General Information:
Release Year: September 2006
Retailer: General US (Toys R Us, Target etc.)
Price: $6.99 (Depending on Retailer)
Accessories: Cyber Planet Key, Blade weapon

Images:

• On Card*
• Vehicle Mode
• Vehicle Mode (Side)
• Vehicle Mode (Back)
• Vehicle Mode (Front)
• With Brakedown (Vehicle Modes)
• With G1 Kup (Vehicle Modes)
• Robot Mode
• Robot Mode (Side)
• Robot Mode (Back)
• Robot Mode (Close up)
• Robot Mode (Holding weapon)
• with Brakedown (Robot Modes)
• With G1 Kup (Robot Modes)

*Image from Transformers.com

Tech Specs:
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!

One of the last waves of Cybertron Scout Class figures is primarily a set of redecos of previous figures. Included in this assortment is Brakedown GTS, a redeco of the first Brakedown toy from previous waves of Cybertron figures. This time, his deco will look quite familiar to G1 Transformers fans as it is based on the G1 character Kup, whose "veteran" persona so matches Brakedown's character on the Cybertron TV Show.

Each Cybertron Transformer comes with a Planet Key with a code printed on it. Brakedown's code is s9k1. Unlocking this at transformers.com gives you an image of the figure's color chart and the following text:

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.

Vehicle Mode:
No sculpt changes have been made to this figure for this release. However, what we fans do get is a figure that acts as an amazing G1 homage, showing that the designers are very much still in tune with the original generation of Transformers. Much like the Exillion DVD redeco released in Japan this redeco is a thematic one for both the figure and character. Brakedown was portrayed as an older mentor like figure on the Cybertron TV show. In keeping with this theme, the designers took the color scheme of another old mentor from G1 and applied it to this sculpt. In this case Brakedown GTS is a homage to G1 Kup.

Brakedown GTS is cast in silver, black, blue and blue grey plastic. All these color shades match up as close as possible to the original Kup figure. The blue is a lighter shade. His tires are black and some smaller details are painted yellow like Kup had on his rear lights. The original Kup also had some red and black details, and these are replicated to a degree with red lines leading to arrows on top of the rear wheels and some red applied to the angled lines on the front engine.

This vehicle color scheme looks fantastic. It's really cool how the pattern differs so much from the first Brakedown figure and it looks much more like a vehicle you'd find on a racetrack. The brighter scheme also reflects the improvements Brakedown has supposedly made to his systems.

Robot Mode:
The designers really looked at the G1 Kup figure in robot mode and tried to transpose his colors onto Brakedown GTS as much as possible. His primary plastic colors carry over from the vehicle mode, with the inclusion of a blue-grey plastic used on his legs and main body. Paint decos carry over the light blue from the vehicle mode all over the upper body, enhancing the homage to G1 Kup. What's great are the smaller details. On the legs are red triangular patterns going from the bottom pointing up. G1 Kup has red arrows on his legs as well (also pointing up). Like G1 Kup, he also has yellow details on his knees, but they are also used to outline the area above his feet.

There's no loss of joint quality or functionality with the weapon here. Granted this is only the third run for this sculpt, so any degradation would have been surprising to say the least.

Final Thoughts:
Brakedown GTS is a wonderful display of how a mainline non-G1 figure can properly pay homage to a G1 character in both apperance and personality. In many ways I actually like this figure a lot more than the first version. Highly recommended!