Origin Wheeljack (Legacy United/Voyager Class)

I'd been looking forward to Origin Wheeljack for some time now. After thoroughly enjoying the Origin Bumblebee and Jazz, it's good to complete the trio. All three have been exclusive to Target, though Wheeljack comes packaged in standard Legacy United packaging as the Buzzworth Bumblebee sub-line is officially over. As someone who prefers cartoon over comics, having the opening segment of the first episode of The Transformers recreated in toy form is awesome. The pre-Earth designs were fun and managed to work as toys pretty well.  Wheeljack was the larger of the three in that segment, so large that Bumblebee even rode inside of Wheeljack's alt mode. That can be replicated here as Wheeljack is a larger Voyager Class toy as compared to the smaller Deluxes the others were.

That's done with a LOT of folding panels and one BIG backpack in robot mode. That's unavoidable as somehow this thing had to work in the real word as a $35 toy. In the pictures, you might have noticed the blue wings in robot mode. Those are from a sort of Swiss-army part that comes with Wheeljack. They form the vehicle modes shields and can be dissembled to create the road it's driving on. The said part can be contained in the alt mode storage area or made into a sort of glider wing ... thing in robot mode. You'll have to disassemble the part to utilize all it's forms. Be careful, mines already showing stress marks from this. I could see it breaking easily. That's not the only accessory. Wheeljack comes with a blaster that can either beheld or mounted on his shoulder. In addition are the two front mounted blades he used in that segment this toy pays homage to. The blades can also attach to the front of the gun to recreate the dominator discs from 'The Core'. It goes without saying that this is a really neat toy. 

In robot mode, Wheeljack looks great... aside from that huge backpack. I'm not sure if any parts are reused from prior Wheeljack toys, but everything looks right. He's fairly articulated and even has some ports on his arms to store the dominator discs. Transformation isn't easy initially. It's something that would probably get easier after a few times, but the first couple are a mofo. There is a lot of panels in that big backpack and on his legs that fold out. They don't immediately make sense either and the instructions are a little cryptic. Once in place, however, you've got a cool... whatever that is he turns into. Folks have often called it a van, which is odd considering his sports car form on earth. Guess that's where his Rise of the Beasts form got inspiration.

Like I said earlier, Bumblebee can fit inside the storage compartment and those conductor rods that Origin Bumblebee came with can store on storage racks. Finally they have somewhere to go! This feels like a much more premium toy than you'd expect from a standard retail release. I feel like that's where Generations is going and it's a good thing. With the rising price of Transformers, it's nice to feel like I got something for my money. I've been a big fan of these 'Origin' Transformers figures and having the three Autobots in their pre-Earth forms is a real treat. I appreciate the interaction with each other as well. It bears repeating, this is a really neat toy.