Transformers: Titans Return Breakaway

I’ve decided that I’m going to go through the Wave 3 Titans Return Deluxes in order from least to best, and while that is not a solid indicator of their value or goodness, it does mean that the straight up repaint goes first.

I had originally said that I was not going to buy Titans Return Breakaway, because I was largely underwhelmed by the Chromedome mold and didn’t think an almost all white paintjob was going to change my mind. Then one afternoon, on my lunchbreak with my wife, we stopped at a Target that had all four figures in the third wave of Deluxe class figures. I immediately snagged Twinferno and Triggerhappy, and then my eye caught something interesting: instead of the more regular $14/$15 price tag, these figures were listed as $9.99. Within seconds, and without a first thought, let alone a second, Hot Rod and Breakaway were in my basket. 

Breakaway is a mild renaming of the G1 Powermaster Getaway, or, as I’ve recently begun watching Super God Masterforce so as to make my way to Victory for character information on figures yet to come, Lightfoot as he was known in Japan. Breakaway is a pretty straightforward repaint of Chromedome, with no new parts or remolding, save the robot face on the Titanmaster, but man, this figure is so much better than Chromedome. 

When less truly is more.

Why, I’m not sure, but I am so, so much happier with this version than the original. The primary color, obvious in photographs, is white, and it is white: not an off or cream colored white, not a greyish white. Straight white. On this pretty blank canvas are some pretty sparingly used bits of blue and red paint, with two (I guess) major applications at the rear of the car and along the back section of the passenger compartment, with the windows of the cockpit being translucent red. These brief color highlights in vehicle mode make the car just pop right in your face, simplicity and stingy application be damned. In robot mode the main use of color comes on the robot chest, with the body again predominantly white but the red, blue and yellow appearing in exactly the right places to draw the eye and give a sense of aesthetically pleasing unity. How does the toy have so much less (?) paint, but end up being so much better looking of a figure?

Breakaway (or Getaway, whatevs) is not a character that I’ve got much connection to, although I do know that his profile has risen over the last couple years since he showed up in the More Than Meets the Eye comic, and now that Lightfoot has shown up in Masterforce, I’m sure to get a Breakaway education. The comic doesn’t factor in for me much at all, but I know that the character in the US canon at least is some kind of escape artist or expert, and I genuinely do think that’s cool. The Transformers universe contains so many characters, and even though they are a race at perpetual war, they all were something before they were forced into conflict. Characters backstories mention them as having been actors and artists, scholars and explorers and scientists, even wealthy persons of means and leisure or hypnotists and occultists, so why not an escape artist? Because I have no functional knowledge of the character nor attachment, I find myself eyeing Breakaway on my shelf and thinking “he’s an escape artist” and being perfectly happy leaving it at that. 

The Titanmaster is the same one that came with Chromedome, and is named Throttle, probably for his ability to grant an extra boost of speed to whatever Cybertronian is wearing him. G1 Getaway’s Powermaster was named Rev, and I must say that objectively, Throttle is a much better name.

I’m still puzzled as to how the headswapping works fiction-wise for the line, if there even is any fiction for the line. If Breakaway here bonded with Stylor, Chromedome’s head partner, what would the resulting robot be named? Would it still be Breakaway, despite having Chromedome’s face? Throttle is a pretty plain little guy, as all the Titanmasters are, and the Breakaway face is pretty dull as well, being a grey helmet and a yellow faceplate. Again, the head is fine for what it is, but I still see people on the fansites getting super excited about the Titanmaster guys, and I just keep missing it, I suppose. 

The toy overall has all the same issues that Chromedome has, nothing has been reworked or anything on this second use. Even the wheels are the same translucent plastic, and the effect is the same as it was the last time. The vehicle mode cockpit seems a bit less flimsy than on Chromedome, although that may be due simply to mold familiarity, and knowing how and where to apply pressure when transforming. The weapons are the same, and they configure the same way for the Titanmaster, and I still feel the same way about that gimmick as I have before. While some of the weapons have done fairly well in this regard, the Breakaway weapons, I feel, are some of the worst. 

But what an overall better, more interesting figure than its initial usage! The Transformers brand has always been built on repaints, and sometimes the repaints really do outdo their originals. Breakaway is an example of that. I suppose, now getting familiar with Masterforce, that if you’re after a full set of *-master characters, or MTMTE characters, you’d have to get Breakaway, but I’d say that if you have an interest in this mold, but found Chromedome a letdown, if you find Breakaway at a good deal, he’s worth the money. At that $14/$15 price, probably not: I think that much of my enjoyment and enthusiasm for this toy is contextualized by having only spent ten bucks on him. At the larger price, I was fully prepared to skip him, and I don’t think I’d have regretted it. As it is, I’m glad to have him, and just as was the case with Titans Return Blur, Breakaway rendered an older toy obsolete: 2007 live action movie Cybertron Hot Shot repaint Breakaway found his way into my sell off pile. I don't usually replace older iterations of characters with newer ones, but I also don't feel the burning need to have multiples of some characters when I find what is probably the best representation of them, and Breakaway/Getaway is one of those guys: there is no reason in the world I need multiple Breakaways/Getaways when there is one that is best Breakaway/Getaway. Short of obtaining the original G1 figure, this one should satisfy my Breakaway/Getaway requirements for a good, long while. It wouldn’t be the first time Titans Return made me realize that I had one version of a character too many, and it wouldn’t be the last. It wouldn’t even be the last time in this wave that I had that realization. 

 

That’s a good cliff hanger, yeah? I think it is.