Yeah, yeah… I was one of those people complaining about Offroad and Hasbro trying to slip an imposter into my Stunticons. Nothing personal, Offroad, you’re a decent figure. I’ll find a place for you in my Decepticon ranks, but there’s no room for you on this team, so um… hit the road. Make way for Brake-Neck, aka Wildrider. The genuine article has arrived!

And here’s the packaging and I’ve got nothing new to say about it other then Brake-Neck comes packaged in his robot mode and you get a delicious reprint comic book bundled in. Also, while I’m disappointed that he couldn’t be called Wildrider, I approve of the punny spelling of his name. Anywho… we now know that it was all part of Hasbro’s grand scheme to slip a couple of molds into the Stunticons and Aerialbots that can be re-purposed for other combiner teams and then get us the “real” team members after we had already bought the impostors. Well, you only got me by half, Hasbro. I may have bought Offroad but not Alpha Bravo. Nope, I’m going to Takara for my Superion, thank you very much.

It takes only one look at Brake-Neck to see that he’s a straight repaint of Dead End. That’s fine by me, because Dead End was easily my favorite of these new Stunticons. It’s the same sleek and beautifully contoured car sculpt with a less flashy paint job that bears a passing resemblence to the coloring of G1 Wildrider. The two-tone grey paint looks nice, but the red door panels look rather unfinished to me. I do, however, like the way they omitted the paint from the rear window to drive the homage a bit further. On the other hand, I wish they had centered the Decepticon insignia on his hood. All in all, a really love this auto mode.

Brake-Neck comes with the same exhaust pipe that can be plugged into either side of the car. You can even peg it on top if you’re feeling wild. I wish to Primus they had bundled him with one of the other Stunticon’s weapons.

In robot mode we can see that Brake-Neck does have one new piece of sculpting and that’s his noggin. And yes, with his red face and ear spikes, he does indeed resemble the Wildrider that I knew and loved. The new deco does it’s best to make him stand apart from Dead End, especially if you stand one on each end of the shelf. I really dig the purple paint on his chest and the darker plastic used for that odd combiner port on his leg makes it not stand out so much on this release. Everything else, including articulation is identical to Dead End.

The only question that remains is does Brake-Neck magically transform Menasor into a great combiner figure? Nope. I will, however, say that he helps to improve it. I was not a big fan of Offroad’s chunky hood just below the knee. Of course, you also still have the option to flip them around old-school style, so that the bottoms of the cars are facing front. I still think that looks a lot better even if it does inhibit Menasor’s knee articulation. I’m almost ashamed to admit at how much I’m warming up to Menasor as a combiner.

And so, I finally have my Combiner Wars Wildrider and all is right with the world. He’s a fine figure and I’m happy to have him on the team. I’m even more ecstatic that he was easiy to get online and only cost me a couple of bucks over what these figures tend to go for when hanging on the pegs. It’s a toss up on which CW figures you’ll be seeing next here. I still have to pick up Blackjack and my pre-order for Takara’s Superion is due to hit any time now. I’m still debating whether or not to go for the Takara version of Defensor so I can get that Deluxe Groove, but if I spot any of the Protectobots in the stores all bets may be off. In the meantime, next Transformers Thursday I’ll be bending the rules and checking out a little Third-Party action.