Wing Saber (Energon)

This article is about the character in Energon. For the Maximal who later became Airazor, see Airazor (BW).

Wing Saber is an Autobot from the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

Wing Saber joins Robots in Disguise Ultra Magnus in the proud tradition of being an upgrade for an Optimus.

Wing Saber is an Autobot who used to be called Wing Dagger. Then Shockblast happened to him. Since then, 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 name: Sonic Bomber (Galaxy Force)

Hungarian name: Éleskard ("Sharp Sword"), Éleskés ("Sharp Knife", Wing Dagger)

Fiction

Energon cartoon

Voice actor: Colin Murdoch (English), Kōji Yusa (Japanese), Christian Jernbro (Swedish)

Wing Dagger served the Autobots as a security guard on Cybertron; he was the jailer in charge of the Decepticon criminal Shockblast. During a Decepticon uprising, Shockblast escaped his prison. Alpha Q: Identity Wing Dagger and his friend Padlock pursued him, but Shockblast ended up killing Padlock. Wing Dagger grieved for his friend and swore revenge on Shockblast. Shockblast: Rampage

During a Decepticon assault on Cybertron, Wing Dagger lassoed Shockblast with energy bands, but the powerful Decepticon simply pulled him up into the air. As they wove through the sky among the energon towers, the Decepticon blasted one of the towers, causing it to crash down upon Wing Dagger and Tidal Wave. Tidal Wave survived with damage, but Wing Dagger died. Each One Fights...

Wing Dagger's inert form was taken to Primus. Unicron Unleashed With the aid of Rad, Primus restored the warrior, imbuing him with a Spark of Combination. Open Fire! Reformatted into Wing Saber, he joined Optimus's team not only to find energon, but to avenge the death of his friend.

Wing Saber, having been reformatted and re-powered by Primus himself, understood his task of being Optimus Prime's personal servant. Optimus Prime reminded Wing Saber that he was not Prime's property, and Wing Saber seemed to have issues figuring out who he was. He went with Optimus's team as they pursued Megatron into a fledgling new dimension. Ripped Up Space

Wing Saber eventually faced off with Shockblast again on Iron Planet. After making sure that his half-dozen buddies were backing him up, he gave the lone Decepticon a thorough trashing and captured him. Oh, brave Wing Saber! Shockblast was defeated at last; Padlock was avenged, and justice was served. Protection

Shockblast escaped about a day later. Wing Saber didn't seem to notice much. Imprisoned Inferno

Wing Saber continued to help Optimus and the other Autobots defend Alpha Q's planets. Jungle Planet He braved the hazards of the rift in space to locate Unicron's missing body. Omega Supreme Like most of the team, he was severely damaged during the final confrontation with Unicron. Optimus Supreme He returned to the Miranda II's sick bay as the battle neared its end. Unicron Perishes

Later, he returned to Cybertron, Ambition and led underground resistance to Galvatron's invasion of the planet. Galvatron! Break Through Optimus finally arrived to help them, and he and Wing Saber linked up once more to stand up against Galvatron. The Omega Train They took a direct hit from the planet's energon grid, however, and went down in flames. Wing Saber was left unconscious, and was nearly destroyed by Galvatron until the Omnicons arrived to restore him. He and Optimus recombined, striking a devastating blow to Galvatron, prompting him to retreat. Decepticon Army

Wing Saber was among the gathered troops who joined with Optimus Prime in spark form to confront the massive Galvatron-Unicron fusion. Like the others, he was restored to his own body after the battle's conclusion. The Sun

Cybertron cartoon

Voice Actor: Sam Vincent (English), Takayasu Usui (Japanese)

Wing Saber returned during the search for the Cyber Planet Keys, but with a new rebellious, irreverent edge. Having undergone a falling out with Optimus Prime in the brief period between Energon and Cybertron involving the life of a stranded astronaut, Wing Saber took off into space and returned when he encountered the Omega Frequency wave after the Speed Planet Key was inserted into the Omega Lock on Earth. Wing Saber now showed signs of a new defiant attitude toward his former allies, even to the point of violence. He attacked Optimus Prime at one point (claiming Prime had it coming) and fired at Hot Shot's feet when the latter questioned him once. However, Wing Saber quickly found himself part of the team again, which led to reviving his ability to combine with Optimus Prime to create their Sonic Wing Mode. Wing Saber continued to aid the Autobots until the end of the series, at which point he departed and eventually encountered (and dueled with) the mighty Starscream, who had somehow survived his duel with Galvatron on the Giant Planet.

Sonic Bomber is not the same character as Energon Wing Saber in Galaxy Force. Probably. Maybe. Takara's retcon of Galaxy Force back into continuity with Super Link makes things questionable.

Toys

Energon

Brickimus Maximus!

• Wing Saber (Mega, 2004)
  • Japanese ID Number: SC-17
  • Accessories: 2 missiles

Energon Wing Saber transforms into a Cybertronic "flying wing" jet. In both jet and robot mode he has a pair of spring-loaded missile launchers. 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 brings Wing Saber's non-firing cannons to the forefront, forming "Fight Mode".

As Wing Saber is essentially a glorified accessory for the Super class Optimus Prime figure, his robot mode is a brick, with almost no articulation beyond some minor movement in his lower arms.

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.

• More information on Wing Saber at TFU.info

Cybertron

• Wing Saber (Ultra, 2005)
  • Japanese ID Number: GC-22
  • Accessories: Left & right blades, 2 blade-handles, left & right spring-loaded missile launchers, 2 missiles, Autobot Cybertron-planet Cyber Key

His guns have guns on them which also shoot tiny guns.

Cybertron Wing Saber transforms into a heavily armed military plane based on an A-10 Thunderbolt. Pressing the button behind his cockpit canopy causes a machine gun sound to emit from a speaker on the bottom of the nosecone. Plugging a Cyber Planet Key into the key slot behind his canopy splits the nosecone fuselage in half and exposes a cannon with a red LED. Pressing the button activates the same machine gun sound effect, this time with the red LED flashing.

Wing Saber's 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 his 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. Wing Saber can also form a backpack for Leader class Optimus Prime's super mode, forming their Sonic Wing Mode.

FAINARU FYU-Oh wait, wrong show.

Wing Saber comes with a silver-bordered Cybertron planet Autobot Cyber Key with the key code uya7 printed on the back.

The vast majority of Takara's Galaxy Force 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 a 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 red striped, and smaller Autobot insignias on the wings.

This mold was redecoed to make Wingblade.

• More information on Cybertron Wing Saber at TFU.info

• Sonic Convoy (Gift set, 2005)
  • 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, and the chest shield halves were now red chrome rather than gold. Benefiting 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.

Notes

• Energon Wing Saber was a toy-concept initiated 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 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.

Sonic Bomber has wing sabers.

• 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.

• Cybertron Wing Saber's original sculpt featured a different vehicle mode nosecone design than seen on the final toy. As revealed by the Japanese online retailer Amenbo.com on April 29 2005, the original sculpt had a much greater resemblance to the A-10 Thunderbolt, with a rounded nose cone, a correctly shaped (translucent) canopy, and twin translucent Gatling cannons. It is unknown what prompted the change from this more realistic sculpt to the entirely opaque one seen on the final toy.

• Cybertron Wing Saber was originally named "Knockout", but this was presumably shelved to have another preexisting character in the series.

External links

• An interview with Hirofumi Ichikawa on his Energon work