If you follow the day-by-day doings here at FFZ, then you know I’m in the middle of a Marvel Legends Week, but I’m still going to observe the tradition that is Transformers Thursday around these parts. Afterall, I’ve got me some Stunticons to look at!!! A couple of weeks back I looked at Dragstrip and today we’re pressing on with Breakdown.

Once again, I’m so happy to see that Hasbro is carrying the Comic Packs over to this new line. Sure, I still prefer the packaging deco used for Generations, but when you toss me a free funnybook, I’m libel to forget all about superficial things like what the package that I’m about to throw away looks like. Breakdown comes packaged in his robot mode, but as you’ve probably already guessed, I’m starting out with his alt mode.

Just like the good ol’days, Breakdown is an off-white Lambourghini and a fairly good one too. There are the inevitable seams running around the body of the car and some of those gaps never seem to close up as much as I’d like no matter how much I fiddle with it, but all in all I’m pretty pleased with what we got here. The black paint on the windows looks great, as does the red on the hood with the Decepticon emblem prominantly displayed. I love me my Decepticon cars and I love them more when they proudly advertise what they are. Breakdown also sports some blue striping on the lower edge of his sides and there’s some silver paint for the lights and part of the front bumper. I could have probably done without the “15RACING” printed on the windshield, but it’s not a dealbreaker for me.

Unlike the other two Combiner Wars Deluxes that I looked at, Breakdown actually makes great use of his combiner part in alt mode. It pegs just behind the spoiler and creates an external engine thingy that does a good job of mimicking the cannon that pegged into the original toy. Or if you prefer, you can leave that off and just plug Breakdown’s weapon into the roof. Either way, if you like weaponizing your cars, you have options!

Breakdown’s transformation has a few neat things going on. I like the way the legs fold out and the way the chest plate folds under to form the front bumper is pretty cool. Unfortunately, the result is a robot mode that has some issues. You should note that he comes mis-transformed in the package, but I’ll get back to that in a minute.

Let’s start with the good stuff! Breakdown is among the minority of the CW Deluxes that doesn’t show their combiner port as part of their chest and I like that. The plate that covers it up is nicely sculpted and the blue and silver paint look really good on him. The tiny off-center Decepticon emblem is a tad disappointing, but even still I like the makeup of this guy’s torso. Also well worthy of praise is that head sculpt, which I think actually outshines the one Fansproject used for their own Not-Breakdown. The squared off “helmet” and red face really sell the character to me. Good stuff!

Alas, that brings us to the not so good stuff. Those legs, for starters, are pretty rough. The lower legs are way too bulky and having that much hollow space on display doesn’t work for me. It makes him look stocky. I’ll admit it’s actually falls in line with the original G1 toy design, but I’d rather have more of a Sunbow aesthetic with my Generations figures. Is it just my personal preference? Sure, but that’s what these reviews are all about. The arms also seem rather flimsy to me, especially in relation to the boxy chest and bulky lower legs.

Lastly, there’s the backpack. I’ll concede that it tucks away nicely enough so that it’s all but invisible from the front and that’s something that fixes a major concern I had when viewing the figure in the package where it’s flipped up and visible from the front. On the other hand, it still looks rather bulky from the side or behind. And, so long as I’m getting crazy nit-picky here, it sure would have been cool if the whole thing could have been raised just a bit to put those wheels on his shoulders like the G1 design.

Breakdown comes with a cool weapon that can double as either a rifle with a bayonet or a sword. It’s a great design made all the better because Hasbro coughed up the cash for a silver paint app on the blade.

If you absolutely want to get that combiner part stowed away on Breakdown, you can peg it into his back. It does add a lot more bulk to what is an already rather unsightly backpack, but it works better for me than the way awkwardly Dragstrip’s pegged onto his shoulder. Either way it’s a moot point for me because I’m perfectly happy leaving the combiner parts separate from the figure when they’re not in use.

I picked Breakdown to go first because I honestly thought I was not going to like this figure at all and I wanted to get the bad out of the way. Surprisingly, even with all my many gripes, that’s not at all the case and I actually find myself liking him quite a bit. He’s not at all a bad Transformer, but he does strike me as being rather dated. The issues I have him with him feel like issues I would have if I were looking at a figure from the Unicron Trilogy era, particularly those hollow legs and the backpack. That having been said, there’s still plenty to love here and I do believe I can overcome the rough spots and embrace this guy as my Generations Breakdown.