Saberback (BW)
- Saberback is a Predacon from the Beast Wars Neo portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
To describe Saberback (セイバーバック Seibābakku) in one word, he is "enigmatic". He is a cunning charlatan and a compulsive liar, so much so, that his fellow Predacons don't know what to believe. Rather than go out of his way to get his hands too dirty, Saberback would rather bury himself underground and relax while luring his unsuspecting enemies in with his "Claw Trap Mode"—his tail sticking out of the ground and disguised in the form of a mysterious flower. However, Saberback sometimes finds himself too relaxed and falls asleep, missing the chance to capture Maximals with his powerful claw.
Saberback is known to fool others into believing bold-faced lies such as him being able to use "magic", especially the not-so-smart Predacon Sling, whom Saberback takes great pleasure in teasing endlessly. He is also quite fond of using the simple dichotomy of "beautiful" (美しい utsukushii) and "not beautiful" (美しくない utsukushiinai) to describe the world around him.
Fiction
Beast Wars Neo cartoon
- Voice actor: Kazuki Yao (Japanese)
Saberback fought the Maximals in battle where he was commanded by Magmatron alongside Guiledart, Sling, and Dead End. He was defeated by Big Convoy's Big Cannon. Big Convoy, Move Out
Bom Bom comic continuity
Beast Wars II comic
Beast Wars Neo comic
2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity
Saberback was a compulsive liar, unable to trust anyone, not even himself. Beast Wars Sourcebook #3
During one of his astral journeys, Magmatron witnessed Saberback throttling Dirgegun, only for Killer Punch to clobber Saberback in turn. Moments later, Saberback was seen punching Killer Punch in retaliation. The Ascending #1
Beast Wars: Uprising
Saberback was a navigation specialist aboard the Dinosaur in the Cybertronian space fleet. He joined an away team responding to a distress call on the planet LGC-8803. While planetside, he responded to the siren call of Metascan Omega, the font of near-infinite knowledge once placed on the planet by the Logicons. He and his superior officer Apelinq entered a digital realm and performed a pilgrimage to the Eve of Providence. Once there, Saberback supplicated himself before Metascan Omega and became its avatar in communication with Apelinq. As Apelinq employed Metascan Omega to learn about the trials their crew faced on the planet's surface and in orbit, he asked it to intercede on their behalf. The Metascan Omega program intended to deny the request, in concordance with its programming directives, but Saberback managed to appeal to the program's desire for balance. The tractor beam of Metascan Omega had been misused by Lord Imperious Delirious to draw the Cybertronians to the planet; Saberback convinced the program to balance the equation by using the tractor beam to save his friends.
The Dinosaur crashed to the planet, never to fly again, but survived as a new colony dubbed Dinosaur City. Saberback remained behind at the colony while several members of the crew returned to Cybertron. Intersectionality In the years that followed Dinosaur City became a thriving mecca for Cybertronians and alien species. Saberback remained part of the city's people more than a decade after the Vehicon Apocalypse back home. The Inexorable March
Legends World
Saberback of the Legends World was a teacher at the school where Magmatron was the principal. He attended a staff meeting where Big suggested changing the "HR" for "home room" to "TF" for "Transformers". Very Strange
2005 IDW continuity
Saberback was one of Onyx Prime's Maximals that fell under the command of Unicron. When Optimus Prime led a force against Unicron to prevent him from eating Caminus, Saberback was sent out to attack. Last Stand
2021 Beast Wars comic
Toys
Beast Wars
- Saberback (January 1999)
- ID number: D-30
- Accessories: "Triple Claw" tail-weapon
- Part of the first wave of Beast Wars Neo products in the Japanese Beast Wars toyline, Saberback is a Deluxe-sized figure that transforms from an organic Stegosaurus into a robot with Plains Indian or Aztec-styled design. In robot mode, his tail detaches to become a hand-held, non-firing "Triple Claw" blaster. Also featured is a cow skull on his chest that, when lifted, reveals his Predacon spark crystal.
- He also features a third "Claw Trap Mode", which is achieved by splaying out the dinosaur mode limbs, so that he is on his belly, then raising up his spine/ponytail section with his tail opened up into the Triple Claw configuration; thus making him look like a foreign-world flower.
Right: Sonokong packaging pictured
- Desert Showdown: Colada VS Saberback (Deluxe VS set, 1999)
- Takara ID number: VS-30
- Sonokong ID number: DX-02
- Accessories: "Triple Claw" tail-weapon
- Saberback was also available in a "Desert Showdown" (砂漠の対決 Sabaku no Taiketsu) two-pack with the Maximal Colada. Both toys were identical to their individual releases.
- Sonokong also released this vs-pack in Korean Beast-War Neo markets. "Stegorat" features no differences with the Takara releases of Saberback, other than the packaging and Tech Spec cards.
Merchandise
Beast Wars Gum
- Saberback (candy toy, 1999)
- A snap together model kit of Saberback was available as part of Kabaya's Beast Wars Gum, sculpted from blue and yellow plastic. He could transform from robot to beast mode by being broken down into his component parts, then rebuilt into a new mode. It came with a stick of gum.
Notes
- In Beast Wars: Uprising continuity, Saberback's pre-beast vehicular body is a "virtual redeco" of the Prime: Beast Hunters Deluxe Class Bumblebee toy.
Saberback and magic
Due to there being no official translation of the Beast Wars Neo cartoon or the Beast Wars Neo comic and no decent fan-translation of the cartoon until 2019, a misconception made by the few Western fans who originally wrote the intro summary for this article, and had attempted to translate quotes from the episode "Chase the Mysterious Capsule" and his appearances in the manga, took Saberback's claims of being able to use "magic" literally and believed he was an actual sorcerer who can create illusions. In actuality, Saberback cannot use magic at all, in fact, his bios all suggest he's a liar, meaning that this was just one of those lies.
To put Saberback's magical claims into context:
- In the episode "Chase the Mysterious Capsule", Saberback claims he was using magic to create illusions, however; subsequently after Saberback claimed to have magical abilities, it was quickly dismissed by Magmatron who reveals that Galvatron informed him about the Angolmois Energy's mysterious capabilities, forcing Saberback to reveal it was the Angolmois behind the illusions all along, he was just using them to his advantage to manipulate the residents of Godbless.
- In the first chapter of the comic, Saberback is referred to as Genwaku no Majutsushi (幻惑の魔術師), which can be translated as "Entrancing Magician";[1] however, subsequent panels of the comic provide more context that suggests the line was a gag that was never meant to be taken seriously, with Break reacting with "Uhh… what?" and Guiledart's response being "Young soldiers have no respect". Additionally, the fourth chapter shows Saberback "fortune telling" (the panel where he holds the "Death" tarot card), however; the extent of that was just another gag that didn't have much bearing over the greater context of the character or the story.
Because of this misconception being the only known characteristic of Saberback for the longest time, the intro paragraph of this very article was heavily influenced by it for many years, leading many (including many of us here at TFWiki) to also believe this was true. Whoops.
Foreign names
- Korean: Stegorat (스테고라트 Seutegorateu)
References
- ↑ This is a play on his regular function of "Entrancing Soldier" (幻惑兵 Genwaku Hei), very loosely translated in fandom sources as "Camouflage Warrior".
