Today I was very happy, after many delays on my end, to be interviewed by Leeny for his youtube channel Frostbite’s GI Joe Repro. However instead of discussing GI Joe’s, we discussed Transformers – evrything from how my hobby began to my most beloved figures to how I now share the hobby with my son.
So tune in and enjoy Big Angry Trev interviewed on Frostbite.
And dont forget to subscribe and check out some of the other great interviews on the Frostbite’s GI Joe Repro channel!
There is only about a month to go until the new Transformers Rise of the Beasts film hits theatres and the hype is building, with everything from toy lines hitting shelves to art exhibitions taking place to celebrate the upcoming flick.
However, it wouldn’t be a Transformers movie without there being something contentious to make the fandom all scream at each other, and in this case it’s the design of Wheeljack.
“Did I do that?’
Wheeljack, the very first Transformer to ever hit screen, was the Autobots mad-scientist, always coming up with whacky inventions and weapons that more often than not backfired. This combined with his distinctive headscuplt, easy-going personality and slick Lancia Stratos Turbo race car alt-mode meant that he was a fan favourite and one of the better known Transformer characters.
Wheeljack nearly appeared in the Dark of the Moon Transformers movie, but the decision was made at the last second to call the character ‘Que’ instead, as an homage to James Bond’s gadget guy. Still, this decision was made so late that some toys and in the associated video game the character was still called Wheeljack.
‘Hey, it could be worse – I could look like this in the new movie!’
Wheeljack made his proper live-movie appearance in the Bumblebee Movie. Whilst he had but a single line, he could be seen battling on Cybertron at the start of the flick and was instantly recognisable. Despite being on screen for a very short amount of time, he received a very cool Studio Series figure which had an altmode of a Cybertronian HoverCar, instead of the Cybertronian HoverVan mode he had in the G1 cartoon.
In the upcoming Rise of the Beasts movie, a sequel to the Bumblebee flick, Wheeljack has completely changed from the previous film, with a completely different robot mode and altmode to any he has sported before. Some fans are really not happy, with other fans really not happy that those fans are not happy.
So where does my opinion lie in all this? Well let me tell you:
“Don’t be a slave to G1, don’t be a sook – characters change!”
This is the argument that a lot of fans are giving to those that don’t like the look of the new Wheeljack. And I think they’ve got the argument slightly wrong. I believe it’s not that people are annoyed that this incarnation of Wheeljack in not a carbon copy of his G1 incarnation, it’s that he’s not really recognisable as Wheeljack at all.
VW fans however are gonna be psyched!
People, for the most part unless they are the most staunch geewunners (which do sadly exist), don’t mind some changes to characters, as long as they retain some key essence of the original. It keeps the characters fresh and interesting. Fans had no issue with Wheeljack being a Wrecker with a rebellious personality in Prime (2010). Wheeljack having a country accent and a mouth in Cyberverse (2018) and the new Earthspark (2022) cartoon have also been received without complaint. Despite some changes these incarnations were still instantly recognisable as Wheeljack, due to either their physical appearance and/or personality. This incarnation doesn’t look, act or sound like Wheeljack (that we’ve seen thus far – who knows what may happen in the film). So I completely understand why some fans are going ‘Why not just make it a new character instead of completely changing an old one?’.
These WERE the droids you were hoping for
To use an example from a different pop-culture franchise – it’s like Batman; there are dozens of different iterations of Batman with varying costumes and personalities, but you can generally pick up a comic or see a movie and still go ‘yep – that’s Batman’.
All slightly different in looks and personality – but all still definetly Batman.
No one is demanding that every Batman look like Adam West, they just want it to still be recognisable as the character. If they did a comic where Batman was actually a 6’10” Slavic insurance-claims adjuster who lives in Brisbane, and at night throws rubber ducks at criminals whilst making poultry-puns, people would be like ‘WTF? That’s not Batman!’
If we were to use a Transformers character such as Grimlock, we see the pattern repeated. He is usually a grey Cybertronian T-Rex with a rebellious attitude. But we have seen different versions of him over the years. In the Alternators toyline he turned into a Ford Mustang, in Titanium a Cybertronian tank, in Rescue Bots Academy a Dino-cycle, in Age of Extinction a Gigantic Rex-Dragon. In the RID15 Cartoon he was back to being a Cybertronian T-Rex again, but now green with a teddy-bear like head and a goofy personality.
All slightly different in looks, personality and altmodes, but all still Grimlock.
Each of these differed greatly from the core G1 character, but there was still enough recognisable elements that you could look and go ‘yup – that’s Grimlock’.
‘There have been different Wheeljacks before – they reuse names all the time, get over it!’
Armada Wheeljack
Yes, lots of characters got their names reused in Beast Wars, then again in early 00’s in shows like RID & Armada, but those were generally exceptions where they just randomly used names in order to keep the trademark. Wheeljack in Armada was a bitter Autobot that swapped allegiance, and besides a car altmode had nothing to do with the original. Similarly Grimlock, whom we were discussing earlier, turned into a excavator in RID and had zero connection to the original character. So the precedents are there.
One of these Grim’s is not like the other ones…
That being said, Hasbro has taken a far more uniform approach to their characters in the modern era and, outside of the Movieverse, these aberrations have happened very little over the last 15 or so years.
So am I going to boycott the movie because Wheeljack is essentially unrecognisable? No – I’m still looking forward to it! And for all I know I might really like the character on the big screen and go out and buy the SS figure of him. But do I understand why some fans have a beef with how he is being portrayed – yes I do.
Causing more mixed feelings in fandom than a female Ghostbuster
So my 2-cents are: if you don’t like how you think the ROTB Wheeljack looks/acts/sounds – go watch the movie next month and see if he grows on you. Heck, he might be good enough that he earns a right to simply share the name, like G1 and Beast Wars Inferno do.
To those who have a problem with others disappointment in what the character looks like so far, give’em a break eh – it can be a bit heartbreaking to see a character you’ve loved for years changed beyond recognition for no obviously discernable reason. But yes, when you’ve read the 50th‘they’ve destroyed the character!’ rant, I can understand how your patience would wane.
Don’t ya love it when you come across an incredibly cool action figure that you didn’t even know existed?
It’s such a good feeling for the avid collector, but an increasingly rare one. No longer do we only find out what Transformers are being released by perusing our local toy stores to see what’s on the shelf. No sir, we do most of our shopping online and are well aware what toys are in the works, usually a good year before they actually get released.
Well, a really cool figure got past me years ago that I didn’t even know existed until a few weeks ago when I was on a Japanese site, looking for a Wipe-Out to go with my TR Trypticon, and came across this gem by accident.
So let’s take a look – from the Movie Advanced line – at the dark, the dangerous, the friggin awesome – Nemesis Grimlock!
First off – why haven’t you heard of Nemesis Grimlock?
I asked around a lot of my TF buddies and, like me, they had never heard of this toy. And it’s easy to see why. This redeco of the AOE Voyager Class Grimlock toy was an exclusive figure you could only obtain by attending a Transformers Expo that ran for 8 days in Yokohama, Japan back in 2014. Thus if you don’t hail from Japan, this spot of news was easy to miss.
Robot Mode
Like all the other Nemesis characters (Prime, Hot Rod, Primal etc) Nemesis Grimlock has his colour scheme made up of blacks, purples and light blues. And damn does it work! So much cooler than the awful baby-poo brown and death-grey colour scheme of the original toy. For the first time I find myself really liking a Movieverse Grimlock in his robot mode.
Fricken bitchin!
He has decent articulation and is able to be posed fairly well. He scales quite well with other Nemesis characters and his weapon looks like it could deal a lot of damage. Overall fantastic!
Robo-Dinosaur Mode
To be honest I don’t think they’ve made a good looking Movieverse Grimlock toy outside of the Studio Series one. Every other one has got weird colour schemes and weirder features. Proportions wise Nemesis Grimlock has the same flaws as his regular AOE counterpart. But given that this is meant to be an evil version of Grimlock, the weird huge face and teeth with the psychotic eyes work for once – you could imagine that this is the criminally insane version of Grimlock that arose from the bowels of Unicron himself.
The hellishly insane version of Big Grim!
The club can be attached to the tail to make… err…. an extremely long tail, but is best left detached. Nemesis Grimlock comes with a jaw chomping gimmick, some articulation and scales OK with Nemesis Primal, if not the other Nemesis robots.
Transformation
Not particularly hard or fiddly – you’ll pick it up fairly quick.
Worth Getting?
A Nemesis Grimlock figure? Hells yes it is! I don’t care that it hails from the Movieverse continuity rather than the Generations line, it’s still a cool concept. Surprisingly this figure isn’t that hard to find online, probably because no one is actively searching for it, and isn’t ruinously expensive so if you fancy him you shouldn’t have too many headaches tracking one down.
Got something to say about this figure? Pop it in the comments section below!
The slow release of the Studio Series Constructicons continues. Some see it as a good thing, not overloading their budgets. Others see it as an irritation, their frustration to build Devastator from Revenge of the Fallen growing week by week.
For me personally it has been neither. As someone who is happy enough with the ROFT Devastator I already own, this Studio Series has simply been a chance to fill out my collection with those onscreen Cons who never received an actually decent toy before such as Scrapmetal.
Today we are looking at one such character. The leader of the Constructicons in G1, who like Long Haul and Mixmaster got to actually keep their proper name and traditional alt-mode for the movieverse, we are looking at Scrapper.
Robot Mode
This looks pretty good for a movieverse toy. He actually looks like a robot rather than just a mess and is pretty faithful to how he appeared on the big screen. He has retained the flail attachment on his arm, however sadly is unable to swing it. He has decent articulation for a fairly stocky bot, with elbows, neck, knees and hip movement.
‘Am I busting a kung-fu move or just getting down with my bad self? Let your imagination run wild kids!’
The colour scheme is not only faithful to how he appeared in ROTF, but also has some G1 roots too, almost an homage to the European/Australasian rerelease of the G1 Constucticons from 1992.
“The studio insisted I bulk up for the movie”
Vehicle Mode
Really pretty damn good! A superb amount of detail throughout the entire vehicle form, this looks like a proper model of a real construction vehicle. Some have argued that the alt-mode is too kibble-laden, but as someone who has seen a lot of very large construction vehicles up close, some Front Shovel Loaders do indeed look similar with parts everywhere.
The vehicle form feels very solid overall and a nice touch is that you can actually raise the shovel!
Super-Sweet-Shovel-Slap Bro!
Transformation
This figure has a really interesting transformation. With 36 steps its going to take you a few minutes to do the first time out, but there is no part that is overly frustrating or a head-scratcher. It feels very satisfying to work through, and that is always a massive plus when dealing with actual transformer toys.
Overall
If you have no interest in the Movieverse (in which case why are you reading this review? Go outside and play!) then it’s an easy pass. But if you like the Movieverse, are a Constructicon fan or a completionist then you will want to pick this guy up. Of course if you intend to build Devastator then you have no choice but to pick him up! But you wont regret doing so, it’s a solid figure in both modes with a good transformation and for once you feel like you are getting a proper Voyager-class sized figure when buying a toy of that classification. So yeah, a good value toy that reminds you just how fun transforming transformers can be.
When the first live action Transformers movie was released a decade ago, I went a bit nuts when the toys were first released. The first day I saw them I horrified my girlfriend by coming home with two full garbage bags of action figures and a $700 dent in my bank account.
Now here we are at movie five and restraint is much easier. For the first time I am not buying a toy of every character that was in the movie. Who needs yet another Bbee camero? So I’m buying toys only of new characters that showed up in the flick, saving me both cash and shelf space.
Thankfully I was able to put restraint on hold the other day when I finally came across some of these new characters in toy form. So lets take a look at three new Autobots to grace the silver screen and subsequently get turned into toy-candy – Steelbane, Cogman and Sqweeks.
Steelbane
Dig those shoulders man!
Robot Mode
Have at ye!
Steelbane was one of those generic Knights of Cybertron to show up in the flick, and you would be hard pressed to single him out when watching the movie. I will say I am quite impressed with the look of Steelbane in robot mode – perhaps the most knight-esque Transformer I’ve ever seen! Really looks like he should be guarding a tomb for centuries and then coming to life to scare the shit out of Lara Croft. However the look of this toy is the best thing about him. The shoulder and leg balljoints are very loose, making him very hard to pose. This is made up for somewhat by the fact he has tight neck and elbow joints so you can at least give him the odd cool pose. Comes with a sword with lots of little detail on it and the wings folded behind serve to give him a look as though he is wearing a chainmail cape. So visually he looks great, playwise he is a bit of a letdown.
En’Guarde!
Dragon Mode
This is what happens when your alpaca mates with a raven and a washing machine
Frankly pretty crap. The loose balljoints make him even harder to pose in beast mode than robot mode. The chest does not sit flush with the main body and while I appreciate the little detail of the red tongue, it actually detracts from the dragons head when you open the mouth wider. I found the transformation to beast mode quite fiddly as well; his secondary mode is so ill defined and the instructions were not particularly useful. I ended up just looking at the back of the box and fiddling with the figure until he represented that pic.
Cogman
Robot Mode
Sushi-chopper not included
Typical – we finally get a Transformer in one of the movies who gets a lot of lines and screen time and he never even transforms! Well thankfully they released some toys of him that do. There is a fantastic looking one with a headmaster gimmick, however since he never did it in the film I went the cheaper 1-step option. I don’t usually like 1-step changers, I find them very overpriced for the simplistic figure you get. However since I don’t want to spend a fortune importing a transforming Cogman I was happy enough to get this representation of him. They did the colour scheme and in particular the head quite well and he doesn’t look too bad at all. Just a shame that he has no knees and his legs are so chunky.
Vehicle Mode
‘I have an alt-mode!’
Cogman transforms into an Aston Martin DB11, which he did get behind the wheel of in the movie if memory serves. He achieves this in toy mode by a simple twist of the legs. A nice little car, though a better paintjob wouldn’t have hurt.
Sqweeks
‘Guess what noise I make’
Robot Mode
‘They took ma hands!’
This little guy was supposed to be the ultra-cute new bot of Transformers 5. But R2-D2 he aint and he never really captured our hearts. However if there is to be a movie toy that will garner your affection – it’ll be this little guy! While his robot mode initially looks as lackluster as the character did onscreen (though I do did all the rust in his paintjob) , it’s all his little mods that make the toy.
He has several options, he can use his little cargo trailer from his alt-mode (which we will come to momentarily) to have a sort of rocket backpack, or you can remove his little handlebar hands to affix a big arm and the huge cannon he wielded in one of the final movie fight scenes.
‘BEEFCAKE!’
Vehicle Mode
Not a bad looking scooter. Well, it is a bad looking scooter I guess but it’s supposed to be so on that level it really works. The transformation to scooter is fairly straight forward but I find it helps to cheat a little and remove his handlebar hands and his head. This detracts nothing from his alt-mode and saves potential scratches to your toy by jamming everything in.
His cargo-trailer really makes the toy! It can be attached to the back which adds a lot of bulk to the toy, and then altered into a battle mode replete with cannons and guns enough to freak out the strongest Con. It also transforms into one of the coolest little maintenance bays I’ve seen this side of G1 Optims, with a toolbox to store spare parts and a very maneuverable robotic arm. Very cool indeed!
Overall
They never really seem to hit their stride with the movie toys do they? Many of the ROTF figures were fantastic but since then we’ve had DOTM which had toys too complicated and AoE whose toys were too simple. So far none of the TLK figures are massively impressive. So unless you really want representations of the new movieverse characters both Steelbane and Cogman are both easy passes. However do yourself a favour and go pick up a Sqweeks. It’s a really cool toy with lots of play value and by far one of the most enjoyable movie figures I have played with. Small on screen but big on fun!
Got something to add to the review above? Would love to read it in the comments section below!
