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 AutobotSupreme 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 guns designer was later found impaled on a church spire.
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 electical 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.
File:A 2296.jpgNo, I do not want to change my long distance service
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 asteroids.
Discovering that the sunken continent of Atlantis contained enough raw energy to re-energise his fortress, Deathsaurus ransacked the ancient ruins and abandoned the Dinosaur Force to their fate as the Thunder Arrow shot off into space to fulfil 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, Jan, who used his own personal mech to enter the fortress and strike and 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)
The mighty King Zaras. Mighty.
As a parallel to Star Saber's adoption of Jan, Deathsaurus had a "son" of his own, a human boy named Solon. Solon's mother was killed during a Decepticon attack on Earth, and who Deathsaurus "adopted", turning him into a cyborg and raising him to believe that he was his son. Solon had frequent clashes with Jan, 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 Jan 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 Nebula - it 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.
Timelines: Descent into Evil comic
Deathsaurus orchestrates the rise of a New Decepticon Empire, or NAMBLA.
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.
Toys
Victory
Deszaras (1989)
Japanese ID number:D-336
The original Deathsaurus toy transformed into a non-descript dragon lizard thing with wings (or giant mutant space chicken) that doesn't really look like anything except ugly. His chest compartment contained two Breastforce components, Tigerbreast and Eaglebreast that transform into their animal namesakes, and can further transform into Targetmaster-style gun modes. Unusually for late G1 toys, he has diecast-metal feet in beast mode.
In robot mode, both of his breast components can be slotted inside his spring-loaded chest to form his elaborate torso armour. He is armed with a light blue laser rifle (that is considerably more threatening in the television series), and a large shield constructed out of his tail.
This mold had his Eaglebreast component removed, was recoloured and retooled into Red Geist for Takara's Brave Of Legend Dagarn toyline.
Part of the BotCon 2005 preregistrant Descent into Evil boxset, Deathsaurus was a blue and black retool of Robots in DisguiseMegatron/Galvatron. If you squint, maybe you need glasses. His head was a new sculpt based on Deathsaurus' appearance in the Victory anime (though Deathsaurus's face seems to be copied from Megatron's). Deathsaurus' 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. His tail-piece was removed for in-box storage.
The first 100 BotCon 2005 Primus-package preregistrants received an exclusive Deathsaurus pin.
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.
A limited chase version (shown here) features his inner Breastforce member, Eaglebreast, rather than the normal version's Tigerbreast.
Trivia
On Deathsaurus' original Japanese tech spec card, his name is presented in English as "Deszaras". There used to be much debate over the proper Romanization of Deathsaurus' name. In Rōmaji, the Japanese name reads phoenetically "De-su-za-ra-su". It has been interpreted as Deszaras, Death Czarus, Def Zarce, Deaths 'R' Us, Debt Source, Death's Arse and god knows what else. "Deathsaurus" eventually won out, with the character's first toy released on Western shores bearing that name. However, it is unlikely that this was actually the original intention of the name, as "saurus" would be rendered as "za-u-ru-su" in Japanese. The character appears with the "Deszaras" name on the R2 Transformers: Victory DVD boxset.
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.
In Dreamwave's Transformers G1 (Ongoing) #10, Deathsaurus was seen as a statue representing an ancient transformer, together with Dai Atlas. The Route of All Evil
