With most Masterpiece characters it’s pretty easy to assume that when released in Japan versus the English Markets the character bios will follow what each region was used to seeing the character portrayed as. But what about the popular “Japanese Only” character of Star Saber? Until his recent appearances in the IDW comic books series there hasn’t really been a place for him in the English continuity. Tasked with being the translator for the English versions of the Masterpiece bios, Goktimus Prime talks about how he approached the MP-24 Autobot Supreme Commander.



I can now reveal that MP Star Sabre was the third translation/adaptation job that I was doing for Hasbro. However, the English bio is completely different and unrelated to the Japanese one. The Japanese bio is based on Star Sabre’s appearance in Transformers Victory, where he was — character-wise — basically a clone of Optimus Prime (re: flawless heroic saviour archetype). The English bio is based on IDW Star Sabre, where Star Sabre is an incredibly dark character.

In the Japanese booklet, Star Sabre’s function is “Autobot Supreme Commander.” For the Hasbro version, his function has been changed to ‘Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord’ (at times abbreviated to ‘Tyrest Accord Enforcer’ or just “Autobot Enforcer” in different parts of the booklet). Japanese G1 tech specs don’t have mottos, and I only had access to the booklet and not the tech specs card (so I have no idea if TakaraTOMY have newly created a motto for him), but the motto I created for the Hasbro version is “Quidquid facio sancitur divinitus.”, which is Latin for “Everything I do is divinely sanctioned.” — and yes, I have written the motto in both Latin and English (as I did for Stinger ).

More reveals to come.



It’s always interesting to get these first hand accounts so we thank GP for sharing. In case you aren’t familiar with the Star Saber character, you can check out his entry on the TF Wiki. And as always, you’re encouraged to join in our ongoing discussion and engage with other fans in the Star Saber topic on our forums.

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