Revenge of the Fallen Brakedown

Prelude: First off, many thanks to my friend Marco aka Ironhide77, who gave me Brakedown here as a gift during our last visit. And in case you’re wondering about the pictures, Brakedown was the first figure where I tried out my light studio’s black background (seeing as he’s mostly white and might get lost before a white background). Not sure about the results, though. Let me know what you think, okay?

Robot Mode: A Scout-class figure, Brakedown is, at first glance, just another hood-as-chest Transformer, but that’s not quite the case. His design is somewhat similar to Sideswipe in that he has the rear of his vehicle mode as chest, while the car front becomes the legs. The figure carries a bit of a backpack, but it’s not as bad as with other ROTF Transformers (such as Sideswipe).

Sadly Breakdown has no weapons. You can imagine him using the car doors on his arms as shields and maybe slicing weapons, but that’s it. His head is a beauty, though, a very nice Movie-version of the original G1 Breakdown’s head (more the animation model than the actual toy figure, though). Posability is good and the detailing is okay, though somewhat swallowed up by his mostly white paint job. So all in all a nice robot mode, but nothing that really elevates him above the average.

Vehicle Mode: The original G1 Breakdown became a white Lamborghini. ROTF Brakedown has downsized to a similar-looking white sports car, somewhat shorter in appearance (one might say ‘stunted’, ha!). While this vehicle is actually a bit bigger than the original Breakdown’s vehicle mode, it doesn’t look quite as sleek. Sculpt and detailing is okay for a figure this size, but little more than that. So bottom line: A decent, if somewhat unspectacular vehicle mode.

Remarks: Brakedown had a short appearance in IDW’s current Transformers: Nefarious comic series, where he appeared from nowhere and was killed by the Autobots about three panels later. As you might imagine, he did nothing of great consequence in-between. He is the second Stunticon homage in ROTF, though (after Dead End), the third in the last two years (counting Universe Drag Strip) and the first with an original mold. Now we only need a Motormaster and Wildrider to complete the set (and then wait for the first fan-made custom Menasor).

As a toy Brakedown is decent, but nothing more than that. There are lots of figures in ROTF that are better and quite a few that are worse. Brakedown falls right into the middle. He’s got nothing to really drag him down, but nothing to make him stand out much, either. He gets a little plus for the Stunticon homage, but that’s pretty much it. An average Scout figure. Okay if you can get him for the regular price.

Rating: C+

And for a second opinion, the review by Caked-Up:

Prelude: Brakedown is a homage to one of the limbs of a combiner I had as a kid, Menasor I think it was. I actually remember this character because he was a paranoid wimp. Funny thing to remember someone by, but he retains some of that personality in this new figure.

Robot Mode: Brakedown is an interesting car-former in that his rear end becomes the chest instead of the hood. A nice dark blue dominates over and contrasts with the white, but otherwise he has little more color than his vehicle mode. Oh yeah, his nipples are red.

Brakedown possesses a fine head sculpt that continues the movie line’s trend of the head sculpts receiving extra attention, and there is some molding on his throat and collar bone to compliment it. Brakedown does suffer from a serious kibble infection. His backpack is made of the entire car roof twisted around on itself and the sides of the car hang from his arms causing some potential posability problems. Except the forearm kibble it doesn’t look that bad or even cluttered, but I think he can glide for great distances with those doors on his arms.

Even with all of this kibble he still maintains a flexible image that does more than whisper about an agile bot. To counter the kibble, his joints are setup well and move in a way as to allow for some dynamic poses. This is provided you can keep the upper arm kibble away from the backpack. I really like his odd waist joint, it doesn’t rotate, but crunches forward for some robo-situps. I can almost get him into a fetal position, cowering in his ever present paranoia. His many good points exceed his few bad points to make an above average robot mode.

Vehicle Mode: I have seen some great vehicle modes in my time, but this scout class figure surpasses many of the nicer deluxe models. The car itself is based off of a Lamborghini of sorts, very much similar to his original toy. The color scheme is a simple white with a red panel on his hood, black windows, and a gun metal gray over his engine compartment.

Two more details really stand out to me that make him even better. First, the black parts of his front bumper are actually molded from a separate piece of plastic; Kudos to Hasbro for going the distance. Secondly, the wheels have the usual rim painting, but the brake rotors are painted as well. They are small and the same color as the rims, but there are several deluxe figures who are missing this detail, namely ROTF Arcee. Getting the panels to line up properly is not a hard task, but bringing the rear quarter panels can be a little hard. The tabs holding all of these panels in work very well, but they are a little on the fragile side. I have nothing else to say except this is a great car to have.

Conclusion: Brakedown is a successful robot and an outstanding car. I highly recommend him over the scout Dead End if you can only have one Decepticon car-former. Good luck finding him now though.

Rating: A-

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