Combiner Wars deluxe Breakdown is a classic member of the Stunticons, the paranoid bot that’s traditionally the right leg of Menasor. Breakdown is part of the second wave of Combiner Wars, and comes with a comic book. With Wildrider having been renamed “Brake-Neck”, Breakdown’s name is no longer as unique as it used to be, but he’s still having an emotional breakdown thinking everyone is out to get him. Breakdown transforms into a mid-engine supercar highly reminiscent of a Lamborghini Countach, as well as a combiner leg or arm.  Read on for the full review and photos.
Packaged: Breakdown ships with a copy of The Transformers comic book from IDW, it’s a reprint of Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2013) issue #13, which doesn’t feature any Stunticons whatsoever, but is an interesting part of a great run; the issue is referred to in publishing details inside as “The Transformers: Combiner Wars #5″. The back of this exclusive edition of the book has an in-universe character evaluation and biography, inside that rear cover is the design desk genesis of this figure.
Vehicle Mode: Breakdown may have modern supercar headlights, tuner giant wheels, and more menacing side windows and air channels, but there’s no mistaking the Lamborghini Countach styling this car is emulating, just like the G1 figure. It’s a very snazzy design, and despite its low clearance it rolls fairly well. The deco calls back to the G1 toy, and the base color is off-white, but the deco feels a bit sparse once you leave the front end. The “15RACING” on the windshield doesn’t really fit the look though, this isn’t even a race car.
Breakdown’s hand/foot accessory doesn’t just peg onto the roof the way it does on some of the other combiner figures, although there is a peg hole if you want to go that way, there’s also a tab at the inside of the thumb which corresponds to a slot on the back of the spoiler, and won’t you know it, there’s also small tabs on the car roof that fit into the palm of the intakes. The accessory has an engine block sculpt with twin trumpet intakes on the front, what other classic Transformers character do we know that looks like this in vehicle mode? Yes, it’s almost painfully obvious that Breakdown will be redone some day as Sunstreaker. The sword on the other hand doesn’t really seem to go anywhere nicely, so it just pegs into a hole in the rear.
Robot Mode:Â Transformation is similar to some of the other Stunticons, but the legs are unique in that the lower legs hinge down from the sides as a single piece, there are fold-down feet, and the waist spreads slightly. The arms are a bit different also as each folds around itself, leading to a leaner, more G1-looking arm.
Breakdown looks pretty good as a robot, he’s a little more square than the other Stunticons, and his sculpt’s details are a bit thicker, giving him a classic feel. The Decepticon symbol is a small one on the left side of his torso, it’s easy to miss. The chest plate covering his combiner joint is a welcome addition. The underside of his forearms and the insides of his lower legs are hollow though. Articulation is pretty good, a lot of expressive range of motion, and while the waist is limited it does go far enough to look good. My sample has an issue where the left knee doesn’t stay locked into the lower leg. While the feet are slightly angled for a spread-leg pose, they are broad enough to get an extreme one-legged pose.
Breakdown comes with 2 accessories. The first is a fantastic sword/gun, with peg grips for each mode, a great silver blade, and very nice sculpting. The hand/foot accessory makes for a nice weapon and he can hold it underslung so the good detailing faces up; the front half of the weapon is painted purple which doesn’t quite match the plastic of the rest; and the fingers piece on my copy sticks so the rear of the hand has to be hinged to release that part. Breakdown has a peg hole in his back to store either weapon, although wouldn’t you know, when wearing the hand/foot weapon it looks suspiciously like Sunstreaker again.
Limb Modes: As a leg, Breakdown looks fine if unspectacular, the front end of the car folds out of the way, joint rotates up, foot accessory pegs into the back of the car.
As an arm, Breakdown is similar to robot mode with the head folded back and the arms tucked in, and the hips “shrugged” down closer together. However, arm mode has a problem with Menasor due to clearance issues with the robot-mode arms not clearing Menasor’s shoulders made from Motormaster’s arm pieces. Even if you move Breakdown’s arms to another position, the robot-mode collar pieces above his shoulders stay in the way and risk breakage.
Overall: Breakdown has something extra in that “Transformers” feeling, perhaps it’s the ’80s supercar vehicle mode, perhaps it’s the classic blocky proportions of robot mode, but it makes up for a few little issues. As a combiner element, Breakdown is a standard quality leg, none of the legs have been terribly outstanding or terrible; as an arm he doesn’t work that well with his teammates due to a design flaw between him and Motormaster, but is otherwise acceptable.
Review sample supplied by Hasbro