Binaltech BT14 Wheeljack

If the choice of the contemporary Ford Mustang for Grimlock seemed strange, using that same bodytype for Binaltech Wheeljack made no sense whatsoever. Going by artwork available online, it seems as though the plan had originally been to make the second usage into Windcharger, but with Hasbro renaming Overdrive as Windcharger for the western market, Takara Tomy dropped the idea. Their Windcharger head sculpt ended up being used for the Alternators-only release Decepticharge and the Binaltech-only Arcee - both made using Overdrive's Honda S2000 mold - and the mismatch between the head sculpt and the way it attached to the body was very apparent.

Wheeljack certainly isn't an obvious candidate for a muscle car vehicle mode, having always been some form of racing car in other toylines, but let's give Takara Tomy the benefit of the doubt, and see what he looks like...

Vehicle Mode:
There are two things that vie for attention when first examining Binaltech Wheeljack's vehicle mode. Perhaps the most jarring is that his paint job just ain't Wheeljack. Granted, the toys tend to have some interpretation of the original G1 toy's red, white and green Alitalia sponsorship paint job - though the extent of it has been pared down dramatically in recent years - and the Binaltech release, having already been licensed from Ford, was unlikely to acquire additional sponsorship that Ford themselves hadn't already used. The blue-stripes-on-a-white-car look seems to have been derived from a paint job used by Ford themselves, and is essentially the inverse of the paint job later applied to Alternators Mirage. Even the stripes down the side, featuring the word 'MUSTANG' on the doors, is essentially the same style as the Ford GT model. The raised GT badge on each front wing is actually painted silver here, though I honestly think they needn't have bothered, since it looks more like the white paint has thinned out on the raised lettering.

Next up, while the packaging describes this version of the car as the Ford Mustang GT Street Tuning... it's actually not significantly different from the original Grimlock version. Look up photos of the 2005 Mustang online, and you'll see all kinds of variants on the front and rear bumper, several types of spoiler, myriad remodelled bonnets with ventilation scoops in various sizes and shapes, not to mention ventilation panels replacing the smaller windows either side of the rear windscreen. The obvious changes made to this version of the Binaltech model include blacking out the main headlights and tacking on a larger, raised spoiler made of undecorated black plastic... Those smaller side windows have been removed entirely, and the area painted black. In a lot of ways, it feels as though this version of the model was done on the cheap, deliberately making as few changes as possible to the base mold, which is a far cry from the line's earlier variants like Smokescreen/Streak and Lambor/Dead End. Perhaps less noticeable, but no less significant, the hubcaps have been entirely remodelled, with the five spokes being hollowed out, and they're now painted silver rather than being chromed. This seems like a particularly strange choice considering the exhaust pipes, headlights and Mustang crest are still chromed, as they were on Grimlock.

As became more or less the norm from BT08 Meister onward, Wheeljack's numberplate features the Autobot insignia on the left half, and the abbreviation 'WHLJCK' on the right... in a rather unusual and stylised font... Interesting to see that, even when they try to be consistent in their styles, small variations still creep in.

One odd feature which seems to be unique to this version is that the front indicator lights appear to be red rather than orange. Whether it's just the contrast between them and the surrounding white paint, or the age of the model - the Binaltech line is 15+ years old now - they just don't look right... and there's no easy way to illuminate them to check. The lights mounted on the rear wings, just behind the wheels, which I'd originally taken to be indicators, are actually supposed to be red, and the lights on the rear of the car are all correctly coloured, so it seems odd that the front indicators appear wrong...

This is a cool-looking car, even if the paint job is 'wrong' and it's not as different from Grimlock as one might prefer, but it just doesn't really live up to the expectations set up by the 'Street Tuning' moniker. I do appreciate that the interior deco - with blue plastic seats - is rather more subdued. The engine/weapon is the same chromed block, and he also comes with a version of the Energo Sword wielded by Grimlock and stashed in vehicle mode in the same place on the underside. Wheeljack's version is molded in colourless, transparent plastic and given an application of translucent blue paint down the middle, somewhat matching the vehicle's stripes, for what is now described as a 'Cryo Sword'.


Robot Mode:
It's not just the paint job that doesn't look like Wheeljack in this mode, but it certainly doesn't help... The Mustang mold is too bulky for the character, who's traditionally portrayed as the absent-minded professor/engineer type of character. The ends of the box are labelled "BT14 Tactical Diversion Wheeljack", suggesting a change in function, though 'Tactical Diversion' sounds strangely similar to Smokescreen's function of Diversionary Tactician, making this seem like an error. Considering one of the features on the back of the box is labelled as "Steerling", it wouldn't surprise me if other errors had crept in. Additionally, the Binaltech storyline doesn't seem to acknowledge a change in his function, as it tells that it was Wheeljack who first established the Body Shop project to create the new Binaltech frames for the Autobots.

Still, ignoring the discrepancies in the story, the colourscheme and the choice of character, this Binaltech robot still looks powerful and imposing in its new coloruscheme. I'm puzzled that his secondary plastic colours are black and grey - just like Grimlock - when other Binaltech figures have had a little more consistency with their vehicle modes. Sure, his groin section is all blue plastic, and he has applications of blue paint on his forearms but, given the largely white vehicle mode and blue stripes, I'd have expected some white plastic, or more extensive use of blue... though I guess it comes down to requiring some black plastic for the car's interior.

As mentioned, the weapons are fundamentally the same as those packaged with Grimlock, just with a blue sword rather than orange. Given that Wheeljack has usually had a rocket launcher on at least one shoulder, it's a shame the sword couldn't have been replaced... but then, none of the stock Binaltech figures were packaged with any kind of launcher until the remixed re-release of Smokescreen as BT07 Smokescreen GT, which included a single, grey plastic launcher, seemingly in direct response to the third party Binaltech Arming sets, which came in either grey or black, and featured some chromed parts. That having been said, and assuming this Wheeljack is still the experimental engineer, it makes a sort of sense for him to be wielding new weapons... I just don't think he looks properly 'Wheeljack' without at least one shoulder-mounted weapon... preferably two, because I generally prefer the look of the G1 toys to the cartoon.

The head sculpt is an excellent reimagining of G1 Wheeljack, keeping the battlemasked look of the animation model, but making the whole thing more angular, not to mention quite mean-looking. The 'ears' are retained, but now sit at an angle, and the face - such as it is - has been framed with silver, and with a couple of additional crests to the outside. His slanted eyes give him an angry look, so, coupled with the bulky body, this head sculpt looks like a 'gritty reboot' Wheeljack. The main central crest is also painted silver, but everything in between - including another crest on each side - is painted black. Now, I definitely preferred the look of the G1 toy, where the slatted piece was actually a visor, and his 'mouth' was just a silver-painted block below it, but this has turned out to be one of my favourite Binaltech head sculpts nonetheless. There are a couple of problems with it, though. First, and most glaring, while the paintwork on the front half of the head implies a black helmet with silver trim, the entire back section of the head is painted silver - apparently just because the 'ears' are part of the mold for the back of the head - including the base of the helmet, which peeps out either side of his 'jawline'. What bugs me the most, though, is that the head has been sculpted with about a millimetre of 'neck' protruding below the chin, which then leads to the raised 'neck' block sticking out of the car's bonnet. The design of the head suggests that the chin was meant to hang in front of the lower 'neck' block, so the additional mass on the base of the head looks like a mistake. It leads to the head looking as though it's floating above the body, rather than being properly connected to it. A head sculpt like this would have worked far better on one of the figures with a wide, flat shoulder area, like the Viper, Corvette or S2000. Curiously, this extra block of plastic was absent on the Alternators version of Wheeljack, but that just led to more of the ball joint's stalk being visible, which is arguably even less attractive.


There were many missed opportunities or outright errors made with this figure. The understandable ones, such as the deviations from the traditional colourscheme, are one thing... but the weird decisions on the head sculpt, the minimal number of remolded vehicle parts and generally just the choice of the Ford Mustang for Wheeljack make it a somewhat less enticing prospect than BT10 Grimlock, despite the more interesting paint job.

All the problems of the BT Mustang mold - such as the frustrating transformation and the way the doors are inclined to pop off at the least provocation - are very much apparent in Wheeljack. Given the paint job here, it's definitely worth popping the doors off before attempting any transformation, and then simply popping them back on when he's in the desired mode. Deploying the head has somehow become a little more difficult on this one, though whether that's due to the size/shape of the head of the fussiness of the joints within the bonnet, I'm not certain. Additionally, as I transformed him while working on this post, one of his forearms popped off the ball jointed elbow - the first time that's happened on either Wheeljack or Grimlock, and it's not as if the elbow joints feel at all loose. Conversely, the hips are loose to the point where posing him can be very frustrating, because the majority of the die-cast metal ends up in his top half, putting more weight on the ball-jointed hips than they can comfortably handle.

On the upside, transforming him back to vehicle mode allowed me to fix a couple of connections I hadn't quite tabbed in properly the last time I'd handled Wheeljack, thus allowing his bonnet to sit more flush with the edges of the front wings... And transforming him back and forth became somewhat easier with practice.

Reprolabels did produce a set of stickers for Alternators Wheeljack, which would also be compatible with the Binaltech figure if you feel like risking the paintwork with adhesive labels... For me, though, the overtly G1-referential red, white and green Alitalia-inspired design just doesn't suit the Ford Mustang body, and the absence of G1 Wheeljack's sponsor decals makes that specific a paint job rather pointless. The stock paint job may not be right for the chosen character, but it looks good... I just can't help but think a difference character - maybe Tailgate, as a reference to the 'lost' Windcharger version of this mold - would have been a better fit for the chosen colourscheme.