Transformers Combiner Wars Breakdown review

Breakdown in Transformers Prime is an absolute legend, even if he was once a paranoid Stunticon from the good War for Cybertron (that being the game), which reminded me of how G1 Breakdown was once just an evil Red Alert who can be a combiner limb. Seriously, between the same alternate mode, the white coloring, and the paranoid behavior, it's like Hasbro was running out of ideas for personalities in the Transformers series for G1. Okay, sure, the Geewunners will cry that TFP Breakdown is just an evil Bulkhead, but Breakdown's less clumsy and is a lot more aggressive overall, especially considering how he wanted to go against the Autobot big boy. Now let's see how this guy holds up in a WFC Trilogy world!

Here is Breakdown in his vehicle mode, which is yet another awesome addition to the Stunticon team! I love the aggressiveness it has, the paint apps are nicely applied even in spite of the back being a little plain, and the car mode just has a very slick level of attitude that wouldn't fit Breakdown's paranoid personality. It's one of the slickest car formers out there and manages to stand out from the Lamborghini brothers pretty well. The only flaw is that because the hood clashes with the plastic on the toy when in robot or limb mode, it tends to scratch off, but this car mode looks very nice. 

The vehicle mode looks super badass, and I especially love the rims it has, with the rear tires being larger and having that Hot Wheels feel to them. The blue trim is subtle but adds to the car and would otherwise make it very plain without it.

The accessories store themselves rather uniquely. The bayonet actually slides onto a slit on the door, while the HFG makes use of the tabs on the hand as well as on the roof and back of the car to give it some engine design traits meant for Sunstreaker! Will that pay off nicely? Find out later in the review.

Here he is next to Sunstreaker, who you will find out has something in common with Breakdown apart from the alt modes and the aforementioned engine blocks. I think Breakdown's vehicle mode definitely looks cooler due to it being a more futuristic or modern design without any of the obligated G1 aspects pulling it back from further creativity. Also bigger than Sunstreaker, too!

Transformation is rather similar to the other Combiner limbs we covered. He has some of the similar aspects we found from Dead End with the front of the car being the backpack and the chest being a flap, but the arm transformation is unique to him, as is the way the legs extend (they unfold and snap in place with a somewhat cheap click)...sadly, the robot mode definitely has some problems to it. The proportions make him look obese with his blocky torso, thin arms, barely existent thighs, and the HUGE lower legs. It's a shame since Dead End managed to look awesome in his robot mode while this guy feels like he couldn't be bothered to fix himself all that well. I'm also not a fan of how hollow it feels in the lower legs as well as the back. If there was a way to have the backpack stay in place the same way it was for Dead End, then I'd give it some more respect, but it looks bad as it is.

Head sculpt is accurate to the character, though because of how blocky and generic is, the only unique aspects to is are the red face and the purple eyes. His articulation is the same as with the other guys covered so far, though he has double-jointed elbows and you can sort of give him foot articulation.

Breakdown is unique for having different display options for his weapons! Firstly, you have the bayonet that can be held like a gun and his HFG can serve as a normal blaster, but you can not only have him hold his bayonet like a sword, but you can also store the HFG as a backpack! It's pretty neat if you ask me.

Let's go over the reuses of Breakdown. This is the Takara Unite Warriors version of the character, giving him different paint apps that still make him no different from the Hasbro version apart from the less detailed windshield. Of note is that his HFG trades the Sunstreaker feature in favor of symmetry for the Menasor mode. He's nothing special.

This is the G2 version of the character, one of the more common decos used in Transformers history. Based on a canceled repaint of the toy that later became a BotCon exclusive, this is the third or fourth version of the character in this paint job. He's crazily colored and might not be everyone's tastes, but you gotta commend Hasbro for doing him with justice in this line.

Now we have Sunstreaker from the Hasbro Combiner Wars line, which gives him what I guess is his toy-accurate deco that mainly includes the red in some parts of the toy. Being a reuse of the Breakdown mold, this guy doesn't have an accurate transformation and carries the same goofy proportions.

And this is the Takara version for Unite Warriors! This is the cartoon-accurate version of the guy and trades some of the toy-accurate deco in favor of having nicer paint apps and a less-cheap yellow. Wish his gun and HFG were painted silver, though.

Here is Ravage from the FunPub repaints, having a new head that captures his appearance in Season 2 of Beast Wars. The choice of mold may be bad but the new tooling is appreciative if a little imperfect.

And here is a Maximal variant used for Tigatron. He's pretty much a mostly white recolor of Ravage but with a few different paint apps.

Here we have Jumpstream, who is slightly better colored than Dust Up but is still the same as far as frustrating issues and new tooling to make her more feminine are concerned.

And this is the Takara take on the tooling, that being Trickdiamond! She's got a bit of a G1 Gobot feel to her with the black and yellow, and it's funny how her weapon trades the silver for gold. The weird thing is that it has a bit of an Aquaman feel to it.

Now we have Wheeljack! Car mode may be decent but the robot mode is GHASTLY as far as paint apps are concerned, especially with the windows. An attempt was made to make him look like Wheeljack in robot mode but it's not perfect.

And this is the Unite Warriors version of him, which does admittedly look nicer than the Siege one but is still in a mold that I don't care much about.

Here we have the Unite Warriors version of Lightspeed, who is also given a new mold and does look much nicer than the Hasbro version...if only it was the Dead End mold, but who cares, the Technobots aren't super crucial to a normal display anyhow.

And finally, this is Counterpunch! He trades in the ability to become Punch in favor of becoming a combiner limb. Kind of a funny choice since he is pretty much close to resembling Slicer, who is an evil Wheeljack.

And here he is with the Autobot Lamborghini Brothers! He definitely looks like a toy from an older era as far as his proportions are concerned, since Sideswipe and Sunstreaker at least manage to look more refined and proportionate (Sideswipe does a better job, I won't lie). Still, at least their bodies are distinct from one another.

And here he is with the Autobot counterpart of his, that being Red Alert. I'm noticing now that Breakdown has a creamy white that does look like it's yellowed when I first saw it, but I think all Breakdowns have been like that. Still, I brought these two together because they're definitely similar to one another as mentioned earlier.

And here he is being tormented by Prime Breakdown! You can tell that I prefer the Prime version of the character due to his personality and design, and he's also the first guy to do the Hulk hands before Rook did! Granted, it fits Rook better because of how he's designed, but Breakdown did it first as a retroactive feature! So yeah, TFP bias aside, I don't think Combiner Wars Breakdown is not as good as his wave-mates; they're much more refined and have fewer issues than he does. At least the vehicle mode is perfectly fine.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐