Rest in peace, Buzzworthy Bumblebee. You may have become a completely random grab bag of a toyline, where Hasbro just kind of threw whatever figures didn’t have a home into, but some of those figures were really good! Two of them were Origin Bumblebee (reviewed here), and Origin Jazz (reviewed here), toys based on the very first episode of the original Transformers animated series, where Bee and Jazz changed into Cybertronian vehicle modes, despite their robot modes just having the same Earth-mode designs they’d have for the rest of the show. It was a novel trick to pull in toy form, and both of them not only did it well, but turned out to just be really good figures in their own right. Jazz was even my favorite release of 2023!
Both very solid figures!
So, naturally, when they came out with a third member of this little sub-line, Origin Wheeljack, the sheer quality of the last two meant I had to get in on it. A shame that, despite just being a normal Legacy United release now that Buzzworthy’s dead, it’s still a Target/Toys R Us exclusive, and therefore hard to come by (Mr. Magnus has my eternal gratitude for hooking me up.)
The challenge is to turn this….
…Into this.
So, in addition to being another case of the designers trying to pull off an impossible trick of having him transform into a totally different vehicle mode from his intended design, this new figure of everyone’s favorite robot scientist from Brooklyn is doing that thing where he’s the size of a Deluxe, but being sold as a Voyager. The last time they did this specific kind of size class fudging (Studio Series 86 Ironhide, reviewed here), the figure felt like a straight-up ripoff, so, hopefully things go better this time, especially because we know the increased price tag is in service of a specific engineering trick in his vehicle mode.
Robot Mode
Blocker than I remembered.
So, we all know what Wheeljack’s Sunbow character model looks like (and if you don’t, scroll up a couple photos). The task of each Origin figure is to find out a way to replicate that model, while hiding parts from their sci-fi altmode. Origin Bumblebee only sort of succeeded, basically looking like his Sunbow model with a bunch of extra parts hanging off of him (I still like the figure, though!) whereas Jazz managed to execute it near-flawlessly. Wheeljack is somewhere in the middle.
Not literally. Well, kinda.
He’s the design we recognize, with the car-hood-chest, little wings, and all that stuff. He’s just rather bulky. Thick, if you will. His arms, legs, and torso are all bigger and brickier than the svelte show model, a consequence of all the altmode parts they’re holding in. And he’s not panel-free, either.
“These calves are all muscle, from lugging this frame around.”
His lower legs have some altmode parts sticking out of the sides of them, while, his forearms have these odd-looking panels that dangle off the inside edges of them.
He’s about to flick it with his fingers.
Finally, he’s got a big, flat backpack hanging off of his torso, with the odd effect of it not being attached to most of his body.
“See? I’m svelte on the inside.”
All that being said, I don’t think he looks bad. He comes across cleaner than Bumblebee did, and I don’t really mind the bulkier proportions, or the fact that his wings are way smaller than his show model. It all comes together in a way that looks basically correct, even if it’s not strictly accurate. Okay, the big backpack is really conspicuous, but that’s the worst offender.
A gentle inventor.
It helps that he has a really nice headsculpt, taking his usual odd mouthplate-and-antenna setup, and managing to give him an expression that feels kind of warm, maybe a little concerned. We’re three for three on the Origin figures having headsculpts with good personality.
“Future me really needs a shower.”
He’s also definitely Deluxe-sized in height, and in fact, is head-to-head as tall as his War for Cybertron Trilogy Deluxe (reviewed here). That said, all his extra bulk and mass definitely goes a long way to making it clear he’s got way more plastic in him than a Deluxe. That, and he’s physically heavier in your hands than an average Deluxe, too. There’s some heft here.
The Science Guys!
For colors, they didn’t tamper with a classic, Wheeljack’s still out here looking like an Italian flag. He’s mostly white plastic, a good shade that doesn’t wash out detail, with a dark gray as his secondary color. Most of the rest of his colors are contained in his chest and head, with the chest having red and green accents, plus a translucent green windscreen, and his head having black, silver and blue. He is, actually, missing a fair amount of color, namely anything but white on his lower legs (the show gave him green accents), and wings that are solid white instead of silver. But, to their credit, he doesn’t *feel* underpainted, and I didn’t even notice he was missing those accents until I looked up his character model.
He only thinks he’s awkward.
For build quality, he’s a lot more stable than you’d expect a design as panel-heavy as this to be. He didn’t seem that way at first, though, because when I first unboxed him, his backpack just kind of flopped around freely. But, here’s a tip I discovered: There’s grooves in the back of his tiny little back-wings, and the backpack can plug into them.
As seen here.
It seems too small of a connection to be secure, but it is, and it keeps the whole assembly together really well. As for the rest of him, yeah, it’s all stable, it’s all solid, and he stands really well. And when you pick him up, he’s way heftier than your standard Deluxe, which does make the increased price point feel worth it.
On his way to make his first invention explode.
For articulation, Wheeljack has the standard post-Siege suite, and his Voyager budget means there’s room for proper wrist swivels, though he doesn’t have opening mitten hands, like Studio Series 86 Hot Rod (another good Deluxe-as-Voyager) did. He can pose really well, and probably the most impressive thing about it is that his bulkiness doesn’t interfere with it at all. One thing that helps is the way his backpack is mostly unattached from his torso, and actually hangs a good inch or so away from his body, meaning his waist, knees and arms all have room to move around, without colliding with it. There is an odd thing with his knees, where they’re mostly a standard swivel, but have a singular ratchet-like pop right before they straighten out. Not sure what’s going on there, but it’s not really an issue, just an oddity.
He’ll invent something better than this pea shooter, eventually.
For accessories and features, this is one area where they threw a lot of extra stuff in, to help justify the price. But let’s start small: He’s got a little pistol that he can hold in his hands, or mount next to his right shoulder. It’s sculpted like his character model’s shoulder rocket, but a lot smaller, and it can hold a blast effect on the end. Curiously, it’s semi-transparent, molded in the clear green of his windows, and painted a thin layer of silver.
For once, there’s no kickback.
Next, there’s two round, silver, jagged-edged objects, that in this mode, are meant to be “Dominator Discs,” a morally-questionable invention of Wheeljack’s from the Season 2 Transformers episode, “The Core,” which he could use to control the minds of whoever they were stuck onto.
“Maybe I should consider the ethics of this invention?…..Nahhh.”
To that end, each disc has a smaller peghole at the end, which can be used to put one on the end of his gun, or stick them onto any figure that has a tiny little blast effect peg.
Wheeljack wages his battle to destroy the forces of Evil Mad Science.
Me, I kind of wish they were 5-Millimeter compatible instead, since those ports are more common on modern figures.
“I now recognize the error of my ways. Thank you, Wheeljack, for forcibly reprogramming me. I see no ethical issue with this.”
Wheeljack himself can also stash them on his backpack, or fit them onto little pegs underneath each forearm, for a kind of storage/hidden sawblade configuration.
His stash of War Crimes.
Least intimidating melee weapons ever.
Next, there’s something that’s really meant for his vehicle mode: A big, U-shaped slab of transparent purple plastic, in three parts. There’s not much he can do with it in this form, but you can also clip it onto his backpack via bespoke pegs, to give him what looks like a set of purple wings.
Like so.
This has given him a terrible idea.
It’s not much of anything, but it’s fun that they found a use for it here.
Remember those historical videos of people trying to invent flying machines?
Bumblebee: “You know, I have a jet pack. You can just borrow it.”
Speaking of things they found a use for: Origin Bumblebee came with a set of five transparent orange Energon Tubes, and a criticism I had of that figure was that he couldn’t interact with them in any way, at all. They didn’t fit into his hands, he couldn’t store them on his person, they literally just free-floated.
“You need help with those, buddy?”
Well, Origin Wheeljack has patched that problem, because on either side of his backpack are sets of clips, three to a side, designed for you to plug in those rods, so he can carry them. This is a really impressive little extra thing for them to do!
“I got it, pal!”
As for the rest of his features, he’s got a decent spread of 5-Millimeter ports on him, specifically, a total of 8, between his feet, lower legs, forearms, backpack, and shoulder launcher. He’s already bulky, so slathering him in weapons and technology doesn’t feel like too much of a stretch.
It’s only a little more bulk.
Transformation
This is one of the reasons why he’s sold as a Voyager, and unlike Studio 86 Ironhide, you can really see why, because there’s a lot going on here.
One explosion that’s actually supposed to happen.
Basically, like half of his vehicle mode’s exterior is contained inside his lower legs, and you’re doing a giant unfurling of it, and connecting it with his backpack and arms to basically build a giant canopy over the face-planted robot’s back, like you’re pitching a tent at a campsite.
He’s got an entire altmode behind him now.
This could easily have been a nightmarish shell-forming mess, but surprisingly, it isn’t. Granted, there’s a lot of steps you need to do, but I can muscle-memory it simply by folding and rotating every panel I can in the first half, and then following the tabs and holes to guide them into place the second half, and that trick works no matter what mode you’re putting him into. I will say, there is a bit of a struggle at the end of his transformation to vehicle mode, where you’re trying to lock in every single tab on his shell, and some are prone to pop out, but it’s on the very mild end of the issue, and I’d even say it’s easier to do than on Origin Bumblebee. It’s already an impressive trick of a transformation, but making it intuitive to pull off is an even more amazing trick.
Vehicle Mode
The science camper!
Wheeljack changes into a big Cybertronian hover van, and let me just say, between this guy, and his appearance in Rise of the Beasts, that Wheeljack should change into a van more often. He’s a scrappy inventor, so it makes sense as something he’d change into, in my eyes.
The vehicle mode of Origin Jackie, combined with the dinged-up colors of Trilogy Jackie would be the best expression of the character, I think.
As for this guy, he’s definitely bigger than a Deluxe. He’s not the size of most Voyager-class vehicles, but he’s got some mass on his War for Cybertron Trilogy Earth Mode-iteration, for sure.
As well as his two line-mates.
Sculpt-wise, he’s nicely accurate to his Episode 1 cartoon appearance, too, complete with his big spoiler uptop, just with more greebling and tech details added to his surfaces, to make the fact that he’s spiderwebbed with panel-lines less obvious
Less obvious, but still present.
Despite his size, though, one thing about him is that he’s extremely hollow. You can see right through his windows, and his robot-mode body on the other side doesn’t totally cover up his interior, so this whole thing’s really a big, empty shell, instead of something beefy. This isn’t really a bad thing, especially considering what his big gimmick is, it’s just something to note, since his feeling of beefiness disappears the moment you pick him up.
Not a lot going on inside of him.
For colors, he’s got a lot more green on him now, between his transparent windows, and the striping across the top of the car, in both dark and bright green. His gray is also evenly distributed along a stripe on the bottom of the altmode’s sides, and his front bumper. Most interesting to look at is a big tampo beneath the windshield that replicates some detailing from the cartoon, a silver rectangle with bits of blue and red on it, looking like the kind of thing that would have been a foil sticker in another lifetime.
For build quality, despite feeling like a big eggshell most of the time, it’s a shell that doesn’t crack, unless you’re aiming to open it up, and the whole thing stays together nicely. The biggest issue I can find is a gap between his windshield piece, and some of the panels on the front-sides of him. They’re not as flush as I’d like, and I find myself reflexively squeezing them in, but it’s purely cosmetic, instead of a structural fault.
It’s at the very front there, just behind the bumper. A gap that won’t sit flush.
Oh, and while this guy doesn’t roll, since he’s a hover car, they pulled a similar trick to Origin Jazz, where he rests on three little pegs underneath him, to give the impression he’s hovering.
Okay, so, let’s talk about features, because he’s got a lot of them in this form. Firstly, he’s still got a 5-Millimeter port on his roof for his gun, if you want.
It still isn’t terribly threatening.
There’s also a pair of ports on his bumper, but they’re in kind of an odd place, and aren’t really useful for mounting things. Below them, however, are the blast effect pegs from his forearms, and you’re meant to mount the Dominator Discs there, where they serve an alternate show-accuracy function: They’re also the blades Wheeljack deploys in the first episode, when he goes “mind if I cut in?”
Well? Do you?
It’s a really clever double-usage.
“Ow! That stings a little!”
On the sides of his spoiler, meanwhile, are those same clips from robot mode, that let him carry Bumblebee’s Energon Tubes.
Seems like a dangerous place to put them, but it wouldn’t be the first time he’s done this.
Next, that translucent purple accessory from his robot mode finally reveals its purpose: A blast shield that fits over the front and side of the vehicle, again, via a set of bespoke pegs and holes, imitating him deploying the same shield in the first episode.
Maximum Protection Mode.
Nothing much to say about it, save that it works, and looks good. It’s got another feature, though, where you can break the joints it has, split it into three pieces, and re-assemble it into a tiny stretch of road. It’s an interesting little extra feature, but a) it’s hard to detach the pieces without putting stress marks on the plastic (I recommend folding each joint in half first)…
Basically, do this first.
and b) it’s very, very small and short compared to Wheeljack.
Barely qualifies as a road.
Also, it’s a bit odd that they didn’t do the obvious thing, and make it compatible with the Earthrise Road Connection system, especially since the road seems to be the right size to play with that system. It’s not a huge thing, just an obvious missed connection (literally).
“Prime told me there’d be days like this!”
But, onto the big gimmick. Firstly, you can flip open the back of Wheeljack’s altmode to access the interior, and raise the roof to get better access.
Unfortunately, Wheeljack’s car dashboard from the first episode isn’t sculpted in here.
It’s really too small for much to fit in there (you can cram the Energon Tubes in there, if you want), but I’ve found Battle Masters and Titan Masters can hang out back there.
Rung’s unhappy because it’s a bumpy ride.
Troop transport.
But the big gimmick is that Origin Bumblebee can ride inside him, like he did in the show’s first episode.
No, not like this.
Fudging it via WST.
Of course, he can’t ride inside him in robot mode, there’s not enough space, but you can cram him in in vehicle mode.
START.
It’s a bit complicated, in that it involves transforming Origin Bumblebee a little, raising his side-panels up and folding them over.
CHANGE.
CHANGE.
But, after that, you can fit him into Wheeljack’s interior, and close it all up around him.
FINISH.
It’s a tight fit, and for a moment, you might think it doesn’t work, but nope, it does, he seals up with Bumblebee riding inside him (amusingly, visible through Wheeljack’s windows).
Peering out at the road ahead of him.
Considering that Origin Bumblebee’s a two-year-old toy, and definitely wasn’t designed with this interaction in mind, the fact that they tried this gimmick at all is commendable, and the fact that it actually works is exceptional.
Snug as a bug in a rug.
This is the real reason why he’s a Voyager, entirely to facilitate this, and I feel like it was worth it.
Overall
Cybertron nights.
It’s one thing to design a figure that looks like he changes into one thing, and actually changes into another thing. But the HasTak designers pulled that off twice already, so I guess they wanted an extra challenge. Designing this guy to work with a two-year-old Deluxe really was expert mode, and lo and behold, he works. But beyond that, he’s also just a really good figure, and very full-featured. Between the amount of stuff he comes with, and how impressive his transformation and altmode are, he definitely feels worth the Voyager-class money, something I’m glad to see.
“Uh, Jazz? Maybe don’t lean there.”
Now, Jackie isn’t perfect. In fact, there’s a million little things they could have done better. His backpack could have compressed more, his proportions in robot mode could have been more animation-accurate, his altmode could have been less hollow and light, but this is one of those situations where the sheer ambition of the project overshadows any little complaints I might have had. For example, I’d call Origin Jazz the better figure, because of how he’s uncompromised in either mode, and generally more solidly engineered, but he also isn’t doing as many things as Wheeljack, or trying to pull off the engineering marvel he is.
A fine fellow.
So, if you see this guy, he’s worth getting, especially since he’s, unfortunately, kind of a rare exclusive, and therefore hard to come by. And even if you don’t have an Origin Bumblebee to ride with him, he’s still worth getting on his own merits. But, you know, if you don’t have Bee, he’s getting a re-release in the final wave of Legacy United, as a standard non-exclusive, so now’s a good time to get into the Origin ecosystem. Honestly, I hope they do more of this little line than just these three, just because it’s been three very solid figures. Maybe give me Tetrajets that have the proper flared shape they had in animation, rather than the slightly-off shape of the Siege design. As long as it’s as good as these three figures, I’m game.
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