We already knew a version of Trailbreaker will pop up in the Earthrise line, but I was quite honestly surprised he's the second version of the mold to come out, especially given that Hoist wasn't as prominent as the other guy. It made sense because Grapple was known to hang out with Hoist in a few episodes, The Master Builders being a good example. Still, we have a Trailbreaker now, and we also had a version of him from the Thrilling 30 line; can the breaker beat the cutter? Let's find out. I should mention that while I covered Hoist in full detail, I will cover Trailbreaker mostly via comparisons as well as what he has new on the table.
Here we have Trailbreaker in his vehicle mode, a pickup truck with a camper in the back. He's mostly the same as Hoist is in terms of molded details, with the deco being what mainly separates the two from one another if you exclude the camper. The grill, wheels, and panels are unchanged in terms of tooling.
The camper piece does have a slightly different shade of black compared to the other parts, as it has more of a speckled look to it while most of the parts are a smooth black and the front is more of a shiny black. Nowhere near as bad of a color match-up as seen on Sunstreaker, but still noticeable. At least the paint apps are nicely applied, which gives the truck that much more of a retro feel.
The only other accessory he comes with can be placed on the top, which can also be applied with the satellite that came with the Centurion Drone.
Here he is with his mold mate, Hoist. As mentioned, both share the same sculpted details for the most part, though now I realize that Hoist's green shades are not as consistent as Trailbreaker's. What's funny is that what little battle damage is applied to the hood of Hoist is not present on Trailbreaker. Also worth noting is that the strange towing equipment on Hoist is entirely removed on Trailbreaker, and we have smoky translucent plastic rather than the blue that Hoist has.
And here he is with Trailcutter from the Thrilling 30 portion of the Generations line. I'm going to admit by saying that I like the design of the T30 version a lot more, as it feels more badass than the "G1-with-knees" copy-and-paste Earthrise version, though I did wish it was bigger (which was an issue that many had when they first got it, as it was smaller than even Classics Bumblebee!), and while the design itself is cooler, I didn't like how the wheels rolled on that figure compared to the more smooth rolling of the ER one. So, yeah, I do feel a little torn on that.
Transformation is 98% the same as Hoist, now with the option for you to either remove the camper or leave it on a specific tab, which compared to the partsforming approach found on Deluxes like Cliffjumper and Arcee, this is the best of them all. Also worth mentioning is that he now has a little shoulder cannon and the same floodlight device on him. Robot mode is mostly the same as with Hoist, though I feel it was made specifically for Hoist because in the cartoon, Trailbreaker and the Season 1 Autobots mostly deviated from the toy designs and made them smoother yet easier to animate (which meant erasing some of the toy details like with the early models for Optimus Prime, Jazz, and Sideswipe). Of course, it isn't so bad because their toy looked the same in terms of design, but the toy is at least not as stumpy as I initially expected on Trailbreaker, given how sleek it kind of looks for him specifically. The back is also decent on him as the camper doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, and the door panels on him are still prominent from the back view.
Head sculpt is an undeniably blocky head, which makes sense for his character yet looks a little funny if you want to make any flathead jokes. Also, his face may be unpainted but he has a nice blue visor. Articulation is the same as with Hoist and most WFC Deluxes, but he has double-jointed knees, wrists, and shoulders that work a little differently.
His accessories consist of the hand-replacement gun that some G1 Autobots have, which look more like silver dildo rockets if you ask me. The camper can be removed and be used as a shield, which is kind of hard to make it look convincing on some poses thanks to the way the arms work.
And here we have Legacy Generations Selects DK-3 Breaker as the Diaclone repaint using this tooling. He's blue like a classic truck and makes me feel nostalgic for the time my dad used to drive in a blue pickup truck, though it didn't have a camper and it wasn't a 4WD Hi-luxe. He's going to go well with other Diaclone homages in the line, that's for sure.
For a comparison with his Thrilling 30 self, here they are side by side. Once again, I'm still mixed on the comparison because while I prefer the design of the T30 figure, I think the Earthrise one feels better engineered; I say that because the T30 one has shoulders that don't feel as integrated, the legs look kind of unchanged, and the torso could use a bit more definition to make it look less unchanged. Also, the benefit of the ER figure is being taller than the other Deluxe.
So while I do like the Earthrise version fine enough, though part of me wished that the T30 Trailcutter figure was better engineered than he already was just so the figure would have some form of being even better than he currently is.
And here he is with his kinda palette swap, Hoist. Their heads, backpieces, and weapons are different, but they are otherwise the same in terms of tooling. So overall, Trailbreaker is a decent reuse of a figure that was alright at first, and I think he's even better despite being a little inaccurate to the character model. I'd say you should get him, but I've never found him in stores.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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