TRANSFORMERS: Revisiting the Characters of Generation 1 - WHEELJACK

 TRANSFORMERS:  Revisiting the Characters of Generation 1

    "Never do what your enemy expects you to do!" - Wheeljack, 1984.

AUTOBOT

Name - WHEELJACK

Function - Mechanical Engineer

Series Debut - 1984 / Wave 1

Sub-Group - None (1984), Action Master (1990)

BACKGROUND...

    Wheeljack is the Autobot's Mechanical Engineer, or as his teammates would say - their "mad scientist".  He is always hard at work, crafting new weapons to use in their battles against the Decepticons or some kind of "helpful" gadget.  It is not uncommon for Wheeljack to be ailing from minor injuries after field testing his latest invention.    

    Long ago on Cybertron, as the war depleted the planet's energy, Wheeljack was one of the Autobots that volunteered to help Optimus Prime search the universe for new sources of power.  Ambushed by the Decepticons, the Autobot ship and all it's passengers crash landed on Earth.  Re-awakened in 1984, the Autobot / Decepticon war began anew and the task of repairing injured Autobots fell to Wheeljack and Medical Officer - Ratchet.  He took any opportunity to learn about this new planet and would help the others to adapt to the new environments as well.  He spearheaded the plan to build the Dinobots and was a contributing factor to constructing the Aerialbots as well.

    Unfortunately, somehow Wheeljack was killed (off-screen) during the Battle of Autobot City in 2005.  Strangely though, years later he was revived using a mysterious substance called Nucleon.  The Nucleon gave him super-charged powers, yet disabled his ability to transform.  Those that underwent this process were referred to as "Action Masters".  With the loss of his transforming ability, Wheeljack built the Turbo-Racer.  This was a versatile vehicle that could convert from a car to a jet fighter.

MY THOUGHTS...

    My neighbor, Matt, was the first person I knew to get Wheeljack.  He got him for Christmas 1984 and I got Soundwave.  Our first move, of course, was to take them both out in the snow.  A move that now makes the "collector" in me cringe.

    Thanks to Wheeljack's presence in the cartoon, this character enjoyed some great popularity.  Adding him to your team of Autobot's insured that your group could always be repaired when needed and there would always be a nice supply of crazy, newly-built weapons to use against the Decepticons.  He had a great, sleek-looking race car mode and a cool robot mode as well.  You know we all pretended those little "ears" on the side of his head would light up when he talked.  Wheeljack was an awesome character!!

    The stand-in for Wheeljack in this write-up, is Wheeljack from the Earthrise series in 2020.  This figure is an incredible, G1-accurate version of the figure!

Picture from the back of an Action Masters figure...  Close up of Wheeljack!

    (Information on the character's lore was taken from the Sunbow Transformers cartoon series, including the Movie and the figure's original Tech-Spec.)

Autobot cars, including Wheeljack, in the original G1 Transformers catalog (from my collection).