Looking Wheelie good!

 

Survivalist Wheelie.  Oh Wheelie, your toy bio was all wild-child found in the jungle stuff going on, but the cartoon turned you into an annoying little schmuck.

After sitting through the torture of Headmasters, I came to the conclusion that Japan hates you too.  Plus the original toy was pretty crap.  Eventually you got an update in a legion size toy and you were pretty good.

Now you’ve gotten another update and the comic points you out as being extremely annoying!  That’s of little consequence, as I like toys more than comics and Wheelie could be very cool.


Wheelie comes with go Shuta and his little box is very small.  Nice and compact I like it with a nice view of both figures.
　

 
On the back it says.

The Vehicle mode's gimmick of being driven by the headmaster Warrior adds to the fun.Wheelie's animated style that debuted in the cartoon has finally been perfectly recreated in a transforming action figure. Go Shuta is a robot that can transform into a head which can then Head-On combine to a Transtector

In the box it also has the comic and instructions. Annoyingly, mine has a little bit of damage on the fold section.  Right in Galvatron’s face. First up though, the other side with the art and Wheelie’s bio.


 


Here’s his bio:

Wheelie found a new friend within Go Shuta.  He believes that having friends is was makes for a cheerful life.
Wheelie Once  had no friends surviving on his own, he was forced to grow his faith in his skills, he also learnt that time with friends and most important.
He makes the best of his small body to fight for and help his friends.

• STR 5
• INT 6 S
• PD 8
• END 9
• RNK 5
• CRG 8
• FPR 7
• SKL 8

Comic wise, I have done 2. Yay.

One is a slightly inaccurate (only slightly though, and only specific to specific character bubbles.  General story is correct) translation featuring the …


ULTIMATE ANNOYING WHEELIE in RHYME. OH YEAH



And here is a more literal translation with only slightly less annoying Wheelie.




Well, he always has a certain amount of annoying, but at least this one doesn’t rhyme. 
and the original. (In Japanese)



Comic Notes.

• I don’t remember Wheelie being a perv…  But he is a kid character, but still…
• Why is Arcee worried about her dress being flipped up? She generally gets around naked. As all TFs do.
• Chromia is looking embarrassed in her costume.  
• It’s official in this one, Tigertron is a dirty old man.
• Some of the bubbles, feature an announcer.  The small panel #7 on the first page with Shuta and Wheelie’s faces on it could be the announcer talking, or wheelie and Shuta.  
• There’s some Soccer sports terms in here, which I am not sure of in English.  When Shuta intercepted Galv’s kick, wheelie says “Nice Cut,”  I wouldn’t recommend direct translation, since Japanese use the term “Fight” as an encouragement in sports.  Even during practice.
• I like the use of Shuta’s head guns. Very cool.
• I wonder if Megatron has plans for punishment for disobedience.

Since he’s packed in robot mode, let’s have a look at that hey?

I will come out and say this now, I was pretty underwhelmed with Wheelie when I pulled him out of the box.  My first attempt at making him stand failed.  I’ll get onto why a bit later.

Right outta the box, he looks really good.  He has all the lovely Wheelie details one would expect such as the visor hat thing as well as some that one wouldn’t expect, but can appreciate them being there, such as these little square things on the side of his face.

 

I really like that you can peer through the vehicle window to see the Autobot symbol neatly framed upon his chest.

I also originally thought he looked too orange, but I will admit that it looks very nice and in person, varied enough so as not to be unsightly.


Joint wise he’s not too bad.

• Swivel neck and waist
• Ball shoulders, elbows, hips and knees
• Hinged knee covers.

Pretty good for such a small figure.

The wonderful jointage is let down somewhat by rather weakly designed heels.  His heels are made up of the side panels of the front of the car and this means the panels are slightly rounded, so his heels are also slightly rounded.  It makes it tricky for him to stand, but once you get used to it, you will find him pulling off some surprising poses.
 

He has 5mm ports for hands, so can wield weapons much bigger than he.  I just wish he came with some form of energon sling.  Even without and Energon sling, you can have lots of fun with him and he’s a good size with the other recent Movie Transformers too!
 

 

 
Having a look at Shuta
 

 

Wheelie’s new Masterforce Headmaster pal is Go Shuta.  He has no Transtector to call his own, rather sadly, but he is still very nice as a little dude.  TT have done an amazing job on his paintwork!  The sculpting drops the visor he had before, probably due to using the same sculpt for someone else, or due to the need to keep all the heads square-ish, but he does come with a nicely painted blue head and optics.  What’s particularly impressive though is the little yellow paint application that is there to simulate the visor, as well and the shoulder stipes.  Such tiny details manage to break up the blues quite nicely.

Head mode is very good too. GoShuta’s face sculpt just looks great!  Paint work is nice  and I really like that his arms have theses little spikes which end up homage to the small guns that would plug onto the head for his G1 self.  In fact, the white bit of the helmet when contrasted with the blue side sections of his face manage to complete the whole “Needing accessories to make the head” thing of the Headmaster Juniors.  Sexy!
 
He also manages to fit pretty well with other random Transtectors.

Skipping to car mode.

  Wheelie’s transformation Is rather clever, the way the chest expands and where it’s compact in robot mode, expands nicely and make a cockpit for a Headmaster figure

 

Vehicle mode looks great!  It’s just perfectly Wheelie and a very nice update on his classic car mode with a nice low bubble car look to him, just ignore the fact the driver can’t see out the front window of the car…

 
He’s even a great size for other minibot figures.  As well as other figures that aren’t minibots…

 

Sculpting is kind of sparse, but there are some nice additions, such as the rear lights and vents and panel lines.  The back of Wheelie’s head is painted silver, and at first I wasn’t too fond of this, but in a way, you could assume it’s a future engine that is exposed from the back, kind of like a Volkswagon Beetle.

 


The window is transparent and looking through it from the top and the bottom reveals a lot of gaps, but that is part of the transformation, and putting a HM figure in there manages to cover up the holes fairly well. The vehicle also has a little bit of sculpting underneath on the limited chassis.

The colours are definitely wheelie.  The way that everything flows is really well done, the silver grill jumps nicely and attached the silver under the front, the orange goes well with the orange on the side and even though it can come across as a bit ugly, it actually manages to work fairly well.

Shuta fits snugly in there, as  do any other HM toys do, and to do so you have to open the window and back hatch.  There you’ll notice Wheelie’s face, sniffing some arse. Weird. I really like the colourless window, you can easily see the driver, it’s very nice.

Looking at it from the side, you can see that Wheelie has clear wheels as well, they have a bit of paint in the rim, but the section where the tyres would be is clear.  I like this, as it adds to the future car concept nicely.



His hand 5mm ports go all the way through and can hold weapons, but they are very low to the ground.



Overall it’s a pretty cool car, but my one complaint is that it doesn’t hold together too well.  The arms have a couple of tabs to join to the legs and waits, but they are flimsy and prone to wobble.  The rear wheels, being ball joints kind of loosely hang around and finding the proper angle for them to provide decent contact to the ground can be annoyingly hard.  However, once you get the hang of it, it’s solid enough.  Just don’t apply too much pressure.
 

 
It is a ridiculously fun vehicle mode and for some reason I’ve found myself Vrooming him all over the place like a kid again.  Must be the addition of the Headmaster figure being able to sit inside, plus he is a good hand size.
 

Highly Recommended,

even if you aren’t a fan of Wheelie!

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