Dave's Transformers Prime Rant: 10th Anniversary Set

War Breakdown (armored SUV) with Zamu (rhino/hammer)
Vehicon (flying car) with Igu (iguana/gun)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Prime/PrimeX

Most of the "brown box" exclusives on Hasbro Pulse are Generations
Selects, but for the tenth anniversary of Transformers Prime they released a
few previously Japanese-only molds. I passed on Hades Megatron (which is
similar to the Beast Hunters version), but snapped up this set. Okay,
technically War Breakdown might have been available in a few TRU stores at
the time, as part of the initial very limited First Edition assortment, but
at the time I didn't have a TRU nearby (120 miles away to the closest one in
Lincoln NE, and it was quite unimpressive to the point that I didn't bother
going there the couple of other times I visited Lincoln while living in
Nebraska). Flying Vehicon was simply not released in the U.S. and I didn't
consider it to be worth the $40+ import cost. But $40 for it AND War
Breakdown? Sure thing, man. Especially since Breakdown is almost a Voyager
AND the set comes with two buildable Arms Microns. (Technically he's smaller
than the 2011-era Voyagers but bigger than Deluxe, which meant he didn't fit
into the U.S. price classes, part of why he never got a regular release
here.)
Note, the Arms Microns assemble into two different super-weapons, but
only if you also get Hades Megatron for the other two pieces.
Technically, jet Vehicon is an extensive retool of regular Vehicon, but
I'm just going to treat it like a totally new mold.

Since there's not a lot of time pressure on this one, I took the set to
my office to review whenever there's a slow time at work (like most of my
Office Hours once I'm done grading for the week). This is how I've done
several Studio Series figures. I used to bring whatever my active review
subject was along on days I suspected would be slow, but started doing it in
parallel in Fall 2020. :)

CAPSULE

$39.99 from Hasbro Pulse, amazingly still in stock as of April 2021.

War Breakdown: Bulky and gets in its own way a bit, but generally a
decent "between Deluxe and Voyager" toy. Stickers aren't great, though.
Zamu makes for a good partner.

Vehicon: Pretty hassle-some transformation, okay in both modes, don't
even bother with the stickers. Igu is decent.

Set Overall: Well, these *are* Prime designs, which have some baggage.
But they're decent within that range, and the price is surprisingly good for
what is practically a Voyager, a Deluxe, and two Battlemasters (Arms
Microns). Mildly recommended, but skip the stickers.

RANTS

I will say it's kinda weird going back to the "vaguely futuristic and
spiky" aesthetic of Prime after several years of blocky G1 homages. Not to
say Breakdown isn't blocky, but it's in a different way. And then toss in
the stickers and Arms Microns, and it's a rather different experience than
Generations and Cyberverse have been.

Packaging: While in a Brown Box (11.25" x 8" x 3.75"/28.5cm x 20cm x
9cm) like Generations Selects, it isn't in GS trade dress. The front of the
lid of the box has a blue ink TF:Prime logo being struck by lightning in
front of a cliff face (appropriate, given how Prime is a poster child for
"The budget won't allow for much scenery, so set it in a desert" CG
cartoons), and "10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY" in negative space at the bottom edge.
The sticker that seals the box is black with white text and the TFP logo,
instead of GS's white with black text. It identifies the toys inside as War
Breakdown and Vehicon (not Jet Vehicon) and doesn't mention the Arms Microns
at all. It also says this is a Deluxe Class toy, which is...not quite true.
The left side of the box has more cliffs and a Decepticon logo, the right
side has legalese, the top has a repeat of the TFP logo in blue ink. The
back/bottom face is blank.
Opening the lid reveals a repeat of the logo on the "bottom from the
perspective of the robots" side of the box. The inside of the lid has a sort
of photonegative of the cliff from the outer side of the lid, with a big
Decepticon symbol in blue, and the logo on the inner face of the flap. The
main figures are held into the usual plastic blister with plastic ties.
Lifting the tray reveals two plastic bags. Each bag includes the
instructions sheet for one of the big guys, the assembly instructions for his
Arms Micron, a sticker sheet, and the model kit sprue for the Arms Micron.
Under that, the inside of the box is mostly blue with the logo in negative
space.
The instructions are mostly wordless, but have several helpful symbols
throughout. One indicates a snap-together step, another indicates a joint
unfolding in a Z shape. There's also exclamation points warning of important
steps that might not be obvious. There's also instructions for sticker
application, joy. The Arms Micron instructions (no, they're never actually
called that on the package) have assembly on one side, then the other shows
how to transform between beast and weapon modes, attachment to their partner
in vehicle mode, plus how to assemble all three into the super weapon modes,
with a sticker added to indicate that one of them is sold separately. (Hades
Megatron comes with two different Arms Microns, one combines with Igu and
Zamu into a super hammer as seen in Igu's instructions, while Zamu's
instructions show the other one comining with Igu and Zamu into a weird super
claw weapon...fortunately, Igu's instructions work fine to make a big hammer
with just Zamu.) All of the instructions are grayscale on white with pale
purple highlight coloring. Breakdown's bag has the obligatory massively
multilingual warning sheet.

Some notes on the Arms Microns in general. They're not just random
beast partners that turn into weapons, they're based on the weapons the
characters had on the show. Zamu becomes Breakdown's hammerhand, Igu turns
into a larger version of the standard Vehicon blaster (a pattern also seen on
a lot of Legion class figures in Prime). They snap together with a mix of
C-clips and mushroom pegs, and it takes a fair amount of force to get the
legs to snap on. They have no paint, relying on foil stickers (ugh) for
color.

DECEPTICON: WAR BREAKDOWN
Altmode: Armored SUV
Transformation Difficulty: 18 forwards, 21 backwards, so there's some
breakdown in symmetry here. Zamu has three steps.
Previous Name Use: None with "War"
Previous Mold Use: TF:P (limited release)
Arms Micron Partner: Zamu

Packaging: Seven plastic ties secure the robot to the blister tray.
Nothing fell off while or immediately after I removed the toy...it's kinda
sad that I need to make that qualification, but given that these can't
exactly be taken back to the store to swap (I know one person who got a
defective Vehicon and is still waiting for a replacement of "equivalent
value" from Pulse), it's important that they be of at least okay durability.

Robot Mode: Big and bulky and most of the vehicle kibble is well
integrated, it really only jumps out where the fender bits sit on the wrists.
Hood pieces slide apart to make the chest wider, which definitely helps with
the "big dumb ape" proportions. Unfortunately, one thing that's very
show-accurate are the fronts of the shoulders, with their super-awkward blade
details that get in the way so often.
As wide and bulky as he is, though, he's only 5.75" (14.5cm) tall, which
put the mold at an awkward spot between Deluxe and Voyager at the time.
Nowadays they'd just give him both a hammer and a gun and call it a Voyager.
The colors are mostly dark blue and light gray with some black and a "jump
out at you" orange face. Smoky clear plastic is used on the forearm armor
(it becomes window/door/roof chunks), a bit inside the backpack, and the top
of the head (looks like an abandoned lightpiping gimmick). Light gray
plastic is used on the front/core part of each shoulder, the pelvis, the
thighs, and the feet. Medium-dark plastic is used on the shoulder joints
(both the roots and the sockets), neck root, elbow joints, and hip joints.
The wheels (on the shoulder backs and the boot sides) are black plastic. The
rest is dark blue plastic.
The crest and chinstrap of the helmet are paitned silver, the face is
deep orange, and the eyes are painted yellow. There's very dark gloss gray
paint on the abdomen, hands, and toes. The piece that has the forearm armor
and the hands is clear smoky plastic, so a lot of it is painted gloss dark
blue, plus silver for the side mirrors molded onto them. There's also dark
blue paint on the shoulder tops. Most of the stickers go on the boots. He
has shiny boots. There's two spare Decepticon symbols, but they don't really
go well anywhere in robot mode. I suppose you could put one on the sternum,
but I worry it'd get scraped off during transformation.
After reviewing all the modern Generations stuff, it feels weird to be
reviewing a decade-old mold with a far more sparing attitude towards metal
pins. Oh, there's a few here and there, but a LOT more snap-together parts.
The lack of sideways ankle movement also kinda throws me, especially since
the huge backpack makes the figure less stable when standing.
The neck is a ball joint, and the head can tilt back all the way to
looking straight up. Smooth swivel waist, but not quite centered so it looks
a bit weird when turned too far. The shoulder ball joints are kind of weird,
and feel like Lego style joints, a big rectangular chunk for the socket and
theoretically able to bend rather than just rotate (but the torso keeps it
from bending much). The ball part is on a short strut that is hinged to go
up and down, but it has very little room to move in this mode either. So, a
lot of articulation that's really just for transformation. Unfortunately,
the combination is pretty loose. There's swivels just above the pinned hinge
elbows, but the vehicle panel bits get in the way unless the arms are
straight. The elbows can bend a little backwards, but can't bend fully 90
degrees in the right way, the panel bits don't completely block the swivels
when the arms are bent, but they do limit the range. There is a ratcheting
hinge joint at the wrist that lets you fold it away and deploy part of the
roof, which is used to attach Zamu's hammer mode in "hand turns into a
hammer" fashion. Ball joint hips (also kinda loose) with swivels right below
them, hinged knees and ankles. Between the shape of the feet and the slight
looseness of the hips (probably should've washed them BEFORE I put the
stickers on, oops), it's hard to stand the figure up in anything too far from
a straight-legged at attention pose.
Because it was designed to go along with the Arms Microns, the figure
has a LOT of 5mm sockets. In addition to the hands being able to hold 5mm
pegs, there's 5mm sockets on top of the wrists, on the outer face of the arm
panels by the fingertips, two on top of the backpack, one on the upper torso
just next to the right shoulder (seems intended for Igu in gun mode), the
backs of the shoulderpads, a horizontal one at the top rear of the backpack
as a ring, and in the middle of the spare tire on the back. There's also two
5mm pegs flanking the spare tire, and a 3mm rod for C-clips on the backpack
top.

On Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 9:27:12 PM UTC+2, Dave Van Domelen wrote:

Finally, the
> Decepticon symbol is supposed to go on clear plastic hovering OVER a molded
> detail designed for it, so it will look wrong no matter what. So that's
> basically an endorsement of skipping the stickers entirely in this mode.

Well, you can actually gently pop out the clear plastic shield and put the sticker on the correct place, then put it back:

https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/question-about-jet-vehicon.661877/

I put all the stickers on my original Arms Micron Jet Vehicon back in the day, and they are still attached solidly when checking it today. Sad to hear that this set does not stick very well.