Wing Saber


 * Wing Saber is an Autobot in Cybertron portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.



Wing Saber is an Autobot who used to be called Wing Dagger. Then Shockblast happened to him. Afterwards, Wing Saber has led a noble life of becoming parts for Optimus Prime. Wing Saber even has his own personal team of Mini-Cons, the Caliber Mini-Cons.

Japanese Galaxy Force name: Sonic Bomber Hasbro Energon pre-relase name: Superion Maximus Hasbro Cybertron pre-release name: Knockdown Hungarian name: Éleskard (Sharp Sword), and Éleskés (Sharp Knife) as Wing Dagger.

Energon

 * Voice Actor: Colin Murdoch (US), Kouji Yusa (Japan)

Wing Dagger was a mere security guard on Cybertron, but when Shockblast killed his peer, Padlock, he got the chance to become something more. Pursuing Shockblast through the sky amongst the Energon towers, the Decepticon struck one with a beam, causing it to crash down upon Wing Dagger and Tidal Wave. Wing Dagger was destroyed, but his spark was taken to Primus. Primus, with the aid of Rad, restored the warrior. Reformatted into Wing Saber, he joined Optimus' team not only to find Energon, but to avenge the death of his friend.

Wing Saber, being reformatted and repowered by Primus himself, understood his task of being Optimus Prime's personal servant. Optimus Prime has reminded Wing Saber that he is not his property, and Wing Saber seems to have had issues finding out who he is. Wing Saber joined Optimus Supreme and the other Autobots in spark form to confront the massive Galvatron-Unicron being at the end of the Energon series.

Cybertron

 * Voice Actor: Sam Vincent (US), (Japan)
 * Special Attacks: Flap Sword, Galaxy Caliber

Wing Saber returned during the search for the Cyber Planet Keys, but with a new rebellious, irreverent edge. Having undergone a falling out in the brief period between Energon and Cybertron involving the life of a stranded astronaut, Wing Saber took off into space and returned after encountering the Omega Frequency wave after the Speed Planet Key was inserted into the Omega Lock on Earth. Wing Saber returned and showed signs of a new defiant attitude towards his former allies, but would quickly find himself part of the team again, which would lead to reviving his ability to combine with Optimus Prime to create their Sonic Wing Mode. Wing Saber would continue to aid the Autobots until the end of the series where he'd depart, and eventually encounter the mighty Starscream, who somehow survived his duel with Galavtron on the Giant Planet.

(Note: Sonic Bomber is not the same character as Energon Wing Saber in Galaxy Force.)

Energon

 * Wing Saber (Mega, 2004)
 * Japanese ID Number: SC-17


 * Energon Wing Saber transforms into a Cybertronic "flying wing" jet. He disassembles into four portions, which attach to the limbs on the Super-class Energon Optimus Prime toy. When Wing Saber's upper-body parts and wings are attached to Prime's arms, they are in "Flight Mode", while the lower-body-as-arms configuration bring Wing Saber's non-firing cannons to the forefront, forming "Fight Mode".


 * The Takara version predated the Hasbro release by several months. The two versions are largely identical, but Takara's has a greater number of more intricate paint applications.

Cybertron

 * Wing Saber (Ultra, 2005)
 * Japanese ID Number: GC-22


 * Cybertron Wing Saber transforms into a heavily-armed military plane based on an A-10 Thunderbolt. Plugging a Cyber Planet Key into the jack behind his cockpit exposes a pair of non-firing cannon barrels. His wing-flaps detach to form swords; for Wing Saber to use them, they need to be inserted into sword-handles that plug into 5mm holes in Wing Saber's forearms, as his hands are incompatible with the standard weapon-pegs. His removable spring-loaded missile launchers, mounted under his wings, can also be attached to those ports. He can also form a backpack for Optimus Prime's super mode, forming their "Sonic Wing Mode".


 * The vast majority of the Takara GC-22 Sonic Bomber figures have a misaligned "nose guard" that can obscure the eyes in some cases. This problem was fixed for the Hasbro Wing Saber figure.  The Sonic Bomber figure preceded Hasbro's Wing Saber by several months and has a slightly different deco.  Differences include silver chromed saber blades and gold chromed chest shield.  Minor changes were also made to graphics on the plane, such as an entirely red nosecone as opposed to Sonic Bomber's white, and smaller Autobot insignias on the wings.


 * Sonic Convoy w/ Coby Rumble Giftset
 * Japanese ID Number: EX-02


 * Takara issued a slight Sonic Bomber redeco as a (rushed) Toys 'R' Us exclusive set with transparent Galaxy Convoy and a retool of Rumble as Coby's Rumble. Sonic Bomber received only very minor changes; The saber blades were changed from silver chrome to gold chrome, all red paint was changed to metallic red, the chest shield halves are now red chrome rather than gold.  Benefitting from a Hasbro tweak, this version also has a properly aligned "nose guard".


 * Optimus Prime and Wing Saber (2-pack, 2006)


 * This set, consisting of totally unmodified versions of Cybertron Optimus Prime and Wing Saber, was released as a CostCo exclusive. The set also includes a DVD with the Cybertron episode United.  This set comes in a particularly huge box, and retailed for $35.99, five dollars less than the MSRP for Optimus Prime by himself.

Trivia

 * Energon Wing Saber was a toy-concept initated by Takara and left largely to their own design team to develop, though they had to follow various Hasbro price-point mandates. The toy was detail-designed by noted Japanese fan Hirofumi Ichikawa and incorporates elements of both fan-favorites Predaking and Star Saber.


 * Ichikawa originally envisioned Wing Saber's personal weapon to be the Energon Saber. This was nixed by the animation production staff, however, along with many other toy-team concepts.


 * Energon Wing Saber was originally named Superion Maximus for his western incarnation, but the name was shelved in favor of simply reusing the established Japanese name. "Superion Maximus" was reused for the combined form of the Energon Air Team shortly thereafter.


 * Wing Saber's bio on Transformers.com, first appearing under the "Superion Maximus" title, was largely different from anything else, wherein "Wing Saber" was a venerable defender of high ranking Autobots and was the personal carrier of the Autobot high council.