Just a quick sketch I did with the Prismacolor markets. I really like drawing Angelique. Too bad she’s probably not going to re-enter the storyline for quite a while.

By Sam White

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This Wheeljack will only build devices to kick your ass!

With almost 15 years passing between his Action Master incarnation and his homage/counterpart  in the form of “Energon” Overdrive, a new Wheeljack toy used to be a rarity. That’s pretty surprising considering Wheeljack was the very first Transformer to appear on-screen in the G1 animated series. It seems that Wheeljack has made a resurgence in recent years, with Overdrive being repainted into “Shattered Glass” Wheeljack/ Slicer, the release of the amazingly cool Generations Wheeljack, and now his “Prime” Universe counterpart. He even made a few background appearances in “Animated”, although without a corresponding toy release.

Before I get to my feelings on the toy itself, I’d like to ad least mention the character himself as portrayed on the show. I have mixed feelings about switching Wheeljack from mad scientist to consummate bad-ass warrior. Wheeljack was one of the first non-mini-car Autobots I got as a kid and was one of my favorite characters, largely due to his cartoon portayal. So changing him into the ninja Wrecker he is in “Prime”, didn’t make me very happy. Not that the character isn’t cool, just to me, he’s not Wheeljack. This would have been a more suitable characterization for Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, or Tracks in my opinion. I do think it’s kinda neat that James Horan (who played one of my favorite “Highlander” villains Grayson) does his voice. No one can truly replace Chris Latta, but at least they got a pretty cool actor to fill the role. Now, on to the toy!

Wheeljack is packaged in vehicle mode, so we’ll start there. “Jacky’s” vehicle mode is sort of an amalgation of many elements reminiscent of late 70′s and early 80′s European high-end sports cars. This is pretty appropriate considering his original car mode was a Lancia Stratos Turbo, a very rare race car from Italy. There are elements of the Lancia in there as well as some models of Lotuses and Lamorghinis, unified by a sharp-edged “stealth” faceted design which gives it a futuristic/slightly alien look. All-in-all, it is an amazingly cool vehicle mode with Wheeljack’s classic red and green accents in a highly graphical, but suspiciously roughly-Decepticon-symbol-shaped racing design.

Wheeljack’s transformation to robot mode is VERY fun! There are a lot of motions and mechanisms in his transformation that I have never seen on any Transformer that I have ever owned before. The front fender/hood sections splitting and rotating/sliding up the calf to form his shins is pretty unique and interesting motion. There’s all kinds of crazy stuff going on as his windshield/doors split off from the main body, the windshields rotate back to form his elbows and his shoulder joints fold out and peg in under his chest. There is a fun level of complexity, but the transformation is very quick one. That’s win-win as far as I’m concerned!

Wheeljack’s robot mode is visually true to the character’s history and to his current animation model. He has the way-long arms like most of his “Prime” colleagues as well as his G1 toy. The shins forming out of the hood are a classic Wheeljack trait, but this time executed in a much more clever, creative way. He is much more angular and pointy and less bulky than previous incarnations. The much more angular head has elements with a somewhat similar shape to Wolverine’s mask/hairdo and sideburns. With paired swords in hand, Wheeljack gives a slight impression of an angry robotic Ninja Turtle (anyone remember Mecha-Turtle from the original Konami TMNT video game?). Being able to stow his swords in his “backpack” is a nice touch, but it makes me wish there were somewhere concealed to put them in vehicle mode.

"GO SPEED RACER!! GOOOOO!!"

Like Optimus, Wheeljack is molded in two different shades of gray plastic (a nice dark Gull Gray and a lighter Ghost Gray) in addition to his overall white and black and touches of transparent blue. In a time when paint applications on toys are pretty sparse, he has touches of green and red racing pattern paint apps, a painted black faux windshield on his chest, some touches of silver detailing on his face and hubcaps, and painted yellow and red tail lights as well. Conspicuously absent from this Wheeljack is any kind of Autobot insignia. That, in conjunction with the Decepticon symbol-like racing pattern, makes we wonder if the Wreckers are actually a separate entity from the Autobots or if Hasbro has some sinister plans for him in the future.

Wheeljack is a great toy whether you like his “Prime” characterization or not. If you don’t, just throw away the swords and pretend he’s an upgrade for Classics Wheeljack or maybe even a Cybertronian mode. Definitely worth picking up if you can find him at retail price, but I wouldn’t pay a big premium for him (up to about $20 would be my top price for a non-exclusive figure this size, no matter how cool he is).

By Sam White

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Optimus stands regally... majestically among two of my favorite snacks: Fun Dip and Denatured Alcohol.

I’ve been putting off buying any of the “Transformers Prime” toys for quite some time. I’m not quite sure why. Maybe ’cause I was on a clearance Lego binge when the “First Edition” figures hit my closest Toys R Us or because lately I’ve been pouring most of my money into promoting the comic and (ugh) practical stuff like food and gas. But hey, Transformers is my first love in the toy multiverse and this show is pretty darn good (I’d say the best Transformers series since “Beast Wars”). It’s also nice to have some relief from nearly 6 years of Movie Trilogy fatigue,  so I decided to splurge and pick up my two favorite main cast members: Optimus and Ratchet. Ratchet is pretty straightforward, but Optimus really stands out so I thought I’d share my thoughts on him.

Is it possible to be blocky and lanky at the same time? This Optimus sure seems to pull it off.  Optimus is packaged in robot mode like the Voyager class figure have been for the last few years, which makes for a nice display for his quite foreboding form. Op, like the other characters of “Transformers Prime”, is an interesting hybrid of the movie and classic Transformer aesthetics. He has a ton of details and has the beyond-human exaggerated proportions of the “Bayformers” movie designs, but with greatly softened edges and smoother, blockier surfaces like tradition vehicular Transformers. He has great poseability and an awesomely detailed face. Oddly though, as much as I griped about Optimus having a mouth in the first movie, I almost wish this was either the “maskless” Optimus as most often seen on the show (his face is much less scary than movie Optimus) or that he had a sliding face mask where you could switch (a la “Animated” Optimus). It seems to be popular to gripe about the translucent forearms on this Optimus, but it doesn’t really bother me that much. In fact, it’s the sort of nice visual touch that miss from the “Beast Machines” and “Robots in Disguise” era toys. Sure it isn’t a “show accurate” detail, but it’s a nice touch that certainly doesn’t make of break the toy, especially from a fun standpoint. Yeah, I’d like to see more red on the robot mode overall, too, but it looks pretty slick and is great fun as it is.

Optimus’ truck mode is pretty neat. It’s nice and blocky. The fact that his feet turn into a trailer hitch gets me excited that maybe Hasbro has plans cooking for a trailer at some point. As is pretty common these days, paint apps are pretty sparse on Optimus, sadly, but at least there is a lot of color variety in the plastics used. The two different shades of gray used on Optimus in addition to his blue, red, clear blue, and black add a subtle complexity that most Transformers these days lack (Ratchet comes to mind).

Optimus’ transformation is quite fun and possesses an entertaining but not frustrating complexity. He takes about 3-5 minutes to transform and looks great in both modes, unlike the Movie Optimus that seems like it takes about 15-20 minutes.  There are a lot of elements reminiscent of Optimus’ G1 transformation in this toy, like the shoulders folding back and forearms pushing forward under the chest to form the front of the truck. That makes me happy. It makes me want to see a G1-style robot Optimus that transforms into the more common long-nosed modern truck (besides the Laser  Optimus transformation).

If this toy has a weakness, it’s the accessories. If the gun held in its deployed mode, it might be okay, but as it is… meh. Optimus’ sword is a pretty nifty gladius-style blade with a lot of detail, but seems kinda dinky for a big, epic bot like this Optimus.

"Driving a truck! Driving a big ol' truck!"

Considering how good the figure itself is, I can overlook the shortcomings of the accessories. I have owned practically every Optimus ever released in North America (and then some), and I can fairly confidently say this is one of my favorites (top 10 or better, for sure).

By Sam White

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I think this is the first thing I’ve colored by hand since middle school. I’m pretty happy with it except for the grass (damn Crayola markers crapping out). To see this and other non-comic illustration pieces I’ve done check out my DeviantArt Gallery.

"What's a bunghole?" "You're a bunghole, bunghole."

There have been some mighty fine exclusives over the years, but only two have been desirable enough to motivate me to shell out the money to join the Official Transformers Collector’s Club: Runamuck and Over-run (Runabout). The two idiot Decepticon hoodlums first burst on the scene in 1986 with a pair of horrible toys and were the feature characters in a fairly early issue of Marvel Comic’s “Transformers” series, where they travel across the country generally making nuisances of themselves, earning themselves a very special place in the fandom. The moronic and destructive nature of these two mostly-too-stupid-to-be-dangerous ne’er-do-wells has garnered them the fan designation of the “Beavis and Butt-head” of the Decepticons and the fan-appointed moniker the “Runabros”. When these fellas went on sale (along with Shattered Glass Drift), demand was so high the credit card processor for the OTFCC could not keep up, forcing the site to shut down. It was close to a week bfore they switched card processors and sales were able to resume. I received Runabout (Over-run) early last month and have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Runamuck to complete the pair. He arrived late yesterday, so I wanted to share some pictures/opinions of the duo.

"If you're gonna walk the walk, you gotta... uuhhhhhh... talk, too."

Over-run and Runamuck both utilize the oh-so-awesome “Generations” Wheeljack mold from last year but with a brand-new head mold. This really almost makes them too bad-assed. The colors are a pretty close match to their G1 toys (Or at least Runamuck is; I don’t own the original Runabout.) Runabout/Over-run’s black has been replaced with a very dark metallic charcoal gray, which really adds some richness to the figure as well as making it a lot easier to photograph. Poseability is just as good as on Wheeljack. They do feel a bit looser than Wheeljack or Tracks (a bit of mold wear creeping in perhaps?). Their robot modes do a respectable job of evoking the comic character models for both ‘Cons, but I do think I would have preferred that they use Tracks’ front bumpers on one of them as the originals did have different vehicle modes. If you want the robot modes to look even more like their character models, it is possible to fold the wings down and slide them in and flip the back of the car up behind the head to recreate that Battlechargers/Throttlebots configuration. I don’t think I would recommend making a habit of this on Runamuck though, as the back section of the car makes contact with the doors on his back, particularly the gold paint stripes and could cause wear on them.

"Damn, I'm smooth."

If you like G1 and especially Runabout and Runamuck, these figures are definitely worth picking up. Of course, its too late to get them straight from the Collector’s Club, so you’ll likely pay a significant mark-up on two already fairly high-priced figures. I ended up paying about $40 for the membership to get Runamuck “free” and about another $64 with shipping for Runabout. So, they will likely cost you at least that much unless someone has some extras they are desperate to get rid of, which is very doubtful. I don’t know if I would have paid any more for them than I did, but now that I have them I wouldn’t take, like, a bajillion dollars for them.

"We're gonna SCORE!!"

By Sam White

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