Transformers Generations Trailcutter/Trailbreaker Review

 

I have been eagerly anticipating this figure for years. Ever since the Classics line first appeared on shelves, I had been hoping the day would come when Trailbreaker would get his time in the sun.

Now its finally happened, quite neatly fitting as part of the 30th Anniversary Generations line.

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Lets start with Alt Mode. Trailbreaker (I will call him him by his original name, for the purposes of this review), transforms into a truck of indeterminate origin. Its the sort of thing you recognise, without being able to completely place. The vehicle is the sort of thing that wouldn't look out of place, in the middle of a war zone in the middle east or something. 

Its an armoured pick up truck, with 2 laser cannons and Trailbreaker's iconic force field projector sticking out of the top. There is a nice looking vintage looking Autobot symbol on the hood, and whats really neat is they still thought to include his G1 red and yellow stripe pattern on both sides.  The front lights are painted in a nice shade of gold, whilst the front grill may be the same colour or a shade of silver.

 Its a very solid, chunky looking mode which nicely homages the original.

The Truck canopy is also removable, so you can get a feel for how the remold into Hoist will look. Minus the crane arm of course!

Moving on to the main part - the robot mode.

 Transformation is very easy, with the arms being familiar to anyone who has any of the universe Sunstreaker/Red Alert/Swideswipe figures. They fold and rotate from under the front of the car, with the forearms forming from the side panels.

The chest is a bit more awkward, though not particularly so. The centre of it pushes in and tabs into the abdomen, whilst you sort of have to move the hinge assembly up and back, at the same time as pushing the car bonnet up and into place.

The legs fold out from the truck bed and tab in. Flip the feet the down, and then flip the head out and you are done.

Its not too complex at all.

Like the original, the front of the truck folds down, to become the upper body - but unlike the original it folds much higher up becoming the chest. This means that gorgeous Autobot logo is lost, so making him a NAIL I guess....

The head sculpt is fantastic, managing to combine elements of every incarnation of the character and looking spot on.

The light piping is also awesome, with it picking up any light and shining very brightly. It does rotate, but sadly there's no ability to look up or down.
The canopy of the Truck, comes off and can form a shield. This can be either pegged into the 5mm peg holes on either arm

 Or there is a further option to fold out an extra panel from the underside of the shield, and then fold down a red handle so he can hold it in his hand

Nice to have multiple options I guess. However, the shield doesn't really look very good, which is okay because it can be pegged onto his back. This gives him his more accurate G1 look, with the 2 mounted cannons on the canopy giving him his shoulder missile profile. 

 

 The only downside to this, is that the force field projector has to be folded back, as the peg hole is on top of it. Which is a bit annoying, as right below it on his back is another same sized peg hole - but the peg on the canopy is not long enough to reach it due to the way the windows fold and get in the way.

But its a small complaint.

In this mode - Trailbreaker looks fantastic. Homages all over the place to his G1 character, whilst also managing to look like his counterpart in the IDW comics series. Its an incredible achievement. You can see its clearly inspired by Alex Milnes design for the comic series.

Articulation wise he has everything you would expect. Ball jointed hips and shoulders, thigh and upper arms swivel. The feet and hands are not articulated (well the hands can fold inwards due to the transformation) which means that with his feet being very flat - it can be hard to get him to stand in certain poses. But its not a major deal. The lack of wrist swivel isn't a problem, as the arms rotate below the shoulder so you can get most of the poses you'd want out of him.

The biggest complaint about the figure so far, from reviews, seems to be centred on his size- and he is pretty small. About the same height as the tiny FOC Prime. If you stand him up next to most of the classics figures - he looks very very short.

However, its odd because on his own he feels the perfect size. But next to another figure, he looks tiny. Its really odd. But to be perfectly honest, the figure is so fantastic that it doesn't make much difference to me (though I know there are many scale lovers out there!)
Hes not a figure who you could put into a Masterpiece display as hes way too small.

Overall, I love this figure. It looks fantastic, has a nice, simple transformations and is really well articulated. So get him as soon as you see him, as hes not likely to hang around on shelves for very long. Its a great continuation of the form Hasbro have been on lately.