Dave's Transformers Cybertron Rant: Scout Wave 9 Brakedown GTS Scrapmetal (Yellow) http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cybertron/Basic3 has Brakedown's original mold, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/GD13 has the Ramble Yellow (aka Riot, to me) review. Update: Thanks to Chris "Fortmax" Reed for Scrapmetal's Key Code and the techspecs. Update 9/2/06: I went ahead and bought Scrapmetal anyway. I am weak. CAPSULES Brakedown GTS: Original mold recommended. Strong G1 Kup homage in colors, but there's some quality control issues. Mildly recommended unless you're a big Kup fan, in which case you probably want to get it. $6.99 at Target. Scrapmetal (Yellow): Original mold strongly recommended. My second favorite of the color schemes. Worth picking up, unless the QC problems have caught up with this one too. $6.99 at Target. RANTS Packaging: Standard Scout package, with Primus Unleashed logo. Both come with the Giant Planet Map (which was the tip-over point in convincing me to get Brakedown GTS...gotta complete the map!). There's 3 twist-ties and 1 rubber band on Brakedown GTS. Scrapmetal has the same packaging stuff as described in http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cybertron/Basic6, minus the game piece and with the Giant Map instead of Jungle. The Giant Planet map has a slightly trimmed down version of the Giant Planet story I transcribed for Metroplex's review, and his exact bio note (see http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cybertron/Super3). Metroplex dominates the right side of the poster, and along the right edge are (from top to bottom) Optimus Prime, Menasor, Quickmix and Galvatron. No love for the Mini-Con team. There are the usual three insets, each pointing to a spot on the "hubs and roads" planet. "SOUNDWAVE and SIDEWAYS are about to ambush OPTIMUS PRIME and METROPLEX when the MINI-CON DRILL BIT sounds the alarm." Pretty much what the caption says, in a dark underground room lit by, um, the floor under Prime's feet. Huh. "QUICKMIX is forced into battle against the power-hungry MENASOR, to prevent the Giant Planet from becoming a world of destruction." Consistent with the toy version of Menasor, rather than the cartoon version. "OPTIMUS PRIME has always followed the example of PRIMUS, acting as a force of order and goodness in the face of chaos and evil. Now he must save the creator of the TRANSFORMERS from GALVATRON and the power-mad DECEPTICONS that would destroy him." While the arrow points to Gigantion, it should point to Cybertron. Shows the two leaders facing off in front of the looming Primus. The catalog on the back doesn't quite show all the way to the end of the line. Predictably, it doesn't show the toy I got it with. Top row: Cybertron Primus, Metroplex, Galaxy Force Optimus Prime. Second row: Excellion, Cannonball, Sky Shadow, Menasor. Third row: Skywarp, Override GTS, Unicron (Deluxe), Quickmix, Nemesis Breaker. Bottom row: Longarm, Deepdive, Overcast (Giant Planet Mini-Con Team), Shortround, Scrapmetal (red), Lugnutz, Soundwave. AUTOBOT: BRAKEDOWN GTS Planet: Speed Altmode: Fantasy drag racer Previous Name Use: None (the "GTS" is new) Previous Mold Use: Cybertron Homage: G1 Kup Key Gimmick: Racing Saber Key Code: s9k1 It's long been an accepted piece of wisdom on Velocitron that you can't teach an old racer new tricks, but that was before the Autobots came to the Speed Planet. With the help of Coby and the intelligent application of some Earth technology, including dual superchargers, inter-cooled Energon exhaust ports and a diamond-sharp edge to his racing saber, Brakedown is feeling a thousand years younger. Yes sir, this old speed demon is back on the track! STR 5 INT 8.5 SPD 9.5 END 8 RNK 5 COUR 6 FRB 4.5 SKL 9 Avg 6.94 +3 SPD, +1 END. Not bad for Earth tech. Key Code Info: ("Brakedown redeco" is the label on the key code info.) With his new lease on life, Brakedown has decided to take up some old habits as well. When he was a younger bot on Velocitron, he used to repair the MASSIVE road repair automatons that forever roamed the millions of highways on his home planet. It would be a challenge to race up, keep speed with them and repair them as they moved across the planet - for those repair-bots can never stop! It takes keen mind, nimble fingers and super- charged engines to make Velocitron keep on ticking - and Brakedown is just the bot for the job. (Also shows color guide, which calls it "Basic R06 Kup".) Planet Key: Standard Speed Planet Key. Homage: Before I go into details, I should say that this is as close to G1 Kup as they could get with this mold. Same colors, paint apps the same where possible. Note that the animated Kup was made duller in color to make him look older, but the toy was pretty much exactly these colors...maybe off by a few percent due to batch variations, but that's it. Color Swaps: It looks like the original had two dark brown sprues, since some of the dark brown becomes a sort of teal/cyan (33FFFF) and some becomes slate blue (near 336699). The body of the saber, the cockpit area, and the rear fenders (upper arms) become teal. The head, chest, lower legs and feet become slate blue. The clear yellow plastic becomes opaque black, and the light cool gray becomes a light warm gray. The slate and light gray plastics reacts a little to UV, the other plastics don't. Paint Apps: Dark red (CC0000) on the fenders, saber body pipes, eyes and shins. The fender and shin apps are "dashed triangles". Silver on the driver's seat and helmet, but no paint on the face other than the eyes. Yellow (FFFF00) on the "biceps" and on the exhaust pipe tips that form his abdominal sixpack, plus on the rear of the saber holder. Gold on the hubcaps, the knees and the "spats" of the bottom of the boots. There's a good match to the teal plastic painted on his shoulders and pegs. The pipes on the sides of his abdomen are painted black, and there's an Autobot symbol printed on his chest in the same place as on the original. The eyes are actually a different paint...they glow under UV, while the rest of the red doesn't. You'd almost think someone decided to compensate for the lack of lightpiping (since the clear yellow headblock is now black) and has been reading my reviews. :) Other notes: Maybe I just got a bad one, but there's several quality issues with Brakedown GTS. The saber blade pops out really easily, it's hard to keep it in place. And it's tricky to get everything to stay aligned properly in vehicle mode to let it roll smoothly. OTOH, my original has neither of these problems...even right out of being tossed in a box for a few months, the original rolls well. [Later note: I've gotten reports from people who don't have problems with theirs, looks like I got unlucky.] I think I'll leave the front end of the vehicle down as a sort of "duster" in back to set this one apart from the original a little more. Overall: It's a nice homage to Kup, but quality control issues may have caught up to the mold. I like the looks better than the original, though. DECEPTICON: SCRAPMETAL (Yellow) Planet: Cybertron Decepticon Altmode: Spider Tank Previous Name Use: Cybertron Previous Name Use: Cybertron Key Gimmick: Vibro-Saber Key Code: s1j5 This is only one of billions of mindless Terrorcon drones that infest Cybertron and hundreds of other worlds. Mutated by exposure to the power of Unicron, these creatures live only to breed - devouring entire worlds for raw materials used in the construction of their offspring. The containment and destruction of SCRAPMETAL vermin is one of the key objectives of the Autobot mission, because even one SCRAPMETAL left functioning can destroy a planet. STR 5.5 INT 2 SPD 6 END 10 RNK 3 COUR 4.5 FRB 8 SKL 5 Avg 5.875 Different bio, same techspecs. Key Code Info: In the original treatment for the Transformers: Galaxy Force and TRANSFORMERS CYBERTRON cartoon, the Scrapmetal (or RUMBLOR as they are known in Japan) piloted by Coby was not in the script. It was much later in the development and script writing phase that this idea was put into the story. The Coby Scrapmetal was redesigned twice! Once as a bright white robot with the same head as the regular Scrapmetals, and then finally as the design seen in the animation. (Also shows the red color guide, oops. Odd...It actually says "Ramble" on the package, wonder why they decided it was Rumblor for this?) Color Swaps: Compared to Ramble Yellow, the yellow plastic might be a tiny bit lighter, although that could just be mold variation. Compared to Scrapmetal red, replace red with yellow and clear red with clear amber. Paint Apps: Identical to Ramble Yellow, although again the lighter yellow paint may be a little lighter than on Ramble. Oh, the Key has a code, which is lacking on Ramble, if you want to count that. Other Comments: Looks like quality control is widely variable. Some have told me that their yellow Scrapmetals hold together better in vehicle mode than their red Scrapmetals, but mine is significantly floppier. Dave Van Domelen, may go ahead and use nail polish and/or superglue to stiffen up Scrapyellow.