Transformers Review: Road Caesar (Kabaya)

Intro:

            Since I’ve started collecting, one of the Transformers that I have always wanted is Road Caesar. Road Caesar, or should I say his 3 components – Blacker, Laster and Braver, along with Star Saber, are the only known Brainmasters in the Transformers: Victory animated series.

            Brainmasters are actually small human-sized Transformers, that when combined with a Transector body, will formed the face.

            Anyways Road Caesar, at the time of its release, was one of the first gestalts that consisted of only 3 components, instead of the traditionally 5 components. Road Caesar has proven to be one of the rarest figures in the secondhand market ever, and to be able to find him a really good condition is extremely difficult. Even if you managed to find him in perfect condition (and mostly non-minted), it would probably cost you a bomb!

            So, seeing as how remote my chances are of getting an actual Road Caesar figure, I might as well settle for a cheaper version of it.

            These later generations of Kabaya kits, which started in 2009 have been actively re-releasing some of the most classic characters of old, such as Fortress Maximus, Deathsaurus, Star Saber, Victory Leo, God Ginrai and many more.

Blacker's Parts

            While they may not be a worthy replacement for their original selves, it is still a good attempt on Kabaya’s part.

Laster and Braver's Parts

            When Kabaya announced that they were going to release Road Caesar, I know that I just had to get him. It would probably be the closest thing to a Road Caesar that I’ll ever going to have.

            All 3 components of Road Caesar, i.e. Blacker, Laster and Braver are sold separately – Blacker on its own; Laster and Braver are sold together in a pack. So you really have to get all 2 of sets of them in order to make this purchase worthwhile.

            So, without further ado, let’s get on with their individual reviews, and then onwards to the big guy himself.

Blacker:

            Sold on his own is none other than the leader of the team – Blacker.

            Blacker transforms into a pretty nifty-looking dune buggy. Since this is a Kabaya, he doesn’t have any actual rolling wheels.

Kibbles underneath

            Of the 3 components, Blacker is the only robot that could store his Brainmaster in the cockpit. The Brainmaster, also known as the Brain of Strength can be slotted into Blacker’s chest in robot mode – a pretty nifty touch from Kabaya, I think. Don’t expect the Brainmaster to be poseable or anything, he’s just a small plastic molded to resemble some sort of a robot.

            Blacker also comes accessorized with a shield, a sword, a blaster, as well as a pair of hands with blasters. Although all of his accessories can be plugged onto the vehicle mode, I prefer to accessorize Blacker the way how he was in his original G1 form. I prefer to the two other Road Caesar arms for Laster and Braver.

            Anyways, once transformed, Blacker is actually the size of a Scout-class figure. He has pretty much all the typical articulations for a Kabaya figure.

            Surprisingly, the head actually turns. The arms rotate and move outward. The hips move outwards as well, and he has knees articulation – about 5° of it.

            All in all, he’s a good figure.

Laster:

            Laster, the yellow car, is the anti-social member of the trio, and he transforms into a Lamborghini Countach sports car – not that we could make it out anyway.  

            His car mode comes accessorized with the leg piece, which when you take the arm piece from Blacker’s set, and combined it together, it forms Laster’s weapon.

           Laster, like Blacker, too comes with a Brainmaster robot called the Brain of Skill. Unfortunately in this mode, there is no way for it to be mounted into the cockpit, so you night as well just leave him in the chest of the bigger robot.

            Once transformed, Laster stands about the same height as Blacker, which is fantastic. I always prefer members of a combiner team to all be in equal heights, because that was how they were depicted in the actual series.

            Articulation-wise; the arms swing outward, the legs swing outward and the knees bend, that’s all.

            It’s not exactly on par with Blacker, but I guess it’s okay.

Braver:

            The last of the Road Caesar crew, Braver, is definitely not the least of the group. He transforms into a Ferrari F40 sports car, while his Brainmaster unit is called the Brain of Intelligence.

            One would expect that since this is a cheap Kabaya kit figure, Braver would actually be a simple repaint of Laster, seeing as how similar they are to one another, but that is surprisingly not the case. 

            All those little thing such as the slope of the cockpit, the shape of the spoilers and even the molded-in outline of the headlights are different!

            It’s those small subtle differences that make this set even more enjoyable.  

            Everything else, such as in terms of gimmicks and articulations; it is exactly as Laster’s. So I won’t be repeating myself here.

Ready to form Road Caesar!!!

Road Caesar:

            This is what makes this set worthwhile. According to tech specs, Road Caesar is the perfect fusion of all of his component member. The fusion brings together the strength of Blacker, the intelligence of Braver and the skills of Laster.

The resulting combination of the 3 components is way better than I had initially expected it – at least visually.

            In his original G1 action figure, the legs were overly big, and that is still the case here. However, the arms are a bit better proportioned in terms of lengths – tiny, but long enough.

The shield that Blacker wields now forms Road Caesar’s chest and the blaster on top of that shield now becomes the head.

            There’s nothing to shout about in terms of the articulations. The shoulders have all range of motions, the next turns and the legs swing sideward, and that’s about it.

            Road Caesar also wields the Road Blade, which essentially the blade that Blacker wields.

            Size-wise, he is slightly bigger than the traditional Deluxe-class figures.

            Still, a brick he may be, but I still like ‘em.

           

Overall:

I’ve always wanted a Road Caesar figure, but it’s just so rare, and even if you can find it, it will be a bomb, so I guess as far as this point in time goes, this is probably the closest to a Road Caesar robot that I will ever get.

I like these Kabaya figures in general, they most try to stay true to their G1 depictions, but at the same time, they would actually improved on certain aspect of their original counterparts, normally in terms of their articulations.

I really enjoyed this set and am looking forward to more.

Highly recommended.

            Final verdict: 9/10.