Review: #74
Name: Wheeljack
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: Prime - Robots in Disguise
Year of Release: 2012
Size Class: Deluxe (Wave 1)
Variations: none
VEHICLE MODE:
Wheeljack takes the form of a fictional sports car with a very familiar colour scheme. It's an angular vehicle, but sparse in paint, however, it still works since G1 Wheeljack was primarily white anyway.
I wish the spoiler was wider, as it looks tiny and easily overlooked the way it is. Surprisingly, the tail lights are painted. The hubcaps feature some nice sculpting, which suits Wheeljack's sword fighting skills.
There are some obvious gaps underneath the hood, Wheeljack does not have a bumper of any sort. These gaps are required for transformation, but they are still very unsightly here, and the major flaw.
Similarly, the back has robot kibble showing up. It seems that Wheeljack is good to look at from above, but once it's level, you see all these gaps and robotic parts.
You can plug in the dual swords underneath the hood for an 'attack' mode, it looks stupid, and it seems like Wheeljack has tusks.
Thankfully, you don't have to keep Wheeljack in that ridiculous attack mode if you don't want to lose the swords, as they plug in underneath, and he will still roll as well as ever (which is very well by the way).
There are some really really nice sculpting, just not painted so they don't stand out. Some of these elements include headlights, angular curves and air vents. The windshield is also a dark transparent blue.
The worst element here is... Wheeljack's small size. Above is a comparison with the Generations version, and I guess to be fair, he isn't that much shorter (since Generations Wheeljack only seems much longer due to the front skirt), BUT, its noticeable when handling Prime Wheeljack that he has less mass.
There's not much in terms of side detailing, for some reason, they didn't connect the two lines of red paint, which seems somewhat odd. At least they painted the hubcaps silver.
Overall, a very cartoony vehicle mode, yet... plausible and realistic. It fits Wheeljack really well, and even though it doesn't follow exactly the typical paint patterns of previous Wheeljacks, it's enough to evoke the look. A great vehicle mode, albeit somewhat small.
TRANSFORMATION:
If you think about it, Prime Wheeljack actually has quite a innovation transformation. You might not expect it but it's fairly interesting, yet easy, and it's not exactly what you would expect. You would have thought that the hood just splits in half to form the shins, if so, you'll be half right. To recreate the thinner look and not have chubby legs (like the Generations version), the hood actually splits into four pieces, and the middle of the hood folds behind the leg, a really nice twist to an overdone idea. Supposedly the head 'reveals' but I found that it doesn't really, it feels just the same as any other Transformer... A solid transformation, very fun to convert between the two modes, and everything clicks into place.
ROBOT MODE:
One of the things you'd notice is... Wheeljack is very screen accurate. They had captured his slouching stance accurately, there's a lot of character in this figure. Wheeljack however, does have huge and long arms, but it's easy to overlook it.
He barely has any kibble, only the windshield pieces underneath his hands and they mostly stay out of the way. I love how he doesn't have twenty panels folded upon his back, the back of the car is his back, and he even has the two angled pieces behind his head, how cool is that?
The headsculpt is brilliant. He has his face plate one, and I for one, prefer that. Wheeljack has a blue lightpipe but it doesn't work particularly well. Somewhat worrying is that the balljoint is transparent plastic, which might make it brittle with age. His chest is not completely false, it's still the roof of the car, just that it has a fake windshield that's painted solid black.
The distinctive feature of this version of Wheeljack is his swords. He has two swords, and they're not the bendy plastic ones either. These will keep their shape (generally), and painted silver, very awesome, albeit a bit shorter than I would like.
Obviously, Wheeljack can hold the swords in both hands, and each hand has wrist articulation for some awesome sword poses.
If you don't want Wheeljack wielding his weapons, there are a few places for Wheeljack to store them. First off, near his shoulders are slots to which you can slot into the swords, they stay there, but loosely.
Another option is to plug the swords into holes on each shoulder, which much more secure, I find that it doesn't look as great aesthetically, since they stand out a lot more rather than tucking away.
Due to how the shin forms, I found that they look really weird from the side.
Wheeljack's smallness is much more apparent here in robot mode. I mean, Generations Wheeljack was a short figure, yet, this version is about the same height, and less mass to boot. Disappointed with the size shrinking (but it's even worse on Prime Soundwave).
The articulation is good. My one has really loose hips, so they kept popping off when I wanted to swivel them (but it's easily fixed with some super glue). Only negative is the lack of elbow swivels, and the wrist articulation does not make up for that.
Wheeljack is flexible enough to hold one sword with both hands (forgot to take a photo of that). The shoulders are somewhat limiting at times.
He looks awesome with both swords, and the angular proportions works really well for this robot mode.
An eye pleasing robot mode, the shins might take some getting used to but such a clean and fun robot mode. There are so many possibilities due to the dual swords, and Wheeljack looks like he's ready to fight some Decepticons. All praise for this robot.
OVERALL:
Two good modes make for a great figure. The transformation is innovative, and the flaws in vehicle are easily overlooked. There are no kibble in either mode, and the swords are a great inclusion. I had great fun converting between each mode, and just generally fiddling around with the robot. There is the possiblitity of some loose joints straight out of the box but all in all, highly recommended figure.
----------------------------------
A few other reviews can be found on this page.
