Wheeljack

"You know, it sure is nice when one of my inventions actually works!"

Name: Wheeljack
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Mechanical Engineer
Motto: "Never do what your enemy expects you to do."

Profile: "That guy can build a neutron bomb out of a wristwatch and a rusty can," says Bluestreak, and that's not far from the truth. As well as the Ark fashioned the Autobots, Wheeljack is always coming up with ways to improve them, particularly their weaponry. His knack for creating wild new gadgets has earned him a "mad scientist" reputation and their deadly effectiveness has earned him the respect of friends and enemies alike. He is also the Autobot most adept at driving while in his automobile mode and has pulled off tricks that Hollywood stunt drivers haven't even dreamed of yet. He fully enjoys showing off when the opportunity presents itself.

Abilities: In addition to those mentioned above, Wheeljack, while in Autobot mode, can use the solid-fuel rockets in his arms to fly at speeds of 320 mph with a range of 800 miles. His shoulder-mounted cannons shoot a variety of shells: a magnetic-inducer shell, which douses its victims in a magnetic dust that attracts ferrous objects from distances up to 4000 feet away that adhere to and eventually disable the victim; a shrapnel-needle shell, which explodes into millions of hair-thin filaments that can pierce even the strongest armour and disrupt internal circuitry; and a gyro-inhibitor shell, which implants itself upon impact and destroys the balance of its victims. Wheeljack is continually adding new gimmicks to his shells.

Weaknesses: Wheeljack is his own worst enemy. He frequently injures himself while experimenting with new weapons.

Strength: 7; Intelligence: 9; Speed: 7; Endurance: 5; Rank: 8; Courage: 9; Firepower: 7; Skill: 10

G1 Animation Model

Robot Mode

Alt Mode

Alternate Versions

G1 Marvel Comic

G1 Toy

Official Images
For me, the official Takara Masterpiece version of Wheeljack is a bit of an oddity. On one hand it fairly closely mirrors the look of the G1 animation model, but on the other the deco is much closer to the original G1 toy. Thankfully this strange mishmash of styles works pretty well for the most part, but let's take a look at some official images before we discuss things in more detail.

Takara Tomy MP-20 Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20 Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20 Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20 Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20 Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20 Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20 Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20 Wheeljack

Okay, that should be enough images to give you a good feel for the character, so let's talk about what the mould does well. Although an older entry in the Masterpiece line both Wheeljack's robot an alt modes are quite similar to the animation model, at least as far as the design goes. The proportions are generally quite good; indeed, it's only really his feet which are 'off' and this is due to the way in which they form the front of his vehicle mode. His unique face sculpt is instantly recognisable and he has all of his animation accoutrements, such as his signature wings and shoulder-mounted rocket launcher.

However, as alluded above, the area in which he departs radically from the animation model is his paint apps. These are much, much closer to the original G1 toy, which was correspondingly much closer to the real Lancia Stratos Turbo upon which it was based (complete with livery). The Masterpiece version of the figure retains all of this and even corrects the spelling of Alitalla to Alitalia. It even keeps the transparent wing pieces from the G1 toy, which were silver in the cartoon. The downside of the latter is that transparent plastic is more brittle than opaque, so MP-20's wings are prone to stress marks and breaks along the hinges, something not helped by the tight clearance during transformation. Perhaps one day we'll see an MP-20+ release that more closely matches the animation palette - it would certainly make sense as it would only require minimal changes - but for now the existing figure is still a good option even given the aforementioned issues.

As the title of the page implies I actually own a KO version of MP-20 and on the whole I'm hard-pressed to tell the difference between it and the official figure. His joints are tight, the paint apps are clean and he includes all of his accessories. Even the reported issues with a missing pin in the rocket launcher and a backpack that won't tab together cleanly are not present on my figure. In fact, the only issues I have found are a small stress mark on one of the wing hinges (but as mentioned this also affects the official release) and that the Autobot faction symbol is missing the white 'diamond' in the top portion of the head segment. I barely even noticed the latter until I started scrutinising the figure for this blog and it was easily remedied by the application of a third-party decal. All things considered I'm very happy with it for the money.

Takara Tomy MP-20+ Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20+ Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20+ Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20+ Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20+ Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20+ Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20+ Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20+ Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20+ Wheeljack

Takara Tomy MP-20+ Wheeljack

After swearing blind I'd never pick up any of Takara's 'plus' line of repaints, I ended up buying two in the same day. Having decided to replace my KO Masterpiece Prowl with MP-17+, I couldn't resist adding MP-20+ to my basket to enable me to retire my KO Wheeljack.

Although I adore the nostalgic red, white and green colour-scheme of the original MP-20, the majority of my Masterpiece Transformers collection is animation accurate and as such it stood out like a sore thumb. MP-20+, on the other hand, looks like he stepped out of the screen for the most part and I just love the uncluttered deco. Granted it looks better in robot mode than it does in alt mode, but the latter is not bad by any means. It just takes some getting used to after the stripe-fest that was the original release. The animation accurate head, wings and shoulder launcher are also much nicer to my eyes.

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