The Energon Pub

I've just opened TF:Prime Wheeljack and oh boy am I impressed, although he's far from perfect.

Car mode: rolls wheelie well (couldn't resist the pun, but then I didn't try very hard to resist). Plenty of clearance. Sword storage is very secure. Panel lines are not very noticeable.

Transformation: a thing of beauty. Everything seems to fit together really well. The only difficulty is transforming the forearms but that's because the joints are really stiff on mine. The leg transformation and head reveal: wow, really cool and unique.

Robot mode: the shoulder articulation is new and innovative but the lack of traditional bicep swivel hinders posing a little. Due to kibble above the shoulder joint he can only raise his arms about 45˚ to the side. The elbows don't bend as far as 90˚ but sometimes you can fake it by reconfiguring the shoulders. He can look up and sideways but only down a little bit. No waist articulation. Knees don't quite bend to 90˚ but it's close. The ankles have plenty of side tilt, toes can point down a long way but only pull up a little. Hips have a large range of motion and thigh swivel is good. Wrists are probably the most articulated wrists in TF history, although the doors get in the way and he can't point his swords as if thrusting. The hand sculpt is probably the best I've ever seen, even though I don't like the open fist thing.
Paint: I'm not much of one for scrutinising paint applications but I think people will be pleased. No dull grey plastic. Face has silver details, swords have silver blades. Car details are clean.

Weapons: Even though the sword hilts are not really long enough for it you can make him look like he's holding a sword with two hands. I saw someone ask this somewhere and yes, they CAN be stored on his back but it's not in the instructions.

EDIT: he has 5mm peg holes on the sides of his car / shoulders so you can arm him up a little more. Thanks to the 5mm pegs on the hilt of his swords you can arm Soundwave with arm blades as well. Or Arcee if you think hers are too wide.

He may not be perfect but he's certainly well worth picking up.

I'm definitely looking forward to Wheeljack!

Waiting for removable face plate. I would cut slap an orphan for a Marlboor repaint.


I would slap him twice.

Nice review there. Some pictures would be nice!

What you described sounds really good to me, will get on sight.

looks like a good toy, sounds like a good toy. Generations Wheeljack is all I need for a Wheeljack in my collection though, so I'm passing. If it's released in new colours, I'll probably pick it up.

i definetly cant wait tto get wheeljack. but i am not getting anything out of the main line until i have FE bulkhead and cliffjumper.

craggy wrote:looks like a good toy, sounds like a good toy. Generations Wheeljack is all I need for a Wheeljack in my collection though, so I'm passing. If it's released in new colours, I'll probably pick it up.

I think he makes a great Classics WJ as well.

Mykltron wrote:

craggy wrote:looks like a good toy, sounds like a good toy. Generations Wheeljack is all I need for a Wheeljack in my collection though, so I'm passing. If it's released in new colours, I'll probably pick it up.

I think he makes a great Classics WJ as well.

oh he'd certainly do, if I hadn't already bought a version that I'm quite happy with. This one isn't so much of an improvement that it's required, nor does the Generations Wheeljack look out of place amongst my other Classics Autobots (unlike, say, some of my other stand-ins, and the previous "Classics WJ" I was using: Energon Downshift). So, I'm not double-dipping on the character here. Give me either a badass Decepticon repaint, or even a new Autobot one, with a new head, and I'm in.

craggy wrote:

Mykltron wrote:

craggy wrote:looks like a good toy, sounds like a good toy. Generations Wheeljack is all I need for a Wheeljack in my collection though, so I'm passing. If it's released in new colours, I'll probably pick it up.

I think he makes a great Classics WJ as well.

oh he'd certainly do, if I hadn't already bought a version that I'm quite happy with. This one isn't so much of an improvement that it's required, nor does the Generations Wheeljack look out of place amongst my other Classics Autobots (unlike, say, some of my other stand-ins, and the previous "Classics WJ" I was using: Energon Downshift). So, I'm not double-dipping on the character here. Give me either a badass Decepticon repaint, or even a new Autobot one, with a new head, and I'm in.

Yes of course, I wasn't trying to persuade you to buy him but putting the suggestion out there for others not collecting this line to consider. Generations Wheeljack is a better use of the mold than Tracks in many people's opinion.

Picked my WJ up at a Target today (but no Soundwave unfortunately). Very very cool figure. He'll go on a shelf space along with Generations WJ and Alternator Wheeljack.

bionic_radical wrote:I would cut slap an orphan for a Marlboor repaint.

Slicer, surely?

I love him too. His biggest flaw for me is the big open space in the front of his alt mode. Small matter, he's great.

Diem wrote:

bionic_radical wrote:I would cut slap an orphan for a Marlboor repaint.

Slicer, surely?

I'd buy Slicer out of this mold.

I got him Thursday and second how awesome he is. Great transformation and look, the swords make him badass too. I love the tiny glyphs on the blade. Aeweome touch.

Just got him this morning along with voyager Megs from TFSource. They're both absolutely great. By far my favorite of both Prime lines so far.

I've been trying to find an answer on this: is Wheeljack's white the same sort of off-white as seen in previous universe/RTS figs or is it more bone-white such as United Jazz?

Mkall wrote:I've been trying to find an answer on this: is Wheeljack's white the same sort of off-white as seen in previous universe/RTS figs or is it more bone-white such as United Jazz?

Somewhere in the middle. Actually, it's closer to white on Generations Wheeljack, so it's a solid color as opposed to the smokey/almost-translucent on RTS Jazz.

I got one yesterday at TRU. Great figure! I'm impressed. Will go with my growing Prime collection (FE Takara Prime, FE Takara Bulkhead, FE Takara Cliffjumper, FE Arcee, FE Bumblebee and the kids from the entertainment pack).

Generations Wheeljack remains the best classic Wheeljack (and is still easy to find), but the Prime Wheeljack figure is great for the new series.

Wheeljack is the perfect 'bot to kick anyone's ass.

Megatron: "I'm getting my ass whooped! Decepticon's retreat!!!"

Soundwave: "..."

Megatron: "Would it kill you to speak?"

Soundwave: "...I" *gets head sliced*

Anyway, on a more serious note, Wheeljack is my favorite Autobot in RiD Wave 1. The G1 look + Samurai Swords =

And when Soundwave and Megatron are killing Cliffjumper in every battle I set up, who's got to save the day?

Dude, he would SOOOO be my favorite of the first series if Cliffjumper wasn't in there.

Mkall wrote:I've been trying to find an answer on this: is Wheeljack's white the same sort of off-white as seen in previous universe/RTS figs or is it more bone-white such as United Jazz?

Why did you want to know?

He's OK, his alt' mode is decent enough, but his head sculpt makes him look like an angry chimp. Generations Wheeljack is much, much better IMO.