I remember back in 2012 when I heard the news that Breakdown would not show up in the Transformers Prime toyline...the fact that it happened along with the First Edition line being hard to find, then the Dark of the Moon stuff being canceled for its last wave, and then a prominent character in the show doesn't even get to have his toy appear on store shelves. It sucked in 2012, but now Hasbro fixed one of their sins by giving us the big blue brute in the Prime series. Not only that but we also got his Vehicon buddy! Well, maybe not buddy in a Knock Out sense, but you get what I mean. Let's take a look at these Arms Micron figures!
Here we have the entire set out of the package. You have both figures, the two sprue kits, and the sticker sheets that won't be applied given how low-quality Arms Micron stickers are.
Here are the Microns in-hand, which are Igu and Zamu. The former looks like an iguana while the latter is a mini rhino. They would honestly look better with the Microns, but I'd rather Reprolabels make better versions of what Takara made.
Igu is a very interesting shape given how part of me expected him to be a warthog or Anteater, but he's certainly an iguana, alright. His legs don't lie flat but they're supposed to be like that. Even with the feet stabilized on there, the peg still stays down. Transformation for the gun mode is cool, though it does look very bulky compared to the Hasbro one.
And this is Zamu! We already know what he looks like, but he's pretty cute despite missing the paint apps or stickers. Some hollow gaps are there within the rhino head despite the small size, but he's still charming nonetheless. His transformation into the hammer mode is obvious but it's cute nonetheless.
Here we have the Jet Vehicon in its vehicle mode. It's essentially the car mode of the original Vehicon but with wings replacing the wheels; that being said, those wings are not the only addition to the design. It's a very sleek and futuristic vehicle mode, that's for sure, what with the angular profile and the sharp points found from the fins, the front, and the wings of course. The vehicle mode also has plenty of Arms Micron ports that are present on the sides of the car as well as the wings. That being said, looking for a good spot for Igu is pretty hard since he's clunky as hell no matter what.
For a comparison with the ground Vehicon, you can see that the vehicle mode is more than just the wings slapped onto the toy. The front of the vehicle mode is new, the side panels are redesigned to give the vehicle mode a more aerodynamic-friendly look, and there are more Arms Micron ports while the Vehicon, despite having two 5mm ports on the back, is otherwise clean.
Transformation very unique for the character, as most figures use the same hood chest-door wing/roof chest and front foot design but the Vehicons have the sides of the vehicle, which are the rear portion of the car and the doors, become the arms. I also love the way the hood and roof fold away to become the legs of the robot mode. New to the Jet Vehicon are the wings that hinge to make room for the rest of the parts. The resulting robot mode is very striking in appearance, which almost has no obvious vehicle parts aside from the leg panels and the wings. This was a thing that worked well with the original Vehicon, and that is brought even further with the Jet Vehicon's lack of wheels. It manages to look very much like a troop-builder without looking too generic nor feeling too specific. The arms are weird as well as the legs, but it goes with this series blending the aesthetics between the movies and Animated. The wings do stick out more than I'd like, but I'll let it slide as this was 2012 HasTak doing what they can with their toys (honestly, their Prime toys turned out mostly better than the Fall of Cybertron toys).
Headsculpt is good for a genericon while still having a unique look to it with the angular design, the colors used, and the sweet purple visor. Despite having no personality, the Vehicons do have the occasional dialogue to prove some of them have a bit of sentience (though whether or not they were given these body types or were originally sparkless vessels like the Beast Machines Vehicons is up for debate). Articulation is what one would expect for a Deluxe at the time, with ball joints used at the head, shoulders, part of the elbows, and hips, hinges for another part of the elbows as well as the knees, and swivels used at the biceps and thighs. Igu can be his cannon, though given how Prime characters integrated their weapons within their arms, it looks outright out of place had it not been a hand-held one like in other worlds.
Let's compare him to his ground-troop counterpart. I like that both Vehicon types are unique from one another in terms of design traits, as the regular Vehicon is nice and sleek while the Jet Vehicon has wings and added spikes. Even the colors are different, with a more Decepticon purple for the regular guy and a lavender shade that surprisingly works for the Jet Vehicon. Also, the chest doesn't have the Decepticon emblem but I may add one unless Toyhax gives us proper labels. One minor issue with the Jet Vehicon is that his rear bumper doesn't hide as nicely as on the regular Vehicon
In terms of prior Vehicon uses. Aside from the required stickers, he's mostly the same in terms of appearance yet has a 5mm port that could look like a booster on the bumper. It's cool but comes at the cost of making the awesome car look a bit worse. His Arms Micron is Noji, who is similar to Igu.
And this is the Botcon 2014 Pounce repaint from the Dead Pirate Crew. This is pretty much if G1 Pounce and a Vehicon had a love-child that can turn into a pirate. It was a neat repaint but is otherwise not necessary for the Vehicon army unless you wanted to have them be with Thundertron.
Now for Ground Vehicon General, who is basically a silver version of the Vehicon based on the General variant pictured below. While he's not from TFP, he is from the Adventure line, which is the Japanese version of Robots in Disguise. He has a random sticker on the hood that is pretty much what Robots in Disguise 2015 and Adventure toys had for their mobile app gimmicks.
Now for the Jet Vehicon reuses, this is the General variant, which was Starscream's welcome home gift courtesy of Megatron. While he still requires silver and may look a bit bland in vehicle mode thanks to the gray not looking as shiny as the silver, this is still a pretty wicked reuse of the mold.
And now we have Breakdown! Finally happy to own the Decepticon bruiser of the show after years of not having a regular American release outside of D-16. This guy's vehicle mode looks badass, with the armored truck design flowing beautifully throughout the toy. What I like most about the vehicle mode is the feel of the size; those windows and doors look small, making Breakdown feel big! While the stickers are not applied to the toy, I will give HasTak credit for leaving the paint apps intact like the grille, mirrors, and bumper.
The sides do look a little bad, with the gaps from the robot mode sort of looking a bit ugly. While the 4mm ports on the rear look fine, the ones from the front and the doors look like they weren't properly tooled to integrate them. Also don't like the one on the hood unless it's supposed to look like that.
The weapon can be placed on the roof, and yes my copy's windshield has a small scratch.
Transformation is pretty involved for this guy, with a bit of a reverse in some steps from Bulkhead. The arms are made from the sides of the front as well as the doors while Bulkhead's are made from within the back of the SUV he was; the legs are made from the back and integrate the panels from the vehicle mode nicely while Bulkhead has faux wheels next to the proper wheels. Finally, the back of the vehicle mode is placed where you'd want it to be while Bulkhead's back is not as accurate. The resulting robot mode makes me ask this question: what makes him unfit for Hasbro's budget? He's on-par with the rest of the Prime: Robots in Disguise toys, and while he lacks the clear parts that the Powerizers have, he's got enough in common with those than they claim. As for the design, this is a great beefy Decepticon with the body making him look like a big boss of a Decepticon, especially compared to his wimpy G1 counterpart. The only real issue comes from how the arms look, but I can excuse that for how they transform. He's lacking some details that the show would have but as mentioned, Reprolabels should fix that.
Headsculpt is accurate to the show, which turns the G1 head from a blockhead with paranoia into a mean motherfucker with piercing yellow eyes and a red face (which looks more orangey when the Takara version is redder). It's small but makes sense for the proportions. Articulation is not too bad for a big boy! His head is on a ball joint, shoulders move front and back as well as in and out, biceps swivel, and the elbows bend. The waist swivels, the hips move front and back as well as in and out, the knees bend, and the feet hinge. You can flip the hands in their vehicle mode position so the hammer can mimic a more screen-accurate weapon deployment. It may not look pretty, but it does the job nonetheless.
In terms of prior Breakdown reuses, this is Swerve, a Takara-exclusive version of the character done up to show how cool Swerve thinks he looks compared to the actual Swerve. He's done up in the G1 colors and weirdly looks more like a knockoff palette swap of Breakdown. His head sculpt is similar to that of a canceled TFP Gears from the Ratchet mold. His Arms Micron is a buzzsaw dude named Sou.
And this is Cylas Breakdown! He is basically an undead version of Breakdown but with his spark replaced with the living corpse of Silas embedded within the chest. The coloring is not entirely accurate to the CGI model since Breakdown's colors are dirtier than they are Nemesis-esque in the cartoon, which was a thing that happened with Nemesis Prime. That being said, he looks cool and even has a new bumper as well as a new head to depict his damaged look. His Arms Micron, Magi, is a dual-bladed weapon that he never had in the show.
And here he is with both his eternal nemesis and best friend forever, which are Bulkhead and Knock Out, respectively! These three are in good scale with one another, and as mentioned earlier, I don't get how Breakdown's budget doesn't align with the PRID line when he more-or-less has the same quality that the other Voyagers have. He's maybe a little shorter than Bulkhead but it's better than with the First Edition in terms of scale.
I gotta say that it feels so good to have Breakdown in my possession, especially when there was no comparable version of the character that could scale nicely with Bulkhead. Not even a Beast Hunters version was made! An overall great figure to have along with his rival!
And here are the TFP Decepticons that I own in one shot! It's kinda ironic that I own Skyquake, Breakdown, and a Jet Vehicon yet I don't have Soundwave. That being said, these figures look great even in spite of the team not being consistent in terms of who's present and who isn't (I mean Skyquake died right away, Starscream left the team at one point, and Airachnid's not always around). But this 2-pack is a great way to finally obtain a Breakdown figure and a Jet Vehicon at far more affordable prices than back in 2012! The best thing is that Breakdown is labeled as a Deluxe, and the two cost around $39.99! YES! Honestly, forget about paying that same price for repaints of Deluxe figures made in the WFC line, this has far more value for money when you consider how we never got these in the proper Prime line back in 2012!
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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