Originally written August 2020.
You know you’re into Transformers really deep when you fixate onto an obscure D-lister, like I’ve done here. I don’t even own Earthrise Wheeljack, but when they announced he was getting retooled into Exhaust for Generations Selects, I just had to snag a copy, entirely thanks to fandom jokes.
So, who is Exhaust? As anyone that watched the Transformers episode of The Toys That Made Us can tell you, a lot of the early Transformers figures were actually slightly altered re-releases of a few older Takara robot toylines, including one called Diaclone, which is where most of the toys that would become the Autobot Cars came from, like the original Wheeljack, pictured below:
Not every Diaclone figure was re-released in Transformers, though, and over the years, Takara would occasionally give the unused ones proper Transformers identities, and modern figures, because that’s the kind of obscure stuff certain fans eat up.
The Diaclone toy that would become the original Wheeljack had an alternate version released (pictured above), with a different head, transforming into a Lancia Stratos racecar mode based on a specific real-life car that was, amusingly, sponsored by Marlboro Cigarettes, misspelled “Marlboor” on the toy to dodge copyright. This “Marlboor Wheeljack” never got a Transformers release, and was a neat bit of trivia until 2015, when Takara decided to retool their recent Masterpiece Wheeljack figure into it, giving him a name and bio note, as the Decepticon Exhaust, his name a play on the original toy’s cigarette sponsorship.
But not everyone wants to drop Masterpiece-grade money on a nobody character homaging an obscure pre-Transformer, which is why HasTak made a cheaper version available, in the form of this Deluxe-sized Generations Selects version, retooled from Earthrise Wheeljack, So, Exhaust is a complete nothing of a character, having barely ever appeared in any stories. His Takara Masterpiece bio describes him as a secret agent working for the Marlboor corporation, stealing secrets. He has the power to vanish into a puff of smoke, exudes confidence, but is secretly an anxious mess, chain-smoking cy-garettes in his downtime, and that’s about it. Most of his character is filled in by fans, and there are a lot of memes about him in the circles I frequent, which is the real reason why I sprung for him. Memes or not, let’s have a look at how this guy stacks up.
Robot Mode
Exhaust is pretty much the standard Deluxe height, a bit taller than shorties like Siege Prowl and Sideswipe.
The original toy this was retooled from has sculpting that’s a really accurate rendition of Wheeljack’s cartoon model, so this is a really faithful replica of Exhaust’s Masterpiece figure sculpt as a result. He’s got a bit of a backpack, but makes for a pretty clean robot, and the wings on his back help.
I like the wheels on his lower arms in particular, because it’s good kibble management. I also like how big and stompy his feet are, both for the retro look, and for the stability they add. The one part of the sculpt I don’t like, on the other hand, are the car panels on his hands, which look a bit awkward.
The new headsculpt is the selling point, and it’s really, really neat. He’s got an angular, Snake Eyes-like visor, a pair of equally angular ears on the sides of his head, and a Power-Rangers-Zord-like frowning mouth with a chin plate. It’s very retro, very Japanese, and very cool. It almost feels too cool for the pretty standard Autobot Car body it’s located on.
For colors, Exhaust is mostly white, dark red and black. He’s got some silver here and there, including his face, and smokey transparent windows on his chest, too. Apparently, despite the subtle cigarette theme, he’s whiter than Wheeljack. Overall, though, it’s kind of a muted color scheme, thanks to the dark red. I kind of wish he had some blue on his chest windows and wings, like the Masterpiece or the original toy had, to add some more vibrancy, because as it is, he’s a bit plain.
You’ll also notice that it’s not a Decepticon logo on his chest, but the “Mercenary” faction, something new in Earthrise, which honestly makes more sense for what little we know of the character’s backstory. For other tampos, he’s got “Bandit” on his foot, as a little joke (Smokey and the Bandit). I’ll talk about the rest of the tampos in his car mode.
The real feature at play here is his excellent articulation. Like the best Siege and Earthrise figures, Exhaust is very bendy in his robot mode, with no exceptions. He’s got ankles, knees, hips, waist, wrist swivels, elbows, shoulders and head articulation.
And they’re all really flexible joints with a ton of clearance, so he’s VERY expressive, and very stable, thanks to his big boots and big heel spurs. What he lacks in deco, he makes up for in poseability , making it easy to make him very characterful. A word of caution, though: My copy had no issues, but multiple other copies have been reported to have very loose joints, so it’s something to watch out for.
Exhaust’s only got one accessory, a little black box with a white missile on the end, based on the two shoulder-mounted launchers the previous two toys came with. The launcher can mount on his shoulder with a special port, or on his hands via a standard Siege/Earthrise peg. Honestly, this is a bit disappointing to me. I really wish he came with more than one accessory, or at least a second copy of this launcher, since both previous versions prominently had double launchers, and he doesn’t have anything else with him, like the Masterpiece figure’s additional pistol. Like with some previous figures, this feels like a deliberate attempt to upsell the various Battlemasters, Weaponizers, and Modulators that the line thrives on. Speaking of that, he’s got additional mounting points on his upper and lower arms, the backs of his legs, and on his back. Here’s a combination I came up with using fellow Generations Selects release Powerdasher Cromar to make a big wingpack with guns.
Transformation
Exhaust’s transformation is pretty simple, but he can become a bit tangled if you do things in the wrong order. Luckily, he’s got parts designed to come off if you strain them, so I didn’t break anything in the process. Really, you just need to follow the instructions a couple times to make sure that a bunch of things are done in the right order. But once you know, it’s easy, and everything snaps in snugly.
The one real pressure point comes with folding away his robot head, which stressed me out. It really didn’t want to rotate down into his chest, thanks to the joint it was on being really tightly pegged into his neck. It took some excessive force to get it out, and I was worried about breaking something. Luckily it worked, and after that first time, it popped out much easier, though it still requires a bit of force.
Car Mode
Exhaust transforms into a fairly sleek-looking racecar, with a spoiler in the back, and a wraparound cockpit. It’s not quite the original Lancia Stratos, thanks to licensing, but it’s close enough, and looks like something you’d see on a racetrack.
There was some legal trouble with Marlboro when the Masterpiece version of Exhaust came out, thanks to the car’s real-life deco looking like a carton of Marlboro cigarettes, so while he still has the original racecar’s colors, they’re laid out in a totally different way compared to both previous toys. Considering how different they had to be, they did find a pretty slick-looking layout for the red on him. Even the black squares of black plastic on his hood look like something that could plausibly be a part of a racing deco.
Exhaust has a lot less livery on him than Wheeljack, but they still found room for a bunch of easter eggs with his tampos, which, according to Twitter, are almost all sneaky cigarette references. Aside from the two “Bandits” in red on his body, which are a cigarette brand on top of a movie reference, there’s also a 7 surrounded by dice (a reference to Lucky 7, another brand), and a little crown with “royal” underneath, which could be a reference to the whiskey, but is also yet another cigarette brand. Outside of that, we have the original toy’s 598 number (the same number as the real car this started as), the phrase “Decepticon” in Japanese characters, and, amusingly, his name misspelled as “Exhuast.” There’s been some debate about whether or not this was a genuine error, or a sneaky reference to how the original intentionally misspelled “Marlboro” as “Marlboor” to dodge copyright. Either way, it’s kind of funny, and I dig it.
Exhaust also has rims molded in grey plastic, instead of painted, which looks better than paint would, honestly. His headlights and taillights don’t seem to be painted, but honestly, he’s colorful enough that I don’t miss them.
For gimmicks, Exhaust rolls just fine, and has a single weapon port on his roof you can attach his weapon box to.
He’s got another two ports at his back, which are placed there specifically so, if you have any of the blast effects typically included with Battlemasters, you can put them in to represent him rocketing away at high speeds. I kind of wish he had more ports to use in this form, but it would have ruined his racecar lines, so I think it worked out fine. I did manage to combine him with Cromar to make an additional Murdercar mode, though:
Overall
Exhaust is plainer than I’d like, in a lot of ways, and I find myself wishing there was a bit more to him. More accessories, and more color variety to his deco, like previous iterations of the design had, would have gone a long way. That being said, what’s there is extremely solidly done, and I’ve been having a lot of fun posing and displaying him as the shady dealer of illicit substances, largely thanks to how high-end his articulation is for a Deluxe.
He’s a very well-engineered robot, poseable and expressive, with a great transformation and a solid altmode, and despite the somewhat plain package, I’d still recommend him, though not for premium prices (he’d need a bit more for that.) Luckily, he’s up on Hasbro Pulse for the price of a standard Deluxe, plus shipping (and is still there, as of April 2021). As for his other tooling, he probably makes for a good Wheeljack, too, if that’s the version you’re looking to get.
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