Arms Microns War Breakdown

Review by LimeWire:

Prelude: Well, here he is: Arms Micron AM-12 Breakdown. Long anticipated and not disappointing. For all Hasbro fanatics and peg hole haters: for now (!!!) Hasbro has no plan to release Breakdown and presumably that won’t change anytime soon (the figure only has Takara markings, none from Hasbro). The Obelix of the Decepticons even comes with his own wild boar (actually a rhino) for a partner. Nicely done.

Alternate Mode: Breakdown transforms into a kind of troop transport. Seeing as it’s a vehicle from an animated series, we’re not talking a high degree of realism here, but it’s a very screen-accurate vehicle. No complaints. There are a lot of details, many of which are sadly obscured by the stickers (more on that later). No visible robot parts in alternate mode, only the hammer sticks out – that is, if you put it there. The rhino (or wild boar) can just as well trot along beside the vehicle.

So no flaws here. Worth mentioning: the truck looks really small, which fits nicely with Bulkhead. No idea how the designers managed this, but so far all the Prime toys I’ve seen seem to have real mass shifting going on. Great work!

Robot Mode: The robot mode is phenomenal! Clearly Breakdown, from his tiny head to his massive body. Bulkhead’s nemesis is very nicely depicted here, maybe just a tad too small (not sure). The articulation is very good, all sorts of battle poses are easily possible, and the little boar becomes a great hammer. Details galore, too, but once again many of them are obscured by the stickers.

Arms Micron: Don’t ask me why, but to me that little rhino is a wild boar, nothing else. The beast mode is pretty forgettable, doesn’t really make much sense, but the weapon mode is top notch. A great hammer, which I think will probably be recycled for Arms Micron Ultra Magnus. The only thing that’s bothersome is that you have to put this guy together yourself.

Sticker Sheet: The stickers really get on my nerves. There’s almost 50 of them, the instruction sheet is mirror-inverted and incomplete, not to mention inaccurate in places. Putting the stickers on is a major hassle, as some of them need to be put on across edges and corners. Not a job for small kids, that’s for sure.

Conclusion: Buy him!