Gen Dlx Spotlight Trailcutter pack-in comic is edited

[JediTricks]

This is the face I had upon figuring this out The majority of the book seems to be the same, but there are some areas that felt a little off, especially the last panel and how it closed the story. Looking it up online, it turns out the issue removes direct verbal references to drinking and killing, and it also moved a few things around. I purposefully didn't buy the regular edition because I knew I was getting this one, and it turns out to be altered.

List can be found here:
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Reluctant_Specialist#Trivia

currently it reads:
In the version of the issue packed in with Trailcutter's Generations Thrilling 30 toy, several edits to the script are made:

Any reference to the name 'Trailbreaker' is removed. The dialogue on page 6 regarding his name change is cut, and any prior uses of his original name are changed to 'Trailcutter'.
Mentions of guns and killing are replaced with blasters and destroying/hurting/etc.
Overt references to alcohol consumption are removed, such as Trailcutter's offer to share a bottle of Nightmare Fuel, and his resolution to "get fendered" at the end of the issue.
Some less explicable changes to the narration, such as moving the narration from page 8, panel 5 one panel earlier, and omitting the entirely harmless first narration box on page 9, panel 4.

I'm thinking of just buying the digital edition from Comixology. If I borrowed it from someone they'd have to mail it and that'd be almost a buck out and another back. But maybe it's not worth buying just for that, the story itself holds up alright.

[Shockwave]

I do plan on getting Trailbreaker at some point so if you want my original comic you're welcome to it.

[BWprowl]

Yeah, I'd had the original version since it came out, so when I got my Trailruiner and flipped through the packed-in comic, I noticed there were some changes, mainly that he was 'Trailcutter' throughout the whole thing and the little conversation where Whirl suggests the alternate name is removed thusly (it's especially funny to me, since Roberts clearly went through the effort of putting that in there and making it an element of the story so the comic would be able to stand in-continuity and with the figure it was being packed with, and then Hasbro went and edited that element of the comic anyway). Didn't catch that other bits had been rearranged, or the censorship, but that's hardly surprising, considering Roberts's TF comics tend to have more drinking, swearing, and murdering than I would expect from a comic book packed in with what's obstensibly a children's toy.

But yeah, if you specifically skipped the original version because you were planning on having this one, that would kinda burn.

[Onslaught Six]

Not surprised at all on the violent/alcohol front. I would also assume that if Hasbro went through the trouble to specifically have a guy who isn't named Trailbreaker that they would basically edict for any use of that name to be erased from it. (There could arguably be trademark concerns, because the comic is included with the toy, and thus in this context doesn't specifically exist as its own entity; it'd likely be considered paperwork for the toy. It'd be like if Hasbro was selling a catalogue with the toy with the word "Megazord" in it.)

[JediTricks]

I do plan on getting Trailbreaker at some point so if you want my original comic you're welcome to it.

Thanks for the offer, LMK and I'll hit you up with mailing costs.

Not surprised at all on the violent/alcohol front. I would also assume that if Hasbro went through the trouble to specifically have a guy who isn't named Trailbreaker that they would basically edict for any use of that name to be erased from it. (There could arguably be trademark concerns, because the comic is included with the toy, and thus in this context doesn't specifically exist as its own entity; it'd likely be considered paperwork for the toy. It'd be like if Hasbro was selling a catalogue with the toy with the word "Megazord" in it.)

The thing is that they are both used in replacement, there's swearing and drinking only if you already know what the concepts mean, otherwise it's just alien talk and consuming fuel.

As for the trademark issue, of course you're right but knowing they were there makes it an issue I suppose, it was theirs first too.

[Dominic]

As much as I like Trailbreaker, I could not bring myself to buy that set, partly for the comic being edited. (Some of the edits defeat the purpose of the comic having been written the way it was.)

And, the toy having the wrong alternate mode does not much help.

[BWprowl]

And, the toy having the wrong alternate mode does not much help.

Does Trailbreaker not traditionally turn into a truck?

[Dominic]

The whole point of the "Generations" comic pack-in line is that the damned figures are supposed to look like the comics they are packaged with. In the comic, Traibreaker/Cutter does not have an Earth mode. (Between the toy have the wrong mode and the character name being changed in the comic, it looks like Hasbro wanted this to be the worst of the 4.)

[Onslaught Six]

Trailbreaker is obviously the one least "intended" to be an "IDW toy," and is more along the lines of Perceptor or Kup from recent lines. Most people are going to want a Trailbreaker who can hang out with guys like Universe Prowl and Ironhide and Classics Bumblebee and Mirage--not their tiny shelf of "IDW Dudes," which might--might!--include Drift. I have to wonder, if the toy didn't include a comic at all (and the others in this wave didn't either), would you even give a shit? Buy it and throw the comic away!

[BWprowl]

Yeah, I find it kinda funny that "Comes with a comic I already own that's been edited and doesn't look exactly like the toy" somehow results in the toy itself not being worth buying for Dom. Of course, I've seen *techspec* cards make or break toys for him, so I really shouldn't be surprised.

At least the interns who get shafted with handling this crap at Hasbro can rest assured that SOMEONE out there appreciates their hard work! Forget the people designing the actual toys, we know who the real heroes are!

Trailmauler is at least the second-best toy in that wave, by the way, he might even be better than Megatron, depending on my mood.