Cybertron Brakedown GTS

I noted in my writeup of Galaxy Force Autolander that he seemed to be a homage to Kup in his overall appearance, but that it took a repaint to make it more apparent... and here is that repaint!

 

I'm not sure I ever understood what the whole 'GTS' suffix thing was about (outside of allowing Hasbro to release repaints that weren't even new characters) but it certainly brought with it some interesting reuses of a variety of molds... at least some of which were better than the original.

But is Brakedown one of them..?

 

Vehicle Mode:

While the original version of Autolander/Brakedown was very dark and drab, his GTS remix is anything but - brightly coloured from tip to tail, with the grey plastic on the front bumper/wheel-mount and the frontmost sections of the rear wings being the only colour choice common to both versions. The majority of the car itself is here split between teal and a muted, greyish blue, while smaller details and simple decals appear in red and yellow. They're not the most complementary colours, but it's still a far cry from the migraine-inducing neon clash of Generation 2. Because this all amounts to quite a jumble of colour, the Kup homage is somewhat lost in this mode, but the base plastic colours are certainly appropriate.

 

Another curious change is the switch to opaque plastic for the wheels and windscreen. Given the bright, translucent yellow parts of the original, I might have understood a smoky translucent grey plastic as a counterpoint to the brighter colours of the vehicle's body, but it almost feels as if Hasbro were intending this as an adapted terrestrial version of the original, where he's using rubber tyres... It works, but it's not as visually striking. Then again, perhaps translucent wheels coupled with this colourscheme would have been 'too much'.

 

Since this version of Brakedown features exactly the same key-activated spring-out blade weapon as the original, there's still the issue of having to remove it to use the key, then plug it back onto the front of the vehicle in its deployed state. The only difference here being that the use of opaque plastic for the blade makes it look like a physical weapon rather than an energy weapon, so its value as a weapon tagged onto the front of a small dragster becomes even more questionable.

Robot Mode:

The Kup homage is certainly more apparent in robot mode, with the colourscheme largely complementing the sculpt. The torso is brightened up with turquoise paint on the armoured pecs, which then follows the sculpted detail up to the spikes on his shoulders. The overall effect - particularly if one squints - is that the chest looks like a stylised robotic cat head, with the vertical grooves in the pec plates acting as the slit pupils.

 

The grey plastic parts are more complementary than contrasting here, but the yellow paint - minimal in vehicle mode - presents something of a colour clash. The majority of it is on his knees and around his ankles, but it's also been applied to his biceps and the six 'exhaust pipe' rings, now on his belly. On the lighter plastic of his arms it looks alright, but on the darker plastic of his lower legs it looks like an error in the colour selection. Worse still, it's coupled with a triangular design in red on his shins - seemingly echoing those on his rear wheel wells in vehicle mode - which just adds to the colour clash.

On the one hand, it's nice to see what a lighter, brighter colourscheme does for this figure, but the colour selection feels rather random. While a stricter adherence to Kup's colourscheme may have been just as boring as the original Autolander colourscheme, a more appropriate choice of tertiary colours could have made for a better contrast.

Naturally, the weapon is just as unwieldy and, without the benefit of translucent plastic for the blade, ends up looking quite dull, despite a comparatively flamboyant 'hilt' for the blade.

The silver paint on Brakedown GTS's helmet certainly looks more striking that the bare dark plastic of the original, though I can't help but think the paint should have been applied to the face instead, since Autolander's helmet matches his torso, but he has a grey face. The other change, just as dramatic, is that the opaque plastic used for the back of his head means that his eyes have had to be painted, and the red paint has been used, rather than using the yellow paint to better match the original. Despite this, it appears that this figure has not been appropriated into the Shattered Glass continuity...

Much as I liked the Galaxy Force/Cybertron line while it was happening, I have to confess that, fifteen years later, I find myself wondering why I bothered picking up certain toys. Most of the figures I bought were from the Japanese line due to their superior paint jobs, and the few Hasbro toys I bought initially were those I just wasn't convinced I wanted enough to pay the import premium. Some of the later toys - specifically Quickmix and Menasor - were exceptions to this as they were only available from Hasbro (or, much later, via e-HOBBY).

In retrospect, the GTS repaints amount to nothing more than a quick cash-grab on Hasbro's part, despite some of them looking substantially better than the original, more-or-less screen-accurate versions. None of them featured in the TV show, either as 'Cybertron Defence'-style upgrades or as unique characters, making them essentially redundant for all but the most hardcore collectors. Amusingly, when I wrote about Autolander, I felt that this repaint was probably the better toy, but I certainly don't feel that way anymore, despite the livelier colourscheme. The loss of translucent plastic parts has had a hugely detrimental effect on the overall look of the figure and, these days, I just don't have the same enthusiasm toward repaints... possibly because Hasbro have done it badly all too often in the intervening years.