Deathsaurus (Victory)


 * Deathsaurus is a Decepticon from the Victory portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.



Deathsaurus is a savage and cruel dictator, yet he's oddly fond of human children.

The Decepticon Emperor of Destruction, he bears a bitter grudge against Autobot Supreme Commander, Star Saber. He prefers to lead his warriors from a distance, though engages in battle when necessary. Much like a Bond villain, he'll gladly tell you his plan before leaving you unsupervised in a delayed-result death trap. That said, he is ferociously powerful, and has come disturbingly close to victory on several occasions. He even pulled the trigger in an attack that would have killed a helpless Star Saber, only to find he'd transfered too much energy to his fortress and the damn gun didn't work. The gun's designer was later found impaled on a church spire.

He commands the Decepticon Space City. Deathsaurus is a Breastforce warrior, meaning he has two detachable breastplates which can transform into the Tigerbreast and Eaglebreast, respectively.


 * Japanese name: Deszaras (デスザラス de-su-za-ra-su)
 * English-Malay dub name: Deathsanras

Victory cartoon

 * Voice actor: Takeshi Aono (Japanese)

Years ago, striving to become the Decepticons' new Emperor of Destruction, Deathsaurus created a gigantic battle fortress capable of destroying planets, but an attack by the young Autobot commander Star Saber saw the fortress de-powered and trapped within a region of space known as the Dark Nebula. This began the enmity between Star Saber and Deathsaurus, and as both combatants rose through the ranks of their respective armies, Deathsaurus vowed to eventually liberate his fortress and use it to destroy Star Saber.



After the conclusion of the Masterforce war on Earth, Deathsaurus set his sights on the planet's vast energy sources, and, from his command post on the Decepticons' starcraft the Thunder Arrow, he directed his troops, the Breastforce and Dinoforce in attacks on the planet. Deathsaurus rarely dirtied his own hands, entering battle only rarely, and only when there was a chance that he could confront Star Saber directly, such as there was when he led the Breastforce in raiding the electrical energy of American subway systems. This led him to be the object of great contempt from Breastforce sub-leader Leozack, who schemed against Deathsaurus, but systematically failed to succeed in his numerous ploys, either as a result of his own incompetence or the counter-scheming of his subordinate, Hellbat, who sought to overthrow both him and Deathsaurus. Deathsaurus was no fool, however, and remained perpetually aware of Leozack's plans - when the time came, he thrashed the Breastforcer in combat and forced him to swear utter loyalty to him.



While Star Saber was on the planet Micro, Deathsaurus returned to the Dark Nebula to investigate the possibility of reactivating his fortress; he did not have enough energy, but was at least able to confirm that the fortress was in functional order and could be reactivated when the time came. Unfortunately for him, having expended what energy he had to confirm this, he was unable to finish Star Saber when he engaged him in battle in space on the return trip. Later, back on Earth, Deathsaurus lured Star Saber into a trap in the desert, where he attacked with the power of the Living Metal-Destroying Cannon.

The weapon almost finished Star Saber off until God Ginrai intervened and was left at death's door instead, but when he was reconstructed as Victory Leo and combined with Star Saber to form Victory Saber, they were able to thwart Deathsaurus's plan to bombard Earth with missiles.



Discovering that the sunken continent of Atlantis contained enough raw energy to re-energize his fortress, Deathsaurus ransacked the ancient ruins and abandoned the Dinosaur Force to their fate as the Thunder Arrow shot off into space to fulfill his evil plan. With the fortress active and headed directly for Earth, even Victory Saber could not stand up to its power, but a resentful Dinosaur Force supplied information on the fortress's weak spot to Star Saber's adopted human son, Jean, who used his own personal mech to enter the fortress and strike at this vulnerability. As he did so, Deathsaurus and Star Saber engaged in a vicious battle, during which Deathsaurus lost an eye, and was eventually stopped when Star Saber broke his sword off in the villain's chest. Gushing fuel and fluid, Deathsaurus vowed to have the last laugh as he set the crippled fortress on a collision course with Earth and blew himself out an airlock, vowing to return again and again. But, as his body drifted off into space, no sign of life was visible from the conquered emperor. Victory Saber subsequently destroyed the fortress, but Deathsaurus was not heard from again.

Victory manga


As a parallel to Star Saber's adoption of Jean, Deathsaurus had a "son" of his own, a human boy named Solon Kitakaze. Solon's mother was killed during a Decepticon attack on Earth, and Deathsaurus "adopted" the boy, turning him into a cyborg and raising him to believe that he was his son. Solon had frequent clashes with Jean, whose school he began attending, which often degenerated into "my dad can beat up your dad"-style arguments as their "fathers" battled. At one point, Deathsaurus even attempted to bribe Jean into joining the Decepticons with toys, games, candy and cash.

Solon had his own battle armour and often rode Deathsaurus's Breastars as steeds, but when Victory Leo and Star Saber merged into Victory Saber, Deathsaurus sought a way to increase his own power in a similar fashion and crafted a Transformer-sized mech for Solon named King Solon, with which he was able to combine, forming King Zaras. However, in the midst of this battle, Solon discovered the truth about his mother, and his distraction allowed Victory Saber to destroy the King Solon mecha. Deathsaurus fled, abandoning Solon, who accepted his earthly heritage and joined the Autobots.

During the final battle, as Deathsaurus's fortress attacks the Earth, it is he who battles Star Saber in space (unlike the animated series, in which Liokaiser takes this role). Leozack, then, is able to take his treachery to the ultimate extreme by turning the fortress's power on Deathsaurus, and Deathsaurus cripples the craft with his cannon as Star Saber takes Leozack down. Then, the wounded Deathsaurus reveals the true reason he has quested to liberate the fortress from the Dark Nebulait is home to the Decepticons' families and civilians. As the shocked Autobots discover this, they meet Deathsaurus's wife, Esmeryl and Deathsaurus and Star Saber then make peace, shaking hands and vowing to work together for the betterment of the Transformer race.

Descent into Evil


Using a clone lab on Ceti Alpha Seven, Deathsaurus wished to revive the fading Decepticon Empire with a vast Insecticon army. After the first batch of clones was completed, his operation was interrupted by a team of Autobot commandos under the command of Ironhide. Deathsaurus overpowered and captured the first wave himself, and soon faced Ironhide one-on-one, while Ratchet attempted to rescue the fallen Autobots. Due to the assistance of Tripredacus Agent Flamewar, these two were defeated and captured as well.

They woke up bound inside Deathsaurus' clone lab. The Emperor of Destruction appeared on a television screen, declaring that his use for the lab was completed and was prepared to detonate it remotely with the Autobots inside. Unfortunately for Deathsaurus, the Autobot espionage agent Ricochet not only freed the Autobots before the explosion occurred, but also seeded the remaining clones with a virus, leaving Deathsaurus with nothing to show for his work.

Victory

 * Deszaras (Large Breastforce, 1989)
 * Japanese ID number: D-336
 * Accessories: Tail/shield, rifle, Tigerbreast & Eaglebreast "Breast Animals"


 * The original Deathsaurus toy transformed into a nondescript dragon-lizard thing with wings (or giant mutant space chicken) that doesn't really look like anything except ugly. Unusually for post-Generation 1 toys, he has die-cast-metal feet in beast mode.


 * In robot mode, both of his Breast Animal components can be slotted inside his spring-loaded chest (or kaiju-mode back) to form his elaborate torso armor; Eaglebreast must go in first, then Tigerbreast added on top. Both Breast Animals can also become hand-held weapons. He is armed with a light blue laser rifle which, despite what the boxart and cartoon would have you believe, does not have a removable flail and a large shield constructed out of his tail that can mount on either bicep.

Timelines

 * Descent into Evil (multi-pack, 2005)
 * Accessories: 2 hilts, 2 sword-blade/missiles




 * Part of the BotCon 2005 "Descent into Evil" boxset, Deathsaurus is a blue and black retool of Robots in Disguise version of Megatron/Galvatron. He comes with a pair of swords that can launch their blade-missiles through a pressure-launch mechanism, as well as combine at their bottom ends to form a large double-blade weapon. The blade-missiles are rounded off for safety reasons like the other Hasbro uses of the mold.


 * His head is a new sculpt based on Deathsaurus's appearance in the Victory anime (though Deathsaurus's face seems to be copied from Megatron's). Deathsaurus's mold was originally a ten-changer, though the "gargoyle"/bat mode was neutered for this release due to the dropping of the bat snout piece, required to give his new head enough space inside his chest cavity for other modes.  He still retains the other nine modes (robot, dragster, jet, two-headed dragon, hand, mammoth, hydrofoil, one-headed dragon, and winged griffin). His tail-piece was removed for in-box storage, but easily popped back on since it's on a ball-and-socket joint.

Super Figure Collection

 * Deszaras (2002)


 * Deathsaurus was released in Act 7 of the Takara Super Collection Figure line as a non-transforming PVC with a funky pose and limited posability. Two pieces came per case of 12 PVCs, one in full-color and one in pewter-finish. He also came with a clear-plastic stand, and the pewter version came with one piece to add to wave-mate Star Saber to turn him into Victory Saber. (This add-on piece could also be either full-color or pewter-finish.)


 * A limited chase version (shown here) features his inner Breastforce member, Eaglebreast, rather than the normal version's Tigerbreast.




 * Deathsaurus pin (2005)


 * The first 100 BotCon 2005 Primus-package preregistrants received an exclusive Deathsaurus pin as part of their registration package.

Trivia

 * Deathsaurus's name is the source of a long-lasting argument. The phonetic Japanese reading of the name is: "De-su-za-ra-su". This is represented in English on his toy packaging and tech specs as "Deszaras." English-speaking fans would long debate the "proper" romanization of the name, interpreting it as Deszaras, Deathzaras, Deathsaurus, Death Czarus, Def Zarce, Deaths 'R' Us, Debt Source, Darth Sass, Death's Arse and god knows what else. "Deathsaurus" had a tendency to be the most popular and well-known (on account of it actually meaning something), which led to it being used on the character's first official Western toy, making it his official American name. However, it is unlikely that this was supposed to be the actual name for the character—were his name "saurus", then it would be rendered as "sa-u-ru-su" or "za-u-ru-su" in Japanese, rather than "za-ra-su"—and that his name was genuinely intended to be the word, "Deszaras", which resembles the pattern for naming of Kaiju monsters (see below). The character appears with the "Deszaras" name on the Region 2 Transformers: Victory DVD boxset.


 * Anyway, if you plan on insisting his name is "Deszaras", please learn to spell it.


 * While often called a dragon or occasionally a griffin (or a giant chicken), Deathsaurus is most likely styled after traditional Japanese "kaiju", such as Godzilla or Rodan. Hence, the Kaiju-esque name, "Deszaras".


 * His Japanese name (Deszaras) is spelled really closely to the Hungarian phrase for "so shitty" and also the equivalent to "bugger me", which in turn, if taken literally, means "to crap oneself in the pants". Whichever phrase we look at, the incident nevertheless caused a lot of joy in the Hungarian fan community.


 * In Dreamwave's Generation One #10, Deathsaurus was seen as a statue representing an ancient transformer, together with Dai Atlas.


 * The original Deathsaurus mold was redecoed into the non-living "Red Geist" mech for Takara's Brave of Legend Da Garn toyline, which lacked the Eaglebreast partner. Although the character design in the television show for the line was significantly modified from that of Deathsaurus, including replacing Tigerbreast's tiger mode with a jet mode, the Red Geist toy itself was not retooled.