Transformers: Kingdom Wheeljack is Something That Exists

Yes, yes. I know. Kingdom Wheeljack is just Earthrise Wheeljack in a new box. But it is how I got it, and this how it shall be titled.

The 1984 Transformers Wheeljack toy

Unlike a lot of the 80's originals, Wheeljack is a character I have some nostalgia for. I didn't have the original toy, but I did have the Actionmaster, and his evil counterpart Slicer. I did see a few cartoon episodes where he did stuff, and read a few of the later Marvel comics. Wheeljack benefited from fairly distinctive character model, and a role/personality that was simply "science/inventor guy", which meant a writer could easily find a role for him. Thus he created the Dinobots, any number of doohickeys, and most memorably to me, a comic appearence where he tended to the horrifically wounded Optimus Prime, in the minutes before his death. That last one doesn't get any nicer in context, so let's move on. While Wheeljack has definitely had his quota of new toys and tributes over the decades, he's a touch more malleable than most. The version we got in Transformers Prime was a swordfighter, not an inventor, while other versions take inspiration from Albert Einstein, Jamie Hyneman, and Steve Urkle. Part of that is undoubtedly the weak writing in 80's toy media, but the thing is, Wheeljack was very obviously replaced by Perceptor. Whom was a microscope, and thus more immediately convincing as a capital S Scientist. This left Wheeljack no unique selling point, and simply being a fast car amongst the Autobots wasn't enough. This is a bit of a shame, because if you look a bit harder, Wheeljack is not so much a nerd as a rally driver whom built his own car. While being it.

 

Wheeljack's original altmode was the Lancia Stratos Turbo, in a paintjob so specific you can find model kits of it. That's a rally car, and while I'm not knowledgeable on the topic, I do understand that its a somewhat more rugged affair that takes place outside of a purpose made race track. Rather than the bleeding edge of Formula One, Rallying suggests a more rough & tumble event, often using road legal cars. This modern toy attempts to capture the look of the original, while filing off the legally actionable parts of the design. The resulting car passes the squint test most admirably, with lots of paint and in-jokey sponsorship decals. Its nearly ideal as these things go, it avoids the common flaws like unpainted hubcaps, while working in a few 5mm ports in unobtrusive places. However, this general high quality does place what flaws there are into stark relief. There's a case of Visible Head Syndrome on the underside, something begging for a concealing panel, and an odd gap beneath the spoiler. Also, it feels maybe a touch bland with respects to play value. Its not bad by any means; it rolls okay, and it has weapon storage, but Earthrise tended to downplay the 5mm port thing and that's evident here. Maybe get some blast effects so he looks like he's rocket powered? What people, well, collectors/weirdos like myself, are likely to fixate on though are the translucent windows. These are a smokey sunglasses black, an element common to more modern takes on the character but not the 1980’s. Or they were aiming for original toy, and darkened the windows as there was little to see inside, I dunno. I personally think this is just fine, and there’s no reports of breakages as such, but chunks of the windscreen end up storing in the knees, and I wonder about the long term. Despite my nitpicking, its a solid car mode favouring the original toy visually.

 

 
The robot mode does better on the play value front, and similarly scores well on the squint test. He obviously favours the old Sunbow model here, but between the vehicle bits and the greebling its a not 1 to 1 update. I'll come back to that in the conclusion, but I will say for now that the only real visual weakness is the gappy lower legs. This is noteworthy as this is the first time Hasbro really tried to strongly match the G1 look, with the previous three(!?) attempts being remolds and thus having some compromises. I like his proportions and how his chest is formed, the vibe very much being there. Functionally its a step up too, with nothing to apologise for on the articulation front, the shoulders are good due to the conversion, and a full selection 5mm ports coming into play. The spoiler is also on a 5mm peg too, so you have some options, which is nice. His actual accessory is his missile pod, which can be handheld, but has dedicated tabs for the shoulder mount. This is absolutely fine, and I honestly don't think Wheeljack was ever really associated with a sidearm, but there is an absence of something to round things out. A wrench maybe? A sword? They could have gone the Cliffjumper route, and added in a one scene accessory. The Masterpiece version had a pistol. Otherwise, its a nice robot form, that does the vast majority of things well, and only one ignorable thing badly.

 

While working on this article, I slowly came to a realisation: this was probably the best, mass market Wheeljack ever made, it wasn’t quite the G1/Sunbow love letter I expected, but it also felt somehow off by a small degree. Its a solid performer in almost all ways, with most of its flaws falling into the category of personal preference or cut for the budget. Maybe this was meant to a more generic Wheeljack than a specific one, and it ended up in the very Sunbow Earthrise. Maybe something got left out; when they did Slicer with the mould, it did come with extra guns. Or maybe this was built along the same lines as Cliffjumper etc, and it just didn’t work out as well on those terms. And there is that Generations Selects version that is full Sunbow, removing the translucent plastic, but otherwise looking like a sidegrade. Given Hasbro’s habit of releases and iterative remakes, you’d almost think this was deliberate, but I digress. Regardless of which variant you go for though, and there’s a few, you're getting a good all-rounder here. And the package variant that is Kingdom Wheeljack is definitely something that exists.

Orktober: Orky Dice Tower

For this Orktober, I will admit to struggling for ideas. As previously noted, I've done basically all I want to do with orks, and thus my forces are on hiatus. However, I still wanted to do something for Orktober, and I eventually settled on a dice tower. I will also admit that I got the idea from one earthmanbrick, whom made one last year. I looked into the concept, easily finding plans, you can make one out of a Pringles tube for example, and decided that I could trashbash one, doing the mechanisms first, and then dressing it with bits. As to what a dice tower precisely is? Well, its an apparatus for rolling dice. You put the in the top, they bounce off ramps and bollards, before coming to rest at the bottom. Such things are a supposed space saver, as while these can be bulky, at least they keep the dice on the table.

I'd ended up starting this later in the month than I wanted, but it progressed quite smoothly. The actual worky bits were made on a Monday afternoon, using a detergent box, the chipboard I use for scratchbuilds, and hot glue. It went together like one of my old scenery projects or one of my bigger scratchbuilds. This required some trial and error, but it was functional on the day. The remainder of the week saw the visual additions, gap filling, and riveting. This process made it look even more like earthmanbrick's attempt, a face arising almost immediately, although in my defence I always put teef on things. A lot of this process was done in and around work shifts, staggered for the benefit of drying times. Spray painting started on the Saturday morning, afterwhich it was a rummage for the craft paints and such. Drybrushing, sponging, and washes followed.

While this is by no means my most complex or interesting project, it did remind me of why I love making Ork stuff. I knew the sort of thing I wanted, and it just happened. Like going nuts with the pizza toppings, or being some-kind of obnoxious freestyling jazz poet. Mistakes get made, sure. Nothing about this is clever. But it all adds up to something very orky. And very me.

I dunno when I’m going back to Orks, but there’s something there to go back to.

 

Transformers: Legacy United Animated Universe Optimus Prime is Something That Exists

 

Animated Optimus Prime’s wiki picture

When you get right down it, Transformers: Animated was an anomaly. Effectively serving as a Plan B should the 2007 film fail, it didn't, Animated was by radical departure from the bayverse and Transformers in general. Animated stepped back from technical realism in favour of bright, dynamic, cartoony and above all else, characterful designs. The thing Animated did so well was creating Transformers whose mere appearance spoke volumes, only for the vocal performances and writing to utterly endear them to fans. Of course, that wasn't the only thing it did well, and I'd easily put it in the Top 3 Transformers media of all time. What Animated arguably did less well was the toys, the art style not being the easiest to replicate in plastic, and once the line concluded, Hasbro never tried something like that again. At least until Legacy got going and started drip-feeding those characters into the mix. Today I talk about the first voyager attempt.

The 2008 Transformers: Animated Optimus Prime toy, voyager class

 

So, Animated Prime, what's his deal then? Well, he's a fairly nuanced take on the archetype to be honest, with a debt to Optimus Primal. He's not the leader of the Autobots, Prime is a common rank in this continuity, and he's in charge of a Space Bridge repair crew. He's got the same idealistic, big good vibes as Optimi tend to have, but he's much lower in the hierarchy, and is depicted as young and inexperienced. Not the kinda guy you'd expect to be doing infrastructure. The precise reasons why he's in that command are actually very tragic, he's in disgrace, and his arc through the show is him overcoming that. This isn't an Optimus Prime that starts out at the top, in a rivalry with Megatron. Animated, though cut short, ends when he's god-damn earned that.

 

The actual toy then, and its vehicle mode first. Optimus' alt mode was honestly a bit ill-defined on screen and in plastic. He's more or less the front end of a scifi fire truck, although if you took the light-bar off, and you can here, you wouldn't know that. The show was a bit woolly about this, he had at least two trailers, but the actual toys didn't implement that. The original voyager had a functioning water cannon instead, for example. This new Legacy toy then focuses on the truck cab then, and its doing an OK job with it, but its not doing anything spectacular. On the plus side, it compares favourably with both the animation model and previous toys. There's a Generations greeblie filter being applied, but it passes the squint test. It not a Bulkhead or Skyquake situation, the likeness was prioritised here. There’s also some easily missed interior details, like a steering wheel, which is nice. The downside is however the feet, which ended up in the trailer hitch area and look a bit obnoxious, while the axe can stow but not integrate. The feet in particular are the subject of much speculation; there's a pair of slots there of no obvious use, prompting hopes of some Wingblade version down the line and the creation of at least one third party add-on set. This sort of visual flaw seems to occur a lot with modern primes, and I'd tolerate it more if something could obscure it, but this is at worst average as Legacy alt modes go. Shame about the production scars though.

If the truck form was more adequate than great, the robot form nails it. Lets talk about characterisation again. Optimus is a big guy, but big in a specifically heroic and cartoony way. He's very wide in the chest and arms, but thin in the legs and hips. He's a triangle of upper body strength, which is possibly more exaggerated here than in the 2d art, but its perfect for him. There's nowt brutish about it either, he's in bright, friendly colours, and most importantly, NO MOUTHPLATE. This adds so much, revealing his youthful face. Its a bit, umm, mainline Generations, but its him. He's Captain Carrot Ironfounderson, if he were a giant robot. And then there's the rocket axe. The vintage toys often didn't capture this right, but its perfectly replicated here with a blast effect port on the back, and an extending haft. This combines with the articulation to make a superlative robot mode. Its just about possible to do a two handed pose, and it presents posing options just not found in other toys. And its not just good articulation, its good articulation in service of character, and this robot mode has a lot of character. Maybe the forearms needed some details painted, but otherwise this is doing what it should with unexpected vigour. Oh, and its got the 5mm port thing covered.

 

In truth, Animated Optimus Prime was probably not the obvious choice for an update. Nowt wrong with him, and certainly someone you'd need eventually, but he's not one of the breakout characters from his show. And truthfully, even at the time, there were a lot of Optimus toys, and even more now. But this honestly impressed me. The altmode is at worst acceptable, and suffers from high expectations, but its doing OK. And the robot mode shines. While this toy seems to have gone under the radar and straight into discount, lost amongst so many other Primes, its well worth your time.

Kitbash: Wargames Atlantic Cannon Fodder Part 2

 

Today, I'm gonna talk about the Wargames Atlantic Cannon Fodder 2 kit (Females), how I used them for my Astra Militarum army, and how you can use this kit for general kitbashing. This is part two in a two part series, please take a look at part one, as I don’t want to repeat myself.

 

Why Kreig? I gave a brief overview back in part 2 of Project Chem-Dogs, but some context here won't hurt the word count. With one of the least subtle names in the 40k setting, the Death Korps of Krieg are more or less scifi WWI. We're talking folk memories of gasmasks, trenches, mud, bayonets, and absurdly wasteful expenditure of human life. They are a gasmask wearing death cult with no concern for thier own losses or individuality. This makes for a good addition to 40k in general and the Astra Militarum in particular, but their prominence is relatively new. Stop me if you've heard this one before, but the Death Korps were something Forgeworld was very interested in, that has since made the jump to plastic, and are due a range expansion shortly. Mechanically, they are one of those odd units whose options are (currently) dictated by a Killteam boxset. These feature more specialist weapons than the other battleline units, and a resurrecting model mechanic. The reason I wanted them is to act either as frontline troops or APC passengers, thanks to their weaponry and odd ability to become better fighters as they loose models.

 

Using Cannon Fodder as Death Korps of Krieg: The use of Cannon Fodder for these is somewhat head dependant. The bodies don't have anything about them that screams Verdun, but you do get full space helmets on the sprue. I'd made most of mine with green stuff gas masks, thus making them passable as Kreigers, incorporating wire and tiny beads for the hoses. That's fiddly work even if you've sculpted before, so don't be afraid to source heads from elsewhere. Otherwise, turning the girls into the Death Korps is a similar challenge to regular Infantry Squads; you don't need heavy weapons, but you are looking at a greater density of specialist weapons, and the need for a medic.

What I did: As before I made these as plugins for an Infantry Squad to simplify matters, while taking the opportunity to make a few weapon specialists to round things out. The heads here were often leftovers from the Bulldogs, as well as assorted bits from the Stargrave Mercenaries sprue. I probably need to talk in more detail about that last one actually, I use that kit a lot. Expect an article, um, Novemberish. Meanwhile some crude recasting was used to create the medpacks, and melta nozzles for use with the energy weapon on the Cannon Fodder sprue. I did the same thing for flamers and such in part one, you can do a lot with a new barrel and some new furniture. Menawhile, Sniper rifles were created by using the CF scope with a regular gun, a fiddly little bastard of a thing, with a bead as a barrel extension, and sculpted rags to hide the join. The grenade launchers are from the aforementioned Stargrave sprue, lengthened wih a bit of tube. Painting then followed, and turned out OK.

I hope this brief series was of use to you. Next week, back to Transformers.