Transformers: Generations Selects DK-3 Breaker is Something That Exists

You know what? Another Thursday Transformers bonus article! 

  The 1982 Diaclone "No. 5 4WD Hilux" Toy, blue and yellow variants.

 

So, last year, I was at the Brum Toy Fair, enjoying the company of the people I was with, and spending money. I spotted today's subject on discount, and felt tempted. This was a mould I'd completely missed out on during the chaos of Earthrise. I did some more browsing, and made a shocking discovery, loose examples of Hoist and Trailbreaker, the mass market releases, were going for equal or greater money. At that point, the random Diaclone-inspired repaint from a premium imprint seemed like the obvious choice. I'd just pretend that it was "faded comic colours Trailbreaker", or maybe the Shattered Glass version, and I'm sure you'd come to the same conclusion in similar circumstances. Something making that easier is simply that Breaker isn’t a character with any real history, even by the standards of Diaclone tribute toys. This is the first Transformers toy with this name, and his only fictional appearance is to be named-checked as somebody whom died off-page in a comic. Possibly the only trivia of note is the "DK-3" prefix on his name, a reference to Diakron, which was Takara trying to release Diaclone stuff in Western markets mere months before Transformers got going. As such, I’m gonna be spending a lot of time referring to the other uses of the mould, and how they came to effect this one.

 

The robot form is undoubtedly good, if merely Trailbreaker in blue. This is because the original Diaclone toys in this case were simple, one colour, variants of each-other and Hasbro haven't done anything to mix up the formula here. As Trailbreaker is therefore so evident in the toy, this prompts a discussion of character models. So, what often happened with the original Transformers is that their appearance in animation and comics was often wildly different from the toys they were meant to be. When the 1985 toys came out though, something odd occurred. The new character models were often a fair bit closer to the toys, but also retools of the 1984 cast. So while the toys might be near identical, fictionally they definitely weren't. This was weird. Trailbreaker and Hoist were a good example of this, and reimaginings since have had to tread the needle between these conflicting depictions while still being able to release them as the same basic toy. What seems to have gone down with this Earthrise mould is that the designers favoured Hoist, and treated Trailbreaker as the secondary retool. This has the ever-so-slight downside of Trailbreaker having Hoist's "friend-shaped" proportions rather than a heroic build. And, let's be real here, Earthrise was going hard on the whole cartoon accuracy shtick, so this choice was a self-defeating one.

That doesn't really matter as far as Breaker is concerned, he's a blank slate, but I offer the above as context and explanation. Breaker is a big chap, being a head taller and visibly wider than a deluxe of similar vintage. He’s not quite voyager sized, but definitely is edging that way. His gut-to-biceps ratio makes him look more fat than muscular, and in all fairness this is a bit of welcome variation. Not every Transformer needs the mechanical equivalent of washboard abs The blue is very attractive, with vibrant silver and red in the mix. There is a certain degree of overt hollowness at play though, something not uncommon for his vintage, definitely on the notable side here. It's where the impression of size comes from while still being a deluxe. Functionally, he's got a lot of the good stuff, Legacy standard articulation and the 5mm ports are plentiful. Due to a transformation quirk he technically has two sets of knees, which is useful, although the shoulder gubbins do limit the neck. His gun completely covers his fist, giving a nice gunarm, and you can untab part of the backpack to use as a shield. Certainly not a bad robot mode, with both presence and play features.

 

Breaker's altmode is a made-up and blocky camper van, one not dissimilar to the Toyota 4WD High-Lux of the original toy. That backend area is the main area of functional difference between the Hoist and Trailbreaker iterations of this mould, with Breaker obviously using the latter. Like all good remoulds, this does change the character of the vehicle, although this does end up benefiting the robot mode more. Breaker does not feature compatibility with the short-lived airlock system, but he can instead have his gun on top like an actual turret. As opposed to just plonking what is obviously a rifle on the vehicle for storage, or otherwise stowing it. Earthrise toys dialled the 5mm port thing back a touch, so having the turret option is welcome. You can also fudge it between the front wheels, if that’s your thing. The overall appearance of the van tends towards realism, but not from all angles. The dark colour palette helps a lot with the serious vehicle bits, but there's a lot of robot on the underside in contrasting bright colours. The hands are very obvious and ground clearance is minimal at best. On the plus side, translucent windows and headlights. Well, I say its a plus, I have a doubt. There is substantial use of translucent plastic in the chest area, which becomes the front of the van mode. I assume this is where they made up the difference for the toy's larger footprint, as opposed being to more selective in the use of such plastic. Or just simply just casting the whole bit in matching blue and just painting the damn windows. It's a breakage concern as the wheels connect to directly to that famously brittle plastic, and these wheels attach via mushroom peg. Of course translucent plastic isn’t an inherent negative, and this toy certainly does not have colour matching issues, so your mileage may vary. It could be fine. Then again, if you're a toy designer, and you're gonna do the entire front end in the stuff, only the paint it? I'd say you were probably doing things the wrong way around, and I hope you've taken preventative measures.

While Breaker is clearly something that exists, I want to like it more than I do. As a repaint of a mould I missed out on, Breaker does have value. And he is a nice blue. The base toy meanwhile seems to suffer with some unforced errors. I wonder if Hoist was somebody's pet project, because the mould is too specific to him, and, sorry to bang on about it, the use of translucent plastic like this is something they know not to do. I certainly feel I got my money’s worth, don't get me wrong, but if you just want a boxy carformer, or merely a Diaclone tribute, there’s other options. I mean, there's another Selects version of this mould on the way now, and, as near as I can tell, they've removed translucent plastic completely for that.

Transformers: Legacy Diaclone Universe Clampdown is Something That Exists

And now for an article that got pushed back a wee bit... Actually from before TFNation.

The 2003 eHobby Collectors Edition Clampdown Toy

I'm not really sure if the concept of an "exclusive" actually means much any more, assuming it meant much in the first place. Because, in so far as the UK market at least, any transformer with a limited release has this habit of turning up discounted in odd places six months later. It's not immediately clear why this is the case. Stock Liquidation may be involved. Speaking from personal experience, Hasbro is to retail distribution what the sudden downpour is to the English Summer, but they've been trying harder of late with Hasbro Pulse. And yet, we continue to see the supposedly Smyths or Amazon or whatever exclusives from online sources and even meatspace retailers. This brings us to Clampdown of the Velocitron Speedia 500 Collection. What he is perhaps more interesting who he is. He's very much the same story as Burn Out, in that he's a tribute to Diaclone, the Japanese forerunner to Transformers. In this case, he's inspired by the toy that would become Red Alert, the Autobot Security Officer and walking advertisement for therapy. Existing largely as a repaint opportunity, and as exclusive tribute to an exclusive, Clampdown is not much of a character, even by the standards of such things. While Burn Out had the advantage of being a female-coded minivan, Clampdown is a dude that changes into a not-Lamborghini, and there's really no shortage of such blokes. Part of the reason for that is Hasbro's extremely aggressive reuse of the Siege Sideswipe mould, and while I've touched on that before, Clampdown is a good opportunity to talk about it some more.

The 2019 Siege Sideswipe toy

The Siege Sideswipe toy was a fairly conservative reimagining of the character, one that claimed to have an alien vehicle mode, but really didn't. While my Gaslands work has made me more inclined to notice the nuances of these matters, the alt mode was closer to cyberpunk or the modern hypercar than something off-world. This was reinforced by his mouldmate Red Alert, whom had retained his fire service decals and a light-bar/siren. One thing to point out here is that the mould featured numerous weapons that we're only selectively being issued. Sideswipe got a modular missile launcher like his shoulder mounted one, but if he wanted a sidearm he'd need to for a battlemaster or use the missile as a pistol. Red Alert meanwhile got the aforementioned light bar and a more conventional gun, but that also had a 5mm port, so you could make a "fire axe" from the two accessories. The mould would then see ten and counting releases, most of these falling under the banner of exclusives or Generations Selects. The Netflix tie-ins left the accessories as they were, focusing on paintwork, but the Selects releases put both gun and launcher in the box. Then Earthrise happened, proceeding redo every big name that Siege did, not even two full years after, and often in hard to find two-packs. The Sideswipe mould avoided this dignity, but only briefly. Like many others, the design was changed to have a more conventional and nostalgic altmode, and became an exclusive release during Kingdom. Time progressed, as time is inclined to when you're not looking, and the mould turned up in the Speedia subline, giving us Clampdown. Kinda. He was reportedly short-packed, subsequently reissued, and yet still only seen in finite numbers up until the point where Hasbro was offering surplus stock on eBay for a tenner. If you wanted to make a case file on Hasbro and it's ability to find it's collective bum with both hands, you could do worse than starting with Clampdown

. 

So, let’s start by talking about the vehicle mode. Its a police style, Lamborghini-inspired-but-legally-distinct sports car. The specific details are based of Japanese police cars, although the tiny-tiny text says “Cybertron”, which is the local term for “Autobot”. Its general shape is also meant to match Sunstreaker, whom is characterised as Sideswipe’s brother and has the same altmode. Its predominately done in white, and the colour matching isn’t bad at all. The shoulder assemblies on this mould usually end up in black, breaking up the deco around the door area, but Clampdown is the first to cast them in white, greatly improving the look. The criticisms I’m inclined to make here is that sides are bit messy with panel gaps, and the “police” deco kinda draws attention to those gaps. I know that’s a shallow criticism to make, but there’s at least 10 of these, so little flaws like that become more noticeable. Otherwise it looks good, I might even touch up that chip on the roof. Functionally, the car is obviously much like its numerous kin, although we do see some subtle differences between this mould and the Siege original. While more noteworthy in robot mode, the peg for blast effects is missing, and the missile now lacks its handle. That’s better for looks I suppose, but if you’re gonna take the handle off the missile, why not use that plastic to fill in the gaps? 

 

 

Transforming Clampdown revealed to extent to which the Siege mould was changed, and TBH its obvious from the moment you flip him over. All the vehicle bits either cast or painted in white are new. The wheels, light-bar, the weapons in black, and, as near as I can figure, everything not explicitly part of the robot mode is unchanged. This is what’s known in fandom circles as “reshelling”, that is to say that the nature of the vehicle mode is an outer-shell, which can be replaced without changing the nature of the robot form. While not extreme, or as literal as some, I do find myself wondering which version actually came first. On the positive side, Clampdown features a very clean and fun transformation. On the downside, they didn’t take the opportunity to do something about the panels in the knee area, so they locked in. All versions of the mould seem to have this, and its not actually a problem, but it does take the shine off.

With the robot mode, we come to the fundamental strengths of the basic design and where Clampdown does his best to separate himself from Red Alert. This toy drastically reduces the amount of red versus the inspiration, replacing it with grey. Red remains on the missile, and the waist area, with the latter drawing attention to an unwelcome gap that could have been fixed during the retooling. Generally though, its pretty nice. The white and grey look works, with touches of blue and black stop that it from becoming boring. Nice blue eyes too. Its far from an ugly deco, and its being applied to what is a fundamentally solid robot mode. The Sideswipe mould was a wave 1 entry in Siege, which introduced a new standard in articulation and 5mm-based weaponry. While other toys would inevitably do this better, Hound was arguably the best of wave 1 for example, the robot mode Clampdown inherits is a pleasing all-rounder that benefits from an increased accessory count. You want a gun? He’s got a gun. It can also be a fire-axe, or use the missile as a pick, or possibly an orky tankhammer. The launcher is fine by itself too, it just looks like a grenade launcher, or possibly it stores the explosives within the tube. AND THEN we can start talking about weaponizers and such.

 

My point? Only that Clampdown is something that exists. I don’t think he’s good enough to call a must-have, but if you see one of these in the wild, I think you’ll have a good time. If not in these colours, then definitely in a scheme you like, just make sure all the extras are there.

 

Transformers: Legacy Burn Out Is Something That Exists

While Legacy promised a return of variety, its taken a bit of time to make good on that promise. Wave 1 had the look of business as usual, with a very high percentage of G1 characters, repacks, and toys that could have been in Kingdom. The Prime Universe toys, the main exceptions, screamed repaint fodder, and it would have been very easy to assume Hasbro would not go further. Happily, the balance is definitely shifting with wave 3 and what is known about Evolution next year. The first real evidence that Hasbro was serious came from the “Velocitron Speedia 500 Collection”, a sub-line of exclusive repaints that replaced Netflix Siege. This went hard on the whole alternate universe thing, visiting 6 different continuities immediately, whereas Legacy wouldn’t really begin to branch out until wave 2. This brings us to today’s subject: Burn Out, a massively obscure repaint of a rather obscure character that plays homage to something that was Transformers before Transformers was a thing. Burn Out is also notable for being, well, a girl. The Speedia stuff has a good gender balance, which does mean I have to talk about gender issues again, although I’ll try not to repeat myself. I picked this one up on sales on the last day of a vacation, with the hope of returning to work in a good mood. It worked.

The Diaclone Honda Turbo, and its variants, circa 1982/83

Now, I had to shelve my first draft of this post, as I was struggling for a focal point. I had skipped the original version of this toy, Skids, because I already had a toy of the character. Its kinda hard to avoid mentioning him, but also hard to talk about for any real length of time. He had a very limited fictional presence until the highly regarded More Than Meets The Eye comic series by James Roberts, and basically everything that happened there probably counts as a spoiler. There is something of a tradition of comics writers taking blank slates and making them desirable, its called the Furman Effect, although it seems that it didn’t stick. Legacy Skids, and for that matter the unexpected Masterpiece version, is very faithful the G1 iteration, which as mentioned didn’t get much to do. Burn Out has even fewer fictional appearances, and is very much in the exclusive/obscurity bracket. She’s a character with a distinctive paint job, but is so far from the mainstream that nobody would mind that she is an exclusive, unlike, say, half of Earthrise. Her singular claim fame is that she’s based off a colour variation from Takara’s Diaclone, one of the toylines that would provide raw material for Hasbro’s Transformers. Diaclone is kinda of a big thing in collectors circles, with a boutique modern reboot, but in the Transformers context its mainly a convenient source for repaint ideas. So, yeah. Burn Out is obviously part of the black repaint phenomenon, but given that she is referencing a rare variant from 1983, this is about as deep as cut as you can make. If you want actual legacy in Legacy, why not homage the gestation of Transformers brand, and something that was probably only one marketing decision from a western release?

Righty, that’s the context established, on with the show. Burn Out's vehicle form is a legally distinct copy of the Honda City Turbo. Its a vehicle type that isn't really seen in Transformers that much, unless realistic cars are the main thing that year. It is more blocky than big or speedy looking, but it is distinctive. I have read that this car is a big thing in japan which is probably half the reason Skids gets any attention at all. Nerds like myself may recognise it from the anime/manga You’re Under Arrest. As to how much this differs from Skids? More than is immediately obvious, but once you get past the black its a bit subtle. Burn Out retains the stripes, red plastics and translucent blue of Skids, which is faithful to the source, but possibly faithful to a fault. Less obvious are the grey wheels, gunmetal front bumper, clear sunroof, and tail-lights. All-in-all its a nice looking car, with plentiful 5mm ports for weapon storage. The basics are there, and in black, so that’s good. Of course, the vehicle mode also inherits the same problems of this mould, such as overuse of translucent plastic, clip-on wheels, the face visible from the underside. While Burn Out has seemingly has not suffered the issues with tolerances Skids did, and mine seems fine, a certain degree of care is recommended with regards to anything blue.

The transformation ticks all the boxes you'd expect it too, presenting a similarly pleasing robot form, but if you were paying attention to the first picture above, you may have clicked what is different. Yes, Burn Out has a mouthplate, whereas previous iterations have either used the Skids head, or a new feminine sculpt in the case of the Masterpiece. This brings us to the promised, if brief, discussion of gender issues. Burn Out is on the other end of the scale from Elita-1, and is a toy which makes no attempt to use gender coding at all. On the one hand, this totally sidesteps the design compromises that affected Elita-1 and others. Burn Out is not a shellformer with a mannequin body shape, and is instead a classical "door wings" carformer with merits that I will shortly get into. There is no requirement for a robot to fit gender norms in the first place, and if this means a better toy, maybe this is a justifiable route? I mean, I we’re getting a Gobots character this way too, and then there’s Override, whom probably needs her own article. People seem to like them a lot. On the other hand, if you told me this was gonna be Crosscut, until someone realised that they could save him for later and thus get more repeat sales on the mould, I'd believe you. I’m cynical like that, and a black paintjob is the sort of thing you get an intern to do. For its faults, the Elita-1 mould tried harder. That having been acknowledged, Burn Out’s status as a premium redeco is more evident in robot form. The shoulders that were neglected on Skids are picked out in red and blue, with the limbs having more grey and black. Burn Out lacks chromed thighs, but the there’s a smoother transition between chrome grill, gunmetal bumper and charcoal grey plastics. Its a good look, if understated still. She also benefits from an earnest attempt to improve on Skids’ characteristic weapons storage. The two silver ones can be either forearm via dedicated ports, combine into a bigger gun, and further combine with that blue axe thing for a bigger gun. I clearly wasn’t paying this energon weapon business due attention, because its working out pretty well here. Posability is similarly pleasing. Its a good toy.

My point? Only that Legacy Burn Out is something that exists. And exists in the shadow of rather obscure character in the first place, which I wasn’t rushing out to buy. I’ll admit to having been a little unimpressed by Transformers: Legacy at time of writing; I’ve liked what I’ve chosen to post about, but I haven’t brought much, and I have yet to find a must-have. Wave 3 and Evolution look like more my sort of thing. Burn Out however suggests maybe I should have taken a few chances.