Me and Masterpiece Transformers sort of split ways some time ago. The last MP figure I bought and reviewed here was Ratchet and that was way back in 2018. And you’d have to go back two years before that for previous one, Ironhide. It’s crazy because I love each and every one of the MPs I own, but somewhere between the rising prices of the line and Hasbro getting much better at their own engineering, I just stopped buying them. I’m pretty sure it was Inferno clocking in at $150 that was the breaking point. I still love the look of that figure, but then Hasbro didn’t do too bad with their Kingdom release of Inferno and in the end I just couldn’t justify the cost. But fast forward to last week when a certain retailer was running a sale on MP Trailbreaker and I decided to get back on that cyber-horse one more time.

The packaging hasn’t changed much in the eight years since I’ve been away. Trailbreaker comes in a fully enclosed box that fits right in with all the other releases. The box is deceptively small, considering how big a figure this is, but that’s because he comes packaged in his vehicle mode and the transformation features some clever mass-shifting fakery. Like the past releases in the line, Trailbreaker’s alt mode is fully licensed, in this case from Toyota, and comes in a clear plastic tray with his accessories and a folded instruction sheet. Let’s start with the auto mode!

Trailbreaker’s auto mode is a Toyota N30 Hilux Pick-Up Truck with a camper-style cap on the bed, something that I did not know when I was a kid. I actually always thought he was a Suburban or something, but what do you want from me, I was just a dumb kid. It’s a nicely detailed little vehicle done in an all black body with a patch of colored diagonal strokes above the rear tires. You get a beautiful chromed out grill and wheels, plastic tires with sculpted treads, translucent red tail lights and translucent orange signal lights front and back. And I really dig having the Toyota brand sculpted across the tailgate. There are the unavoidable seams running through the body and I think Takara did a better job hiding these on some of the other Autobots. But, I will note that these pictures are after transforming him back into his truck mode, so some of mine may not have closed up quite as well as they did straight out of the box, as it was my first time.

You actually get two options for the front grill and bumper: The stock chromed one and the a matte gray version, which I assume is meant to look more like the cartoon. For me, it just looks out of place and it’s a shame to take off that beautiful chrome, so I won’t be getting any use out of the second grill and bumper.

The hood does open, showing off the engine compartment with some detailed components in there. It’s pretty impressive and reminds me of the Alternator toys.

And you also get an optional radar dish to clip onto the top. The dish is chrome and I could totally see myself displaying this on the vehicle most of the time. All in all, I think this is a great looking vehicle mode with some cool surprises and options. Getting the toy into this alt mode felt pretty intuitive, but it’s that very last step of getting everything packed in just right that felt a little trickier than normal for me, leaving a few gaps in the seams. I’m sure I’ll get better with practice.

And here are a few shots of the vehicle mode alongside Ironhide and Smokescreen. Overall, I think he scales pretty well and they look great parked side by side. Now, let’s move on to his robot mode…

I like to live on the edge and try to transform these guys without instructions, even on the first try. Sometimes it works and sometimes it ends in frustration. With Trailbreaker, it worked out pretty well. There was nothing here that felt all that scary or overly complicated and the resulting robot is pretty damn great, but worthy of a few nitpicks to call out as we go. Trailbreaker is a delightfully tall boy who can stand shoulder to shoulder with Ironhide and Ratchet, but most of that height comes from his long legs, as his body is more or less the truck shell folded in half. You get the windshield making up his chest and the hood pointing down to form his lower torso. Meanwhile on the back, the canopy from the truck gives him a clean, squared off backpack. Yes, you can actually trim it down a bit more than I have it in the picture, but I kind of prefer the added bulk. Trailbreaker’s lower half proportions are kind of wonky with his pelvic region and legs looking a tad under-developed for that boxy bod, but it still works for me. Meanwhile, the deco is mostly black and gray, but the addition of the red knees and Autobot insignia do help to spice things up, as does the kisses of chrome on his shoulder mounted cannon and radar scanner as well as the blaster on his left arm.

So, the biggest nitpick I have here is in his sides, which are more than a tad unfinished and allow you peek in and see how the cyber sausage is made. Plus, if you line up your peek just right, you can see through to the other side. It’s not exactly cartoon accurate and makes that part of him look a bit unpolished. You need only look at MP Ironhide and Ratchet to see how much better the sides were handled on those figures. The engineering there is quite elegant the way the plates mesh to fill up the sides, and Trailbreaker here certainly lacks that. I can see the argument that it’s unacceptable for what is called a “Masterpiece” Transformer, but I just can’t get too upset about it.

You get three face plates to choose from, each of which is basically just the front half of the head that detaches. The faces include a neutral expression, a happy expression, and a shouty face. I find the sculpt around the mouth to be a bit soft on all three, but compensation comes in the visor, which has a gorgeous reflective blue paint that emulates light piping when under the right lights. Both the shoulder cannon and radar scanner are part of the transformation, rather than separate add-on pieces. Both look good, but I would have liked the scanner to be bigger, even if it meant adding it on after the fact. I will note here that I like the light frosted finish on the windshield that obscures the junk behind it.

The articulation here is right in line with what we saw on Ironhide and Ratchet. The joints are smooth and strong and the legs have no problems supporting his weight, even in wide stances. I love the range of motion you get in the lateral ankle rockers, which give him a stable platform, and his overall balance is excellent. On the downside, I would have liked it if the head could look up a bit more.

You get three options for his right arm attachments. You can go with the standard blaster, a fist, or a forcefield generator as seen in the original More Than Meets The Eye miniseries. The standard blaster has a gray plastic midsection which allows the barrel to compact itself for transformation. Getting it to lock into the extended mode can be a bit tricky and if it’s not locked in it can flop a bit. The hands are articulated at the base of the thumbs and index fingers, with the final three fingers hinged as one piece. I love having these options, but I will likely use the regular blaster as my default display.

And finally, you get a blast effect that works with either of the left arm attachments, as well as the shoulder cannon. Heck, you can even plug it into the radar scanner if you want to turn that into a weapon. This piece if cast in translucent yellow plastic and pegs into the hole on the attachments. I think it looks best on the regular blaster attachment, as the forcefield projector should really have three beams coming out of it.

It was a real treat coming back to a Masterpiece figure after all this time and with Trailbreaker on sale for $100 down from $150, it seemed like a great opportunity to pull that trigger. There are definitely some areas of improvement to be had here, and I won’t deny he feels like a step down from the Autobot Vans, especially considering how much more expensive he is, but I can still find plenty to love here and I’m happy to have him in my MP Autobot lineup. He definitely made me want to start collecting this line again, but with the prices still being what they are, I will likely wait for another sale before adding any more. Both Grapple and Inferno never sold out at any of the regular places I shop online, and they’ve been around for a long time, so maybe I’ll get lucky in that respect. To be honest, the only figure that I wish I had picked up when he was available was Hound, but I got scared away from him with many of the QC issues that were being reported.

Last week I announced the Bayformer takeover of Transformers Thursday, and this week I’m already reneging on it. Yup, I’m a big fat liar. In fact, the next three weeks of TFT will be devoted to some new acquisitions. What can I say? I didn’t expect to be buying a lot of Transformers this month. But fear not, that will still leave plenty of time to spread the Bayformer hate love during the following month. Today we have bigger fish to fry because I’m taking another crack at MP-12 Lambor. For those that don’t already know, I’ll preface this feature by pointing out that this is indeed the second time I bought this figure. I got the original release of MP-12 and wound up selling it because the paint job was so god awful, that I was furious at myself for spending $80 on it. I had it up on Ebay within hours of receiving it so I didn’t even bother to feature it here. Fortunately, Takara has done a second run on this figure and the word was that Takara “should be” addressing the QC issues this time around. With the three Datsuns under my belt, I had to roll the dice again. Let’s see how I made out this time.

Back then, Lambor was our first look at the MP Autobot Car packaging, but we’ve already seen it here three times with Prowl, Streak, and Smokescreen. There’s not much new to say. It’s compact, it’s collector friendly, and it gets the job done. I like it. I’ll also take this opportunity to say that from now on I’m calling him Sideswipe.

Inside you get a plastic tray that holds the toy in its alt mode along with the gun, the missile launcher, and the two piledrivers. I totally forgot that the piledrivers came with him, and I also totally forgot to snap a picture of him with them on. Unless you see one, and that means I had the time to come back and do it. Hey, I post at least five features a week, there can’t be time for everything! Anyway, you also get a folded instruction sheet and a profile card with some boffo character art. I just said “boffo.” That doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m drinking. But yes, I am.

Takara has also been bundling these MP figures with collector coins and US importers have been charging more if you want them with the figure. I couldn’t give a crap about these, so I haven’t been getting them. Nonetheless, my Sideswipe came with one because the retailer I bought him from didn’t give an option to get the second run figure without it. So here it is. Oddly enough, it says Hasbro on the back. Weird!

As any good TransFan worth their energon knows, Sideswipe is a sexy red Lamborghini Countach. As I removed the figure I let out a sigh of relief. This time around, the paint is indeed quite good. Is it perfect? No, but I really have to nitpick to find flaws in it. There are a couple of grains of dust under the paint on the hood, but you have to get the light to hit it just right to notice. I tried to get it to show up in the pictures, but I don’t think it did. That’s how minor a flaw it is. There are a few minor instances of slop around the black triangle on the driver side. And of course, the shade of red on the roof doesn’t match the rest of the car because it’s painted over clear plastic. Considering the first Lambor I got had huge swirls and chips in the paint and red slop on the windshield, this one is a huge step up. Indeed, the fact that I am nitpicking the paint this time around is a wonderful thing. Anyway, Sideswipe has one hell of a solid alt mode with just some minor issues with getting some of the plates to line up perfectly. I blame this as much on my transforming skills. I’m possibly not comfy enough with him yet to get everything aligned just right. But I tend to get some gaps in seams along the sides and the two halves of the spoiler tend to separate a smidge.

There’s a slot on the top of the roof in case you for some reason want to mount his missile launcher on there. You can even plug the rifle into it too just in case a Lamborghini with a giant missile launcher on top didn’t look ridiculous enough. It’s nice to have options, but I can’t imagine ever making use of this feature again.

I found transforming Sideswipe a little more tricky than the Datsuns, but that could just be because I’ve been through it so many times with those three figures that it’s old hat to me now. There’s nothing terribly uncomfortable about the process, although his legs do involve quite a bit of fiddly bits. I’ll also note that it’s sometimes difficult to get his chest to stay plugged in, whereas the Datsun’s chests locked into place with a rock-solid snap. I think my problem is that I don’t always have the torso packed away properly and I suspect I’ll get better at it.

Of course, it’s hard to argue with the end result and Sideswipe’s bot mode looks amazing. The proportions are perfect and I love the way the legs pack and tab together so perfectly. It’s brilliant. Even from the back he looks so clean and tight. Oooh, baby… so tight. Sure there are some exposed screws visible from the back, but I suppose they had to land somewhere. I’m also happy to say that the paint job looks just as good in robot mode as in his alt mode. There’s no chips or bleeding or any of the crap that I got with my orginal issue Lambor. Either I got lucky with this one or Takara did indeed step up the game on their QC for this second batch. Either way, a winner is me!

Lambor features a white cannon or missile launcher that pegs comfortably into either shoulder and can still be angled up or down so he can attain that perfect firing arc and blow Decepticon Seekers out of the sky. He also comes with a hand gun, which looks great, but doesn’t stay in his hand as well as the guns do on the Datsuns. It seems to tab in fine, but when I close the fingers around it, it seems to knock it loose again. No biggie. It’s just a matter of striking the right balance on the finger hinges.

Having a Sideswipe-shaped hole in my MP collection was really pissing me off. It was even more maddening because I had the figure in hand and had to give him up for being unacceptable. I can’t properly express how happy I am that Takara made this happen and re-issued him. He’s a superb figure and certainly worthy of the name Masterpiece. And he finally offers up a little more diversity to my MP Autobot shelf, which so far was populated mostly by the Datsuns. I’ve got a pre-order in for the second run of Red Alert too, so I’ll be anxiously awaiting his arrival later this year!

Wow, this one has been a long time coming. MP-13 was first released at a time when I had expended my toy buying budget. As much as I wanted him, I was able to just say no to charging him. Remember my motto about toy collecting, folks, if I can’t afford it, I don’t use plastic to buy plastic. I stay out of a lot of trouble that way. By the time I was ready to buy him, the Hasbro version was revealed and I held out to see if I could find that one. As it turned out, I never did get time to make that two-hour round trip to my nearest Toys R Us and he went for insane prices online, so buying MP Soundwave just fell to the wayside. He fell back on my radar recently when the second production run shipped to e-tailers at about $30 less than the first and when BBTS dropped him down to $120, it seemed like the perfect time to toss him into my Pile of Loot and ship that stuff out the door. I could probably knock this feature out in one day, but to be honest, I’m in the middle of my craziest-busiest time of year so I’m going to welcome the opportunity to pad it out into a two-parter. Today we’ll look at the packaging and Laserbeak and tomorrow we’ll check out that master of charisma, Soundwave.

Holy crap, this is a big box! You have to remember that the first MP figures that I picked up were Prowl and Bluestreak and they came packaged in their alt modes in tiny little boxes. One of my friends overseas kept telling me, “Don’t be scared, but they’re going to come in really small boxes!” But Soundwave is packaged in his robot mode in a box that is large enough to make me feel comfortable with the gravitas of my purchase before even opening it. It’s a simple, enclosed box with a deco is quite similar to what we saw on the Datsuns. You get a photo of Soundwave and Laserbeak on the front in their robot modes as well as Soundwave in his tape deck mode. The bottom right classifies him as MP-13 “Destron Communications.” Niiiiice! The back of the package has a whole bunch of shit that I can’t read as well as various shots of the toy and its various features.

Open up the top or bottom and you can slide out the covered clear plastic tray. Soundwave is packaged in his robot mode with all kinds of extra goodies surrounding him. You also get a baggie containing the instruction booklet, two profile cards (one for Soundwave and one for Laserbeak). There are also two cut-outs on the last page of the instruction booklet to use as insert graphics for Soundwave’s chest. But we’re saving Soundwave’s robot mode for tomorrow. First, let’s get him into his tape deck mode.

One thing I was really curious about was Soundwave’s transformation engineering. The original toy had a frightfully simple transformation and yet it was still one of the more animation accurate robots in the toyline. Granted that was saying much when you compared him to the likes of Megatron or Ironhide. Anyway, I guess I was skeptical over just how much of an upgrade the design could possibly get at the Masterpiece level. Well color me suitably impressed. At its core, the toy still retains the basic engineering as the G1 toy (arms and head fold back and legs wrap up and around), but it throws a lot more finicky stuff into the mix to accommodate for the robot mode’s better proportions and improved articulation. I was able to transform MP Prowl without even looking at the instructions, but I’m not ashamed to say that Soundwave stumped me at a few stages. Keep in mind, since the toy is packaged in robot mode, my first attempt was going into cassette mode.

And so, for the first time in a long time we get a new Soundwave figure as he was intended. He’s not a jet or a communications truck or any of that nonsense. For the kids at home, this is a tape deck. Say it with me, “a taaaaape deeeeeeck.” Back when I was a kid, we used to use these primitive devices to listen to music that was magnetically recorded on audio cassettes while we were fighting off dinosaurs attacks and looking for caves to live in. It’s kind of ironic that few Transformers were more inherently characterized by the nature of their alt mode than Soundwave, only to have that very alt mode become irrelevant by the march of technology. I think the last mainstream release of Soundwave as a cassette deck was in the Titaniums line. There aren’t many surprises to be had in MP Soundwave’s tape deck mode. Proportionally speaking, this one is beefier than the original toy, but it’s quite accurate to the animation from the front. The beveled corners of the tape door give it a smoother look than the angles of the original version. There are plenty of faked out controls and imputs on the sides. In fact, look at all those inputs? The last tape deck I owned had a headphone jack and that’s it. What the hell are all those inputs for???

It’s worth noting that the back of the MP figure is rather unfinished when compared to the original toy. You can still clearly see where the arms are and the “batteries” are just out there and exposed whereas the original toy had them hidden away behind a compartment with a belt clip. I suppose that’s a criticism, but not one that bothers me at all. If that’s the sacrifice that had to be made to make this guy work, it was a good one. And despite the unfinished back half, this thing still holds together quite well.

The tape door has a crisp and beautiful Decepticon insignia printed on it as well as some subtle little details etched into the clear plaste. As expected, the tape door is spring loaded and opens with a press of the eject button. Naturally, you can fit the Laserbeak cassette into the player. Actually, you can fit up to three cassettes into the player at a time. I know it doesn’t look like it, but the back of the compartment pushes back to accommodate them. You can even put original G1 cassettes in there too. And that brings us to Laserbeak…

Laserbeak, or Condor if you prefer, comes in a translucent pink plastic cassette case and he is exactly the same size as the old G1 cassettes. There’s not a lot to say about him in cassette mode, but I could gush on and on about how remarkable the engineering on this guy is because the engines on his back are no longer separate pieces but are now integrated into the transformation. It’s simply mind blowing how cool it works, although it isn’t without some sacrifice. The engines are notably smaller and the barrels for his guns are a lot shorter. Still, I love this little guy to pieces!

That having been said, I’m still a little torn on which I prefer in condor mode, Masterpiece or Vintage? I know, it sounds crazy, but there’s still a certain something about the big chromed out engines and guns on the original Laserbeak that lights my fire. It’s damn cool that the old cassettes work with MP-13 because I can have the best of both worlds and not have to choose.

And that’s where I’m going to break for today. I’ll be back tomorrow to check out Soundwave in all his robot glory along with the goodies that he comes with.