Prime - Wheeljack

"As a former member of The Wreckers, Wheeljack is more than capable of taking care of himself. But he's glad to know that at least one of his old friends - Bulkhead - is still around, bringing the pain to the Decepticons."

Name: Wheeljack

Toy Line: Prime - Robots in Disguise

Generation: Aligned Continuity

Faction: Autobot

Size Class: Deluxe Revealer

Strength: 8

Speed: 6

Rank: 6

Firepower: 8

Intelligence: 6

Endurance: 7

Courage: 9

Skill: 9

Robot Mode

Wheeljack's robot mode is perfection, he's in a standard bi-pedal humanoid looking male robot mode, but he's just been made so wonderfully.His body is mostly white, but also features a lot of grey portions as well as some green and red markings, straight from the vehicle mode. His chest features a fake black windscreen (despite his actual windscreen being blue). Behind his head are a pair of grey "wings", much like he has in his G1 incarnation. His head is mostly grey but also features a silver face, mouthplate and "ears" (again all references to his G1 version too). Wheeljack's eyes are fitted with a blue light piping effect which allows them to glow a dark blue when enough light is allowed to go through the back of the head.

Wheeljack's shoulderss are connected to his upper torso by a pair of connectors that lead to a ball joint/pivot combination, allowing them to move in almost any direction needed. His upper arms are connected to the shoulder pieces by hinges that allow them to move up and down, and is also how it is connected to the lower arms too, again allowing them to move up and down as needed. Wheelajck's hands are on a pivot joint on each arm that allows them to flex in and out, he's sculpted with fingers on each hand, but has a gap large enough to hold his included swords in as well (without it looking like a peg-hole as well)

Wheeljack's legs are connected to his groin area by a pair of ball joints that allow them to move as much as needed, barring any obstructions. The knee joint that connects the upper and lower legs to one another are created by pivot joints and also feature a knee protrusion for decoration.

The lower legs are quite amazing honestly, they are created from the majority of the front of the vehicle mode, but folded out in a short sequence of flips and clicks. You fold out the inner most parts of the hood about 180 degrees each then you slide the outer parts upwards (along the small metal bar inside it), then the now upwards outer parts are folded outwards again by 90 degrees (so the wheels are on the outside, and then you just fold in the feet.

The feet are on a ball joint that allows him to be posed in pretty much any way desired, depending on the surface he's set up on of course.

Wheeljack features a pair of peg holes on his shoulders that can be used to hold his blades when he's not fighting, and due to the positions of his arms, you can even make him seem to draw them on his own (for comic uses if you'd like to)

Vehicle Mode

Wheeljack's vehicle mode is a mostly white race car with red and green markings upon it, he also feature son grey markings near the rear of the vehicle. The basic shape of the vehicle mode is rather different to a conventional real life race car in that it's quite angled. Wheeljack features several pieces of sculpting in this mode, such as his head-lights, rear lights, side view mirrors, spoiler and other minor details to add realism to the vehicle.

Wheeljack's rear lights are painted red and yellow, but don't work in any way (unsurprisingly) and the head-lights are unpainted, leaving them just white.

Wheeljack's windows are a translucent dark blue that allows you to see inside (though there's not much to see inside honestly). His four wheels are fully mobile and allow him to roll freely along a smooth surface as he also lacks any major undercarriage issues.

In this mode Wheeljack can insert his blades into the recesses at the front of his vehicle mode (just under the hood) by inserting them into the small rectangular nubs on either side.

Accessories

Wheeljack comes with 2 identical swords with curved handles, a connector knob on the hilt and a curved blade, which gives the appearance of a cutlass. The handles are a dark grey whilst the blades are a shiny silver colour. On the blades are several Cybertronian looking markings (which I have yet to decipher sadly). This is similar to the feature seen on Drift's toy which also features markingson his long sword.

As well as being stored as shown in the vehicle mode section as a weapon mode, the swords can also be stored on the small holes on the rear of the vehicle mode to give him some small wings or side weapons (this method also seems more legal in terms of road regulations honestly).

After finishing this review it was pointed out to me that Wheeljack can also hold his swords in a pair of sheath-like holes on his back as well (Found thanks to Mark Moore)

My Thoughts 

I know I say this probably a little too much, but I LOVE this toy! He's basically perfect in nearly every way if I;m totally honest, he works as a great new characters, and as an update for the G1 Wheeljack character at the same time. I also love how his entire form subtly exudes a Drift vibe as well (it's mostly the swords I think) but regardless of why, it remains a fact that on multiple occasions whilst writing this review I've accidentally written "Drift" or "DriftJack" instead ofhis actual name.

This toy's transformation sequence is utterly beautiful as well, from the way you have to fully convert his legs (rather than them being hidden in his vehicle mode fully intact or being just a large chunk of vehicle mode that you pull out a foot to make the legs) or how his head is revealed from behind his chest.

I whole-heartedly implore anyone who loves either Drift or Wheeljack (G1 or Prime!) to buy this figure as he is just proof that sometimes, just sometimes Hasbro does love it's fans.