Takara AM-12 Breakdown Review & Comparison Pics
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 6:34 pmHere are some of my views on Transformers Prime: Takara AM-12: War Breakdown.
Yes that's his official name. Whether it will be in the USA who knows.
Big thanks to Kapow Toys - http://www.kapowtoys.co.uk in the UK who got this out to me on Saturday! They are getting more in so grab one soon.
There's lots of really good pictures out now so forgive some of mine. He comes in Robot mode in a nice window display box with lots of writing I can't read.
The head sculpt is great! Looks spot on, this is from when he still had 2 eyes.
It is on a ball joint but hampered by the recess it is in. It can tilt from side to side at an angle and up and down.
He's a really nice shade of dark royal blue. Even the light grey seems to match the show.
Sadly I just noticed mine has a blemish on the right corner of his chest.
Just a manufacturing defect I think.
The weapon can be held in his hand or even better rotate the fist and it fits into a front hole. Then it looks like it has transformed from his arm!
Oddly his black chest is actually a dark transparent piece. This is the one area where if the colour was more like his grill it would match the show better.
He has a nice range of motion and can pull of some great poses. See video reviews for more.
The labels are for inside and outside his legs, ankles, knees and waist. A tip for the labels is to put the black knee ones on first and then the silver ones on top. They really add some nice sensible details to him
He comes with his Micron partner weapon Zamu. The Rhino
I've added his waist, logo and eye labels. I don't think I will add more as personally I think it detracts from the Hammer look. Possibly thinking of putting some metal colour on him in the future. There are pictures of it fully labelled in the recent news posts.
He's very nice, his legs move back and forth and is a good size.
Onto Breakdown's armoured car mode. There are several Micron ports. Zamu fits well into his roof and hood ports. The other ports seem to be a tight fit. I recommend caution or not using those for Zamu to avoid stress marks. They seem fine with other weapons though. He has about 13 ports to use. All the ports are flat to the sides except the hood one and match his blue which is nice to see.
The labels add on front lights, windows, side stripes and a large bumper. This is a bit awkward to get perfect due to it's size. There are 4 Decepticon logos too. I haven't decided if to use Takara or Reprolabels or where yet. They really work well again and make it less plain in appropriate places.
An interesting thing you can do is take an RID Vehicon cannon and put it on his roof. Looks very similar to the show. I believe the AM Vehicon Micron also is a close design.
If you take the First Editions blaster it just fits onto his rear right shoulder port and makes a great cannon. It won't fit on the left. This guy is just begging for a Dr Wu weapons set.
All in all this is a great figure! It's a little expensive but worth it. Right now there is no Hasbro version announced. Maybe at SDCC. I'm sure there will be one but maybe not until the end of the year at least. There is also a repaint Cyrus (Silas?) version coming from Takara. This could be the one released possibly or even both!
I'll post some comparison pictures below. For more about the transformation I recommend checking out Peaugh's video here: http://youtu.be/h2K6dJuRsc8
Thanks for taking the time to read my review. If I can answer any questions I will try
Yes that's his official name. Whether it will be in the USA who knows.
Big thanks to Kapow Toys - http://www.kapowtoys.co.uk in the UK who got this out to me on Saturday! They are getting more in so grab one soon.
There's lots of really good pictures out now so forgive some of mine. He comes in Robot mode in a nice window display box with lots of writing I can't read.
The head sculpt is great! Looks spot on, this is from when he still had 2 eyes.
It is on a ball joint but hampered by the recess it is in. It can tilt from side to side at an angle and up and down.
He's a really nice shade of dark royal blue. Even the light grey seems to match the show.
Sadly I just noticed mine has a blemish on the right corner of his chest.
Just a manufacturing defect I think.The weapon can be held in his hand or even better rotate the fist and it fits into a front hole. Then it looks like it has transformed from his arm!
Oddly his black chest is actually a dark transparent piece. This is the one area where if the colour was more like his grill it would match the show better.
He has a nice range of motion and can pull of some great poses. See video reviews for more.
The labels are for inside and outside his legs, ankles, knees and waist. A tip for the labels is to put the black knee ones on first and then the silver ones on top. They really add some nice sensible details to him
He comes with his Micron partner weapon Zamu. The Rhino
I've added his waist, logo and eye labels. I don't think I will add more as personally I think it detracts from the Hammer look. Possibly thinking of putting some metal colour on him in the future. There are pictures of it fully labelled in the recent news posts.He's very nice, his legs move back and forth and is a good size.
Onto Breakdown's armoured car mode. There are several Micron ports. Zamu fits well into his roof and hood ports. The other ports seem to be a tight fit. I recommend caution or not using those for Zamu to avoid stress marks. They seem fine with other weapons though. He has about 13 ports to use. All the ports are flat to the sides except the hood one and match his blue which is nice to see.
The labels add on front lights, windows, side stripes and a large bumper. This is a bit awkward to get perfect due to it's size. There are 4 Decepticon logos too. I haven't decided if to use Takara or Reprolabels or where yet. They really work well again and make it less plain in appropriate places.
An interesting thing you can do is take an RID Vehicon cannon and put it on his roof. Looks very similar to the show. I believe the AM Vehicon Micron also is a close design.
If you take the First Editions blaster it just fits onto his rear right shoulder port and makes a great cannon. It won't fit on the left. This guy is just begging for a Dr Wu weapons set.
All in all this is a great figure! It's a little expensive but worth it. Right now there is no Hasbro version announced. Maybe at SDCC. I'm sure there will be one but maybe not until the end of the year at least. There is also a repaint Cyrus (Silas?) version coming from Takara. This could be the one released possibly or even both!
I'll post some comparison pictures below. For more about the transformation I recommend checking out Peaugh's video here: http://youtu.be/h2K6dJuRsc8
Thanks for taking the time to read my review. If I can answer any questions I will try
Well it saves a lot of time explaining that a Bonnet is not a hat 
