Silas Breakdown AM-24

Way back in my review of Cyberverse Breakdown, I mentioned my hopes of getting a larger sized version of Breakdown here in the US. Shortly afterward, I saw Takara-Tomy's take on a voyager-class Breakdown and assumed we'd see it here stateside soon enough. Well, Hasbro said we won't. Rumor has it that "not made to our standards" means "too expensive to retool to not include the roughly nine-hundred 5mm ports intended for Micron figures" the Japanese mold sports. This somewhat makes sense as the Prime toy line in Japan is heavily geared around the companion Micron figures whereas in America...it's not. Instead, we get normal weapon accessories, or on larger figures, clunky piles of junk that "transform" and light up and are still nowhere near as cool as just a little Targetmaster-style companion bot. Even though I liked the look of Breakdown, I waffled on ordering him because I wasn't sure how the mold was in hand, plus the hammer/rhino Micron he came with didn't interest me that much. That changed when pictures started to surface of a black repaint with a new praying mantis Micron, Silas Breakdown!

Now I admit, I haven't seen any episodes of Prime, but after reading up on Breakdown for this review, I really want to, as Silas Breakdown's story is quite an interesting one. Spoilers relating to the plot of the Prime series follow this picture, so you might want to skip ahead.

Besides the Decepticons, the Autobots in Prime must also contend with human antagonists, including the sinister M.E.C.H. organization that seeks to understand and reverse engineer Cybertronian technology the direct way, by ripping still living Transformers apart and studying their innards. Led by an ex-military operative with special forces training calling himself Silas, M.E.C.H. clashes with both the Autobots and the Decepticons several time in pursuit of their goals. After events lead to Silas crippled and Breakdown killed, M.E.C.H. recovers the body and directly grafts Silas' broken frame into Breakdown's systems, creating a Frankenstein-like Transformer of both flesh and metal. Calling himself CYLAS (CYbernetic Life Augmented by Symbiosis), this cyborg attempted to offer his service to Megatron as a true Decepticon and, well...it didn't go quite as he envisioned, I'm sure.

What strikes me as interesting about the packaging is that minus the obvious Japanese text, the layout is fairly close to the design of the US Prime line, the box is even the same dimensions as US voyagers. You could plop this guy on a shelf in Walmart among the Bulkheads and Primes and he would blend right in at first glance. The left side of the box showcases the toy transforming and has his tech specs across the bottom.

The right side displays his mantis Micron in both beast and weapon mode and provides a small statistics chart for him as well. This is a nice touch as most Hasbro releases that include a smaller companion figure are lucky to have a single line in the larger figure's bio mentioning the sidekick, never mind individual stats.

Even though he's packaged in robot mode, I'm going to start with Breakdown's vehicle mode to mess with you. Like his Cyberverse counterpart, Breakdown is a massive truck that still looks like lovechild of an off-road SUV and an armored car to me. Black replaces the blueish-purple of the first release with a bit more color added by a few stickers. Additional bits of blue are present in his windshield and windows, whereas silver appears on the painted mirrors and chromed grill piece. The grill is one of the three pieces that make this mold not just a repaint but a retool, as the standard Breakdown lacked this shiny accoutrement.

One thing that makes American fans (myself included) wary of collecting Japanese Prime figures is that Takara-Tomy uses an included sticker sheet to provide decos on a lot of figures that are simply painted on for US releases. This is most prevalent on deluxe class figures who often have windshields and windows that lack paint and must rely on large stickers instead, and applying these in an even slightly sloppy manner can ruin the look of a toy. Thankfully as a voyager, Breakdown has only a few stickers to apply and most of them are for vehicle mode details like headlights, side windows and the rear windshield. As I applied these stickers however, I was struck by how involved Takara-Tomy got with them as many of the details highlighted by stickers would have been left completely unpainted on a Hasbro release. An excellent example is in the decals for the headlights behind the edges of the grill piece. You can barely see these lights in vehicle mode and they're irrelevant in robot mode, but just the idea that they took the time to make stickers for them is a sign of the amount of dedication Takara-Tomy's designers put into this.

Silas Breakdown has a lot of 5mm ports in vehicle mode, fourteen to be exact, meaning he can carry a lot of weapons and Microns. Additionally, the posts on either side of his spare tire are the right size to plug weapons or Microns/Minicons with the proper holes onto, raising his potential number of weapons to sixteen. I can see how Hasbro would find retooling all these spots to be a bit daunting. I should note that there are Decepticon logos on the sticker sheet meant to be placed on his doors, but I personally think he looks better without them. The sheet also includes some extra silver stickers that resemble scratches and dings to replicate the beat-up nature of Breakdown's body when it was recovered, as well as some M.E.C.H. logos. I didn't apply any of these bonus stickers, but again it is nice to see a company offering you a little variation and the ability to customize your Transformers without needing painting skills.

Whereas the first version of Breakdown came with a rhino Micron that transformed into his hammer, Silas Breakdown includes a new purple mantis Micron. I haven't seen a translation for this little guy's name yet, so I'll just refer to him as Mantis (Toboggan.)

Mantis resembles his inspiration close enough that you know what he's meant to be just from a glance. He sports giant scythe-bladed arms and the cyclopean red eye customary of Decepticon Microns. Mantis sports about five points of articulation, having lightly ratcheting joints at the shoulders and elbows and the ability to bend forward or back at the waist. His spark crystal is on the top of his abdomen and is a light blue in color. Mantis is a bit larger and bulkier in beast mode than most Microns which fits well with the nature of his wielder.

Mantis folds up into a bladed gun of some sort. It's somewhat odd looking, but fits with the brawler nature of Breakdown, I imagine him using the blades like double bayonets to impale enemies then blast them off his gun with a squeeze of the trigger.

In theory, you could attach Mantis to any of the multiple ports in vehicle mode, but the instructions suggest the one on the right side of Breakdown's hood and I'm inclined to agree.

Before getting into the full robot mode, I wanted to point out the second mold change made to Silas Breakdown, the inclusion of Silas himself. It would look a whole lot better with a few licks of paint, but you can definitely make out Silas' mug buried in the middle of Breakdown's inner workings, nestled between two piston-like details. This is another great little touch as you never see Silas normally, this piece is only visible during mid-transformation before you lock the chest into place.

Robot mode is where Silas Breakdown really shines, the black and silver paint scheme looks great and the figure itself is nice and bulky with a air of menace about it, this is one mean looking cyborg. Articulation includes ball jointed head, shoulders and hips, outward swinging shoulder hinges, upper arm and leg swivels, hinge elbows, knees and feet and a swivel waist. Breakdown has even less stickers in robot mode than in vehicle mode, just a few added areas of silver and black for his legs and feet and some black and blue details at his waist. He honestly looks just as good without them though, making this a figure you could display straight out of the box without applying a single sticker (though Mantis would look a bit plain without his.)

The third and final mold change for Silas Breakdown is the addition of an all new head sculpt showing how beaten and battered he has become. The right eye is gone, replaced with a round lens that is incongruent with the otherwise organic design, which makes sense as this eye was ripped out by M.E.C.H. and replaced with human technology during the series. My picture is too fuzzy to see it clearly, but the rest of the head also has an asymmetrical design with chunks missing from his armor or plates of a different design replacing original parts. The effect is pretty cool and really sells the "Franken-bot" nature of the character.

Silas Breakdown can wield Mantis (or any correctly sized weapon/Micron) in either hand and can still flip his wrists around so weapons appear to have extended directly from his actual arm. In robot mode, Breakdown sports a whopping eighteen 5mm ports with which to attach weapons or Microns and even a single C-clamp rail on the left side of his backpack section to attach Dark of the Moon/Generations weapons to. This is fantastic, I'm not even sure you can have each spot occupied at once without everything banging into everything else, but you can really outfit him if you want...

Something like this

All in all, Silas Breakdown is a pretty amazing figure with a ton of play value. It's a shame that as of this moment, the only way to get one is to import him, but perhaps Hasbro will surprise us and find a way to get this mold to US fans after all (and hopefully not through a Botcon boxed set.) If you just can't wait however, I'd highly recommend importing one version or another of this figure. Besides the Silas version,  there is the  standard Breakdown with a dark purple/blue color scheme and a rhino Micron, and also a repaint/retool of the mold as an Autobot named Swerve with an awesome rescue saw Micron. All three will probably run you around fifty bucks a pop and as I write this, Big Bad Toy Store is out of all of them minus Swerve. So looks like it's off to eBay with you!

"But...but you're DEAD!"

Beast Saga Kingdom of the Sea Death Heart Deck

One day, years and years ago, my father found a small rubber figure of a gorilla in red armor on the floor of his workplace and knowing his son well, brought him home for me. Turns out he knew me quite well, I loved that gorilla and after a bit of nosing around, I found his name was Gargantuan Gorilla and that he belonged to a line called Battle Beasts. Most of you need no explanation of what Battle Beasts were I'm sure, but for the uninitiated they were roughly two inch high, anthropomorphic animals in colorful armor who waged war with each other using an advanced form of rock, paper, scissors substituting fire, water and wood instead. None of that mattered to myself or other kids, we just loved warrior animals beating on each other in cybernetic armor.

Battle Beasts eventually faded away like most great 80's toy properties but last year, strange rumblings began to come out of Japan. Prototypes figures of armored animals with chest insignia began to make the rounds on the net and soon enough, Takara-Tomy unveiled Beast Saga, a spiritual successor to Battle Beasts that frankly looked amazing. I immediately placed pre-orders for a few things and after a long (LONG) wait, they finally arrived a couple of days ago. So today we look at my favorites from my order, the Kingdom of the Sea Death Heart Deck!



While Battle Beasts' game system was a really simple variation of rock, paper, scissors, Beast Saga figures are heavily themed around a more involved, dice based game. Each figure has a launcher in their chest that can fire a small die used in the game. Hence the Shark blasting a fiery cube of vengeance across the front of the box.



At this point, I should mention that I can't read Japanese so I'm using my best guess on how the game itself works. Each figure has a unique die with their personal symbol on one face and various numbers of pips on the other faces, plus a separate light blue die that appears to be for bonus damage points. By pushing in a plunger on the figure's backs, the die in their chest launches a decent distance and gives you your game rolls. The instructional photos seem to indicate that each player "fires" their character's unique die, fires the bonus modifier die, then adds the result. The winning player is determined by the highest total value, though I'm sure it's slightly more involved with that. Each figure's bio card has what I assume to be a "hitpoint" value and the Sea Death Heart Deck set also includes two black die with different symbols that I'm guessing are random effects that makes play more exciting. My lack of Japanese comprehension and having more interest in the figures themselves lessens my enthusiasm for the game aspect, but if games are your thing, there are plenty of boosters sets, play mats and more that offer unique dice to spice up play. Kudos to Takara-Tomy for putting in such effort.



Cracking open the box, the figures themselves are nothing short of amazing. Though they are slightly taller and a bit bulkier than the original Battle Beasts, they capture the spirit of the line so perfectly, I felt like I was ten again after handling them for a bit. The Sea Death Heart deck consists of three aquatic and (I assume) evil warriors; A Great White Shark, a Piranha, and a Coelacanth, each with their own spears and shields. I feel like I don't even need to say anything about them and just post picture after picture after picture, captioned only with increasingly long strings of exclamation points. But I suppose you guys expect SOME explanation accompanying them.



Though the single packed figures are usually listed on sites under their English names, I have yet to see names for the figures in the Deck sets, so I'm just going to call them by their animal inspirations. Starting with the Great White here, the de facto leader of the pack. Just look at him, isn't he fantastic? Clad in what looks like a cross between a knight's suit of armor and a SCUBA suit, his detailing is incredible; bladed fins on the forearms and shoulders, tubes around his neck and plugging into the back of his head, intricate shoulder pauldrons and my favorite, tattered remnants of cape around his shoulders and waist.



The head sculpt is very nice and closely resembles a real Great White, with rows of sharp teeth and the soulless black eyes of a killer! His personal die is cast in dark translucent blue and features the iconic "rising up from below" shark head profile. The placement of the die in the figure's chest also brings back fond memories of the classic Battle Beasts, some friends I've shown these too have actually mistaken them for classic versions due to the near identical design aesthetics.



Great White's head sports what I can only imagine is the anthropomorphic shark equivalent of rank insignia, crossed bones over red wings with a golden shark head topping it. Rough translation, this shark is the boss.



As I said, each figure includes a weapon (for these guys, all pole arms) and a shield. These pieces are cast from a soft, semi-rubbery plastic that some collectors have voiced concerns about, but this is not really an issue in my opinion. I wouldn't put a lot of weight on them as they may get warped out of shape, but for display on shelves or normal play, they should hold up just fine. In a nice touch, some figures' weapons are themed to their wielder, the central tine of the Great White's trident being sculpted to resemble a tiny shark for example.



Here's a shot of the arm to show off the detailing in the pauldrons and the cape tatters. I only wish there had been budget for a couple more paint aps because a spot of color on the cape or armor details would have been amazing. Another interesting thing to note here is that in lieu of multiple paint applications, the figures appear to be constructed from a multitude of small pieces cast in the appropriate color. The Great White's gray fists for example appear to be separate pieces that were then glued to the dark blue forearms. This is a very intriguing method of construction and I can only imagine it must be related to cost effectiveness. I don't know if it's cheaper to mold multiple colored parts than it is to cast them all one color then paint them, but that's my guess.



Articulation is minimal, due to the size and the fact that the majority of the figures' bulk is taken up by the launcher gimmick, but Beast Saga actually trumps Battle Beasts by adding hip joints as well as the standard shoulders swivels those little guys sported. The result is that you can get some decent action poses out of Beast Saga figures, but they won't be joining your Marvel Legends for yoga anytime soon.



Next up is the Piranha whom I see as the psychotic wise-cracking type. Kind of a scaly Joker if you will. The Piranha's armor more closely resembles the style used by classic Battle Beasts, with gaps between the shoulder pauldrons and gauntlets, then again between the waist armor and boots, showing his well detailed scaly skin between. The fins sprouting from the shoulders and forearms are a nice touch.



Pirahna's personal symbol is a slightly exaggerated pirahna fish that is mostly mouth and teeth. It meshes with his head sculpt nicely.



The head is nice and toothy, the eyes are bright and orange and the gill flaps are well defined. The Piranha's weapon reflects his form yet again with wickedly barbed prongs and a small fin-like protrusion from the handle. I'm not sure if the small loop opposite the fin is just a design aspect or if it is meant for something, you can push the handle of a shield or another weapon through it, but the fit is so tight I'm afraid it will tear.



Here's a shot of the figure from the back to illustrate the plunger for launching dice. I was a bit worried when I first heard that the plungers protruded so much from the figure's backs but after having them in hand, I really don't mind. The plunger isn't very visible from the front and it actually seems to help balance the figures a little better when extended. You can push the plunger flush to the character's chest if you remove the die, but it looks a little plain without the insignia clearly displayed.



Finally, we have the Coelacanth, a fish whose story is fascinating on it's own without having to be an anthropomorphic fish warrior. The Coelacanth is an ancient species of bony, lobe-finned fish that for a very long time was thought to have died out during the Cretaceous Period until a living specimen was hauled up by a fishing trawler in 1938 off the coast of Africa. One can only imagine this Coelacanth is the evolutionary future of the species. Woe be to the fisherman who hauls this guy aboard however.



While the other two members of the team are more lightly armored, the Coelacanth's suit seems heavier and more solidly built, resembling both the old, clunky deep sea diving suits of yore and a submarine. The shoulder pads especially resemble the hulls of submarines to me and this deep sea theme is fitting since the real fish is a deep water beastie. His dour expression and squat form make me think Coelacanth here is the team sourpuss, but maybe I'm just projecting the personality of the Transformers character Skalor on him as they're both based on the same fish. A nice touch that thrills the amateur ichthyologist in me is his feet, styled to resemble the limb-like fins of the actual Coelacanth.



Coelacanth's symbol is a slightly stylized profile of a real Coelacanth, showing off the distinctive lobe fins, thick scales and split sectioned tail. Like the rest of his teammates, Coelacanth's die is cast in translucent blue plastic.



Coelacanth's weapon is a spear topped with a bladed, fish-shaped head. None of the details are particularly Coelcanth-ish, but it is certainly fishy in theme with eyes, fins and a toothy maw.



I cannot stress enough how much I love Beast Saga. I was a little leery about the game plunger ruining the the aesthetics of the figures and the soft weapons, but once I played with the little guys for a bit, all my fears melted away. These figures are amazingly detailed and a ton of fun to just fiddle around with, and even though I'm not really into the game, I'm completely in love with the figures for their own merits and the fond memories of the originals that they bring back. If these guys look the least bit interesting to you, order some. Don't even think about it, I promise you won't be sorry. Currently there are two other "decks" of three figures themed around animals of the land and air available, but there are also a slew of single packed figures not available in deck sets. On top of that, there are also blind boxed single packs that contain translucent versions of figures from the single packed line and seemingly one member from each of the three decks. As this is a Japanese line, you'll need to get them from an importer (I used Big Bad Toy Store myself) and the deck sets will run you around twenty bucks whereas the single packs and blind boxes run about eight. Well worth the prices in my opinion if you loved classic Battle Beasts or want to introduce a new generation to the idea of warrior beasts fighting for survival. Highly recommended.