Arms Micron Breakdown (with friend)

I'll be honest, I didn't like Transformers: Prime when it first came out. It had way too many "movie" elements to it for my liking, especially the mute Bumblebee. But the more I watched the show the more it grew on me. However I still wasn't completely sold until the folks at Botcon 2011 previewed an upcoming episode for us featuring this guy: Breakdown. The episode was appropriately titled 'Operation: Breakdown' and it really fleshed out Breakdown as a character giving him more than just a "Decepticon SMASH" personality. It was after viewing this episode that I was hooked on Prime as well as Breakdown's character. I've always really enjoyed bad guys that aren't evil just for the sake of being evil but actually have histories and motives for what they do. I had been looking forward to seeing Breakdown released domestically ever since then, but apparently it was not meant to be.



Somehow before SDCC started I knew that Breakdown wouldn't be coming to America. I don't know how, maybe it has just been years of dealing with Hasbro's weird decisions but four days before the convention I ordered this guy from a Japanese retailer. And low and behold, Hasbro confirmed at SDCC that they would not be releasing Breakdown stateside. Lucky me I guess. At any rate this is my first Arms Micron figure and I was a little surprised by what I found inside the packaging.

First off I was prepared beforehand by a friend of mine that I would be assembling the Arms Micron that came with the figure. What I was not prepared for were all the stickers! I mean this guy has more stickers than most G1 figures! I guess it has to do with model kits being all the rage over in Japan and TakaraTomy trying to get a piece of that action. So after about an hour of assembling the Micron and tediously applying stickers (not something I miss in my Transformers purchases) he was finally ready to go.

Like Bulkhead he has a solid alt mode.

I was afraid that First Edition Bulkhead might outsize Breakdown by a good amount but since this is the only Voyager-sized Breakdown mold available it's not like there were a lot of choices. Fortunately they pair pretty well together, with Bulkhead only maybe 1/4 inch taller. The other pairing I was worried about was of course Knock Out. Breakdown and Knock Out have always been presented as something as a team in the show so I thought it was important they looked good together. Again it wasn't as bad as I had initially imagined.

The Micron that comes with Breakdown is named Zamu and looks like a one-eyed, one-horned purple-people-eater Rhinoceros and frankly is a little odd. I understand the need to for adding extra playability in the figure by making the weapons transform into smaller partners but it just doesn't feel like a real Micron to me. It feels like a Rhinoceros shoehorned into the shape of a mallet. Hopefully some Third Party will come out with an accessory pack that replaces this guy with a much more appropriate Breakdown weapon.

Zamu?

See also:
'Till All Are Mine's Breakdown & Zamu Review