learned BASIC programming, kinda foreshadowed my job as a full-stack web developer presently.
This could probably be one of my last LEGO creations before I plunged myself into dark ages, putting away my LEGO bricks and sold some sets to my teacher!
If you look closer.. you'll notice parts from certain 1980's space sets, too!
Despite knowing I will never be able to build Star Saber for him to merge with due to lack of parts, I still enjoyed challenging myself , giving this Victory Leo a combiner mode.
LEGO VICTORY SABER VERSION 2
This project was started in 2004, few years after I graduated from college and with income to splurge, I broke away from my LEGO dark ages and bought a few LEGO sets out of boredom. One thing led to another and I started to build LEGO Transformers again!
Star Saber
This creation was made possible thanks to LEGO Titan XP set (and 2 Life of Mars sets) I managed to acquire at a clearance price!
I think I used only the parts from the 3 sets above for this project
Victory Leo
Many of parts to build Victory Leo was contributed by LEGO set 7047: Coast Guard HQ , and few other sets offering good number of yellow and black parts.
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With Armada Tidal Wave as comparison in size.
Retrospect
I was kept wondering why I did not snap clearer photos of the combined mode back then. Hmmm...
Want More Photos?
www.mocpages.com was the hottest site to post LEGO creations back then, so naturally I uploaded mine there. The site no longer exist now. Luckily I linked many of the photos from brickshelf.com, where uploaded many of my LEGO creation photos into.
LEGO VICTORY SABER VERSION 3
This project was completed at the final day of year 2007 and I managed to hastily publish them right before new year's eve!
In the years preceding that, I learned how to buy LEGO parts online via bricklink.com instead of relying on limited suitable parts from official sets. I finally able to source the parts I need to build an even better Victory Saber in his proper color scheme! Without bricklink, this hobby of mine will not get very far in deed. RIP and thank you Daniel Jezek, founder of Bricklink.com!
Star Saber
Before I discovered the existence of lightsaber part aka 4-stud length bar, I actually used 2 LEGO minifigure axes to make the hinge allowing the nosecone to be folded always in robot mode !
I remembered my insistence of minimal parts-forming led to me integrating the nosecone into Star Saber robot mode. This makes merging Saber into the V-Star module to form Star Saber really tedious.
Victory Leo
I never liked original Victory Leo's half assed jet mode. So in this project, I turned the lion legs into jet nosecones.
Combined Mode
Looking back, I was stumped once again why I decided to form his feet from Victory Leo's lion legs. They sure looked pretty gaudy!
Trivia
Victory Saber was the first LEGO creation I uploaded to my (then new) flickr account. Pay a visit there to view photos of this creation and newer ones too!
HASLAB VICTORY SABER
Last year (2021) , Hasbro Lab (HasLab) announced a new Victory Saber project , and this made me really excited for a few days! Finally... I get to see a brand new toy of Victory Saber in his full glory, with all the bells* and whistles (I hoped!)!
*I used to own the much simpler and smaller Robot Master version of Victory Saber. Sold 'em after a short period of fun.
Latest photo pinched from HasLab's website as of Sept 2022.
Since this is a crowdfunding project, and in the middle of the pandemic (taking a hit on me financially) .. I came to realization that I will never be able to afford these two figures. And judging from Hasbro's previous releases of Transformers big and small, there will always be tradeoffs as well (Not that I expect a Masterpiece-worthy toy).
Spurred by the reason above , finally , at the 3rd quarter of 2021, I decided to initiate project...
LEGO VICTORY SABER VERSION 4!
By the time you read this, it's been almost a year since I started this project. And I am very satisfied with the outcome so far. I will be updating this blog with more and more reveals of Victory Saber version 4 soon, starting with Victory Leo!!
In the meantime.. here's a teaser of what's coming...!
PARTING WORDS
Thank you for reading this till the very end (you did, didn't you?) .
After wrapping up Project Victory Saber... I shall be shifting my focus , and build a few more LEGO Transformers from Victory series in the coming months.
AND ONE MORE THING...
I always update my work-in-progress in my Instagram account (alanyuppie78). Do follow my IG if you have not already!
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