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Legacy Liokaiser

First introduced as a part of 1989’s Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (or simply Transformers Victory), the Breastforce were brand new molds that served as the bulk of that line’s Destron forces and acted as the counterpart to the Cybertron Brainmasters. That status was exemplified by having a combined mode of their own, the mighty, the fierce, the unstoppable Liokaiser!

Now, 37 years later, the full team finally sees a fully fledged modern update (sorry Combiner Wars) as a part of the Haslab initiative. They’re the third Victory effort and the Fifth Transformers Haslab overall, succeeding Victory Saber and Deathsaurus and coming hot off the heels of Omega Prime. I am not the biggest fan of the Haslab format, I think explicitly time gating figures is, well, stupid, put simply, but I’d argue Liokaiser earns the approach. The team is rather obscure, all things considered, and they demand a lot. No matter what, the final product produced is well worth the price of admission. Liokaiser is incredibly high quality and the presentation is top notch.

Small heads up, I took WAY too many photos! You can check out a full collection of candid shots of everyone, closeups, group shots, and plenty of additional poses over on Imgur! Also, this is another biggun! Nearly 4k words! So I'll be putting most of it below a read more link. Individual photos Group shots

Leading with the leader, Leozack lands onto the scene in fine fashion. He’s cast in a paler teal and a slightly off, milky white, both of which look lovely. The only accent here in robot mode that’s inherent to him is the gold on his knees, the few other additional tones belonging to his Breastmaster. Their presence is welcome though, adding a delightful darker teal and a tiny bit of black, sourced from the legs. Physically, he’s rather chunky. Very thick shins with some wide wings. His legs have some additional heft with the combiner kibble sticking off his feet, though it doesn’t come out any further than the wings.

Leozack looks good, but as a whole he’s less graceful than most of the other members. He’s not bad, but he is brought down the most by being a combiner component, with a slew of small hangups that wouldn’t be present were he not a chest alongside the more obvious combiner kibble. Most of the team is fairly standardized when it comes to joints, with consistent points of movement across all of them. How well those points are utilized does vary, and Leozack ends up having the most “buts” out of everyone. He has universal hips, but the backpack and tabs at the front block his legs in both those directions. He has a 90° bend at the knee, but it struggles to be used in tandem with the thigh swivel as it’s right above the knee and his calves are in fact that chunky. He still has a waist swivel, but it’s practically nonexistent unless you fiddle with the backpack, something that gives the arms and legs a little more room as well. So on, and so forth. You can still get some good poses but you do have to work for it. The feet flaps do prove useful as additional support for more extreme stances, at least.

Naturally, as a Breastmaster, Leozack includes his small partner animal, Lionbreast. Or Lionchest if you’re Hasbro. It’s fine. It’s cute. Much the same can be said about all the Breastmasters. They give their partners something to hold regardless of whether or not they’re very convincing guns. I’m still very glad they’re here, the team wouldn’t be complete without them, but their nature doesn’t lead to them being the most exciting items individually. The legs are all ball joints, for all of them, which does give some kind of motion, but if you just want them standing there it can actually make it a little harder to get them flat with all four feet on the ground.

Lionbreast themselves are a bit funny, as I kinda forget they’re a, well, a lion. I literally only clocked that it had a mane and not a stupid fat cat face once I had it in hand. They look alright on their own, but Leozack… not so much. He suffers more than some of the other Breastmasters without their titular partner, but I wouldn’t say he’s the worst. The greebling helps keep the solid plane of white at least somewhat interesting, and the closer look at the vents on his pecs is nice. They get covered up otherwise.

The transformation isn’t too complex, largely just seeing him lay down. His legs don’t even collapse or anything. The resultant jet mode is quite nice, however. Big and chunky with the wing livery getting its full chance to shine. The stripes of gold are glorious, as is the glossy blood red paint on the cockpit. Though, there is still some combiner function funk present here as well. The back of the jet sticks out past the tail fins, with the feet flaps extending that to comical levels. You can fold them in no problem, but that makes it feel chunkier in turn. I feel as though the intended configuration could still fly.

Rolling in as the second half (or. Remaining two thirds) of the torso, Jallguar properly sets the standard that the other members work around. He holds none of the awkwardness that Leozack does, and ends up cleaner than any of the others. That’s largely in part due to how he combines, which sits in stark contrast to how Leozack is set up. The difference between the two is palpable.

Visually, Jallguar is much cleaner, sitting as a near dead ringer for the animated appearance that the set aims for. I love his head sculpt, with him and Killbison probably being my favorites (and Hellbat’s not far behind). He’s cast with a similar-if-not-ever-so-slightly-different white and a nice, charcoal black that keeps him from being a total void. He sees some additional purple and magenta/hot pink from his pack in partner, and a bit of yellow and red of his own.

He’s easily the most limber member, with a ball jointed head, universally jointed shoulders, not quite 90° at the elbows, a swivel just above that for the bicep, ball jointed hands, a free waist swivel, universal hips, a swivel just below them, very deep knees thanks to the transformation, and a respectable ankle tilt. Some of the others have deeper individual points (except knees, he holds that extreme) but he has the most balanced spread and the easiest time using it all. His only limitations are that his thigh wheels just barely block his legs from spreading flat, and that he doesn’t have heels. He traded them for actual ankles, with everyone else barring Liokaiser stuck with toe tilts that approximate the motion. His feet are rather empty on the whole, so while he’s not back heavy and doesn’t exactly struggle to stand you can feel it at times.

The transformation remains rather straightforward, but it sees our first bout of partsforming. It’s minor, with the missiles on his ankles moving to what were the tops of his feet, and if you really want you can ignore it entirely by just leaving them on the side. The resultant battle buggy is rather slick, with some additional white, orange, and touches of silver added to the mix, though it doesn’t roll the best with the Breastmaster in place. Every member can store their partner in vehicle mode, and by and large this doesn’t present an issue. Killbison and Drillhorn are admittedly low riders, but Jallguar is scraping by. It’s not making direct contact but it’s so close that you can feel it when trying to roll him along. Best to just save yourself the trouble and pop the little guy out.

On clearance issues, the missile pod. Liokaiser sees the gestalt hips and thighs be formed from a separate piece, not unlike on SS86 Devastator, though this doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. It does integrate with Jallguar’s buggy mode for the sake of storage and features some painted details to help sell the effect of a missile pod, not left as just combiner kibble, though in all honesty it might be better to exclusively treat it as such. It plugs in on top of the buggy, and then is secured further by a secondary set of wheels that go over the real ones. Plugging in the missile pod wheels feels like it is going to rub the silver paint off the real ones no matter what. It doesn’t seem like there’s a way to plug them in cleanly, with the wheels almost needing to run over the ports to line things up instead of the pegs being able to slot straight in. No matter what you do you’re probably going to see some scraping, which leads to scratching. The top pegs are plenty secure, though, so if you don’t care at all about the facade it provides then you can leave the wheels in place.

Soaring onto the scene, Guyhawk and Hellbat are, much like Killbison and Drillhorn to come, carbon copies of each other. They’re structurally similar, from engineering and articulation to much of the sculpting. That said, they remain distinct with their Breastmasters and colors, which are both quite nice. I adore Guyhawk’s shade of pink, the semi salmon tone really popping. You almost forget he was the member of the team locked up in prison. Hellbat’s cool blue contrasts it nicely, and his masked visage proves quite endearing. His Breastmaster’s face sitting so plainly on his chest is… less so, so I think Guyhawk wins in that regard.

In terms of articulation, they’re a little lacking with their knees not quite coming to 90° and with. Well waist is a strong word. What we’re calling the waist swivel for simplicity’s sake is halfway up their torsos, because it also needs to be a bicep swivel. There’s wiggle room but it’s not much and it’s an awkward point for the sculpt to break regardless. That said, everything else is up to snuff. Their arms can come up further than most thanks to the hinge on the air intakes. Hellbat gets less overall movement than Guyhawk by the most marginal degree, as while his head is on a ball joint, he can’t look up. There’s no room for it to tilt back. Jallguar was a bit limited but he still had something. Everyone else has very freely moving heads. Including Liokaiser! What’s Hellbat’s excuse?

The way the legs fold up for transformation is rather neat, with a certain order of operations necessary to allow room for the panel on one side. I love the way the combiner hand folds over to form the thrusters, and while the wings and nosecone are as basic plane former as it gets, slotting them into place still feels great. The resultant jet modes see some huge pops of yellow alongside their main colors, a welcome addition. Despite still sharing so much, the jet modes end up a lot more distinct. My only complaint here is that Guyhawk saw some stress marks on his leg tabs…

Finally getting his dues, Deathcobra is essentially an alteration of the core seen in Guyhawk and Hellbat, distinct but not all that different. You’re lucky to be here at all buddy I wouldn’t complain too much. He’s functionally the same as the other two arm bots, though he trades the added range at the arms for a proper 90° at the knees. Things continue to shift lower down, with the thigh swivel being just above to the knees thanks to the transformation changes. He also gets heels, one leg doing a little shimmy to get it out past the combiner hand. He… really needs them that is a lot of back kibble. While not the tidiest bot, he looks good in the green he’s cast in and he’s sculpted as well as everyone else. I do love the snek.

The transformation mostly sees you break his legs and fold the back kibble down. I like how the waist spins around, as neither Guyhawk nor Hellbat pull that move. The tail rotor tabbing into the split thighs is neat as well. There is some absolutely mandatory partsforming, however. The rotor needs to come off between modes, and furthermore the Breastmaster absolutely cannot stay in place. Guyhawk and Hellbat don’t like theirs staying but you can kind of eke it out on those two. That is not an option for Deathcobra. The helicopter mode is a bit odd but absolutely passable. The rotor spins quite nicely.

Rounding out the individual members, Killbison and Drillhorn bring a lot of mass to the table, but not much new. While Killbison’s matte gold is really rather lovely and Drillhorn’s blue proves quite soothing, there’s nothing they do that the others don’t, save for being so ridiculously chunky. They’re the heftiest members of the team without question, which I love. It doesn’t present any major problems for posing, everything still getting the clearance it needs with some snug joints. If anything it helps them, their feet are so massive it takes a concentrated effort to get them falling over. If you do need more support, you can easily abuse the combined mode ankle tilt, in part because their actual feet are all but useless. The only-having-toe-tilts thing is most felt here, with correctly angling their teeny feetsies being practically cosmetic they provide so little support.

The Breastmasters are a bit particular. Every Breastmaster can store on the full combined mode, and in order to accomplish that for Killbison and Drillhorn they have a quartet of small tabs on each of their legs that need to be lined up pretty precisely in order for them to plug in. Tabs on their small, ball jointed legs. It’s not terribly difficult to get things aligned but it is an added point of friction compared to how everyone else handles. The bots themselves also look a bit hollow without their partners in place.

The transformation involves a fairly specific order of operations for the legs, with the back panels needing to come down first and plug in last while the sides enclose the hands and the center tabs into the bottom of the crotch. The hands specifically need to turn inward, as well, the pegs in the legs don’t line up otherwise. Killbison sees more friction in his conversion compared to Drillhorn, with the turret on his back needing to come off and the back panel being awfully tight, at least on my copy. It feels like it’s mounted just a touch too high up, so the pegs don’t smoothly align. It similarly requires a bit more force than I’d like to get undone, but the issue is eased in both directions by pushing down on the assembly a bit. The finished tank modes roll decently well, though Drillhorn’s effort is by far the more successful looking of the two. You… you tried, Killbison.

As a whole, the completed team fares quite well. None of them are particularly exceptional individually, but there’s a consistent degree of quality present throughout the entire set. No one figure lags behind too much, and when put against the closest comparable analogue, SS86 Devastator, it’s night and day. The Breastforce raise a much higher bar. They’re solidly built, sturdy, articulate, and don’t see any of the setbacks of needing to be released at retail. That doesn’t even make mention of how much better off the end result is.

The combination for Liokaiser is a buttery smooth affair. Every connection is clean and sturdy, with the only real weak point being the knees. They can slip while you’re trying to pose him, which itself is a virtue of how it connects. The chest is an absolute brick by comparison, with a multitude of places for things to lock in across Leozack, Jallguar, and the waist. That said, Jallguar’s arms aren’t that snug. They aren’t going anywhere, nor are they especially necessary, but that tab simply isn’t very tight. Meanwhile the gestalt arms slot on quite simply and very securely, with the flaps on Leozack’s feet paying off as the connection point.

The culmination of that effort is an absolutely stunning combined mode, with a wide range of colors and plenty of detail for you to sink your eyes into. I think it’s very safe to say this may well be the best combiner Hasbro’s put out yet, both visually and physically. Liokaiser is historically an absolute stunner and this holds up the legacy exceptionally. He remains well proportioned while actually being built out of his component parts, and the colors are a well saturated treat, even if they are a bit skewed. Hellbat and Drillhorn have always been an odd pair, what with being the only two members to share a tone, but fortunately you get an option for that this time round.

Should you so choose, Deathcobra can take his rightful place as Leozack’s right hand bot and Liokaiser’s left arm, replacing Hellbat wholesale. He’s once again functionally identical to Hellbat, but he changes up the look and feel of Liokaiser a fair bit. The big thing is the colors. Hellbat is effectively the same color as Drillhorn (they are slightly different hues but its hard to notice, especially in a group effort), so Liokaiser’s spectrum of color is thrown off and he’s weighted to one side. Deathcobra resolves the crew’s colorway, making each of the six parts a completely separate shade. Physically, though, he’s a step back from Hellbat. Deathcobra’s kibble is messier and weighted very differently from Hellbat’s, so the combiner doesn’t feel as balanced when he’s put into contrast with Guyhawk. The drooping tail rotor doesn’t provide the same effect as the wings. That said, the color aspect alone makes Deathcobra a strong contender for a shelf display, despite the silhouette oddities.

If you don’t feel like breaking up the band but still want to include Deathcobra, he can serve as a shoulder mounted “cannon” for Liokaiser. It… looks dubious as all get out, nor is it very dynamic, but it’s quite secure and Liokaiser has no problem supporting the additional weight. You can also store all the Breastmasters on the cannon mode, if you so please, all seven of them having a port to call home. Though getting them on does require a bit of finagling with the chest wing. If you don’t want Deathcobra to be a part of the configuration in any capacity, then the Breastmasters can still find a place to call home on the main gestalt. Drillhorn, Killbison, and Jallguar all see their partners stay where they started, Guyhawk, Hellbat, and Deathcobra all see theirs end up on the back, and Lionbreast gets to sit at the tippity top, attached to Jallguar’s bumper.

Sticking with accessories, the set can utilize the classic gun (which is 90% just Killbison’s turret), which gets a special tab on the arms for a secure connection. Though, the missile pods don’t have much room between themselves on the turret, and they’re a pain to get unplugged from the waist. Fortunately, there’s an alternative option in the “electromagnetic nunchaku”, which was included as a bonus for reaching a backer goal, alongside Deathcobra and the stand. It comes in a multitude of pieces, including the main spear components, spike rings for some flair, and the chain connectors to let you put together whichever configuration you please. It’s a very dynamic element that offers a wide range of options, but as the connectors are all chains, not hinges, there’s only so much you can do with it before pieces flop down.

Seeing as Liokaiser was the main draw of the campaign, you’d hope that the full combined mode would have plenty to offer, and I am happy to report that the big guy holds his own quite well. The head is on a hinge that lets it look up a lot and down a tiny bit, alongside a swivel. The arms come up at two points, with the first hinge being in the body and the second being in the arm itself for a more traditional shoulder. There’s a swivel at the inner hinge and the bicep, and the elbow comes up a click past 90°. The hands are fully featured, with wrists and two points of movement for the two sets of fingers. Index and then the other three, as is the standard.

The hip skirt comes up as a single piece, which unveils the admittedly limited waist swivel. The hips can come just about all the way forward and not quite as far back, blocked by the legs themselves more than anything. They can spread flat, but that works best when the wheels have been moved out of the way. The thigh swivel spins freely, and the knees come to about 60°, or roughly five clicks. The ankles can come flat down and then even further past that, and the toes retain their transformation hinge, if you so desire it. To top it all off, just about everything is ratcheted, save for some swivels.

While maybe not the most insane set of articulation ever seen, it’s very fully featured, and considering that’s on a combiner made of similarly well rounded bots, it’s an impressive feat. Things like the ratchets in the arms do a lot. The whole thing is sturdy and can pull off some intense poses, even with the considerable chunk at play. The stand opens things up for even more extreme expressions, as well as aerial acrobatics. It’s a very sturdy piece, holding Liokaiser up absolutely no problem. There’s barely any wobble, either, something Deathsaurus’ stand struggled with a bit. Liokaiser’s stand is also compatible with the planes once it’s been split apart, and can serve as storage for the nunchaku should you wish to discard the packaging.

As a whole, Liokaiser has left me very satisfied. It’s everything you could want from a modern Breastforce (sorry, Chestforce, been getting it wrong this entire time! Silly me), plus a bit more. All seven members, their partner figures, an excellent combined mode and some goodies on top of that. The team was incredibly well realized, to the point that I don’t think there’s anything more the set could have really offered. The individual figures may not surpass something like Deathsaurus (granted that’s a HIGH bar), the fact that they’re all fun to handle while the headlining gestalt looks and plays as good as it does gives Liokaiser a huge leg up. Well, so does Killbison, but- Truly, Liokaiser is worth more than the sum of its parts.

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