It is my strongly-held conviction that the War for Cybertron Trilogy was a poorly-conceived, poorly-executed mess of a toyline that nevertheless produced a handful of great toys. Part of its problem was that it didn't keep to its own brief - Siege was supposed to represent the early days of the war, yet each figure came with extensive battle-damage paint apps. The most egregious problems, though, were that there were some critical omissions from the Siege portion, the Earthrise toyline was rendered pointless by it's own Netflix tie-in show, and the best toys in Kingdom were Hasbro's perfunctory acknowledgements that Beast Wars was a popular thing back in the 1990s, though clearly not popular enough to warrant its own, specific branch of the franchise rather than insertion into yet another of their interminable attempts to perpetuate their golden age of G1.
The omissions, while not obvious, became clearly problematic in the opening moments of the Netflix show, which paralleled the pilot of the G1 cartoon, showing Bumblebee and Wheeljack on an Energon scavenger hunt. This would have been a great idea, but for the fact that Bumblebee's Siege toy only got released under the Buzzworthy banner, while Wheeljack did not get a Siege toy at all. That said, neither of them actually transformed in the TV show, so perhaps their absence from the Siege line is not important to some people.
Surprisingly, it fell to the Studio Series line to present a Cybertronian Wheeljack figure - based on the CGI sequence at the start of the Bumblebee movie - and, based on the average quality of War for Cybertron toys, I'd have to concede that this was probably for the best. So, let's take a look at what is - in my opinion - one of the best War for Cybertron toys not to appear in the War for Cybertron lines, and try to get to the bottom of what makes it so good.
I can understand, to a degree, why Hasbro might shy away from creating a Cybertronian Wheeljack toy for Siege... after all, he and Bumblebee were one of the very few Autobots to actually transform into their Cybertronian vehicle modes in the G1 pilot and, while the latter's flying saucer at least had some visual appeal, Wheeljack's hovervan looked bland and nonsensical. It would have been just another box - like the Ratchet/Ironhide mold - and, given how attached some fans are to canonical G1 appearances, that presents something of a problem for the creative teams working on the toys: how best to go about replicating a shit-looking vehicle while somehow ensuring its robot mode remains true to the animation model used for Wheeljack both on Cybertron and after he's adopted his Lancia Stratos vehicle mode on Earth.
Thankfully, the Bumblebee movie - and, more particularly, the Studio Series toyline - was unencumbered with any requirement to remain true to existing designs because there was never a vehicle mode designed for Wheeljack's brief on-screen appearance. Given free rein, the folks at Hasbro and Takara Tomy were able to produce a vehicle mode that worked not just for the movie, but for Siege. Coincidentally, it also bears a striking resemblance to the style of vehicle modes created for the War for Cybertron videogames, while being a solid middle-ground between the hovervan of the G1 cartoon pilot and the real-world Lancia Stratos - the sharply-angled front and blocky proportions of the former, with the sweeping angles and curved windscreen of the latter. Of course, this version is clearly not a hover-vehicle, since it has four wheels molded in the same translucent plastic as the windscreen.
Nevertheless, its similarity to the vehicle mode of Jazz and Sideswipe from the videogames - particularly the former, thanks to the wraparound spoiler - makes it a better fit in a more general TransFormers continuity than anything thusfar presented for either War for Cybertron or Legacy. The back end might horribly open and incomplete-looking, but only by the standards of terrestrial vehicles, and it could have been mitigated with a bit more sculpted (engine?) detail on Wheeljack's elbows and forearms. The front end, but for the surprisingly steep angle, could easily be Lancia's own take on a new concept Stratos, with large headlights wrapping from the front, up and back over the sides of the bonnet, slim, sharply-angled secondary lights on the protruding wings, and a small recessed section in the middle. The windscreen extends forwards a lot further than is usual, making for a much smaller bonnet. Aside from the styling of the wheels being unlike any traditional, terrestrial vehicle, the sides of the car are the least alien-looking part of the vehicle, since they even appear to feature door-like details in the sculpt - not least what appears to be door handles split between the central and rear sections - alongside the side vents. One oddity here - versus the likes of Brawn, at least - is that there's no real tech detailing inside the windscreen, only some large chunks of structural reinforcement. This is also a contrast with the headlights, which are comparatively intricate in their detailing. He appears to have sculpted indicator lights at the back (just behind the rear wheels) and the front (in the indents just in front of the front wheels), but the latter are lost somewhat in the heavy application of off-white paint over those translucent plastic sections.
On the subject of paint, I have to admit I'm disappointed in Wheeljack for two reasons. First and foremost, the sheer volume of translucent plastic used - the two sections of windscreen, the entire nose of the vehicle and all four wheels - has naturally meant that a huge amount of the paint budget has gone into covering it over where necessary. Aside from the extensive application of off-white at the front, as mentioned above, there is both red and off-white paint on the windscreen sections, including the frame at the front of the vehicle, and green paint on the centre part of the front. It's all good and opaque, but it ends very abruptly on some edges, leaving what looks like a gap between the windscreen frame and the green section of bonnet. The green paint extends down around the edges of the recessed part on the very front (what would be the grille on a terrestrial vehicle), so it's disappointing that the off-white wasn't extended just a little further round the rim of the windscreen. He also has designs in red and green on the outer sections of the bonnet, paying homage to the Alitalia sponsorship design on G1 Wheeljack, and green stripes down the 'door' sections on the sides. The hubs of the wheels are also painted but it's either a much lighter coat of the off-white or an entirely different colour. Aside from the overall simplicity of the paint job, my main gripe is that there's a small trail of red paint on the off-white section of the roof and some feathering of the off-white on the frontmost sections. The latter isn't terrible, while the former doesn't exactly jump out in vehicle mode, and gets covered over in robot mode. Wheeljack also has a couple of exposed transformation joints, molded in incongruous grey plastic, on either side of the windscreen, and the front section of the spoiler (sculpted onto the backs of the robot's legs) is unpainted brownish-grey, vaguely metallic-looking plastic, so it doesn't really look as if it's part of the spoiler, as it's supposed to be.
Wheeljack's weapon - essentially the same as all the first wave of Bumblebee movie Autobots, yet an entirely unique mold - can be tabbed into the roof via one of the slots at the back, between the halves of the spoiler. There's not really much else to say about it... it looks pretty good and fits well in its position but, since it doesn't use a 5mm peg, it's fixed forward-facing.
Robot Mode:
While the Cybertron scenes lasted only a couple of minutes apiece, what was revealed of the character designs was a huge breath of fresh air compared to what we'd seen throughout the Bayverse era. Every single character was instantly recognisable based on just a scant few frames of screen time. One of the most obvious features of the G1 Wheeljack toy was his weird proportions - large feet on the end of comparatively short legs, a chunky torso, and super-long arms - while the animation model always seemed to be squatting. While this toy doesn't directly emulate either, it somehow manages to present an overall appearance that's fairly similar to both, while still bringing something new and unique.
For starters, Studio Series Wheeljack feels suitably wide for his height. His shoulders are large and chunky in and of themselves, and their span is very broad. While his pelvis isn't significantly wider than other figures in the line, the stocky upper body and short legs emphasise with breadth of this hips and, while his feet aren't especially large, they do look pretty chunky on the ends of such short, bulky lower legs. The arms aren't excessively long, like the G1 toy, but the overall effect of looking at Wheeljack is that he has the upper body of a much larger robot stuck on undersized legs.
On a somewhat related note, one thing I often complain about - particularly in movie toys - is how the robot modes' three-dimensionality gets drastically toned down due to the need to fit them into what is frequently a comparatively simplistic vehicle form. A prime example of this would be the original Dark of the Moon Shockwave toy, which turned out weirdly flat due to having a mostly consistent depth from head to toe. The Studio Series version turned out vastly better, and this interpretation of Wheeljack follows in the same pattern, with the roof of the vehicle concertina-ing back on itself to form the robot's bulky, protruding chest. The additional fold-out bump in the middle of his chest is almost unnecessary thanks to how far forward the roof and windscreen already protrude versus his groin, and then the legs end up protruding backwards thanks to the vehicle side panels on the outsides of the lower legs and the front of the vehicle ending up as the robot's heels. From the sides, it almost looks as though this version of Wheeljack is permanently leaning forward.
In terms of sculpted detail, Wheeljack is another one who's mostly showing off armour panelling, with very few areas of intricate mechanical detail left visible. The most elaborately detailed parts are the upper pelvis (somewhat obscured by the bottom of his windscreen) and the forearms. Everywhere else he's largely smooth and simplistic, but there's enough panel lining and raised parts to suggest layers of armour, and the shins are quite cleverly handled, with the central section of each maintaining a fairly consistent level of protrusion while the panels either side flare out and angle forward from the knee down to the ankle. The one area where I feel the sculpted detail is visibly lacking is - conveniently - on his back. The central grey part features a fairly deep recess rather than the 'spine' details that were applied to some other robots. This is flanked by Wheeljack's rear wheels, adding a touch of translucent bluish-grey, and then the lower span of the back is basically made up of transformation joints that are only minimally detailed and which, to be honest, look a bit half-arsed. The backs of the lower legs might be technically worse, given that there's a discernible gap between the two vehicle panels and a huge empty space within. However, short of closing the gap (which appears to be caused largely by a protruding socket on one panel for the tab on the other), I can't think of any definitive fixes to the the engineering. That said, I'm very bothered that his 'wings' are attached to the upper arms rather than the torso, so they move along with his arms... It neither looks nor feels right, but placing them anywhere else would have required vastly more intricate engineering.
Paintwork remains disappointingly simplistic, with the more interesting paint patterns from the front of his vehicle mode ending up either concealed within the lower leg or out of sight on the backs of his feet. The aforementioned green blob on his chest adds a bit more variety, since the only other green paint visible now is a thin strip on each shin. It's a real shame there are no paint applications on his forearms but, broadly speaking, it's all very much in line with the comparatively plain CGI model. All that's really missing is the red panel on his shins, some metallic detailing on the inner parts of his lower legs and the very fronts of his feet, and some off-white on his fingers. The brief glimpse of Wheeljack in the opening scene of the Bumblebee movie suggests some paint should have been applied to the lower part of his off-white plastic shoulder chunks, but I don't think this is anywhere near the most miserly paint job in recent Studio Series releases.
As mentioned before, there's nothing special about Wheeljack's weapon among this first batch of Cybertronian figures from the Bumblebee movie. The specific details may be unique, but the basic design of the weapon is fundamentally the same as the gun packaged with Brawn and Ratchet (and, thereby, the upcoming Ironhide toy). It's molded in a dark grey plastic that appears to be a shade lighter than the dark grey used on Wheeljack's body and it's a nicely detailed weapon... but all it really does is plug into either of his hands, and his arms don't have the reach to allow him to wield it two-handed. When not in use, there's a 5mm peg on the side of the gun and a matching socket just behind Wheeljack's head, which allows the weapon to be stored on his back. I think it's a shame that he wasn't packaged with at least one of his more traditional shoulder launchers, but he wasn't depicted as having any such weapons in the movie. Additionally, since the most viable mounting point is the 5mm socket right in the centre of his back, it would require an 'arm' piece of some kind to get it over either shoulder. There are a couple of likely slots on his back as well, so perhaps one of the Third Parties will come up with something to be attached one way or the other.
While I prefer homages to the G1 toys over the G1 cartoon, I have to admit that I think the head sculpt here is fantastic. Its sharp angles, segmented battlemask and sweeping 'ears' immediately put me in mind of Binaltech Wheeljack, while the three defined crests running over the top of his head are very evocative of the G1 toy. The backward angling of the 'ears' seems like a nod to TransFormers Prime, and looks a lot more natural than any of the Wheeljack head sculpts that just have them sticking out perpendicular to the head, helping it look more three-dimensional from any angle. Just about every millimetre of this head sculpt is covered in the kind of intricate panel lining the rest of the figure lacks, but the real surprise is the paint job. While the actual battlemask is comparatively small compared to other versions of Wheeljack, the silver paint highlights it well... even if it does end up making it look as though he has a visible mouth just above his chin. The silver paint extends to his 'eyebrows', giving the impression of a complete face behind the mast. There's a dash of silver in the central crest on his forehead, while the other two are unpainted, and the eyes are picked out in the usual 'AllSpark Blue' colour. I'm a little disappointed that his 'ears' are painted metallic cyan rather than being translucent, per the movie CGI, but it's a reasonable compromise, given that his translucent plastic is tinted grey.
Wheeljack's transformation is a little frustrating on a couple of points. The legs feature a lot of parts that need to pass around each other with very little clearance, while the rear sections of the car flip 180° inward on a joint that's pinned on the underside of the vehicle. These only works one way, and then the tab connection on one side of the collar section is a little loose, making it liable to disconnect when moving the arm thanks to super-stiff shoulder joints. The instructions are specific about having to rotate Wheeljack's head 90° to get it into vehicle mode because there's so little space between his legs but, other than all that, it's an interesting and innovative transformation... that really does feel like a transformation rather than just pulling legs and arms out of a vehicle, like on Brawn. The way the windscreen concertinas into the chest is quite clever, since the frontmost section folds in under the roof to give the illusion that the windscreen has split, and I quite like how the mid-section of the vehicle's roof flips over to provide the pop of green on the middle of his chest... even though I suspect that's supposed to represent the green part of the car's nose, which actually ends up split between his heels. The only parts I actively dislike are that the spoiler ends up on the underside of his forearms, looking very much like spare parts, and the ankle ball joints are so tight, it can be difficult to manoeuvre his feet properly between their robot and vehicle mode positions or to align them for a pose.
Aside from the problem caused by the loose collar tab and the overtight ankle ball joints, my copy of Wheeljack had rather floppy hips when he first came out of his box. Not to the point of toppling over, but noticeably loose, particularly in comparison to the shoulders. The ankles themselves don't have the greatest range because of the nose of the vehicle on Wheeljack's heels clashing the vehicle's side panels, now on his lower legs. The knees bend to almost 90°, the last couple of degrees being stopped by the ends of his spoiler. His hips themselves are ball joints which allow a forward/backward swing slightly in excess of 180° and an outward swing a little short of 45°. They lead into upper-thigh rotation joints which offer a range of about 90° due to the molding of the thigh armour. His waist rotation is unrestricted as it's needed for transformation, but the tops of the hips will clash with the tab of the central windscreen section, which hangs down just in front of the pelvis. The shoulders are also ball joints, allowing a full 360° rotation and a little short of 90° range out to the sides thanks to a cut-out at the top of the shoulder mass, while his bicep joint allows 360° rotation. His elbow is double-jointed for transformation, but then his wrists are fixed in place. The head is on a ball joint, allowing a small amount of tilt in any direction, and a full 360° rotation. All in all, he's very poseable in theory, but the short thighs and comparatively bulky torso end up limiting the poses he can pull off.
While Studio Series Wheeljack is not without his flaws, he continues the trend of figures from the Bumblebee movie being generally pretty impressive. This figure basically ticks all the boxes it needed to tick: vehicle mode looks non-terrestrial without being too outlandishly weird, robot mode suits the established expectations for a character named 'Wheeljack', and the colours are broadly on point. Like all of Hasbro's output over the last couple of decades, it could use more paint, and the fact that I'm already bored of the samey weapons on these toys is certainly not a good sign of what's to come from last few Bumblebee movie Autobots currently announced. Unfortunately, there's not much that can be done about either: the former is a symptom of current economic realities, the latter is the result of hastily-prepared CGI reusing assets for convenience.
The bottom line is that Wheeljack is one of those G1 favourites who doesn't get a lot of toys, let alone toys that are recognisable as Wheeljack... And the only other live action movie Wheeljack wasn't a great interpretation of the character, even if the toy turned out pretty well. This one is far from perfect, but I'd rank it as one of the better Deluxe class toys in the Studio Series line... And I rather hope that this mold will get some additional uses, even if they have to invent or repurpose characters - like Shadow Raider, KSI Sentry and Thundercracker - to do so. Additionally, this figure is a more than adequate substitute for the Wheeljack toy conspicuously absent from the War for Cybertron: Siege line.
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