Breaker and RAM (25th Anniversary)

By KansasBrawler

The vehicle sets from the early part of the 25th Anniversary line were a bit of a high wire act sometimes. The vehicles themselves were usually pretty awesome, however sometimes the choice of drivers was a little odd. When I think of an odd driver/vehicle combo, the first set I think of is the RAM and Breaker. It’s not that Breaker is a bad choice, but considering how Rock ‘N’ Roll was always associated with the RAM and they left out most of Breaker’s accessories to make him cost out right with the set, Breaker and the RAM wound up being a little less effective than they could have been.

Since I’ve already touched on Breaker’s inclusion in the set, I’ll start by reviewing him. Breaker is another one of those early 25th Anniversary figures that came so close to being awesome but fell so short because of some bad parts. Since Breaker was one of the Original 13, his look is pretty basic. Breaker’s legs come from 25th Anniversary Duke and they actually work pretty well. They’re a very basic look, like the original Breaker had, but they are at least a little different from the 25th Anniversary Snake Eyes look. His torso and webgear come from 25th Anniversary Snake Eyes and that’s a perfectly fine choice. They work well with the Duke legs and it’s generic enough that it fits Breaker’s Original 13 aesthetic. Mercifully, the webgear Breaker has also helps hide the bad torso gap the 25th Anniversary Snake Eyes had. Unfortunately, Breaker also shares his arms with 25th Anniversary Duke. According to YoJoe.com, later runs of the RAM set did use the slightly improved Duke arms, but I got my RAM early enough that Breaker still has the really horrible Duke arms. The elbows don’t bend well and he has really nasty slits about midway down his forearms for articulation. While I do like that Breaker has his sleeves rolled up, but considering how ugly these arms look, I’d much rather see the 25th Flint arms here even with their wonky physical anatomy just because they can move better. Of course, you can’t review Breaker without talking about his worst feature, his oversized noggin. Breaker’s head is just awful. It’s too big and I really miss his beard. Yes, I know in the comics he was clean-shaven, but I’ve always been more familiar with bearded Breaker. I’d forgive the lack of beard if he looked more like the 2005 Breaker, but as it stands, this is just a big-headed dude with no beard who doesn’t look like any iteration of Breaker I’m familiar with. Considering when Breaker was made, I’m shocked at how little he actually looks like the classic figure. I’m even more shocked that I have two versions of this terrible figure…mostly due to them being packaged with other things I wanted. I’ll admit, looking at his face, there is a glimmer of hope on the figure, because his face does look great, but his head is still disproportionately large so even though I like his face, it still doesn’t quite work. Hopefully, Hasbro will do something better with Breaker sometime in the near future, because he deserves way better than this.

Since Breaker is one of the Original 13, his paint work is pretty basic. Breaker is primarily molded in olive drab green and it works well. It’s the same look he had back in 1982 and I like the simplicity here. Unfortunately, the color for his skin tone leaves a bit to be desired. First of all, he looks just a little pasty. Then when you look at the paint work on his face, the paint feels a bit too heavily applied. There are some decent details molded into this too-large head, but they really get muted because of how heavily his skin tone is applied. The one saving grace on Breaker’s paint work is the five o’clock shadow he’s rocking. Yes, I don’t recall Breaker ever having five o’clock shadow—he’s either bearded or clean shaven—but they did a good job with it all the same. You can see the hint of a beard and it’s neatly applied. I’ve seen other action figure lines try to do that and it just leaves the guy looking like he’s got a dirty face. At least here, it looks good even if it is more on model with Clutch from the comics than any iteration of Breaker.

The biggest problem I have with RAM Breaker is his accessories, or more accurately the lack of them. Considering how Breaker’s role is defined by his communications gear, getting released without all that is a pretty major strike against him. This Breaker only comes with a pistol and his helmet. At least the helmet does fit his oversized head, but beyond that the rest of the gear is pretty lame. There is a silver pistol in the saddlebag on the RAM, but strangely enough, the pistol I have him carrying in the photos is not the same pistol as the one in his saddlebag. I literally have no idea where that piece came from or where it went since it wasn’t in Breaker’s storage baggie either. Mystery pistol aside, releasing Breaker without all his extra gear was a bad call. At least with his communications equipment, I was okay with the Comic Pack Breaker. Without it, he’s just an odd figure. The fact that they couldn’t include it to bring down his costs is one of the many reasons I kind of wish they hadn’t put Breaker with the RAM. All the old comic appearances of it had Rock ‘N’ Roll riding it. I realize Rock ‘N’ Roll might not have been quite ready for release when this vehicle was released, but they were both 2008 pieces, so he couldn’t have been too far away from release. Why not pair the guy that always used the RAM back in the day with the vehicle for once? I think he would have been a better
addition to the set than a weak rerelease of a pretty bad figure.

Breaker is a bad figure, but I knew that going in. However, the new RAM is just such a great vehicle, I went for it anyway even though I knew I’d be getting a duplicate of a figure I didn’t really like. I never had a RAM growing up, but I’ve always liked the Joe motorcycles. The RAM is a great Joe motorcycle and it looks great now. The motorcycle feels like a slightly heavier duty sport bike and I like that feel from it. However, it also feels very military and it seems like something I’ve seen in military movies set in the 1970s. It would make sense for the military to still have a few 1970s-era motorcycles in the motor pool in 1982 when the Joe team was founded. The RAM looks like a fast little bike and I can see Breaker zipping around the battlefield causing all sorts of problems or using it to make a speedy getaway after radioing in a Cobra position (well, if he had his radio). The saddlebags are removable and can open up to carry a little bit of gear in them. There’s a Joe-scale Colt 1911 in the left saddlebag but the right one is empty. I really like those saddlebags and it makes a lot of sense for the RAM to have a little extra carrying capacity for whoever’s riding it. The handlebars turn and the wheel turns on the same stalk so there’s a nice bit of interactivity there that I appreciate. They could have just made it a static piece, but it’s nice that it can turn a bit. Of course, for me, the defining feature of the RAM was always its Gatling gun sidecar and that looks great in its modern form. The sidegun is nicely armored up and there’s even a knob on the back to let you turn the barrel. I love messing around with this thing. The sidegun is removable and comes off very easily, but it’s still securely attached so it’s not going to fall off at the drop of hat. Without the sidegun, the RAM looks like a neat little recon motorcycle and I like that the vehicle still looks pretty good without its sidegun.

My only real complaint comes from the lack of paintwork on the RAM. The vehicle looks great, but there are some details, like the engine parts, that I really wish had been painted rather than left the olive drab green the rest of the RAM is molded out of. The vehicle looks really great, but those unpainted details just bother me a little. I’m sure they weren’t painted on the original RAM, but I’d love to see those details brought out here on a piece that is more clearly aimed for collectors rather than kids. The stickers looks great and really help make the RAM look interesting. Without all those details, I think the RAM would be just a tad boring, but with all them applied well by the factory, the RAM looks really great.

The RAM is a classic Joe vehicle and it looks great in its modern iteration. I just wish they had made sure the driver was a good figure as well. Breaker was a bad figure the first time they released him and his gear was about the only redeeming quality that figure had. Without the gear, the figure’s problems are even more obvious. Yes, the RAM didn’t originally have a driver, but considering how bad Breaker is, I almost kind of wish they had just released it without a driver this time around as well. I think I would appreciate the RAM more if I didn’t have to have a bad rehash of Breaker riding on it as well. I know I could put Rock ‘N’ Roll up there, but then I’d just have another Breaker hanging out looking like a doofus because he’s a communications specialist with no communications equipment. The RAM itself works well, I just wish its driver had felt less like an afterthought.