Wheeljack

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Wheeljack is the name of several fictional characters from the Transformers series.

Transformers: Generation 1

Wheeljack
Transformers character
Wheeljack-g1-box.jpg
Generation 1 Wheeljack in box
First appearance

Transformers #1 by Marvel Comics
Voiced by

Katsumi Suzuki (Japanese)
Information
Species Transformer
Abilities

Affiliation

Autobot
Alternate mode

Cybertronian car, car
Function

Mechanical Engineer
Motto

"Never do what your enemy expects you to do."
Series

Transformers: Generation 1
Transformers: Generations
Sub-group

Deluxe vehicles
Tech specs

ST07 IN09 SP07 EN05

RN08 CO09 FB07 SK10

Wheeljack is an Autobot mechanical engineer. He sometimes form part of the Sky Reign combiner.

Fictional biography

Wheeljack is the mad scientist of the Autobots. Always inventing new weapons and gadgets. Most adept at driving while in car mode. Likes to show off his stunts. Flying range of 800 miles using solid-fuel rockets in arms. Shoots magnetic inducer, shrapnel-needle, and gyro-inhibitor shells from his shoulder cannons. He is his own worst enemy. Often injured while experimenting with new weapons.

Animated series

Wheeljack (voiced by Chris Latta, who also played Starscream, among others) is notably the first Autobot ever shown in the Generation 1 cartoon series. He is also the "mad scientist" of the group and responsible for the creation of many of the weapons, gizmos, gadgets and sometimes even new Autobots (most famously the Dinobots, who strangely have no particular affinity towards him) with the assistance of Ratchet as needed. Wheeljack is always turning out something new for the Autobots to use; however, these inventions usually backfire, creating undesirable effects, unknown and dangerous factors, or sometimes even being hijacked by the Decepticons and used against them.

His usual scientist duties were later in season 2 of the cartoon taken on by Perceptor.

Books

Ladybird Books

Wheeljack is featured in the 1986 Ladybird Books story Galvatron's Air Attack.[1]

Comics

Devil's Due Publishing

In this crossover series with G.I. Joe, the Ark, along with the Autobots and Decepticons within, is discovered by the Cobra organization, who turn both factions into robotic drones to do their bidding. Wheeljack and Bumblebee managed to escape discovery, and are awakened when Cobra seals the ship. The two of them hide out in plain sight, until they managed to get in the middle of a battle between Transformer-augmented Cobra forces and G.I. Joe, the elite combat unit recently formed to battle Cobra. Throwing their lot in with the Joes, Wheeljack gained access to an emergency signal that had been released into the net by Optimus Prime, and was able to not only track down Cobra's hidden island base, but also awaken all the Transformers, both Autobot and Decepticon, and free them from Cobra's control.

With the situation on Cobra island quickly turning into a three-way battle, Wheeljack and Bumblebee planned to join the Joes to assault the island, rendezvous with the other Autobots, and together take down both Cobra and the Decepticons. However, a group of US generals had other plans: the Joes were to disable Wheeljack and Bumblebee and take them to Area 51 in New Mexico for study, while the island would be destroyed by nuclear weapons. G.I. Joe commander Hawk reluctantly complied, hitting them with an EMP device, but Wheeljack was able to maintain consciousness long enough to warn the Joes that a nuclear explosion would have a cataclysmic reaction with the Energon Cobra sought to synthesize. With the fate of the world at stake, the Joes disobeyed their orders and went with their original plan. On the island, Wheeljack, with the help of Bumblebee and a large force of Joes, managed to take down the mighty Decepticon Devastator, and helped Mainframe and a coerced Doctor Mindbender stop the nuclear missiles from destroying the island, and a good portion of the earth as well.

He would later make background appearances in the next two G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover mini-series.

Dreamwave Productions

In Transformers: The War Within--The Dark Ages, Wheeljack was a scientist turned soldier on Cybertron at the dawn of the Autobot and Decepticon civil war. He was under Grimlock's command during the disastrous battle of Altihex and once again in a mission to rescue Optimus Prime in Cybertron's depths. When Megatron and Optimus disappeared in an accident with a space bridge, the Autobot and Decepticon forces splintered into smaller factions, and Wheeljack joined Grimlock's command once more in the Lighting Strike Coalition.

Wheeljack was among the Autobots commanded by Optimus Prime in the Ark mission, crashing deactivated on Earth and reawakening in Earth forms in 1984. Following initial Decepticon defeat and the explosion of the Ark II, the Autobots were deactivated and lost in the ocean. Wheeljack was among those reactivated by Optimus in 2002 and was part of a small task force led by Jazz assigned to stop the spread of Megatron’s deadly metal virus in the Canadian Northwest territories. Wheeljack was temporarily deactivated once more, using all his power to neutralize the virus.

When a Cybertronian task force came to arrest the Earth-bound Transformers in 2003, Wheeljack was once more placed under Jazz's command was one of the few Autobots left on Earth to guard the Ark. Later in the year, Starscream and the Combaticons (in their combined form of Bruticus) launched a vicious assault on the Ark that left Wheeljack deactivated. He was retrieved and repaired by the Earth Defense Command, and later rejoined the other Autobots to be shown the site of construction for the new Autobot City.

Fun Publications

Wheeljack appeared in Solar Requiem, where he is seen meeting the native Decepticons of Shattered Glass Cybertron. He helped Starscream operate his Mental-Spanner device.[2]

Wheeljack appeared in Another Light where he was among the mixed Autobot and Decepticon team stationed at the Ironworks base on Classicverse Earth. He witnessed strange activity in the rarefied energon vaults and evacuated on a shuttle commanded by Grimlock when Shattered Glass Primus attacked the Earth.[3]

IDW Publishing

In IDW's Transformers: Infiltration mini-series, Wheeljack is part of an infiltration unit consisting of Ratchet, Ironhide, Jazz, Bumblebee, and Sunstreaker, led by Prowl. He has not played a major role thus far, other than to accompany the other Autobots to the Decepticon base to watch the duel between Megatron and a super-powered Starscream.

In the Escalation mini-series, when Sunstreaker is presumed destroyed by the secret organization Machination, Wheeljack and Jazz tracked them to their base - only to be temporarily disabled by the Machination's advanced weaponry. After this he accompanied Optimus Prime to Brasnya to hunt down Megatron and his human facsimile - only to wind up in battle with Skywarp and the triple-changer Blitzwing. He and Jazz put Skywarp to flight, but the Decepticon promised to return with reinforcements. They then confronted Megatron (who had nearly killed Optimus Prime). On Prime's orders, they focused fire on Megatron long enough for Prime to recover and drive off the Decepticon leader, although they were prevented from dealing a killing blow by the appearance of Skywarp and Thundercracker.

In the Devastation mini-series, both Wheeljack and Hot Rod were given the assignment of stopping a wounded Ironhide from being pneumatically compacted at a junkyard in Warsaw. While both Autobots were en route to save their comrade, they were intercepted by multiple Headmaster versions of Sunstreaker created by the Machination.

In the 2011 company-wide crossover Infestation, Optimus Prime leads Bumblebee, Drift, Kup, Prowl, Ratchet and Wheeljack in Las Vegas when a Cybertronian ship crashes containing Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge and an infestation of zombies from another universe. Galvatron attempts to take command of the Autobots, and after fighting them explains his mission to stop an undead infestation. Wheeljack sets up an energy shield around the city to keep the infestation contained, but it will only last for 24 hours. Kup recognizes a Decepticon named Bayonet in Galvatron's command as not being right, and she is revealed to be the extra-dimensional vampire Britt.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise #1 by IDW Publishing

Wheeljack appeared in the Transformers: Robots in Disguise title.

Marvel Comics

Wheeljack performs the same function as in the cartoons, but was more of a background character. He got his first important role in issue #9 of the series when he and Jazz go to negotiate a fuel deal with industrialist G.B. Blackrock, and end up saving him from the Decepticons Starscream and Frenzy; he, in turn, keeps them from getting killed by Circuit Breaker, his former employee-turned-super-powered vigilante with an extreme hatred for robotic life.

Later in issue #32, he completes a geothermal generator to create energon cubes by tapping into the geothermal heat of the Earth's core. He believed this would impress Dinobot commander Grimlock (who had been given command of the Autobots in issue #27), but Grimlock still believed they should take what they need from the humans.

In issue #36, when Grimlock planned to boot a quartet of human children who had befriended Blaster (who had left the Autobots because of Grimlock's command), Wheeljack secretly called in his old friend Sky Lynx to rescue the children. In issue #41, Wheeljack is among the Autobots severely injured in a massive battle against the Decepticons on Earth's moon.

He and many others were out of action until issue #75, where Grimlock revived them with the untested fuel source known as Nucleon, in time to help in the battle against the chaos-bringer Unicron (which he advised against doing, especially in their recently-revived state). He then appears in the last four issues of the series as one of Grimlock and Prowl's trusted confidants.

He nearly meets his end in the final issue (#80), but is revived in that same issue by the legendary Last Autobot.

He would then appear sporadically in the Generation 2 comic series.

Other fiction

Wheeljack is mentioned by the name "Jack" in the biography for the TFC Toys Gear of War set as the developer of the weapons in the set.

Toys

  • Generation 1 Wheeljack (1984)
Based on a diaclone toy.
  • Generation 1 Action Masters Wheeljack (1990)
  • Universe Spy Changer Wheeljack (2004)
  • Alternators Wheeljack (2005)
  • Generations Deluxe Wheeljack (2011)
  • United UN-19 Deluxe Wheeljack (2011)
A recolor of the zgenerations Deluxe toy.
  • Masterpiece MP-20 Wheeljack (2014)
A new mold.
  • Generations Combiner Wars Wheeljack (2016)
Was remolded from Breakdown.

Gallery


Shattered Glass

Wheeljack
Transformers character
Wheeljack-sg.jpg
Shattered Glass Wheeljack art
First appearance

Dungeons & Dinobots by Fun Publications
Information
Species Transformer
Abilities

Affiliation

Autobot
Alternate mode

Mercedes-Benz SLK R170
Series

Transformers: Timelines
Sub-group

BotCon Exclusives, Deluxe vehicles

An evil mirror-universe version of Generation 1 Wheeljack appeared in the Transformers: Timelines series. He is a mad scientist who wants to prove himself a genius to others.

Fun Publications

An evil version of Wheeljack was mentioned in the Transformers Collectors Club prelude to the fiction Dungeons & Dinobots, printed in the Transformers Collectors Club magazine issue #22.

Wheeljack appeared in the fiction Dungeons & Dinobots, a text based story from Fun Publications. He created an army of Dinobots based loosely on the designs of Grimlock.

Although not depicted directly, Wheeljack is one of the many Autobots aboard the Ark in Do Over. The Ark launches from Cybertron for Earth under the command of Rodimus and is followed by the Decepticon ship Nemesis, under the command of Starscream. While battling over Earth it is shot down by human defense systems.[4]

Wheeljack appears in Invasion Prologue by Fun Publications.[5]

Wheeljack appears in the 2012 BotCon Invasion lithograph by Casey Coller and Josh Perez.[6]

In Transformers Invasion Wheeljack helps break Ultra Magnus out of the Paradron prison planet. He uses a stellar spanner to get to the Autobot Ironworks base on Classicverse Earth. Once there he sets up a force field over the rarified energon.[7]

Toys

  • Timelines Deluxe Slice (2010)
A BotCon 2010 exclusive recolor of Energon Downshift. Turns from car to robot.
This toy was repurposed as Shattered Glass Wheeljack.


Transformers Cinematic Universe

Transformers character
6828.JPG
Wheeljack in Dark of the Moon
Name '
Autobot
Series Transformers Cinematic Universe
English voice actor George Coe (film)
Erik Passoja (2007 video game)
Jamie Alcroft (2011 video game)
Japanese voice actor Shinpachi Tsuji
Information
Alternate modes Mercedes-Benz E550
Function Scientist / Inventor / Technician
Motto "Never do what your enemy expects you to do."
Partner Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Mirage, Sideswipe, Bumblebee, Ironhide,
Rank 8

According to an interview with producer Tom DeSanto published in issue #15 of the Transformers Collectors Club Magazine, the original lineup pitched for the Autobots in the live-action Transformers film was Optimus Prime, Arcee, Jazz, Ironhide, Prowl, Ratchet, Wheeljack, Hound, Mirage, Hot Rod, and Bumblebee.

Wheeljack, known as "Que" in the film, appeared in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. His G1 personality and skill set was seen in the film as he creates various weapons and gadgets.

IDW Publishing

Wheeljack debuted in "Foundation, Issue 1", helping to bring a sun into Cybertron's solar system to end war.

He later appeared in the present in Philadelphia, where he also introduces his partner Mirage to Sam Witwicky during a Decepticon attack. He was severely injured by Shockwave, and Ratchet noted that his repairs would cause Wheeljack to look different.

Films

Que/Wheeljack assists the Autobots in the destruction of an illegal nuclear facility in the Middle East, posing as a Defence Minister's car. At NEST he supplies the other Autobots with weaponry, including a new cannon for Ironhide and introduces himself to Director Mearing. He is presumed killed when the Autobots' ship is destroyed, but survives along with the others. During the battle in Chicago, he supplies Sam, Epps, and their team with grapple gloves and boom sticks (which Sam later uses to kill Starscream), but is captured by Soundwave, Barricade, and several other Decepticons. Barricade and Soundwave decide to execute Que/Wheeljack, Bumblebee, and the three other captured Autobots and starts with him. He tries to talk to the Decepticons about not killing them, but a Decepticon protoform blasts him and Barricade finishes him off with a blast to the back which knocks his head off. His death is soon avenged when Bumblebee kills Soundwave, who ordered his death, and the Decepticon protoform, who was partially responsible for Que/Wheeljack's death, minutes later. Barricade is later damaged by several soldiers who coincidentally use boomsticks created by Que/Wheeljack to cripple him.

Games

The player's main Autobot tells Bumblebee that Wheeljack gave him an upgrade to hold a large number of alternate forms.

Wheeljack is a playable character who transforms as a sports car similar to his G1 incarnation. In the story, Wheeljack is mentioned by Ratchet. Ratchet informs Optimus Prime that Wheeljack warned him of the incoming Decepticon drones. Later in the story line, Hound mentions that he and Wheeljack created a virus to stop the Decepticlone army.

Toys

All toys of this character are licensed from Mercedes-Benz.

  • Dark of the Moon Mech Tech Deluxe Class Wheeljack (2012 in Japan, unreleased in the U.S.)
An all new figure featuring a Mech Tech saw/blaster that is a redeco of Ratchet's, a spear and two pistols. Canceled along with Human Alliance and Deluxe Soundwave plus the Target exclusive Leadfoot.[8]
  • Dark of the Moon Movie Trilogy Mech Tech Deluxe Class G1 Wheeljack (canceled)
A white redeco of the Deluxe figure with a new head sculpt that pays homage to the original G1 toy.[9]
  • Dark of the Moon Cyberverse Legion Class Wheeljack (unreleased)
  • Age of Extinction Movie Advanced Series Deluxe Class Wheeljack (not yet released)
Originally planned for release in the Dark of the Moon Movie Trilogy line, this figure is set to be released exclusively at ÆON stores in Japan.[10]

Transformers: Prime

Wheeljack
Transformers character
Wheeljack-prime-box.jpg
Prime Wheeljack on card
First appearance

Transformers #1 by Marvel Comics
Information
Species Transformer
Abilities

Affiliation

Autobot
Alternate mode

Cybertronian car, car
Function

Commando
Partner

Wuji
Series

Transformers: Prime
Sub-group

Deluxe vehicles
Tech specs

ST08 IN06 SP06 EN07

RN06 CO09 FB09 SK09

In 2011 another character named Wheeljack was introduced for the Transformers: Prime series.

Fictional biography

As a former member of The Wreckers, Wheeljack is more than capable of taking care of himself. But he's glad to know that at least one of his old friends - Bulkhead - is still around, bringing the pain to the Decepticons

Comics

Fun Publications

Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club #42 by Fun Publications

Games

In Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Wheeljack appears as one of the five DLC multiplayer characters in the Havok pack for the Autobot side. His alternate form is a Cybertronian car.

Toys

  • Prime Star Hammer with Wheeljack (2012)
  • Prime Legends Hyperspeed Wheeljack (2012)
  • Prime Deluxe Wheeljack (2012)
  • Arms Micron Deluxe Wheeljack with Wuji (2012)
A remold of the Deluxe Wheeljack toy with extra 5mm ports and an Arms Micron partner.
  • Prime Deluxe Dark Energon Wheeljack (2012)
  • Prime Beast Hunters Deluxe Wheeljack (2012)

References

  1. Grant, John (1986). Galvatron's Air Attack. Ladybird Books. ISBN 0-7214-0988-1. 
  2. Jesse Wittenrich (2013). Solar Requiem. Illustrator Hidetsugu Yoshioka. Fun Publications. 
  3. Jesse Wittenrich & Pete Sinclair (w), Eryck Webb (p), Eryck Webb (i), Evan Gauntt (col), Jesse Wittenrich (let), Pete Sinclair (ed). "Another Light Part 6 - The Future Buried" The Transformers Collectors Club 66 (December/January 2016), Fun Publications
  4. S. Trent Troop and Greg Sepelak (2009). Do Over. Illustrator Yuki Oshima. Fun Publications. 
  5. Pete Sinclair & Jesse Wittenrich (w), Will Mangin (p), Jake Isenberg (i). "Invasion Prologue" Transformers Timelines (March, 2012), Fun Publications
  6. http://tformers.com/transformers-botcon-2012-transformers-invasion-box/17534/news.html
  7. Benson Yee & Pete Sinclair (w), Dan Khanna (p), Jake Isenberg (i). "Transformers Invasion" Transformers Timelines v2, 7 (2012), Fun Publications
  8. TFW2005.com - Wheeljack/Que
  9. TFW2005.com - Wheeljack (Generation 1)
  10. TFW2005.com - Wheeljack (Takara Tomy Movie Advanced Series)

External links