Name: Super Speedbreaker
Series: Car Robots
Allegiance: Cybertron
Alternate Mode: Dodge Viper
VIPER MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 12.5cm Width: 5.5cm
A colourless Dodge Viper with black rubberised tyres, chrome gold hubcaps and protruding engineblock, which also has some chromed silver. There are yellow-orange flames on the hood and doors. The entire shell is composed of transparent plastic, ensuring the robot mode elements folded up inside are visible. This is essentially a clear version of the regular Super Speedbreaker, and while the plastic loses the smoky colour of that toy, the paint job is the same (red shell aside). The flames aren't quite as dominant as you might expect since the red and orange robot elements - especially the legs under the roof and rear window - are peaking though. The only allegiance symbol here is a gold chrome Cybertron (Autobot) logo underneath the rear window - which was designed to be visible in this mode. While I wouldn't think much of this as a mass release repaint, it works very well as a special limited repaint.
Speedbreaker has a pretty realistic vehicle mode. From the detailed chrome hubcaps and engineblock to the moulding inside his headlights, to the rear vision mirrors on the doors, Speedbreaker is a good facsimile of a Dodge Viper, to an extent not seen since the Diaclone based toys 16 years earlier. Granted, he's not perfect, but the main break is a small notch on his roof allowing a transform joint to work. Of course, the transparent nature of this version offsets the realistic sculpt, but the level of detail is still apparent. The visible robot junk also rules out this being a kit car or something of that nature.
There's not a lot of play value here. The wheels roll, although without axles you'll find that Speedbreaker will most likely move in a large arc when pushed, which mine does. The doors open as part of the transformation, opening them just reveals squished bodyparts (which are visible anyway, on this version). I can deal with limited play value here - Speedbreaker is a very realistic toy and in a deluxe that's enough for me. Besides the play value is all in the robot mode.
Despite the ridiculously visible kibble, this is a good vehicle mode. The Dodge theme is instantly recognisable and the little features like the grip on his tyres and air vents on the hood really make for a nice sports car mode. This is a repaint which only works as a commemorative release, but in that context Speedbreaker works quite well.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
This is the most complex deluxe ever, so I'm going to summarise. The toy is basically a tightly packed shellformer, the rear bumper detaches to become his missile launcher and the long exhaust pipe becomes the missile. This is a tricky transformation the first couple of dozen times, and even when you're used to it you're likely to find it awkward. The rear fenders become his thighs, the engineblock becomes his chestplate, the roof ends up as a shield hanging off his left arm and the front bumper a shoulderpad on his right shoulder. The hood and doors end up as an armour skirt and more often than not the front bumper will end up on the floor - there's so much twisting involved it's challenging to not pop it off even when you're used to this transformation, which is highly asymmetrical and more involved than most ultras.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 13cm Width: 8cm
Now a mixture of red, orange and white. The red robot mode parts are a cherry red plastic. His head is bright red with a white lower jaw, metallic blue face and blue eyes, and there's fantastic detail, including a transparent targeting scope over his left eye. There is a gold chromed Autobot symbol on his left forearm which matches the chromed red on his chest. The orange paint is bright but not day-glo and is mainly on his chest and shins. The colourless shell sits on the fringes as kibble, and while it's still visible, it allows the solid plastics to dominate his colour scheme here. The colour scheme here is essentially the same as the regular version since the shell is on the edges here, although the white dominates here and the red dominates on the original version.
I just noticed that the left shoulder popped out during my photo shoot, but considering how tricky editing a photo with so much colourless plastic is, I'll mention it rather than go through the whole process again (c8
This is a really detailed robot mode, which is most evident on his head but extends to detailing all over the robot mode surfaces. Of course, there are car parts hanging everywhere, but that doesn't detract from the detailing. Speedbreaker is very slight and spindly, since the entire robot mode has to fold up inside a Dodge Viper. Even compared to his brothers he's lanky, and both of them have a lot of robot pieces hidden inside the car mode. The front of the car on his right shoulder actually adds to the detailing on this version, since the complex internal sculpt on this piece is visible.
While he's skinny and kibbly Speedbreaker does have fantastic poseability. The neck, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles are all ball jointed, as is the shield on his arm and the armour skirt halves hanging off the back of his waist. The waist rotates and the elbows are hinged with swivels in the upper arms. The end result is that Speedbreaker is about as poseable as the come, and the armour skirt and small heelspurs allow for almost unlimited posing, since he can lean back on the armour skirt if he needs to. Adding to all of this is the missile launcher, which fires about a metre, and the chrome gold blade that can also be handheld.
Speedbreaker's biggest flaws here are the multitude of car parts hanging off him and the tendency for certain ball joints to pop out - notably the shoulderpad and shield. This is the sort of toy that'd be tricky to find complete second hand, although you'd do well to find this variant in any form.
Excellent poseability, good colours and a pretty effective missile launcher make for a fun robot mode, but the popping ball joints do get annoying. Speedbreaker is a lot skinnier than I'd like and this does serve to emphasise the kibble all over the toy. How much you like this robot mode will depend on my much you value play value and what you think of the shellformer style of Transformer. The clear plastic gives this robot mode a whiter look than the standard toy, and I actually prefer this toy - the loss of the strong red on his kibble makes Speedbreaker far less cluttered.
VARIATIONS
A repaint of the standard Super Speedbreaker, as mentioned. The clear plastic is now colourless and unpainted, but the paint mask and colours are otherwise the same. This particular version was sold in a three pack with clear versions of Super Mach Alert and Super Wild Ride, available exclusively at Botcon Japan 2000.
If you're wondering why I have only one of the set, I split the pack with Goktimus Prime (Mach Alert) & Demonac (Wild Ride).
OVERALL
Amazing engineering with a complex transformation and a poseable robot mode all tucked within a realistic Dodge Viper. Speedbreaker is very much a shellformer, so if you don't like that style of Transformer he's probably not for you. The transformation can be annoying, and the clear plastic has a negative impact on the vehicle mode but the robot mode feels less cluttered than the robot mode of the regular Super Speedbreaker. I'm not sure that I can recommend the three pack he comes in, simply because it's limited and likely to be pricey, but if you like the idea of the set, Speedbreaker is a well done limited release - 8/10
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