A Concise Review of TF2010 Breacher In 500 Words Or Less

Pricepoint/Vintage: Scout, 2010.

Transformation Style: Shellformer.
Play Patterns: Robot and “Ratel IFV” APC. C clip accessories.
Points of Interest: Complementary mould to Sea Spray of the same year. Altmode is named after the Honey Badger. Possible homage to the Micromaster Groundshaker and his ATV.

The Good
Breacher is a blue badass in both modes with some extremely pleasing design elements. The APC has a fully functional turret, a well-detailed sculpt, and effective paint apps. The robot has a notably good head sculpt, and 15 joints in the right places. 11 of these are balljoints, and the waist is on a swivel for transformation. Both modes benefit immensely from the turret gun, which us on a balljointed C clip. This allows it to be used as a gunhand, the rungs being worked in as knuckle dusters in a nice touch, and allows you to switch it out for other weapons in vehicle mode. He also has C rungs on his forearm panels, which are themselves C clip based, allowing these to be used as shields or replaced with more guns. Its a very complete robot mode, backed up by a solid vehicle form.

The Bad
Those removable panels look unsightly hanging off his arms, and Breacher looks a little unfinished from behind. He lacks fist holes, and the instructions fail to mention that the gun or the vehicle panels are removable, so much of the play value goes unnoticed. My example has a paint blemish on his left thigh, and there's some minor gaps in vehicle mode.

The Mediocre
Almost nothing. Blue isn't an obvious choice for a military APC, but then I've seen this described as a SWAT vehicle.

The Alternatives
Breacher is a toy with a curiously low number of repaints, as one was cancelled. The other is GDO Brawl, whose colour scheme may be more attractive to Treadheads. There were a few militaristic scouts of about the same time, such as the Dune Runner mould, although often not as good, so I'd point you towards Breacher's similarly awesome Decepticon equivalent, Skystalker. However, if all you are looking for is a cool APC, consider Combiner Wars Rook.

The Verdict
Putting aside some vehicle panels in robot mode, Breacher is an ideal scout class transformer. He's crammed with play features, detailing, joints, and personality. The design pushes the edge of what's possible at this size, and while there are some visual weaknesses, this is a class act. Track him down.