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- HMM-019 Great Sabre
The Great Sabre is an awesome kit. It is one of the earliest releases to have so many weapons, and such detail in the design. This review is of the rerelease that was issued in December 2013.
While I can't speak for the original copies the reissue appears to have suffered mold degradation with a number of small and annoying problems. It has a lot more loose parts than my other two sabers. However, I have heard of many people having these issues, so maybe I was just finally unlucky. There was also a lot of extremely thin flash on parts. Very little and exceptionally easy to trim away with no complications, but it still showed that plastic has begun to seep out of the molds.
Overall Sabre's color scheme is really nice. The black is a semi-gloss charcoal with obvious marbling. The red is a dark crimson. My big issue with the color scheme is that the gray is actually tinted purple and this really clashes with the scheme as a whole.
The poseability of Sabers in general is great but the weapon unit creates some complications. The belts are slightly too short. This means that it will pull off the front or back half of the weapon pack when the Zoid is posed in certain ways. The belts will also pop off, and parts of the weapon assembly can fall off easily sometimes.
Pros:
-Very high number of movable parts and weapons
-Excellent articulation
Cons:
-More loose parts than other Saber Tiger variants
-Weapon back inhibits pose ability in some cases
-Marbling on all black plastic
- Box Scans
- Customize Parts
While not all of these chrome pieces are specifically for the Great Sabre, many of them are. The first photos will show the two different sets.
The main Saber Tiger set includes everything pictures here but the caps (chrome parts). The teeth will need some trimming on the pegs so that they don't keep the face from closing all the way. The pilot may also need some trimming.
The claws on the other hand go on without a hitch. There is no fitting problems and they look fantastic. The final sprue is for the eyes which casts them in a faded brown like the OJR colors. I am not sure if the decals are waterslides or not.
Also pictured here are the large silver chrome caps set. These will work on any Zoid that uses the large caps, and look fantastic on the Great Sabre. There are four sprues contained in this set. It takes almost three full sprues to cover everything on the Great Sabre.
[HMM CP-007: Saber Tiger Customize Parts Set (Saber Tiger Reproduction Decal]
Sprue: Includes teeth and pilot sprue (Chrome Silver)
Sprue: Includes top part of claws (Chrom Silver) (x2)
Sprue: Includes eyes (Faded Brown)
Decals: Saber Tiger set
[HMM CP-009: Joint Cap Set (Large) Silver Version]
Sprue: Includes large scale caps (Chrome Silver) (x4)
Gimmicks:
- Cockpit
The Great Sabre's cockpit opens towards the nose. Unlike a lot of other Zoids it has a highly detailed control panel. The pilot is cast in the same bone color as the claws and teeth.
- Jaws
Watch out for any tiger's teeth. The Great Sabre is pretty stabby, to a point that fangs can actually be pretty fragile. Not in breaking, normally, but with the tips able to be easily bent out of shape. The jaws themselves can open at a 90 degree angle.
- Head
The head is on a ball joint that allows it to turn left and right, as well as tilt to either side. It's a horrible pain to build due to a number of loose parts that just kind of sit in place. Once together it all stays in securely, except for a bar in the back of the cockpit that likes to pop off.
- Neck
The neck can rotate up and down, allowing the gold and silver pipes on the back to contract and expand. The black panel that goes over the top is also attached on a tiny ball joint to let it rotate around.
- Front Legs
The front legs are kind of a pain to build. Make sure that the Y part is set down before attaching them, and pay close attention to the 'bars' and where they slide in. When the leg moves and stretches the top half slides downwards. The discs also move with the leg. This makes a lot of 'cover' to hide disjointed looks from articulated parts.
- Paws
The paws attach to a peg that lets them tilt left and right. The peg is attached to another hinge that lets it rotate up and down. The claws are all seperately articulated but cannot lean in and out, only move up and down.
- Rear Legs
The rear legs have seperate articualtion for the top, middle, and bottom sections. The pipes do inhibit movement just a bit, but it has the same disc rotation. Unfortunately the heel looks a bit more disjointed than the 'elbows' of the front legs.
- Chest Guns
The equipment on the chest attaches to pegs that should allow rotation, but due to their shape it doesn't really have any rotational ability at all, besides maybe slight twitching.
- Zoid Core
The panel that attaches the Zoid Core slides in and out fairly effortlessly and stays in securely.
- Weapon Pack
Ok, the weapon pack is awesome but there are so many problems involved that I don't know where to start.
First off, the top half sits over that dreaded armor over the back of the Saber Tiger.This can press against those armor pieces and cause them to come undone even more than usual.
The belts that link the back section to the shoulder section are not long enough, so in some poses will either pull out of the weapon pack or pull one of the two halves off of the Zoid. I recommend gluing both connection points and the belts if you can.
Finally, the peg on the back that attaches the unit only goes in half way. This appears to be the case on all Koto AT sabers, so it seems to be a manufacturing error.
Otherwise, the unit on the back is able to slide forwards and backwards, which helps a bit with the length of the belts. It can also tilt up and down, but comes off very easily.
- Antenna
The antenna on the upper left weapon pack swivels forwards and backwards. Be aware of the part that juts out of the side, ti is on a fragile peg.
- Eight-Barrel Missile Pod
The missile unit is a little complicated sometimes. For it to rotate fully you need to make sure that the gray circular bars are rotated upwards first, then you should be able to swivel the main unit. Otherwise it rests nicely on the black box.
- Ground-to-Ground Missile Pod
This part is on a peg that is able to swivel a full 360 degrees.
- Wing Balancers
These are a very cool design, but they are also complicated. Inside of the unit is a rail that goes slightly up, diagonally, and back. You have to carefully slide them along this rail. Pushed in, they lay flat on the back. Pulled out, and they can stand up on end.
They can lean/tilt outwards, but tend to flop down if leaned too far. The rotation of the main connection point also allows them to extend flat out from the rear, acting as aeroplane wings of sorts (except, ya know, without actual prolonged flight).
- Sulfuric Acid Gun
The main gun can spin 360 degrees on the side of the weapon rack. The tank is on a peg that allows rotation. Because it is so close to the legs it doesn't always fully rotate, but if the main gun is rotated outwards a bit more it can turn.
- AEZ 20mm Beam Gun
This gun can also rotate fully due to the peg attachment.
- 20mm Solid Rifle
I forgot to take more pictures of this, but the main rifle attaches to a leg to the circular part of the weapon pack. This allows it to rotate up and down, although the body and legse may limit the rotational abilities.
- Tail
The main tail section is attached on a hinge that actually has two points of rotation, allowing it to extend further out from the body than usual. The middle of the tail has a downwards peg that allows side to side motion.
- AEZ 20mm Linear Laser
Both guns can rotate seperately, and often lay flat above the wing stabilizers. This whole assembly can come undone pretty easily, so it might be worth adding a layer of clear coat to keep everything more secure.
- Body
Great Sabre's body can twist up, down, and turn left and right to a small degree. The belts inhibit some movement. The upper back armor is as difficult as ever; constantly coming done, never staying in place, and putting potential breakage level of stress on the peg that's meant to hold it in place. Once you get this attached make it a point to never touch it again while posing.
