Wheeljack - Alternators - FigureI don’t know about you but I get a thrill out of looking for
new figures when they come out. I haven’t for this guy near as long as say Grimlock
and Swoop but the thrill was still there when I uncovered him at the Wal-Mart.
I was all for getting Grimlock until I saw this guy. He’s an autobot with awesome
remold like the decepticons usually get
. 
Vehicle mode:
2005 Ford Mustang GT. The outside headlights have been blacked
out where they were present on Grimlock. Also the rear spoiler is more of a
racing spoiler than that of the original mold. The car is white, not ultra white
but more like a pearl white, with blue racing stripes…. Badass! Interior is
nicely detailed in black with stick shifter, emergency brake, molded radio,
and blue seats.
The side mirrors are reflective however the rearview mirror is not. The stripes
across the doors look nice and line up well with those on the body. The tires
are not Cybertronian Radial; they are blank like those of Smokescreen. They
also appear to be Aquatread. Now to what I don’t like…. mostly on the rear end,
the GT medallion in on the split where it separates to form legs so it ends
up being off center and not lining up just right. Also the brake lights aren’t
dark enough and look pink. On the front end they’ve blacked out the headlights,
it just doesn’t look right.
Transformation:
I’m not gonna go step-by-step cause this motherscratcher is hard. The legs and
waste are easy but the top half…. throw out the directions they make it harder
than what it is. The doors, forearms, and under body panel frequently pop off.
They pop right back on but they could wear out easily. The head through the
hood design is nice but hard to maneuver and line up correctly for the finished
pose. I’ve also popped off both legs but it’s only happened once, must’ve been
like a freak occurrence or something.
Robot mode:
This is also a great mode. His doors have become wings like energon Hotshot’s.
His chest is the mustang’s front end and legs are the rear half. Proportionally
one tough looking bot. Where Shockwave and Meister are broad shouldered and
narrow the rest of the way down, at least till you get to their feet, Wheeljack
is broad all over until you get to his feet.
Grimlock is of the same design but comparatively a pinhead. Wheeljack’s head
design looks better compared to the rest of his broad frame. The ears seem to
make his head fit better, they’re not as big as the original’s and not as stunted
as Downshifts, just in-between. His blue pelvic underwear fits perfectly to
his stripes.
His front wheels hang off his forearms and the seats become
his feet. Kinda weird, if you ever ride in this guy make sure he wipes his feet.
The only crap hanging off all useless and junky is the windshield/roof and the
unibody frame underpanel. Nothing to really inhibit the posablity much except
the unibody frame and the stout legs.
Weapons:
Normally I wouldn’t give them their own section but this time I will. The engine
becomes a double-barreled ______ gun. This brings me to the only major flaw
in this line of transformers, the lack of storyline and/or character profiles/naming
of weapons. Just let us know if it’s a shrapnel needle, gyro inhibitor shells
or an electronic tazer. Any way the gun is kinda crappy. It’s wide and flat
with pointy barrels, fold the barrels in and you’ve got a perfectly nice shield
for sword fighting. Which leads me to the sword, a clear plastic device with
blue painted in the middle. One could say that the blue is the medal and the
clear is the power that radiates from it. Grimlock’s is basically the same except
where this one is clear his is orange and where his is clear this one is blue,
fire vs. ice if they ever battled. It looks better as a drive shaft than that
of Grimlock. I’m just not sure Wheeljack should have a sword. Grimlock yes,
Wheeljack no.
Overall:
You can’t go wrong with this guy unless you are into noise, gimmicks, or simple
transformation. This guy is great in vehicle and bot mode. The only real drawback
is how frustrating the transformation can be.
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Link to TFormers.com
