Combiner Wars Liokaiser

[philby]

is this a japanese series thing like star sabre? never heard of it before

[griffin]

Yes, from the Victory series - http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Liokaiser

[GoktimusPrime]

is this a japanese series thing like star sabre? never heard of it before

The thing that interests me the most about Lio Kaiser is the significant kilometrestone that it represents in Transformers design history. Lio Kaiser is the only G1 gestalt to have almost all entirely self-contained gestalt parts. The head is the only separate/detachable gestalt robot piece, everything else (hands, feet, thighs etc.) is self-contained in the individual figures. This is a really impressive feat of engineering especially for 1989! This paved the way for many self-contained parts that feature in a lot of post-G2 gestalts, such as:
* Beast Wars: Magnaboss & Tripredacus (1997), Tripledacus (1998) = 100% self contained gestalt parts
* Car Robot/RiD: JRX/Rail Racer & Build King/Landfill (2000) = 100% self contained gestalt parts
* Super Link/Energon: Constructicon, Superion & Bruticus Maximi (2004) = detachable hands and feet, everything else is self-contained
* Generations Fall of Cybertron: Bruticus (2012), Ruination (2013) = 100% self-contained gestalt parts
* Generations Combiner Wars/Unite Warriors (2015-16) = detachable hands and feet, everything else is self-contained

Compare say G1 Devastator with Combiner Wars/Unite Warriors Devastator.
G1 Devastator is heavily reliant on detachable accessories to combine or complete the gestalt, namely the waist connector, head, forearms and fists. The chest plate, groin plate and head gun help to complete the robot but aren't entirely essential to the core formation of the gestalt robot. CW/UW Devastator on the other hand only has detachable forearm-hands. The waist connector is contained in Long Haul and the head is contained in Hook - they are not detachable accessories. It's impossible to lose Devastator's head (unless you deliberately remove it or massively wreck Hook). Now all this may seem really basic nowadays, but remember that back in the G1 era it was practically unheard of except for Liokaiser. Every other G1 and G2 gestalt relied upon detachable accessories. I got my G1 Motormaster second hand from another kid at school who didn't want it anymore - no accessories. I already had Breakdown, and I completed the rest of the limbs when the Classic reissues were released in 1990/91. But because my Motormaster was incomplete, it meant that I could only form Menasor without his face, chestplate, hands or feet! It was basically just the Stunticon cars tacked onto Motormaster. I've since acquired those parts, but my childhood Menasor was "nekkid."

Granted you could still lose the CW gestalt's detachable hands and feet, which is why I still admire the engineering behind FoC Bruticus because his hands and feet are all self-contained and he can interchange his limbs. But the individual toys suffer and aren't as nice as the CW Combaticons (but I still really like the FoC Combaticons given what they're trying to achieve). The self-containment of gestalt parts works so well on Liokaiser that even when Hasbro released some of these figures as the Autobot Rescue Force without the faceplate or all the members, it is still possible to form a gestalt robot with what's left. As you can see, it's missing the head and arms, but the chest, waist and legs are all fully formed! Had Hasbro bothered to redeco Hellbat and Guyhawk in this set, you'd be able to form both arms too, no problem.

Transformers Victory was never part of my childhood, but I'd like to have Liokaiser simply because of the major role that this toy has played in Transformers toy history. Ideally I'd really love for TakaraTOMY to reissue this set, but as doesn't look like this is going to happen, I'll have to settle for a CW Liokaiser instead. So this is my motivation for getting this toy. But as it's a "consolation prize" for me not owning a G1 set, I'm not going to go out of my way to get it straight away. I'll just buy it locally. It is kinda disappointing that Leozack and Jallguar are inseparable in the CW version but understandably so.

[doublespy]

Yep. I owned 4 out 6 of the Breast Force team back in the early 90s. The engineering of the jets blew my mind! The way Hellbat and Guyhawk could transform into part of the torso and limbs was amazing. I also really liked the fact that the back of Leozack's head forms Liokaiser's face plate. Such a clever touch.

[MEEEGGGAAATTTRRROOONNN!!!]

Gallery of in-hand shots:

http://www.allspark.com/2016/09/comb...photo-gallery/

[Trent]

That's kind of impressive. New heads are nice.

Combined mode is a bit lanky though.

[DarkHyren]

I'm still on the fence about this. The limbs are good, they are decent representations of the characters, and even the core robot is a good representation of Deathsaurus (at least in beast mode) but combiner mode makes no sense to me.
I suppose it's still great though that Hasbro are showing some love to lesser known characters, maybe we'll get a nice new Predaking or Abominus in Titans towards the end of the line

[Krayt]

Combiner mode kinda make sense to me, in that the head of Sky Reign somewhat matches the Lion Helmet that Liokaiser had in G1. Then they have tried to match colours to where the Teal was on the original, and also a little black for poor old left out Jallguar.

But to me they placed the colours wrong in 2 spots.... the upper legs should be black (but i understand then Dezarus would have mismatched legs) and The head/helmet should be teal not black

[GoktimusPrime]

"Deathsaurus" is really an amalgam of Leozack and Jallguar, but since they only have a single torso robot to use they're calling it "Deathsaurus." I agree that it's not ideal, but it's a lot cheaper and easier than getting a G1 Liokaiser off the secondary market. Short of TakaraTOMY reissuing the Decepticon Breast Force, this is likely to be the next best thing.

[Ploughmans Lunch]

Ah, I like him. He's colourful