Right there with you on the Bulkhead angle, sir. First Edition Bulks and Optimus were some of my proudest acquisitions at the time and while I bought the Hasbro version of him, there’s just no beating the mass and deep forest greenery of Takara Bulkhead.

While I do really like Breakdown, I do wish he were a little bigger but understood that what we got was possibly the best and only Breakdown we’d ever get. For that matter I always wished we’d get proper, hulking versions of Dreadwing and Skyquake but I’m chucking that in my overflowing box of unrequited dreams.

 

I'm still amazed they actually released this. I remember the whole insanity over Hasbro telling us they couldn't release Takara's Breakdown for some reason, and that they wouldn't be making their own for god only knows why. And this was all around the time the show unceremoniously killed the character off after hinting and greater things with him.

Though a negative with this set (albeit an indirect one) is if it spurs you to (re)collect the Prime line, as they can get pretty expensive on the aftermarket...

 

Got these yesterday, I forgot how thin the plastic was on the Prime figures, they felt more brittle than figures do today (though I cannot say they were more brittle, just seemed it). I like the box, it's a good fit for modern recyclable packaging yet honors Prime's 10th anniversary, simple graphics inside and out. Each figure gets a separate baggie with instructions for them, instructions for the Arms Micron, and their respective Arms Micron model tree, all while the 2 main figures share a tray side by side with a few sock ties holding them in place.

Breakdown is really interesting as a figure because he's quite big and looks right for the animation, very beefy in bot mode and in vehicle mode, transformation certainly has a complex amount of parts moving around, but there's a lot of parts that don't really lock into place until other parts do which is confusing with these instructions giving questionable advice, and at the end becomes a real pain to get the back of the vehicle transformed. I spent an hour getting this wrong thanks to the instructions just being flat-out incorrect: you cannot fold the tailgate down at the end, it has to tab into the sides before locking those into place. As such, I have no idea how right now how the Air Vehicon or the Arms Microns are yet, since arguing with Breakdown is what I did before bed last night (I did laugh at Hasbro having to apply those "sold separately" stickers to the instructions for the Arms Micron shown but not included).

The lack of painted details in favor of foil-on-paper stickers is very odd, I don't know why Takara went that route for their figures, I'm not sure if I'll bother applying those as I've never found them to stick for long on any plastic, they wear off quickly from enjoying the toy - I suppose I'll apply the ones inside the lenses on the Arms Microns.

Oh, I did have one very strange oddity that held up transformation for a few extra minutes on Breakdown worth looking out for, somehow my copy had molten silver plastic excess stuck to one of the barely-there tabs on a blue rear side panel, it popped off with a little force, but I've never seen cross-colored-plastic, post-molding transfer like that before.

 

Its not necessarily ALL the Prime figures having thin plastic, I would argue against that, as some were built VERY tough. Breakdown here, Im tellin ya..The Plastic IS thin here and there, But im 45 and I grew up building model kits and having toys..This is a different plastic. We have a few VERY smart guys on these boards that can spew all sorts of legit tech shit, But from my laymens eye..This plastic feels like a monogram 1/48 helldiver or dauntless kit type plastic. Maybe its the effect how bulkhead was molded is that KILLER plastic, Breakdown had his finish, but its just different. I dunno..Feels different to me, mostly the blue plastic. Everything else seems the same.

Takara Prime is one of my Missing holy grails...I want one of those hard. I had a TRU FE, but that Brown on the door, and messed up colors just killed it for me. That FE Prime is still another one of my all time Favs. That figure is really hard to beat.

 

It's entirely so they can be sold as a 'model kit' (see Gundam model kits for reference purposes). It's a marketing gimmick.

 

I finally spent more time with the set and cracked open the other stuff.

Jet Vehicon is packaged mistransformed to better fit in the bubble tray, something I didn't notice until I decided to transform him without instructions, since I have a couple of the regular Vehicon I figured it'd be similar, and only when I got towards the end did I notice his wings were on a hinge and could only be transformed at a certain point in transformation.

The Vehicon's bot mode is pretty good if you can look past the awkwardness of the shoulder kibble, and of course they never fixed those hideous elbows because that's essential to transformation. There's also pointy kibble on the sides of the lower legs, you can decide which way that part points - it has a tab to keep it locked into a specific position, but it's light and flexible enough to invert the panel. It's still amazing how much of the vehicle mode is contained in the boots, and not even the front panel of those boots. Articulation relies on a combination of ball joints, hinges, and swivels to give a fairly poseable robot even hinging the wings back, although you don't get waist or ankle articulation since this is a decade-old design. What does feel very modern however is the Vehicon has a number of 5mm ports on his arms, wings, and even the hinge pin hole on his leg is one; each wing even sports a 5mm peg for more Arms Micron interaction that reminds one of WFC. The bar behind his head holding the rear kibble on is a 3mm bar for clip-on accessories from a different line, whoop de doo.

The Vehicon's deco is simple, but there's more going on than poor Breakdown. This little chap has a lot of black then a bit of orchid-colored plastic, some clear plastic for the chest and boots, and purple clear plastic for the poorly light-piped eyes. The head and chest interior have silver paint, the chest exterior and some small vents on the forearm have metallic orchid paint, the interior of the boots have black plastic for vehicle mode. It's a nice-looking bot, but the Decepticon sigil is unpainted and it doesn't seem like there's a way to get the clear chest panel off to apply the sigil on the sculpted panel, which is a shame.

Transformation is a bit wacky since it's a lot of panel movement but not in a modern way, and the rear of the vehicle along with the figure's neck are on a very simple automorph thing. Going to vehicle mode is kind of fun to wrap so much of the car up from the boots; the drawback is those panels can be confusing in final alignment to get the tabs on the sides to meet up with those in the back and on the top, but after a couple passes it becomes a lot more obvious what should move when and how much. Going to bot mode is a lot more straightforward.

The Jet Vehicon's vehicle mode is nearly all black plastic and paint, with clear plastic for the cockpit windshield and side windows, and those few metallic orchid accent vents by the "doors"; the underside being nakedly the back of robot mode there's orchid plastic and the silver of the robot head's top, but try not to look at the underside as it's doing this vehicle mode no favors. Experiencing the road Vehicon this is based upon makes this even more fun, although you do notice this is a bit lightweight. The jet mode isn't super accurate to the show version as the wings aren't as wide and don't sport little blasters, and the car mode takes up more of the fuselage on the toy, but overall it's pretty satisfying so long as you avoid looking at the underside where the only jet mode part is the tiny front landing skid. It's also the wrong color, of course, so you have to accept it as it comes or get to repainting.

 

I guess I should talk about the Arms Microns. These are my first, and likely last, experiences with the little guys, and I am not shedding a lot of tears. Part of my lack of enthusiasm is that they're cast in a single color expecting the stickers to do all the heavy lifting, so we get a very gray Zamu which is dull as dishwater even if it does match up with Breakdown's gray, and silver Igu which doesn't match the black of the Jet Vehicon. We've had similar concepts like Minicons and Battle Masters that I've liked, but none of those are monochrome snap model kits requiring a very specific type of jointing to ensure safety mixed with DIY assembly. Each one sports a clear plastic gem-style piece that's designed to trap their faction sigil foil sticker in a cavity - a task that is a misery as you have to perfectly apply the sticker straight down without it catching on the cavity walls while also clearing the tiny channels for the gem piece's thin pegs to lock in. I've always hated stickers in model making, but especially this kind of sticker where it's die-cut exactly to fit in the hole and when you get it wrong, it turns to disaster; a smarter choice would have been to print on the adhesive side and have it attach to the underside of the gem.

Zamu in beast mode is a robo-rhino with a mono-eye, 4 simple legs, a number of 5mm pegs and pegholes. If it wasn't the blandest gray plastic and the head didn't have hollowness on either side, I probably would like this figure a lot as it is. I would have liked more freedom to pose the legs, having them on octagonal ratchets does no favors; at least Zamu can lower his head to the ground. Transformation to hammer mode is about folding the head and legs up and the tail down, straightforward.

As a hammer, Zamu isn't quite as good as details could be a little better but overall it does the job fine, I like Smashdown's hammer mode better, but this is at least bulkier than that. The handle wiggles a bit on its clip making it a little awkward to mount into a 5mm hole, and leaving it sitting slightly towards the front side, but it's not a huge problem. How they designed poor Breakdown to wear the hammer is some dubious stuff, you de-transform his wrist so the vehicle mode roof is at the front then jam the hammer grip through the hole there which is clear plastic and there's a seam right in that 5mm hole begging to break in half down the road. My copy has already picked up quite a bit of paint transfer from that roof, blue is not an easy color to hide on light gray. He's an ok hammer but Breakdown's integration using him is less acceptable.


Igu in beast mode is an iguana with a very fat tail, another mono-eye and 4 simple legs, and also a number of 5mm pegs and pegholes. Igu has more personality than Zamu, but also more issues - his right side view is not as good as the left due to a gap in the top frill, there's that huge obvious gun cannon for a tail, and his standard blaster pistol 5mm peg just dangles between his front legs even though it's on a hinge that could have enjoyed a cutaway in the bottom of his torso. His legs are funny designs, angled panels that work around the upper body The silver plastic doesn't exactly suit an iguana, but somehow this works (they turn a bit gray and brown IRL), I definitely don't feel like he's missing out by not applying his stickers the way Zamu needs them.

Transforming to gun mode is simpler than Zamu, just fold the legs back and they interlock simply, then lift the frill to cover the head. Or perhaps don't do that last part, because it makes the gun look less accurate and gets in the way of the arm both hand-held and in mounted mode. It kind of looks like the gun the Vehicons' arms turn into, but with a bunch of extra stuff everywhere. I prefer folding the Vehicon hand back and plugging Igu's side peg into that from underneath to give it that "this gun grew here" look. It's kind of a neat gun but could have integrated to the Vehicon a lot better.

 

I posted this in the Hasbro Pulse thread the day I got my set, but since it doesn't look like anyone mentioned it here (unless I'm blind, which is possible) I figured I'd post it here too. Basically, the Jet Vehicon's purple plastic is a different shade than the original's. Not sure if the plastic is different, but it doesn't feel like it. Also, the metallic paint of the chest is slightly more metallic.

I don't have an original Breakdown to compare, so I don't know if there are any differences there.

 

Can anyone post pics of these guys next to any of the current WFC trilogy figures, wanna see how well they scale

 

never had a Prime figure before and I agree with how thin and brittle the plastic is, honestly if I didn't know better, I'd think Breakdown was a KO (especially along with the awful stickers)

they'd be great in good plastic but I can't help feel a bit cheated as they stand, I'm expecting them to break!

 

See what I mean about the plastic feeling like a 70s/80s monogram kit? Has to be the reason this guy never made it over in a retail box.

 

It’s nice to hear you guys say this because back when the original came out I commented that the plastic felt like a model kit more than a regular toy and people jumped all over me like I was crazy. I stand by it. I was pretty bummed when I opened the new release and found that they didnt robustify it in any way.

 

Thought I might post this thread from when the Jet Vehicon was first released, if you wish to apply the decepticon faction emblem sticker behind the chest shield instead of on top of it (it's where it is supposed to go, look at the Car Vehicon).

It's a bit risky as you can break a peg if you are not careful, but it worked OK on my copy back in the day (there are links to youtube video guides in the thread):

Question about Jet vehicon

 

Just ordered a set, and still can’t believe it’s only $40. Missed out on both but was lucky enough to find 2 Hasbro Vehicons in the wild.

May watch the Breakdown eps again first before opening.
Back then they made me want this fig so bad.

Hoping they’ll re-release the voyager jet dude someday. (Thunderwing?)

 

Dreadwing (and Skyquake):

Dreadwing (Prime) - Transformers Wiki

 

The windshield popped off pretty easily with a nail. No disassembling just pressed on the 2 visible pins. Was super precautious thanks to this thread.



He’s finally with his boys now.

 

Nice set huh?

 

Hell yeah, still can’t believe it’s only $40.
Hasbro did us a solid.

All this time I thought Breakdown was a voyager. I guess he’s just a big deluxe or mega sized.

 

*BUMP*

I really liked the Prime Breakdown and Vehicons. But only got the small vehicon figure.

Just found out a shop here in the Netherlands had this set, wasn't really cheap, at about € 75 ($ 84), but couldn't pass this one up. I really enjoyed the Prime tv show, much better than the WFC Netflix series, and it had some fantastic character designs.

Glad I could get my hands on this set!

 

This set was a real tease given the direction Legacy's going.

"Sweet, a Hasbro release of Breakdown just in time for a proper Knock Out!"
"..."
"Just in time for a proper Knock Out, right?!"





At least we're set with both varieties of Vehicons.