Prelude: Remember Star Saber? Beloved leader of the Seibertrons from Transformers Victory? Father figure, hero, friend to young boys everywhere? Well, this is not him. This is the IDW comics’ religious crusader. Planet X has now brought us a figure of this zealot version of the beloved Victory leader. It’s not an official Transformer, of course, so it’s called Kadmos instead, named after the mythical founder and first king of Thebes, also a renowned her and monster slayer from well before the days of Heracles. Let’s say go… kill all non-believers!

Small Robot: In Victory Star Saber was basically a three-phase robot. A tiny Brainmaster (called Brain of Courage) entered the chest of a robot to become Saber, who then combined with his V-Star module to become Star Saber. Kadmos skips the smallest of those phases and starts with the intermediate robot Saber. Now we never saw Star Saber’s smaller robot mode in the IDW comics, but one might safely assume he was similar to IDW Ultra Magnus in not wanting people to know his true looks (and size). Anyway, the smaller Kadmos robot is about Legends-sized, very nicely articulated due to numerous ball-joints, and close enough in looks to the original Saber to be recognizable as the same guy.

There is even a minor homage included to the original Saber’s Brainmaster gimmick as, when transforming into robot mode, the robot’s head slides up from inside his chest, very similar to how the Brainmasters worked. Nicely done. Sadly that is the most positive thing I can say about the smaller robot. Nothing wrong with his looks or articulation, but there isn’t really much else you can do here. No weapons for this little guy, either.

Small Kadmos can also transform into a sort-of jet mode, but where the robot mode looks very close to the original Saber, the jet mode really doesn’t. It barely looks like a jet, to be honest. It’s basically just the robot folded in half with tiny wings and a cockpit folding out, little more than that. So bottom line for Kadmos’ smaller robot mode: not bad, nice homage, but really not the reason to buy this figure. I doubt that I will ever take him out of the larger robot again after finishing up this review. Let’s get to the bigger guy now.

Large Robot: Kadmos’ larger robot mode is pretty much IDW Star Saber as he appeared on the pages of the comics. There are more than enough similarities to the classic Victory Star Saber to recognize them as the same guy, but Kadmos looks edgier, less like an 80s anime robot and more like a 90s extreme killer death robot. Which I don’t mind, just saying. He looks pretty cool, but different enough from the original to be considered his own character.

The figure is about Ultra-class sized and partially made from metal, giving it a good, solid feel. Some of the joints feel a bit wobbly, but the figure has a firm stance and can pull off all kinds of dynamic poses with no problems, so no complaints here. It can unfold wings from its back, too, giving it a bit of the old Victory Saber vibe. Kadmos carries his jet cockpit on his back, but can also detach it and plug it into his shoulder as a kind of shield (for Overlord vibes). His only weapon is a large sword, which he can wield two-handed in many cool swordfight poses. The sword can also be plugged into his shoulder for storage.

Kadmos transforms into a huge science fiction space jet and can do it without having to remove the smaller robot, too. The resulting jet looks very cool, no complaints, and holds together pretty well, too. The transformation is more or less identical to that of the original Star Saber and easier than it looks in the instructions, too. The jet has a fully functional landing gear and the only visible robot bits are the hands, which are only recognizable from the underside. So bottom line: a great larger robot that transforms into a great space jet. This is definitely the reason to buy this figure.

Remarks: While not very widely known outside Japan, Star Saber is one of the most beloved Transformers in the land of the rising sun. He was the fans’ choice for the Masterpiece line in 2014. When he crossed over into the IDW comics, though, we saw a very, very different Star Saber. One more interested in slaughtering non-believers than defeating the evil Destrons. Star Saber amassed quite the kill count in the IDW comics (Dai Atlas, Mirage, Defensor, most of the Circle of Light) before finally being defeated and killed by Cyclonus.

I hesitated a long time before finally buying this figure, but finally got him in order to put him against my Ismenios / Deszaras and because I’ve kind of grown fond of IDW’s Murder-Saber. Planet X’s figures have a rather particular feel to them, heavy and with sharp edges, but I’ve come to like it and certainly don’t regret buying Kadmos. He’s probably not for everyone, as he is a weird variation of a character not widely popular outside Japan, but if you like Star Saber (be it the Victory version or the IDW zealot), then I can fully recommend Kadmos to you. And should you happen to forget that there is a mediocre smaller robot inside the very good bigger robot, that’s okay, too.

Rating: B+


Source: Transformers-Universe.com

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Bought this to go with the new Dezaras. Price was pretty good and I'm so thirsty for some Star Saber.

Never cared for idw but star saber was pretty awesome and while I prefer hasbros design (the hole victory saber package) this will do for now.

He's very heavy and typical planet x all the point bits. I'm not bleeding or anything but it feels like an annoying kid has been sticking me with a tack all day.

Vehicle mode is nice but I don't know why sometimes things just don't want to click. Still managed to hold together pretty well.

Core robot is flimsy and I thing that was a design choice to emphasize articulation which is fine. Does make the overall figure feel more like legends scale.