Dark Sabre - Armada - Roleplay


Review in brief- Armada Dark Saber

This is a very brief review of the Armada Dark Saber roleplay toy. I bought it today at a local toy store because it was on sale for 5 Euro (original Dutch price 25 Euro) which seemed like a ok purchase. And I was curious to see it in action. Besides I visit the toy store almost every day during my lunchbreak so I felt I should finally buy something to compensate the shopkeepers for seeing my ugly mug every day. ;-)

They also had the Star Sabre but I choose this version because I liked the colors better. But that is just a matter of preference as the toys are basically the same. I am now going to review it while comparing it to the Energon Megatron sword as well.

First off, it is a nice idea to recreate the fabled Star Sabre/Dark Sabre for roleplay given its important role in Armada. But the results are pretty bad. It starts with the lenght of the sword or rather lack there of. The sword is really short and is not really a sword but more like a dagger. According to the instuctions one can switch from dagger to sword mode (more on that later) but that really does not add much length. Just an inch. So this is a pretty lame sword.

To compare, the Energon Megatron sword is roughly 2.5 times as long. Even the hilt is bigger. It is no wonder that this baby did not sell well. It went down to 12.50 Euro here and I did not feel like buying it then. Even for 5 Euro I had to think about it for a few minutes before deciding. And I absolutely love the Energon Megatron sword.

But length is not all there is to this sword. One can clearly see that the sword consists of 3 planes, there are two wings near the hilt and the nose of Sonar's shuttle mode can also be seen. The nose of Jetstorm functions as a button and his tail wing is also visible. And the nose of Runway is the point of the dagger mode. Just like the Star Sabre/Dark Sabre comprised of the 3 Mini-Cons, it clearly does not look like a sword.

So it could have been better designed. But based on the Star Sabre/Dark Sabre comprised of the 3 Mini-Cons, the sculpt looks pretty decent. The color black is mainly present comibined with gold and purple and tranlucent light purple for the extendable blades. The color sculpt is cool but that alone will not save this toy.

The gimmicks perhaps them? Well the main gimmick is to pull down the purple nosecone like button just below the fin. This will cause two sideblades to rotate and form the sword blade. At the same time, Sonar's nosecone halves will extend sideways a bit and a sound is played. This is a typical "whrrr" sound to resemble something mechanic being activated. The Mini-Con symbol on the sword will light up. The light is behind translucent purple plastic but because it is red, the purple makes no difference then. A white light would have worked better as it would have looked purple trough the plastic.

Swinging the sword will result in a "woosh" sound followed by a clash. So unlike with the Megatron Energon sword, you do not need to hit anything to make a sound. Sadly there is just one sound and not two. The blade does not light up, humm or anything either. And that happens to be the coolest factor of the Energon Megatron sword.

Pushing the switch back causes another sound to play which I cannot really describe but it is fitting so that it at least something. Swinging the sword without the extra blades extended will result in a different swing-clash sound. Finally something to like.

Conclusion

One does not even have to compare this to the Megatron Energon Sword to realize that this is a pretty lame sword. The sounds are nice and so is the idea of the extendable blades. But the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Even if you love the Energon Megatron sword you will probably want to pass up on this one. That is doing everything right and as a result is much, much cooler. This should never have been released actually. It is that bad.



ReviewerFerry Rudolph  
DateJune 13th 2005  
Score 2 stars (2 out of 10)  
Reads10194


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