The Energon Pub

Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:43 am

He is one of my undying favorites, and the first TF I was ever allowed to hold and transform alone without a SWAT team standing by in case I break it (it belonged to a friend).

I've always sympathised with the tech spec and wanted him to get the upgrade that allowed him to get over his Energon-guzzling handicap.

Obviously, changing his look too much is a hard sell to me. Trailbreaker is Trailbreaker. I know there was a rights issue over his name.

I am a die-hard G1-is-the-heart-of-it-all-and-most-of-the-rest-is-a-shallow-comparison type but don't care about the G1 reissues.I want Trailbreaker to be brought through to the new fans as he was, minus the energon-guzzling handicap I mentioned above, with the body that befits a 2010 transformer.

Has there been any news of him? I read a comic where he took on Grimlock, who had defected to the Cons, in which Wheeljack and Superion both died. Obviously, seeing Trailbreaker have the balls to go one-on-one with Grimlock raised my respect for the old bot immeasurably.He's my kinda defensive strategist.

News Credits: 1452 · Sun Sep 12, 2010 1:29 pm

Both Alternators Swindle and Rollbar were meant to be Trailbreaker but nothing came through. There was also an attempt for Trailbreaker to be in the 'Cybertron' series but that never happened. But the name 'Trailbreaker' is probably lost deep in copyright so I doubt we'll ever see his name ever again in Transformers lore.

News Credits: 97 · Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:44 pm

It was hinted at during Botcon that we might see a Generations Trailbreaker using the Perceptor mold.

News Credits: 241 · Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:45 pm

Blurrz wrote:Both Alternators Swindle and Rollbar were meant to be Trailbreaker but nothing came through. There was also an attempt for Trailbreaker to be in the 'Cybertron' series but that never happened. But the name 'Trailbreaker' is probably lost deep in copyright so I doubt we'll ever see his name ever again in Transformers lore.

Not copyright, Trademark! :HEADHURTS:

We've been through this over and over, but the bottom line is, Hasbro can't use the name "Trailbreaker" name, even with an "Autobot" prefix. But there have been attempts and there are homages to him, Alternators and Cybertron aside:

- for OTFCC 2003, a redeco of RiD X-Brawn was planned as Trailbreaker.
- Universe Spychanger Ironhide clearly has Trailbreaker's deco

However, TakaraTomy has full access to the name since it has reissued Trailbreaker twice.

By the by, I thought the Perceptor remold would be Reflector...

News Credits: 1452 · Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:59 pm

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:By the by, I thought the Perceptor remold would be Reflector...

And we'd have to buy three of them..

News Credits: 241 · Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:09 pm

So, given there's no new toy to really promote, Trailbreaker's appearances will remain scarce, like in the original cartoon.

Mon Sep 13, 2010 1:10 am

Oh, well...

That's unfortunate...

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:47 pm

I know he has a really brief cameo in the Bullets section of Last Stand of The Wreckers.

Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:35 pm

the last I saw of Trailbreaker he was with the Autobots of the universe storyline when they were leaving the collapsing Unicron I believe it was on TFwiki under his character page also cybertron Overhaul was originally going to be called trailbreaker and looks quite simmilar to Trailbreaker one day I hope they use the overhaul mold to make Trailbreaker

News Credits: 241 · Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:59 pm

Sky-Quake wrote:the last I saw of Trailbreaker he was with the Autobots of the universe storyline when they were leaving the collapsing Unicron I believe it was on TFwiki under his character page also cybertron Overhaul was originally going to be called trailbreaker and looks quite simmilar to Trailbreaker one day I hope they use the overhaul mold to make Trailbreaker

He looks more like Brawn if you ask me...

Mon Oct 04, 2010 7:02 am

The last time I saw Trailbreaker he was in the (poor) 2007 Transformers psp game. He accompanies Hound, I think they were trying to stop Shockwave, cant remember much else except for Hound dies. Played and completed the dreadful little game then put it on the self next to some anti matter. :-?

Mon Oct 04, 2010 7:25 am

No longer seeking the glory of the lime light and looking for something more in life.

He has changed his name to Trailcutter and is living in a small trailer in the New Mexico desert :lol:

Mon Oct 11, 2010 4:29 pm

I always liked him myself. He just seemed like a nice bot in the early cartoon.

I always liked when Spike asked him why they transform and he replies - "Simple, Disguise!" before adding, "besides, it sure beats walking!"

Or his classic, "I may not be fast. But I'm tough!"

I enjoyed his taking on Grimlock in that first Dreamwave G1 series. It was nice to see he survived the war in the Universe comics when he returned to Cybertron with Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.

Let's not forget, he made Kup's rescue possible in the IDW Spotlight.

He's also been re-released in the last 2 years as part of the Encore line. Bot mode is a little dated but he's gotten a great alt mode.

Always felt Movie Ratchet and Ironhide would have been better named Hoist and Trailbreaker. Think they look more like them than G1 Ratchet and Ironhide.

If they ever reissue G1 Crosshairs, I think a black repaint would make a cool Cybertronian Trailbreaker.