The Energon Pub

Like KINGBOTZ on Facebook · by **KINGBOTZ** » Thu Aug 20, 2015 8:25 pm

Hey friends, it's been a LONG time since I posted here, but I'm back with a new movie-scale build! I've been commissioned to build a movie-scale replica of the little Decepticon-turned-Autobot-spy "Wheelie" in his robot-mode. Since a got considerable-inquiries to build more copies of the movie-scale "Frenzy" that I did last year, I decided to go ahead and build TWO of these little guys to have one on hand to sell or just keep for myself when they're done. With lots of help from a Facebook-friend of mine that built a truck-mode of this guy, I was able to get MANY of the needed-parts that are recognizable in bot-mode to save a lot of scratch-building and help things along, while making it as movie-accurate as possible. Good reference-pics are EXTREMELY hard to find of Wheelie, so I scraped together what I could find on the net along with screen-grabs and some fan-made CGI-renderings, and will have to improvise the rest of what I can't see......sooooooo unfortunately he won't be ENTIRELY movie-accurate, but I'm doing my best to get it close as I can. He will be poseable, articulate and have working rollbar-lights on his hips and light-up eyes.

Never could find out the approximate-height of Wheelie in the movie, which was always variable anyway, so I had to pretty much give it a good estimate based on the size of the parts I have and shots of him next to humans in the movie. I estimate he will be somewhere between 20 and 25", (about adult knee-height) which will change according to how he is posed. I'm hoping to get this little guy done by early October, the client will be bringing him to Valley-Con and displaying him with his BeaterBee TF movie-car. With all that said, I'll be posting progress-pics of Wheelie here as I go along. Thanks for looking! :michaelbay:

News Credits: 19 · by **Carnivius_Prime** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 5:37 pm

That's a nice start. Looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

News Credits: 12 · by **Evil Eye** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 1:29 pm

That's exceedingly awesome.

Like KINGBOTZ on Facebook · by **KINGBOTZ** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 9:55 pm

Wheelie's guts & chest are pretty much done, things are rollin'! It was a headache, but the hip-lights/rollbar-lights are all wired-up and working now. Had to totally scratch-build a secondary rear brush-guard and entire muffler-assembly in the back, and cut all the tubes in half to split the front-brushgaurd. Still a few add-ons to do, but the worst for this part is over, now to move on to the shoulder cross-member and wheels. Also have to start cutting the front truck-cab to make the 8 panels the mount on his back and mid-section. This little project is certainly makin up for size in complexity, but he's startin' ta come to life! Tryin to get this done by the end of the month, lots of work left to do. 8-)

Like KINGBOTZ on Facebook · by **KINGBOTZ** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 1:27 pm

Small update: All back-panels done! Working on splitting the shoulder-tires now, and will be able to mount these pieces once that's done.

Like KINGBOTZ on Facebook · by **KINGBOTZ** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 8:56 pm

Update! Shoulders and backplates all done! Will begin on the arms the next couple of days. Still have a bunch of knick-knack details to add before it's done, but the worst of it is over. Should have the arms pretty much done in the coming week, then finally his head.

by **Glarryg** » Thu Sep 24, 2015 5:06 pm

This is looking pretty cool. Are you going to bring in Tom Kenny to record some Wheelie-esque lines for the voice chip?

Glarryg

Like KINGBOTZ on Facebook · by **KINGBOTZ** » Thu Sep 24, 2015 7:14 pm

Ha!

That feature's not in the schedule or budget, but definitely worth considering! I'll barely get this thing painted and back together in time to ship out, but it would be super-cool to get a sound-chip in him. The client may want that later down the line, ya never know. 8-)

Like KINGBOTZ on Facebook · by **KINGBOTZ** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 6:26 pm

Fender-flares installed on the shoulders......and now Wheelie's got fully articulate arms and hands! Balljointed & rotatable-shoulder, balljointed elbow, wrist and fully-posable fingers. In that home-stretch once again, now to get started on the head. :michaelbay: