As I enter the final leg in my viewing of the Japanese G1 series, I finished Transformers Victory yesterday as part of my goal to have seen all the TF media. Of the "Japanese G1 Trilogy", Headmasters, Masterforce, and Victory, Victory is by far my favorite. My current ranking for the series I've actually seen: Animated Beast Wars Beast Wars Neo* Victory Cybertron Superlink (Superlink, not Energon) Car Robots (Car Robots, not RiD) G1 Masterforce Headmasters Beast Wars II* Beast Machines Armada *I've seen the majority of BWNeo but I'm missing a few episodes, I've seen around half of BWII; but I have seen the movie. As you can tell, I rather enjoyed Victory. If I could pick some characters to get figures for say a 30th Anniversary line to get figures to represent the Victory-era of Transformers, I'd love to see Star Saber and Victory Leo to represent the Autobots, and Goryu, Leozack, and Deathsaurus for the Decepticons. Heck, I'd even take a redeco of FOC Grimlock (we'll get one!) as Goryu. The series as a whole, on paper doesn't sound that great, or even all that appealing to me. The comedic antics of the Dinoforce, Jan's arc about going to school, etc. However, on screen, it either worked or didn't bother me. I was also concerned that this would be another series in which the protaganist is largely unchallenged, but after we get LioKaiser there was a shift in tone leading to perhaps my favorite Transformers finale of them all. Spoilers for the series follow this point, so consider yourself warned, reading on will spoil the series for you, so if you're intending to eventually get to it and want it to be fresh, you should stop reading now. Pros: The Dinoforce. Initially I was going to take a longer break before I started Victory after finishing Masterforce, but the screen cap of the transformer riding a cybernetic T-Rex intrigued me to the point where I had to start it early. While some viewers may get turned off by the comedic antics of the group, and I fully expected to be among that group, I instead enjoyed their antics. Then they took on a new light in episode 31 and by the end of the series with their honorable turncoating, they were my favorite group, shockingly enough. Jan. Like the Dinoforce, I was going into this expecting to find Jan the annoying token human of the series. Instead while he has many childlike qualties, he's generally an asset to the team. With the Illumina II, he is the biggest plot point of the series, which makes him usefull. He realizes that he's a kid in a larger war, so he doesn't try to get in the way of major battles instead concentrating on evacuations and rescue operations and even after he gets his own mech, he uses it not to battle, but to help. While I knew there'd be no way for him be killed off, his actions in the last episode really showed his character, even Victory Saber boasts of how one human child stopped the Decepticon Empire. The Animation in episode 37. While Victory as a whole is pretty well animated, they really took it up a notch in the last new episode. Deathsaurus' base transformation was in the same league as Unicrons transformation in terms of animation quality and design. The battle between Deathsaurus and Victory Saber was brutal and fun to watch, it was all very good. Plotwise it was just as strong. It wrapped up the series very well and even had a very satisfying epilogue. Hellbat. We have a Starscreamish Leozack, the second in command who is planning to ultimately overthrow Deathsaurus and become Emperor of Destruction in the long run, but we've also got Hellbat, who is planning on overthrowing Leozack to become second in command. Hellbat even murdered a fellow Decepticon to stay vital to forming LioKaiser. He also had several plans to make himself look good and Leozack look bad. This was very fun. There's some character depth. Not a whole lot, but there is some and what's there is pretty decent. Cons: I don't think it's possible to criticize Victory without first and foremost bringing up the clips shows. 12 clip shows in 44 episodes! More then a quarter of the series, 27% of the series was a clip show! The Multiforce never get a chance to shine. While most characters get something in this series, the Multiforce never really have an episode that really allows them to shine. We get some development of some of the members and the teams, but never the entire Multiforce, which considering they are the largest Autobot subgroup, is a bit of a shame. Poor Galaxy Shuttle. Seriously, most of the time he's not treated as a sentient being, he never gets a real battle or any focus. He's the Autobot Bus, only treated worse then any other Autobot Bus. He has so close to zero dialogue dispite him being in so many episodes, just because he's treated as a vehicle and not another Transformer. The plot does slow down in the low teens, but for me it gained back a lot of momentum after episode 17. It's not nearly as bad as Headmasters straight out stall though. Well, that's all that comes to mind now. Thank you very much for reading. If you haven't, you can check out my thoughts after I finished Masterforce and after I finished watching Cybertron. Up next is Zone, I hope it's good!
I like the opening theme V - V - Victory! Reading your small review I want to know more. Usually G1 japanese series are... very different... In Victory the Dinoforce is where most of my fears are. If you say they are fun, maybe importing DVDs aren't a really bad idea? Do you reviewed (or plan to review) Headmasters, too?
I liked the opening and the closing. Everybody's tastes are different. One persons fun is another persons ******ed. You may want to give an episode or two a try on YouTube to see how you like it. If you enjoy it, either wait for the domestic DVDs or import away. When I finished Headmasters, it had just come out on DVD in the US and there were 15 threads about the series, so I figured no one would be interested. In short, on paper Headmasters should've been awesome. If you look at a list of all the stuff that happens, it sounds like it should be a great series. In actual application, not so much. One of the biggest problems is the pacing. The plot just stops more then once, which makes several episodes trudgingly dull. Usually when I watch a series I try to watch just 1 episode a day. With Headmasters I dropped down to 1 episode a week for a while, just because it was wearing on me.
yes.. so Hawt. :3 Also, shameless plug* sorry OP for this! Pics! Credited to Ebay seller, Anglo Mint In Box (MIB) C-327 Victory Leo ! part Deux'
Did you watch the Shout! Factory version or one of the older ones? If it was S!F, did they edit out (or keep) the scene where the farmer gives Star Saber the finger?
Planetary impacto swoooordo!!! and later its just Saber Blade-ooo! Yes victory is awesome despite the clip shows, but Tf anime was coming to an end so i guess it was a way to fill out a season? The Brest Force combining was a shock to me when watching knowing so little of the victory series. When they did and how powerful they were against the seemingly invincible Star Saber, who would quite voltron-esquely defeat all who'd stand in his way, it was a shock. Then when God Ginrai returned, and his death to become victory lio. WOW. guess they couldnt have another bot looking like convoy floating around for too long. but even still, victory lio remembering himself to save Jan was a pretty cool episode. its like he came to his sences and his old self re-awoke. He still remained more aggressive but less agro. I enjoyed how the autobots were upset but, "thats how the cookie crumbles" when he was to be rebuilt as victory lio whilst jan was very upset about the whole event. Prolly the earilest spark transplant surgery in the known Tf franchise. The return of wheeljack an perceptor and minerva was a nice twist too. didnt minerva have a think for Ginrai though? guess when she seperated from her transtector that didnt get tansfered. something that bothered me was that they couldnt removethe little godmaster robot from insie the armor. its like, the bigger body couldnt move but the little one was also paralyze too? ah the dinoforce, the backbone of the destron army until more brest force members showed up. generally as thuggish as any destrons would be, just not as smart which is just sad but generally a cool TF group, even if repaints. neat how repaints became more popular than the first run. right? as far as landcross was concerned it was stated they were a young team so as a team showing members grow was good but they shined individually. had the series gone on longer they might have gotten a chance. and who wasnt a combiner in victory? just wow. only Greatshot and Deszaras were stand alone figures. Shame about Galaxy shuttle, but at least his homage in design that was armad jetfire got alot of screen time. maybe he (galaxy shuttle) wasnt a warrior to begin with. maybe he just liked being a cargo jet and was happy with that? even G1 jetfire was just a bus and rarely fought and come season 2, he got scraped for Omega Supreme, Powerglide, Cosmos, and Tracks and 2 of which rarely if ever played taxi. and yes the fight scenes were brutal, probably the best amongst g1.
Finished! I think I prefer Masterforce in terms of story, but the bots in Victory are epic. Too bad they're so damn expensive. Next up, Zone! Be, Be, Bictohree! Tohransfomahs Bictohree!
