Name: Victory Leo
Series: Victory
Allegiance: Cybertron
Function: Armoured Warrior
Alternate Mode: Robotic Lion
Thanks to Pulse for loaning me Victory Leo for this review
LION MODE
Height: 20.5cm Length: 32cm Width: 25cm
A blocky robotic black lion with yellow legs and head, Victory Leo has white fangs and white wings on his back, blue eyes and three giant grey cannons on his back, all of which end in red tips. There are a few stickers here and there, but the basic colour scheme is pretty simple. The black and yellow works well for a lion while the white, red and grey are all good supporting colours, with the white and red lining up to the colours of Star Saber.
The detailing here is generally low, but there's some nice sculpting on the yellow legs, including well defined claws, while the head features a mane, teeth and whiskers. Victory Leo is all about the giant wings and guns on his back, anyway - the larger central gun is longer than the main body of the lion while the wings put Voltron's black lion to shame. As you'd expect of a G1 robotic beast, this is a very blocky lion. Despite the relatively simple nature of this beast mode, it is still impressive, partly because of the cache of weaponry on his back and partly because it's just plain big.
There's not much play value here, which is to be expected, really. The legs all swing, but there's not enough poseability in the limbs themselves for stable poses, other than his default, ready to go, stance. The lower jaw opens and shuts, revealing the teeth. There's no tail. The larger gun is actually a missile launcher, firing a small yellow missile thanks to a trigger underneath, although it doesn't fire that well.
There is actually an "attack" mode, which is the lion mode with legs folded up, wings extended and the guns facing backwards. It's essentially a mode invented by the creators of the Victory cartoon (thanks to FortMax Reed for this info). It's portrayed as a spectacularly unaerodynamic plane in that cartoon.
While he's big, majestic and decked out with some great features, Victory Leo can't really get away from the fact that he's a powerup for Star Saber (forming Victory Saber). Like God Bomber the year before, he disassembles and clips on, but while that figure became a trailer-sort-of-thing, Victory Leo is a convincing robotic lion, and looks good in his own right. Sure he's static and very simple for his size, but this mode works well enough to support the combination that is his reason for existing.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Unclip the main gun and set aside. Push down on two small yellow buttons on his kidneys, unlocking the rear, which extends to form robot legs. Swing the hindlegs up, fold down his robot feet and stand him up. Flip up the black panel underneath the head to reveal the robot face, swing the fangs out as horns. Fold back the foreclaws, fold up yellow panels hiding the robot hands, straighten out his arms. Clip the giant gun onto either hip, swing the wings forward.
While there are a few steps here, much of it involves fiddling with the hands and feet - this is a simple transformation relative to Victory Leo's size. Still, it's easily better than that of God Bomber, and doesn't require dismantling the toy.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 43cm (26.5 at the head) Width: 26cm
Victory Leo is a mainly black robot with a yellow head, silver face and blue eyes. His wrists are also yellow, his feet red while his elbows and thighs are white. The white wings extend behind his shoulders while the two smaller grey guns tower behind his back. The larger gun hangs off his hip, and again it is huge and really dominates. There are gold chrome areas on his chest and various silver silvers, including a pair on his groin with an Autobot logo that's split down the middle. The colours again work and retain the lion feel of his beast mode.
Again the detailing is fairly simple - but there is a lot happening here. The face is well sculpted, there are false Gatling guns on his hips - which are actually the mounts for the giant grey cannon. The wings have sculpting on what is essentially the underside and the torso is well shaped. The fists are fairly low detail, and lack holes.
There isn't much play value here, Victory Leo is the brick you'd expect him to be. His shoulders swing and the elbows bend, representing all of his poseability. While he's a brick, at least Victory Leo is a brick with some weapons options. You can pivot the grey guns up over his white horns, detach them and plug them onto the outsides of his forearms. The wings can extend, although this is really meant for Victory Saber. And of course the ridiculously large gnu fires its small yellow missile, from either hip.
While he's quite simple and feels like the power up armour partner that he is, Victory Leo's robot mode is decent enough for him to work. The colours, shape and weapons all work for him, and there's enough of the you dedicated to his robot mode to make it a worthwhile one.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of. They'd be worth a fortune. There is a Robotmasters version of the character, which is essentially the same thing at a much simpler scale. He represents a reborn God Ginrai.
OVERALL
A pretty decent effort for a guy who really exists to augment another Transformer, Victory Leo looks good in both modes and has some play value, although he is pretty simple. This simplicity works in his favour - Victory Leo isn't trying to do too much, and succeeds as a Transformer as a result. He's much better than the previous year's effort in God Bomber, even if much of his visual appeal is down to the giant guns and wings. I actually prefer this toy to Star Saber, because his alternate mode just feels more focused. Due to the price, this isn't a toy I'd recommend as such - the Robotmasters version will do me, and I'd say it represents better value, but Victory Leo is still a good toy within the context of his time - 7/10
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