General Information
Release Date: June 2026
Price Point: $299.99 (Part of the Liokaiser HasLab)
Retailer: Hasbro Pulse Exclusive (US)
Accessories: Blaster, Helicopter Blades, Cobra Breast Animal
Official images and text in italics are from Amazon.com:
From the abyssal darkness of the Death Zone, the elite combat team known as the Chest-force emerged. Consisting of six powerful Decepticon bots—Leozak, Gaihawk, Ellbat, Jaruga, Killbison, and Drillhorn—the Chest-force is determined to aid Deathsaurus in his bid to defeat Star Saber and the Autobots. The Chest-force comes together to form the gestalt Liokaiser, a vicious combiner bot with the power of invisibility.
Devoted fans banded together to fund Victory Saber and Deathsaurus figures* through previous HasLab projects; now, the saga of Transformers: Victory, the Japanese anime G1 spinoff, continues: Powerful, merciless, and near-unstoppable, the Liokaiser Combiner is the next HasLab project.
- Premium 12-inch Liokaiser combiner figure inspired by the Japanese anime, Transformers: Victory.
- Separates into 6 Voyager-scale, 5.5-inch (14 cm) converting Chest-force figures, each with a removable Chest Animal that converts into a weapon accessory
- Initial offering includes six 5.5-inch figures and 6 accessories.
Background:
In 1989 the Transformers Victory series introduced the world to the Breastforce (yes, you read that right). This team of Destron (aka Decepticon) warriors each had a feature where their chests could detach and transform into an animal-based partner or a weapon. When this team really needed some serious power, they could combine into the powerful Liokaiser! As a follow up to Victory Saber and Deathsaurus, Hasbro chose these characters for 2025's HasLab. The team was given a slightly less awkward name: Chest-force (still a bit awkward, but hey). This set and all the stretch goals were fully funded and in June 2026 fans began to receive their sets.
Deathcobra was a Decepticon who attempted to become a member of the Breastforce but was ultimately destroyed by Hellbat. That made him a perfect choice as one of the stretch goal items in this set.
Packaging:
Liokaiser is packaged in a giant box with some gorgeous artwork, but rather than me writing a ton about it check out my unboxing video below!
Accessories:
Deathcobra comes with three accessories:
- Cobra Chest Animal: Deathcobra's partner serves triple duty as his chest plate in robot mode, a blaster and a shield on top of his beast mode. True to the character's name, this figure represents a robotic cobra complete with a "hood" piece on either side with horizontal line details. The face is flat with two mean looking eyes and fangs. The barrel of the weapon mode becomes the tail in beast mode. The end of the barrel features a peg for Blast Effects. On the back of the head he features a piece with two 5mm pegs at different positions so you can attach him in his various modes. The figure is made of green plastic with yellow, red and white paint details.
- Blaster: Deathcobra's small blaster is based on the machine gun shown mounted under the front of the vehicle in the cartoon. The base is round with a small barrel sticking out in front. The end of the barrel can fit a Blast Effect and there is one 5mm peg on the bottom. This whole piece is made of black plastic with no paint applications.
- Helicopter Blades: The helicopter blades can be detached, which appears to be more of a function of the transformation than anything else. That said, the designers did put a 5mm peg on top, so you could attach it to Deathcobra (and other figures) as a blade weapon. The blades are made of black plastic with no paint applications.
There is one additional weapon he can use, but it is not specific to Deathcobra. The set comes with several spears that you assemble using the staff, a pointed end and a spiked, round piece for the middle. These are 5mm so they can fit in the fists of each team member.
Vehicle Mode:
Deathcobra is a pretty chonky vehicle but you can tell the designers did their best to base him off the cartoon model. The end result has some obvious influences from the cartoon while other details are specific to this figure. Perhaps the most distinctive detail this figure shares with its animated counterpart is the two tier cockpit section. This entire section is oval in shape and has one lower cockpit cover that merges into one set higher towards the back. Like the animation model the vehicle also has wings on the sides and a tail with a rotor and two horizontal stabilizer fins.
The differences between this figure and its animated counterpart start with its bulk. In the show, Deathcobra was much thinner in vehicle mode without the arms sticking out to the sides, but for practicality the arms are attached to the sides so the designers sculpted the top of the shoulders to look like air vents. Another difference involves the wings, which lack any kind of rockets sculpted on them. Also, the engine section on top has a semi-circle design whereas in the cartoon there were two distinct tubes. Honestly, I'm not particularly bothered about the differences. It mostly resembles the animation model and the practical design elements don't bother me at all.
This figure is mostly made up of green, black and grey plastic. Paint colors include yellow, black and light green. Yellow makes the biggest impact as it is used to paint all the cockpit windows in front. Light green is found on the sides of the vehicle while black is used on the side air vents and the top "semi-circle" design on the front of the rotor engine. These colors largely match up with the animation model though that lacked the light green and black details on the sides. Overall no complaints from me about the deco. It's not like the animation model had a terribly intricate paint pattern so this figure totally works.
Transformation to Robot Mode:
- Detach the rotor blades, blaster and Cobra Chest Animal and set them aside for now.
- Swing the wings up.
- Swing the black foot pieces up.
- Swing the arms out to the sides.
- Swing the helicopter tail up.
- Swing the horizontal stabilizer fins on the tail up.
- Swing the lower legs back and push them up so the lower portion of the thighs snap into the upper sections.
- Rotate the lower body around.
- On each forearm, swing the fists out.
- Swing the cockpit section back.
- In the cockpit section, the head is connected to a light grey panel. Swing that forward.
- On each lower legs, swing the heel pieces out. On the left leg you may have to swing it out slightly to do so.
- Fold the helicopter blades into a V shape and attach them to the back.
- You can fold up the Cobra Beast flat to attach to the chest.
- The blaster fits into either hand or can attach to any 5mm port.
Robot Mode:
The official product description for Liokaiser describes each team member as a Voyager Class figure, and if you went purely by size that claim may be dubious. In this mode Deathcobra stands at about 5.5 inches (13.97 cm) tall. Contrast that with say, Nexus Prime who is about 6.5 inches (16.51 cm) tall. That said, Deathcobra packs a lot into one figure given that it has four modes and a "partner figure" to boot so I'm willing to look past the height difference and focus on what the figure has to offer overall.
Deathcobra's robot mode uses a lot of design elements from the animation model. These include:
- The head sculpt looks like his "helmet" section is the head of a cobra snake, complete with "hood" pieces on the sides, snake eyes on top and four fangs.
- When Cobra Beast is attached as the chest piece the hood pieces from the snake mode form a cool design on the chest with horizontal line details.
- The arms are tube-like in shape with what look like air intakes at the top.
- The helicopter tail hangs off the back. If you want to stretch things out a bit, this could be an allusion to the "cobra" theme by giving him a "tail" in robot mode.
- The knees feature five sided designs which call back to the square knee armor he had in the show.
Of course, Deathcobra serves quadruple duty in this set. He has to have a robot mode, a vehicle mode, a limb mode and a weapon mode so his form is a lot more chunky than he appeared in the Victory cartoon. The cockpit and tail sections hanging off his back are pretty big, but I'll be honest, I don't really care. The robot mode looks cool and formidable with some fantastic detailing on top of what was seen in the cartoon. I think he looks great.
This mode shows off Deathcobra's green, black and light grey plastic colors. Paint colors include yellow, light green, white, red and black. Many of these details were visible in vehicle mode including the black and light green on his arms. The head has some nice, intricate paint details in the form of the "cobra eyes" and fangs. The designers did a great job with this deco.
There are twenty two points of articulation on this figure. That includes four in each arm and six in each leg. He does not have waist articulation, but rather his body can turn right below the chest. If you want to be generous, he does technically move in one more spot: the mid-body. This joint lets him tilt his upper body to the left. This is really for articulation when he is in arm mode, but you can strike some fun poses with it. This mode has eleven 5mm ports, but not all of them are practical for attaching accessories. The best ones are on the sides of the forearms and lower legs along with his fists. If you want to count them, he has three on his chest (but they are covered up if Cobra Chest is attached). On the back the bottom of the cockpit section has a 5mm port, as does his tail.
Transformation to Weapon Mode (from vehicle mode):
- Detach the helicopter blades and set them aside.
- Swing the wings up.
- Swing the helicopter tail up.
- On the bottom of the vehicle swing the robot legs down and back.
- Swing the lower body out, rotate it around, then swing it back into place.
- Swing the legs forward, then bend the lower begs back.
- Swing the tail down.
- Cobra Beast can attach to the underside of the tail towards the middle.
- Reattach the helicopter blades on top.
Weapon Mode:
Deathcobra's weapon mode is really just a variation on the vehicle mode with the legs moved around and the wings up. You can kind of imagine the bottom of the legs are some type of rectangular cannon barrel, but the real fun is in attaching all the Chest-Beasts to this mode! Transform each of the beasts into their weapon modes and you can attach all of them to Deathcobra. Once you do, it looks like some type of cool super weapon! Instead of being a handheld blaster, Deathcobra acts as a shoulder cannon so you can attach him to Gaihawk in arm mode. You swing down Gaihawk's wings and then Deathcobra attaches to the top, forming a huge shoulder cannon!
Transformation to Arm Mode (from vehicle mode):
- Detach the helicopter blades and set them aside for now.
- Swing the cockpit section back.
- Swing the wings up.
- Swing the horizontal stabilizer fins on the tail up.
- Swing the tail up.
- On the inside of the right side lower leg, swing the green panel out.
- Swing each lower leg up over the thighs.
- Swing the green panel back into place.
- Connect the lower legs to form the forearm.
- Swing the top half of the figure forward.
- Depending on which arm you want Deathcobra to be, you can swivel the section with the mid-body and legs around so it bends in that direction.
- Attach the rotor blades to the side of the forearm.
- Swing the grey connection piece on top of the arm up to attach to Liokaiser.
Arm Mode:
Liokaiser's traditional two arms are formed from Gaihawk and Ellbat (aka Hellbat). Both of those characters transform into jet fighters, so the arms wind up looking very sleek with angled sections formed from the wings. In heavy contrast, Deathcobra's arm mode looks like the arm of a bruiser. Between the cockpit section on top and the bulky area under it and his forearms this arm looks powerful and menacing.
There are eight points of articulation in this mode. This includes the ability for the lower arm to swing out at the middle, elbow articulation and the finger articulation on each hand. This mode allows you to attach weapons to his forearms and robot arms as well as the helicopter tail. The joints built into the middle of the arm are all ratchet joints, so no worries about the arm getting loose.
Final Thoughts:
Deathcobra is a fantastic example of how to offer a stretch goal in a crowd funded project. He is a full fledged action figure with multiple modes and the figure represents an obscure character from fiction that ties right into the team. The figure may not be a perfect representation of the animation model, but it doesn't need to be. It looks mostly like the animation model and it has multiple modes allowing you to play with the figure in different ways. This is a fun figure and I'm very happy it was included with this set.
Pros:
- Represents an obscure character from Japanese Transformers fiction.
- Looks great in both primary modes and looks good as an arm.
- Nice sculpted details that go beyond just replicating the animation model.
- Good deco.
- A good number of attachment points for accessories.
Cons:
- Fans who want a more sleek and thin looking figure will be disappointed. This guy is chunky!
