Name: Wheeljack
Series: G1
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Tactical Diversion
Alt Mode: None (was a Lancia Stratos)
ROBOT MODE
Height: 9.5cm Width: 4cm
A white robot with black arms, head and thighs, Wheeljack has red ands green painted details on his chest and shins, simulating the racing details of the original toy. For some odd reason the outsides of his boots, waist and elbows are painted crimson - a colour not found on the original toy, and not really needed here, since it clashes with the red. His face and groin are painted silver while his eyes are red. Wheeljack's head is instantly recognisable, with the distinct eyes seen in the cartoon but not on the original toy - although they weren't red in the cartoon. While this is clearly Wheeljack, and the colours do look like Wheeljack, the crimson really does look poor.
As mentioned, the head is based on that of cartoon Wheeljack, and the arms are similarly copied from that version of the Autobot's mad scientist. There are no wings - but then Actionmasters always seem to lose those. Wheeljack sports an Autobot symbol sticker on his chest. The Lancia's wraparound window is visible on his chest while the racing patterns on Wheeljack's boots are still present. The black tyres tell us that Wheeljack was a car, also.
Poseability is the same as every other Actionmaster - head turns, arms rotate and legs have G.I. Joe poseability (fully poseable hips, knees bend 90 degrees). Wheeljack has more rounded thighs than most Actionmasters for some reason, which makes some leg poses a little less stable, since the legs try to snap back.
TURBO RACER
A red M.A.S.K. style car with an open cabin featuring two blue seats, there are black plastic tyres on grey hubcaps, a grey windshield and blue guns at the back - which double as large handheld guns for Wheeljack. There's a grey engineblock of sorts - it's clearly meant to look like an engineblock, but it's the plane mode's cannon. There are some Ferrari like aspects here, such as the vent lines on the doors - it loosely resembles the Testarossa, a model in production when this toy was released. There's a large yellow flame sticker on the hood, sporting an Autobot logo.
There's not much play value in the car mode - the wheels turns and that's it. You can seat two Actionmasters in the cabin, however.
The turbo racer transforms into a very M.A.S.K. like plane - it's more of a pointy car with wings than a plane. The doors lift up to become small wings and a grey nose flips out at the front, but it's not terribly aerodynamic. The cannon flips out above the open cabin while the blue guns become wingtip missiles. Again two Actionmaster can ride in the cabin, which is now an open cockpit, but is unchanged.
This Turbo Racer works on the level that it has to, but it's not especially impressive. The plane mode looks too much like a car, the transformation is very simple and the car mode isn't anywhere near as nice as that of the original Wheeljack - or even that of the Throttlebot Chase, also a red Testarossa. It's not really enough to justify the extra expense compared to a regular Actionmaster, in my opinion.
VARIATIONS
None that I know of. Slicer is a repaint of Actionmaster Wheeljack, not available in North America.
OVERALL
A decent Actionmaster in concept, but the crimson should have been left out, and the Turbo Racer is underwhelming. While some of the classic character Actionmasters bring something lacking in the original toy, from a visual point of view, this isn't really the case here - the crimson paint and red eyes aren't what I'd consider improvements. The mould is decent enough, but with the disappointing car along for the ride, this is one of the weaker Actionmaster sets. I actually prefer Slicer - 5/10
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